Many, many moons ago, when both the world and I were oh so much younger, I suffered a severe loss:

My laptop went to sleep one night and never woke up again.

This was when backup drives were something large corporations had, but people didn't. We had 3.5" diskettes that could hold a handful of files or zip drives that could store more. There was no cloud. No terabyte external drives. No automatic backup apps.

I know, it's hard to even fathom such a thing, but, hey, it was the nineties!

I grieved that laptop like the death of a pet. It was the first computer I bought with my own money, and I'd had it for many, many years.

Even though I had a decent job and could afford a new computer, I found I couldn't replace it right away because every time I started to think about what I might buy, I just felt such overwhelming grief over my loss.

It took me a while to realize that it wasn't the computer itself I was grieving, but the loss of all the unretrievable data it contained—the stuff that either didn't fit on a disk or I had been too foolish not to save to one.

You better believe that I have backups now and backups for my backups.

And, you know what, up until last year, I still had a handful of my 3.5" diskettes that I could access with an external disk drive I bought when I finally replaced my dearly departed laptop.

Last year, I decided it was time to let them go, though I don't know that I'll ever truly get over the grief. I still think about the things I lost, and I blame myself for not being wiser and learning this lesson the hard way.

In our current age, it's easy to get complacent, to trust third-party systems, apps, and platforms to keep our digital stuff safe. But, when we do that, we not only cede responsibility for the security of our information, we also cede control over it.

I don't know about you, but that makes me uneasy, especially with the escalation in recent years around data breaches, cyber sabotage, and good old-fashioned hacking. Not to mention the increasing frequency of climate-related disasters around the globe, making no place absolutely fail-safe.

So, yes, hope for the best, but absolutely make a plan for the worst.

Think about what you will need in the event of a disaster or emergency, and make a digital "go-bag" for your business.

Here's a basic list of what to include:

• Business organizational documents like certifications, licenses, corporate or LLC required documentation and anything that proves your business status, ownership, and legal right to operate your business.
• Financial documents like your banking signature card, latest financial reports, chart of accounts, pending accounts payable and receivable, and anything that helps you manage your financial security and keep in good standing with your taxes.
• Administrative documents like insurance policies, grants or other funding agreements, open contracts and proposals, scanned receipts for any equipment, office supplies and/or inventory, a list of your business technology, and all IDs and passwords.
• Other documents like contact lists for employees, board of directors and clients, marketing and sales collateral, photo or video inventory of your office and equipment, and anything else you may need to establish operations elsewhere and recover quickly.

Definitely store this in the cloud, but also have a physical copy on an external drive somewhere for safekeeping, i.e., in a safety deposit box. So the backup for your backup is in your complete control.

Last week, I advised you to Do What I Say, and this week is no different.

Protect your digital life and your business with an ounce of prevention, which I sincerely hope you never need.

Until next week, stay safe!

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