Welcome for my third installment and, as always, I hope you gain value and insight that helps grow your business.
My third tip is probably something everyone is doing already one way or another. Mostly likely very inefficiently. File synchronization. This a powerful use of cloud technology that can be used to keep backups of active work files or perform secure file sharing with staff and vendors or very important clients.
While mass backup, local or remote, creates compressed encrypted versions of your entire computer or laptop files, you do not have instant access. You have to restore them first. With file synchronization you not only have secure instant access of the files in their native form, you have a secure copy that you can access anywhere the Internet is.
While you have thought of keeping a copy on your laptop and desktop computer or your ZIP and USB drive as file synchronization it is. So is getting or giving files to vendors and clients when you work together. And mostly like you your using your email or Send Files to do it…what a pain and a near impossibility to keep in proper sync with who you are working.
But no more, Dropbox and dead simple way to back up, sync, and share any and all kinds of files across computers.
Just install Dropbox on as many machines as you want to use your files on, it will create a special folder on your computer, you put all your documents inside of it and it will backup and sync it across any machine you install Dropbox on. You can even create secure folders for vendors or clients. That’s it, and the best part it’s free for up to 2 GB’s and the larger plans are very inexpensive (I’m getting ready to upgrade myself to back up my music).
It constantly runs in the background and uploads and downloads changes as they happen, no scheduling. It works seamlessly and you barely notice it working. If you’re off-line and you make changes as soon as your back online it syncs up all your changes. I have had zero issues with the services and I’ve been using for well over a year now. Did I mention it was free?
They have a few extra features that just make it even more valuable.
- You can view and download your files online from any web browser…
- You can share any combination of folders with other Dropbox users…
- It has a special folder for photos to create an online galleries to share with your friends, family, etc…
- It maintains file versions automatically for 30 days…
- It shows your delete files online for 30 days so that you can restore them just in case…
- You have a public folder to share files with anyone, no account required…
- They coming out with an iPhone app very soon…
That’s about it for Dropbox, they don’t do much but they do it extremely well. I’ve tried tons other synchronization services and no one comes close to ease of use and reliability of Dropbox.
If you think this tip is great but you’re not quite sure how to implement it quickly and do it specifically for your business? Imagine watching live as we help one lucky business owner implement several tools like this one in a virtual classroom for 8 weeks— it’s a complete Business Expansion Makeover.
How cool is that? PLUS, we’re including unlimited online and e-mail support for those 8 weeks as well. Read more here.
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