If you’re like most business owners, you’ve got piles of important business documents stored in your office. These include employee records, customer information, financial records, and many others that are vital to your company’s success.
But have you ever thought of the damages your documents could suffer if water found its way into your office? To ensure your company can continue to run smoothly even in the event of an unexpected crisis, it’s important to protect your critical documents from damage.
Here are five tips for protecting documents from damage by water:
Identify Most Valuable Documents
First, you need to determine the most critical and valuable documents for your company. This may be any records you can’t afford to lose and without which your business would be inoperable.
What are you most worried about losing in a flood? Are they tax records? Would employees be out of work if their files were destroyed? How about that important supply order that you haven’t placed yet?
Once you have identified these documents, keep them somewhere with higher priority. It could be in a safety box or waterproof safe with custom-cut foam inserts for extra protection.
Make Digital Copies
Another good rule of thumb when it comes to protecting documents for your business is to make digital copies, wherever possible. If you can scan, do it. If it involves taking pictures with
your smartphone, go for it.
The key objective is to be able to pull up these files when you need them for planning after a water disaster strikes. Make sure you know where you’ve stored each of your digital copies. If the documents contain confidential information, consider protecting them with a password.
Nevertheless, remember that technology is not infallible. Have another plan to back up your digital copies if your electronics are also damaged by water. This can be somewhere in cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Offsite Storage
As they say, a wise person does not trust all their eggs in one basket. It is better to have your business records safe and sound at a secure offsite location than floating down a stream.
Remember, time is money and the sooner you can access your crucial credentials after an emergency, the less impact it will have on your business operations. Most offsite storage facilities are accessible 24/7 and are also designed to withstand natural calamities.
Protect Onsite Documents
While you can choose to store crucial documents in a different location from your business, there are other documents you need for onsite operations. These include cheques and receipts. Most of these records are susceptible even to little amounts of water. Keeping your cheques in an office desk drawer with bills and other paper documents will put them at risk if you spill water on your desk. Instead, store these credentials in a filing cabinet or moisture and waterproof cheque box.
Partner With Document Restoration Specialist Ahead of Time Established document restoration companies are professional firms that specialize in disaster recovery. They can be helpful if your business ever suffers water damage. They can assist you and your employees overcome stress by restoring your documents quickly before they become fully damaged.
While choosing a restoration partner, go for a certified technician who is reliable and available 24/7. They should also have the tools and experience to save your property regardless of the levels of water.
Call Insight Restoration Today For Your Document Restoration Needs
When we think about documents and paper records, we often think of something that will fade away with time. But if you don’t take proper care of your documents, they can fall victim to severe water damage.
However, if you have important documents that have fallen victim to water damage, Insight Restoration can help can help with state of the art our vacuum freeze drying machines. Our IICRC Certified experts offer the fastest response to document restoration calls all round the clock. Whether you need help retrieving documents from plumbing fails or a flood, we have what it takes to help. Contact us today to bring your important papers back to life.
