Collaborative post – may contain affiliate links

As a small business owner, you’re going to deal with a whole lot of data. It’s an inevitable part of running a company! But you really do need to remember the importance of storing data correctly. Hopefully, the following information will help you to get to grips with everything you need to know on the subject!

Understanding Data

So, what actually is data? Well, it’s essentially “information”. Data can be a word, a number, a fact, a figure, a measurement, or an observation that can be noted down. When you run a small business, the type of data that you will generally deal with includes customer names and addresses for shipping purposes, payment details, email addresses for mailing lists, and occasionally phone numbers. If you are an employee and have members of staff working for you, you are also likely to hold a lot of their data too! From a copy of their passport (to prove their right to work) to bank details for payment, and their phone number or email address to contact them.

Storing Data

In the past, small businesses stored their data in paper files. But nowadays, small business owners tend to store their data on a tech device such as computer, a laptop, a tablet, or maybe even a smartphone. Now, it is extremely important that you store any data that your business takes securely and in accordance with data protection law. Data protection law is mainly concerned with protecting your customers’ data and personal information. If you were to leak this data or the wrong person were to get their hands on this data, your customers could find themselves victims of theft and identity theft. Perhaps the most effective and safest way to store your data properly is to hire someone to take care of it on your behalf. Just take a look into Data Storage recruitment to find the right person for the job. They will know the ins and outs of data storage and data protection law and can lift the weight of responsibility from your shoulders.

Disposing of Data

If you have any printed data, make sure that you dispose of it by placing it through a shredder. This will prevent people from picking anything out of the trash, as they would have to reassemble multiple pieces to find anything legible.

Keeping Up to Date

Data protection law is constantly being updated and improved upon. So, make sure to keep up with any changes that are made to ensure that you are following the right rules! Generally speaking, these new rules are made very clear and well publicized, so this shouldn’t be an issue!

While there are other ins and outs to data and data storage, these basics should help you to manage yours as effectively as possible! Incorporate all of this information into your business as soon as possible!