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New Years Computer Resolutions for Small Business

I was suffering from a severe case of writer's block in January '03 and trying to come up with a February article. Since the local paper was full of New Year's resolution stories at the time, I just sort of went with that theme. Of course, by the time the article was published in February, no one was thinking about New Year's Resolutions any more. Nevertheless, if your business follows any of the suggestions presented in these resolutions, your computer systems will thank you!

By the time you read this, many of you may have given up some of your personal New Year's resolutions to do such noble things as lose weight, go to the gym, run a marathon, or climb Mount Everest. I know that my yearly effort to lose 30 pounds usually dies in frustration sometime in mid-February. But small business owners can resolve to make a few small steps that will make their business computers more reliable and keep their data safe throughout the year.

Here are a few resolutions you might want to consider:

	I, Billy Backup, hereby resolve to backup my company's data files on a daily basis, to take a copy of the backup off-site every week, and to make sure I know how to restore files when needed.
	I, Vincent Virus, hereby resolve to make sure that every computer in my company has anti-virus software installed and that the virus definitions are updated at least once a week.
	I, Sally Security, hereby resolve to perform a review of my company's security policy in order to prevent Steve Snoop and Debbie Disgruntled from having access to privileged information.
	I, Ike Internet, hereby resolve to review my company's Internet access policies and thereby keep Dave Download from spending all of his time and my bandwidth downloading old Elvis songs.
	I, E. Legal, hereby resolve to conduct a software audit of my business to verify that all of my business software is legal and thereby avoid potentially huge fines for using pirated software.
	I, Ernie Email, hereby resolve to use email as a business tool and not as a way to annoy my co-workers with meaningless drivel and recycled jokes.
	I, Ned Network, hereby resolve to finally get rid of all my old 10 megabit hubs and replace them with 100 megabit switches, thereby turning my company network into a speed demon.
	I, Dan Defrag, hereby resolve to keep my systems running at peak efficiency by running system maintenance tools such as defrag and scandisk at least once a month.

In all seriousness, many small businesses could benefit from one or more of the above resolutions. In a small business environment, without a dedicated information technology staff, it's very easy to just let problems accumulate without doing anything about them. By taking a pro-active approach to their computer systems, business owners can make their systems more efficient and reducing the possibility of downtime due to system failures. Make 2003 the year that you take charge of your business computers!