Photo by Barry Schwartz
Computer backups is not just protection there might be a problem with your data. It’s simply a matter of when, and how, the failure will occur, because hard drives fail. All of them.
The logic behind backing up is not just for data, it’s also for paperwork.
How about this: You and your client have a signed contract. You work on the job. You deliver the job. You send an invoice. You wait for your money. And wait.
You contact your client, who responds with variations on the following:
“I didn’t get everything I was promised.”
“I didn’t think I owed you that much.”
“I don’t understand why you’re upset I gave all your work away to all my vendors, my friends and colleagues, and my pal at Time Magazine.”
Here’s where backing up really matters: Did you put in your contract exactly what your client would get, exactly what you would be paid, and restrict the use of the work to your original client? If you did not put those things in your contract, you have a problem.
Even if you have a carefully crafted document you may still have a problem because your client may not have read the contract, doesn’t understand what they did read, or doesn’t think it applies to them. With a solid document you have something concrete to help resolve the problem, right there in black-and-white.
A back-up.
That document (and your people skills) will help get your client’s happiness-quotient up to speed without embarrassing them or making them angry so they will pay you what you’re owed – and later on hire you again because they will remember you never embarrassed them or made them angry. Because you backed up what you had to say.