Gary called me from Laguna Beach, California asking if I would send him another copy of my database of Radio Talk Show stations who interview guests by telephone.

He explained that when the Southern California fires hit, he and his wife drove away in their twin Mercedes with ONLY the clothes on their backs. They lost their home, all their clothes, their business computers-and their database of clients.

After sympathizing with him about his losses, I assured him that I'd send him a replacement of the talk show database he lost in the fire. Then I turned my attention to his other loss. I asked "Did you have YOUR CLIENT database backed up?" He replied, "Yes, and I keep my backups RIGHT NEXT to my computer."

Does this story sound familiar?

OUCH! What a sad story that was only tempered by the fact that he had another backup that was six months old in his bank's safe deposit vault.

He was able to salvage only a small part of his 3,500 client database.

Just think how much simpler and more profitable his business life could have been had he followed this advice:

#1 Back up daily.

#2 Back up off-site weekly (trade with a friend).

For the record, my computer houses a database of over 25,000 contacts. This list includes CIPA's membership database, CIPA prospect list, all my clients, past customers, every student who has ever been in my seminars, plus my friends and family. A very extensive and comprehensive list.

This database is kept in Filemaker Pro, which has been customized to include: EVERY phone call I make, EVERY birthday of friends/family/clients I can capture. It also includes EVERY prospect I've ever talked with. (They will be ready to be a client someday).

I backup this data daily on a 100mb ZIP disk. Then once a week I schedule a bagel/coffee meeting with longtime friend and software developer Larry Barnhart. The exchange of ZIP disks must look like a drug sale to outsiders... of course, we keep everything in plain sight and enjoy our coffee and bagels while we 'people watch.'

Now, wouldn't you love to sleep more soundly EVERY night? Just go back three paragraphs and follow steps 1 and 2, and YOU WILL.

G'nite.

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