Tip: Online backup, file sync and sharing.
One of our favorite tips to tell clients about is an online service called “DropBox”. It allows you to sync files on all your computers and iPhones in a snap. Any file in the folder you select is copied/updated online and instantly accessible to your other designated devices. And even better, the basic 2GB plan costs nothing.
How is file syncing useful for your business?
Keep your current files always backed up, AND available. Perhaps you are away from the office and forgot to copy a needed file to your laptop. If it were in your DropBox folder, that up-to-date file would be accessible. You could even work on the file on the laptop, save it, and the changes would be sync’d back again.
We keep all our current client projects in our DropBox, so not only are they constantly backed up – we can work on them on any computer in the office or on our laptop.
Share files with clients and associates. Invite people to share a folder and everyone can add files to it, and see each other’s changes instantly.
We use it as an easy way for clients to send us source files for their projects – they just drop text and photos into a folder we share with them, instead of having to email everything.
Keep files handy on your iPhone. We drop PDFs of travel reservations, maps/directions, portfolio samples, proposals… endless amount of uses.
We’ve tested other “cloud” based backup services such as ZumoDrive and SugarSync, but found DropBox to be the easiest and most useful of all them. Check out http://www.dropbox.com for a video demo and more info.
