If you're like most realtors, you probably store everything about your business, client contact info, financial data, tax info, and plenty more - on your computer. Could you run your business without any of that information? I'm sure you know the answer to that, so take the necessary steps to protect your digital assets. A few simple steps and a few minutes a day can make a difference between happiness and tragedy.

Every hard drive will eventually stop working at some point, due to a virus, getting old and simly giving up, overload, or technicians fault (you). If that happens you will face possible loss of valuable business or personal data so having up-to-date backups of all of your important information is the way to protect yourself from such a loss. Here are a few simple steps:

• Do backups regularly. It's best to do a minimum of a weekly shcedule, but if you can, daily backups are best.
• Test your backups periodically because data can get corrupted or backed up incorrectly. A monthly quality check of your backups should give you peace of mind.
• Store your backups away from your computer. Keep them a safe distance from the original storage so that a large-scale disaster doesn't damage everything. One option is using online storage companies such as Netaspects or Livevault

I learned my lesson the hard way. I was backing up all my data, but just not often enough and never thought to check the backups to make sure they were still Ok.