Do Your Words Mean Business?

Every word that comes from your company -- whether it is on a piece of paper, on a computer screen or written across the sky, for that matter -- carries with it your reputation and your customers’ (or potential customers’) perception of who you are and what you can do for them.

It should go without saying that these words need to be as compelling as they are convincing, and as clear as they are error-free. Here are a few quick tips on tuning up and perfecting your copy and, ultimately, your message:

Stick to the basics: Remember in grade school when you learned about the who, what, where, when and why of each story? Well, there are actually times when school lessons have real-world applications, and this is one of them. Don’t assume people know what you mean – tell them clearly, succinctly, memorably and respectfully.

Pass the ‘Aunt Ethel’ test: Aunt Ethel is the proverbial simple-and-to-the-point person in your audience. If she doesn’t get what you are doing and selling, chances are that most won’t. Ask yourself if your message is clear and if you are making springing to action easy for your potential customers.

Proof, proof, proof: Once you’ve finished and proofed, leave the file or paper alone for 24 hours. Then, re-read it and ask a trusted co-worker or friend to look it over. You’d be surprised at what you may have missed!

How Much Data Can Your Business Afford to Lose?
By Gus Anderson, Affinity Consulting Group, Inc.

Interestingly, some businesses look at data backup and disaster recovery issues as technology concerns, when in fact they are far more business and financial in nature than anything else.

How bad can it be?
Data disasters come in all shapes and sizes. Of course, there is the natural disaster variety that comes in the form of a hurricane, tornado, lightning strike or post-lightning surge. There is also the more discreet but equally dangerous version that arrives in the form of virus attacks, employee sabotage, accidental erasure/human error or a computer malfunction.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, over 40% of all companies that experience a disaster never reopen. Moreover, over 25% of the remaining companies end up closing within two years.

These are significant and sobering reasons that businesses of all sizes cannot afford to ignore.

Plan, plan some more…and then back up
One of the best ways of minimizing risk and maximizing “bounce-back time” following a disaster is to create, update and use a Business Continuity Plan (BCP). A BCP allows you to see where your business is vulnerable and how you can reduce that vulnerability going forward.

A key component of the BCP will be the backup regimen. Not only does your current backup plan need to be looked at, but a blueprint for future backing up needs to be established and adhered to. Once you’ve finalized the plan, be sure to announce its existence to the parties who will come to rely on it. Test it and regularly check it for areas that need re-testing, tweaking and updating.

When it comes to backing up your data, keep these key hints in mind:

• Tape media is your best bet as a primary backup; it is the most reliable and least susceptible to accidents (e.g., dropping).

• USB drives work well as secondary and more frequent backup destinations.

• RAID configurations in your servers are redundant hard drives that take over if your main drive fails.

• Your backups contain valuable and proprietary business data, so you should secure and store them as such.

• You can never have too many layers of backup protection!

Gus Anderson can be reached for further questions at 954 340-4599 x202 or via e-mail at GAnderson@AffinityCGI.com.