Every month we publish an IT Services Technology Newsletter. It's a free, informative newsletter focused on small to medium sized business and how IT relates to those businesses. Head on over to our website and check it out!

So, it's been a while now since I've posted anything. I've been pretty busy lately working on websites and helping making a name for our company. Things are going very well for MSB and for myself personally and I want to thank everyone both personally and professionally who has supported me (us) with this endeavor.

At the end of the day MSB's goal is to make IT understandable, make IT manageable and to make it work well for you and your company!

So anyhow, Happh Holidays to you and yours. Thank you for making our little IT Consulting Company a success. We look forward to working with everyone in future.

Posted on: October 15th, 2007



Master Of Disaster
Monday, 15 October 2007
Protecting your company before the worst happens

By Bill Blanchard

Picture for a moment that it's a cloudy Friday afternoon. The weather forecast calls for heavy rains with high winds to hit the area over the weekend. You're ready to lock up your office for the day and start to put together that large deposit for the bank after a great week of sales.

You take one last look at the office and wonder, "What if water starts to leak in from the street?" You look at your watch, realize that the bank closes at 4 p.m., and rush out the door.

Tangled Web We Weave


Oftentimes, disaster planning is one of the last things on a small business owner's mind. With so many other things to worry about, a natural disaster or terrorist attack is the last thing you need consuming your thoughts. However, by having good practices and plans in place, you can have peace of mind knowing that you're protected.


First, we'll start with the basics. Many companies are tight on space and, in an effort to maximize their work areas, computers and cables get lodged into the strangest of places. I've visited many offices that have all of their primary networking equipment on the floor in a closet. A simple remedy is to acquire some small stools or stands for your computer equipment. Also, make sure that those surge protectors stay off the floor as well. That one foot off the floor in a flood can mean the difference between having a powered down server or a very expensive doorstop.


Secondly, where are your company's critical documents and data stored? You have that expensive tape drive backing up your data nightly, but are you rotating the tapes? Are you bringing one home with you? An inexpensive peace of mind solution is to make a complete backup of all your data (either onto a tape, CD or DVD) and put it in a safe deposit box at the local bank. That way, if you forget to take a tape home one night or if your home is struck by the same disaster, you are protected.


It is also a good idea to keep all of your original documents in a safe deposit box as well. Things such as your business's articles of incorporation, accounting ledgers or insurance forms can be difficult to replace if they are destroyed in a fire or flood. You can maintain copies of these documents at your work site if you need regular access to them.

Money For Something
Third, what would a day of downtime cost your company in revenue? Even companies with on-site IT staff suffer from 24 to 48 hours of downtime in the event of a server failure. This is due to the specialized nature of server hardware and the time it can take to receive replacement parts. So, if a day of downtime would cost your company $10,000 in lost revenue, it might be worthwhile to consider spending a couple thousand on solutions to minimize that downtime. Such solutions may include a secondary internet connection, a VPN solution so that employees can work from home, or even real-time remote backup software. Even though backup solutions don't provide an immediate return on investment, they'll be worth their weight in gold if you ever need them.


Finally, the last step of protecting your company against disaster is having a plan in place. While you shouldn't spend hours fretting over everything that could go wrong, it never hurts to be thorough. With solid practices and planning in place, the wound your company suffers from a disaster doesn't have to be a fatal one.

We've started advertising on a couple of websites, and on a radio station.

The first website is now life. Click on the link below and checkout our banner ad. Other advertise there as well so you may need to refresh it once or twice.

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/s ... y=BUSINESS

Tell your friends about us!

..and what an exciting time in my life. MSB Consulting is doing very well. We're right about where we put ourselves at this point when we started two months ago, which is great as our projections were pretty lofty.

So far, I've learned that patience is an attribute one cannot live without when starting a new business. Things don't happen as fast as you'd like to see them happen, so you have to sit back, relax, crack open a cold one and just wait patiently.

I've also learned that new business is everywhere, you just have to learn to be prepared to grab it. I carry business cards wherever I go. I tell my friends to spread the word and hand them business cards. I take leads happily from anyone that's willing to hand me one. You can bump into someone while shopping at Target and they can be a small business owner, a person in charge of technology at their company, or simply someone who has the ear of another person who needs work done. I even went to a party at my girlfriend's house for her mother who had graduated college and met a woman who's company needed wesite work. Hey, when it comes to business, you have to be shameless.

Anyhow, after 60 days of no pay, endless hours of work, countless hours of figuring out how to get the word out and of course constant worry about where we were going to get more work it's all been worth it.