Got Master Files (and Backups) of Your Stuff?

This tip is short but r-e-a-l-l-y important. It's your art business, you put a lot of time, money and sweat equity into it. Keeping "master files" of what you create for your business and having backups of those files will, I promise, make your life soooooo much easier down the road.

I know this because (big confession coming...) I didn't used to (like, ten years ago when I was a newbie at this) and I so paid dearly for it. Ahhhh, live and learn, as they say.

By "Master File" I mean files that you keep and use over and over again, including high resolution images of any art you use in your business (and your own art); design files of your postcards, business cards, brochures, and rack cards; and your logo and other graphics you use (both high resolution for print use and low resolution for web and online use). Don't forget your documents like agreements,  documentation, and contracts. I keep one as the "Master File" and do knock-offs from there. That way I always have a clean original to work from. My favorite command is going the the File menu and doing a "Save As" to make a copy to alter and save for that particular use.

Then, backup all the files on your computer, often. Use an external hard drive, an online backup and storage service, or even CDs, but DO backup and do it often. Think of it this way:  What image files and documents are you willing to lose forever if your computer crashes before the next backup?  I dunno about you, but I'm on the computer all day creating. I don't want to lose anything, so I have a Mac and use Time Machine with an external hard drive for hourly backups.  Actually, I have two external hard drives. They get rotated every other day into a large fireproof safe located in a different building. If we burn down, I can just go buy a new Mac, plug it into the external hard drive, and I'm back in business.

So, what about you? Got Master Files and Backups??

All my best to you and yours,

~Robin