Bootstrap Babes

When Your Computer Has a Meltdown

Why YOU Need a Data Backup and Recovery Plan!

Yesterday morning, my computer exploded.

Well technically it didn't "explode" but it might as well have. The system crashed. Ironically, it happened immediately after I installed an update to my Windows software that I downloaded directly from Microsoft's web site. (I can't print here how I'm feeling about Microsoft today! @&^$*!!)

As with most updates, you have to restart your computer after the installation. I restarted, but my computer didn't! I got the dreaded "blue screen of death," followed by the equally gut-wrenching "black screen of let me make sure you know you're dead." Thank God I had all of my data -– my customer database, my documents and projects, and even my family photos -– backed up.

When you're in business for yourself, you have to be responsible for protecting your greatest asset: your data. Unlike when you work for a big corporation, there's no IT staff that automatically backs up the network every day. You have to be proactive, and you have to have a data recovery plan. Your computer will crash, I guarantee it. It's not a matter of "if"; it's a matter of when.

10 Tips to Green Your Home-Based Business

Save the Planet and Some Money, Too!

In honor of Earth Day, I'd like to share some tips on how we can all reduce waste and be more eco-friendly in our home-based businesses.

Of course, respecting Mother Earth is a worthy goal in and of itself. But frankly (and perhaps a bit selfishly), I have additional motives. With two businesses, I'm sick of the sheer volume of paper that comes into the house. It's driving me nuts! And being a Bootstrap Babe, I'm always on the lookout to save money.

Here are 10 tips to help you green your home-based business:

Save more trees by reducing paper waste.

1. Buy paper products made from recycled materials.

2. Eliminate junk mail. Contact the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and sign up for their Mail Preference Service (i.e. "do not mail" list). Reputable marketers who are DMA members will check their list of names against this database before sending out a mailing. 

Also, you can eliminate those pesky pre-screen pre-screened credit and insurance offers -- and reduce your risk for identity theft -- by signing up at www.optoutprescreen.com or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-567-8688). 

3. Reduce paper use by paying bills online, printing on both sides of your paper, re-using those orphan sheets of paper from web print-outs that only have one or two useless lines of text on them, and saving/sending more documents electronically. Be sure to use a good, automated backup system, of course. (I use Carbonite.)

What Every Freelancer Should Know

Catherine Price Offers Practical and Funny Tips for the Self-Employed

My DC Web Women colleague Chris Raymond shared this article with me today, and I wanted to share it with you. In her piece "What Every Freelancer Should Know", Salon.com's Catherine Price offers 13 handy tips for self-employed people. There's lots of good info here, including tax preparation, personal finance, health insurance, and maintaining your sanity while working from home.

My favorite is Tip #11:

Do not own a coffeemaker. I know this goes against the wisdom of those budgeting articles (the money you save on lattes could pay for your child's college education!). But it's critical for your mental health to leave the house at least once a day and interact with real, live humans -- even if you are only talking about Starbucks. So here's a compromise: Identify the cheapest drink that you enjoy. Then calculate how much it costs -- in my case, $1.50 for iced tea -- compared to a $100 therapy session in which you talk about how lonely and depressed you are. My guess? That iced tea is a bargain.

Good stuff!