My wife needs an operation, it will hopefully sort out a few problems she has been having lately and make her ‘function better’. The thing is it is going to cost a small fortune. We were sitting in the surgeon’s office whilst she was having her consultation and he was going over how short the operation was and that unless there were complications it should all be straightforward etc., and then he slipped a piece of paper in front of my wife to sign and she slipped it over to me. It took me all my energy not to run out of that room screaming in pain! Instead I sat there quietly whilst my wife signed away our money! After all she needs this operation and if she doesn’t have it there will be bigger problems to face in the future.
Interestingly that brings me to computers.
I have a good sized client base and the biggest single issue I have is back-up and regular maintenance. No-one ever wants to spend money on protecting their business. If you have a ‘sick’ computer do you have it taken care of or do you leave it and leave it until it more or less completely dies?
The thing is how long could you or your business survive without your computer, or how much is your computer and what is stored on it worth to you?
Computers do need regular maintenance and clean ups as well as good back-ups in place to support and maintain your business, but when it comes to spending money on this it is normally pushed to the last thing on the list.
I find myself repeating this too often and yet I am still getting panicked phone calls about data loss and computer emergencies. If a little bit of money is spent now it will make a huge difference to what money you may be forced to spend if you don’t.
Unlike the surgeon I won’t hand you a surprise bill that you cannot jump over without even blinking but to ensure your computers are running effectively and your valuable data is safely backed up you will need to spend money but think of it as a small price to pay for the future ‘health’ of your business.