If you run a small business, chances are you’re saving important files to a server. But what happens when disaster strikes? How are you ensuring that your files won’t be lost? Many people fail to realize that the loss of files could cripple their business. You can insure your office and equipment, but you can’t insure files. You can’t repair or buy back lost files. Ipso facto, they are lost!

This brings us to the concept of disaster recovery. What is disaster recovery? If you’re thinking that disaster recovery is about frantically trying to get back data that’s already been lost, then you’re already behind the 8-ball! Disaster recovery is about safeguarding your organization’s data so that it can be safely restored in event of a crippling disaster. And having an industry-standard file backup strategy is undoubtedly the most important part of disaster recovery.

What you have to do is ensure that all files on the server are backed up to another storage medium — tape, removable hard disk, NAS device, and so on. Most businesses choose to use tape. Let’s look at how you can set up a tape backup strategy for your own business.

1. Tape — the perfect backup medium

Isn’t tape an anachronism in the age of optical disks, removable hard drives and a plethora of whiz-bang, random-access storage media? Tape is indeed a dinosaur in relative terms, but it’s ideal for backup. Tape is slow, but can store a lot of data… one mid-range tape should be enough to backup your entire server. Plus, tape is extremely cheap — mid-range tapes cost around $20 each.

2. When should you backup?

Typically, tape backup is performed at the end of each day. Just put in the tape and let the backup process run overnight. If your server ever suffers a catastrophic disaster, you have at least saved all your files from the previous day.

3. Tape Rotation

The ideal tape backup solution would involve using a new tape for each backup. This means purchasing a new tape for every day of your business’s operations. This is hardly cost-effective for your business. Tape is cheap, but not that cheap!

This is why we speak of tape rotation. Tape rotation means to reuse tapes from previous backups. The simplest tape rotation scheme is to have one tape for each day of the working week. Tapes are labelled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

You can restore data from any one of the tapes in your library, or in this case, any day in the past the week. This strategy requires only five tapes, but only provides one week’s data backup history.

4. Grandfather-Father-Son — A Case Study

The grandfather-father-son schedule is the most widely used method, and involves backing up data in the following way:

* daily — on the “son tapes”

* weekly — on the “father tapes”

* monthly — on the “grandfather tapes”

This system is far more powerful than the five-tape rotation, but requires more tapes.

This strategy provides you with the ability to restore data from the last week, plus any Monday over the last month, plus any month for as many monthly tapes as you have. Variations on this scheme are available, and provide a trade-off between the number of tapes required, and the number of monthly tapes available.

5. Different types of backup

Different types of backups are available in backup software.

* Full — all files, system data

* Differential — all files added or changed since the last full backup

* Incremental — all files added or changed since the last full, differential or incremental backup

* Daily — all files added or changed on the day of the backup

A Full backup will copy all files and system data to the backup media. It allows for the complete restore of all data from one single tape.

Differential, Incremental and Daily are partial backups are designed to reduce amount of data backed-up to the media, resulting in faster backups. To restore data using one of these backups, the last Full backup tape will also be required, along with any other partial backups since the last Full backup.

6. Tape backup software

At this point you may be thinking that performing tape backup is a complex task. Tape rotations, incremental backups… sure, you can try to do this manually, but this would make the backup process hiddeously difficult and prone to human error! The solution is to invest in a good piece of server backup software that will manage and schedule your tape backups for you.

What should you look for in tape backup software? For many small business owners, the price is crucial. Many brands of backup software are just too expensive — in the $1000+ range — and contain features that you’ll never need. Look for a backup utility that’s designed specially for small business instead. It should be simple-to-use, reliable and affordable. Choose a good tape backup software and you’ll be well on your way to safeguarding your files and data.

Successful brokers and advisors basically have their own business regardless of where they work. The client investment business is a self-starter and largely commission based industry, so a broker must rely on his own production for survival anyway. When does the in-office support staff and other benefits of a large office get outweighed by the chance to independent and start your own brokerage firm office for higher payouts?

20 years ago the brokerage business was very different. With no Internet or Intranets to maximize communications, brokers were generally housed in large offices in metropolitan centers and cities. That is where the action was, and it was simply too difficult for a broker or the firm to effectively communicate with each other. Supporting “one person” or “two person” outside offices, in Scottsdale Arizona for instance was tough.
Successful brokers who wanted to start their own office could, but the number of firms that could support them (trading, customer service etc.) was limited then and some firms just wouldn’t do it or some weren’t able to do it.

Recently, opportunities for Independent Brokerage firms and the producers looking for them have never been better or easier. With everyone connected by computer, and the software available to support the broker and his customers, the start-up steps really are simple now. These opportunities do not just apply to producing NASD brokers and financial advisors, but with other financial people such as:

CPA’s

A CPA or accounting firm had many trusted clients and a large number of CPA’s have connected themselves to brokerage firms, where they can place trades for clients out of their own office through the firm they have joined (once they are licensed).

Other financial people that benefit from an independent NASD firm relationship also include: Mortgage brokers, Insurance agents, Real Estate brokers and attorneys.

Start your own NASD firm or become an independent of an existing firm?

For 95% of the people looking to start their own office, starting your own NASD firm is NOT the way to go. To become an NASD firm, you must file a membership to the NASD. This filing process includes a substantial amount of fees and requirements. Not the least is a minimum net capital requirement of $5,000 (for introducing brokers who do not hold customer money). If you plan on clearing and holding your customers money, the net capital climbs up to $250,000. You also have to provide everything yourself. Tickets, confirms, a compliance department etc. This route should only be for groups of producing brokers with large amounts of money under management who wish to establish their own brand name. There really is no other reason.

For everyone else, hooking up with an established independent brokerage firm to open up your home office is a better way to go. Payouts can range from 65% up to 95% of gross production. Payout percentages will increase based on the amount of money you are making. You pay your very basics (rent, phone, insurance etc.), but the firm handles all of your trades and processes them. They send the confirms, not you. It allows you to focus on your business and not worry about areas that the firm can take care of for you. Almost all of these firms have ongoing online training and seminars that connects the offices to each other. You can open an office in any state the firm is registered in and live the life you deserve. Our company, American Investment Training (AIT) works with several firms that use us for training and are looking for impressive people to start their own office.

Look forward to your future while spending more time doing what you like to do. Become an Independent Broker, and have your own money management enterprise in your home or your own office.

Good luck!

The real estate industry has experienced so many ups and downs in the past and even until now. But since change is inevitable, the people involved in this sector have risen to the challenges.

The real estate brokers are among the important players in this industry. Around the world today, there are some 1.3 million brokers also called realtors with most of them located in the U.S.

Together with the real estate agents, they assist buyers and sellers in achieving their goals especially in getting the best deal possible. On the behalf of the buyers, the brokers negotiate for the lowest prices they could get while when working on behalf of the sellers, they negotiate for the highest possible price for the property.

These brokers take charge in providing the necessary information about properties for sale, their market value and the documents required in closing the deal. While they may have the same function as that of the real estate agents, brokers are on a higher level as they usually have a license to operate their own business or realty office. They can also rent and manage properties for a certain fee.

The agents, on the other hand, work for and with a broker under a contractual basis. They earn a certain commission from the real estate brokers for every property that they sell. After several years in the industry, though, these agents may choose to obtain a license in order to become a real estate broker themselves.

If you’re planning to invest in or sell a property and have not much knowledge on where to start your search, you may want to consult with a real estate broker or agent you know. You can ask for a referral from friends and colleagues if they know of a trusted and well experienced broker in your specific area to help you with your desire to either buy or sell a home.

On your initial consultation, you should inform the broker or agent right away about what type of property you’re looking for and the price range you want. You need to tell them as well if you’re bent on getting their services from start to finish.

From there, these brokers will then help you look for properties suitable for your needs and budget. They usually obtain listings of homes for sale and then compare them with similar properties that were recently sold in order to figure out the most competitive market value. Financing options may also be offered to you in case you don’t have sufficient funds to purchase the property.

Once you are provided with several choices, you may request to personally visit the properties to check their condition and location. A gauge on what makes a good real estate broker or agent is their ability to identify and provide buyers with the most important selling details. These should include the crime rate in the area, accessibility to schools, shops and banks as well as the floor plan of the house.

Keep in mind that you need to be honest about your needs to a real estate broker so they can, in turn, finds the best ways to meet your needs.

Have you ever done a business plan before? It really isn’t that difficult to find the information, but it can be time consuming especially when you are keen to get your business up and running.

But wouldn’t you rather put in the time before setting up your business and know that you have the right information to start with. It will help you stay focused, know your good points and your not so good points, and allow you to address issues that need improving before you actually start operating.

WHAT IS YOUR PROPOSED BUSINESS GOING TO BE DOING?

Now is when you need to thinking about why you are starting your small business.

Is it because you have always had a mad desire to run your own business, because you have a burning need to prove to everyone how good you are at selling, fed up with being bossed around by a so-called manager who knows less than you do, or do you really want to seriously commit your whole being to running a successful business?

That is what you need to be thinking about at this stage?

HOW WELL DO YOU UNDERSTAND YOUR PROPOSED SMALL BUSINESS?

For example, if you want to have a cafe, do you understand all the health and food regulations that will apply to what you are setting up?

Do you realise that there will be strict council regulations to abide by? What is your view of the menu you want to have – is it just what you prefer to eat and are there thousands of customers out there who will want to eat the same thing?

If you prefer to drink strong coffee, do you believe that all your customers should have the same served to them?

Many questins need to be answered before you start your small business.

HAVE YOU HAD A SERIOUS CHAT WITH YOUR ACCOUNTANT?

Before you set too many wheels in motion you need to have a chat to your accountant and see if you will have the funds for starting a new business.

I know of one lady who got so excited about buying her dream cafe. I, as a business broker representing the seller, asked her if she had the finance. Her answer was, “Yes, my husband just borrowed against the house to buy a semi-trailer so I should be able to get a loan.” Alarm bells rang with me straight away because I knew where they lived and I thought ‘semi trailers are not cheap so there is probably not enough equity left in the house to borrow more money’ and that was exactly the situation.

Before going too far into the idea of setting up your business you need to know:

- If you have the funds available

- If it is going to earn enough for your needs

- If you do not have funds available are you going to be able to borrow any

- What entity you will use to buy the business

By addressing these questions at the beginning you won’t get into trouble early in the piece. Financing a business is a big issue and needs to be very carefully thought out.

A business plan will help you analyse many areas of a new small business and you will be able to solve many of these situations before they arise and affect your new business.

By doing a business plan for your small business before you start spending money you will be well on the road to success. Your planning will be so much clearer and you will have more understanding of your stock, staff, markeing and finance. Many skills make up the success of a small business and having a business plan at the outset will help you start on the right footing.

Copyright (c) 2009 Kaye Dennan

Business plans are important because it will tell you exactly where you want your business to go and how you will get there. If it is the first time that you will be making your own business plan template, then it is best to check out several business plan templates. There are even some business plan templates that will be able to help complete yours in only a matter of hours. Just imagine the time that you saved and the time you will be spending on the execution of your business.

The reason why business plans are indispensable when about to embark on a business is because of the fact that it will be able to tell you if your ideas are financially viable or not. It will tell you exactly if it is operational. Most existing business plan templates include budget, start-up costs, cash forecasts, profit and loss, and so many other features that you will need to help you with your business.

We all know that getting into any business is a risk. It is a risk worth taking if you are prepared for it because one thing is for having business plans will give you a greater chance in succeeding than if you do not have any plans at all. So choose a template and start making your plans for your business. Commit to it and your business will commit to you too. That is the start of a wonderful business relationship between you and yourself. You can be sure of that.