Small businesses today benefit from the business solutions designed to provide specific functions. There are solutions for HR management, production and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and bookkeeping. You can even find tools that will automate most of your digital marketing campaigns.

If your business relies on these solutions, then chances are you have more than 80% of your business information stored digitally. This means you need to think about data protection seriously. We have the best tips and tricks to get you started in this post.

Maintain Multiple Backups

The first and simplest way to add a layer of protection to your business files is by adding multiple backups to your workflow. You can start by creating incremental backups to offline drives. Use external hard drives big enough for storing all of your files, and simply keep those drives up to date with the latest files.

Ideally, you also want to have backups in the cloud. This too is an easy thing to do thanks to the cloud backup solutions currently available. You can rely on more generic services such as Dropbox and Google Drive, or go for cloud backup solutions such as Carbonite or iDrive.

This combination acts as your first layer of protection. In the event of a catastrophic failure of your hard drives, you always have the backup files ready to be restored. This means you can resume operation in no time.

Know Your Recovery Options

Next, you need to have plans for dealing with file-related emergencies. When one of your hard drives – or several of them – does fail and you don’t have the latest backup in place, knowing how to handle the situation makes all the difference.

You want to stop using the damaged drive as quickly as possible. Safely turn off the computer and disconnect the drive. If it’s an external drive that fails, safely remove that drive and avoid writing anything to it.

Get in touch with a professional data recovery company like Secure Data Recovery. The sooner you get professionals involved, the higher the chances of recovering your files will be. They may recommend using a recovery software or sending the physical drive in for recovery, depending on the situation you are in.

Get Everyone Involved

Data protection isn’t the job of one man. It is something that needs to be a part of the business’s workflow for it to be effective. Now is the perfect time to get everyone involved in securing mission-critical files.

Sufficient data protection know-how is crucial. You also need a set of policies that help other team members deal with potential data loss the right way. While developing better awareness, provide training on data management to prevent other issues such as leaks and unauthorized access.

The three elements will provide the best protection for your data. Making sure backup files are up to date, handling data emergencies properly, and maintaining the highest level of protection for business-related files will be much easier when all team members work together and have the same knowledge on how to protect business data.