Attempted Break in

[Kevin.Beck]

Security can be a nightmare. No matter what you do to protect your premises. If they want to get in they will.

We had a call from the alarm centre. We use red care as well. I was at the shop in 10 minutes. The police didn`t turn up for over 2 hrs later.

Which makes me angry. The insurance company insist that we had either red care or digicom. (red care is the cheapest) The reason being the police are informed straight away. And it takes them 2hrs to get there.

You were lucky mate, that they didn`t get anything. A computer shop down the road from us, who had steel shutters, doors and bars on the window, had a hole smashed into the wall, and cleared them out.

All you can do is to make it as hard for them as poss, and hope they will go else where.

becky.

[Fat Bob]

Hi Phil

Sorry to hear the news good thing they left empty handed and your right we dont think of the agro or the work being lost through not backing up,

Perhaps A rather large steel box custom made and bolted to the floor might help keep them from your computer and berhaps a large girder to slide across the roller door at just above bumber height.

Oh And about half a kilo of semtex wrapped inside a box of six inch nails
and wired to a suitable trip wire. Dont forget to disarm when you have a hangover from drinking to much from worrying about it all

[John Singh]

Sorry to hear of your upset Phill
Thankfully they didn’t get away with anything
Doesn’t make you sleep easy though does it.

John

[Mike Brown]

…so sorry to read your post Phil 🙁

it must make you sick to the stomach to have such a thing happen, but rest assured that you are not alone. Everyone here is with you in understanding the determination and resolve it takes to stand alone as a small business and the reward that hard work and integrity bring – whilst such scum could never know or possibly understand the fulfillment of achieving anything worthwhile – whatsoever!

Alone, any one of us will achieve more in one day than any one of them will in their entire lifetime – whilst together, we have a strength that binds not only this community but also the one in which we live and work…

…business as usual on Monday!…

more soon

mikethesign

[Martin Pearson]

Sorry to hear about the attempted break in Phil, still at least they didnt get away with anything of any value or a computer with all your design work on it. Doesnt really make you feel any better though does it. It sickens me to think that we all work very hard to make a living and buy the equipment to help the business grow and some little so and so feels they have the right to come and take it all away from us.
You should have given me a call, I would have come out and helped you straighten things out.

[Kevin.Beck]

I wonder how many of us, make copies of the work thats on our computers. Its times like these, that make you think of the mess you can get in, if the hard drive falls or the computer is nicked.

All them hours on the computer, designing, getting things just right.

When I went to get some software traing for the embroidery software. The company there made copies every day.

I`ve done it a couple of times, but not on a regular basis. When you think about it, it`s just not worth the agro not to. After all whats the price of a CD or a floppy. Compared to trying to recreate a logo for someone who wants a new van done.

Makes you think………

[Robert Lambie]

hi phill…
again, sorry to hear about this mate.. as we have chatted last night you already know my feeling on this matter.

i do feel you were very lucky.. lucky in the sense you had nothing stole. 😮

backing up is a must i reckon for us all.. if there is a CD writer on your comp then let it burn the first time you are gonna go on the phone for a bit.. (before calling mike! 😆 ahem) anyway, seriously for anyone reading this. it copies without you needing to be there. so just start it and away you go…
come back, date it, and its done till next week or month. i back up my home comp all the time now. not so long ago i lost “just” all my email contacts.. around 600 for the UKSG & the site.. i had hard copies but simply loading it all again was hard going. i dont know what ide have done if i lost everything…

anyway… hope all gets sorted out with regards to the shutter.. 😉

[Phill Fenton]

Thanks to everyone for their concern and support. Especially Martin who was prepared to come out in the middle of the night to help me out. 😀 Thanks Martin – very kind of you to offer.

As Rob says, I think I have been lucky that nothing was stolen. If the worst had happened at least the insurance would have covered the costs of replacing it all but it would be the sheer inconvenience of trying to get replacements and everything set up again while still trying to run the business. That and the fact customers would be let down and dissapointed at not having work done on time. Potentially some customers could be lost this way and the business would suffer.

Since buying a laptop recently I find it very easy (and quick) to back up all my work via LAN. I effectively keep an up to date duplicate of all my customers files on the hard disk of the laptop going right back nearly seven years which would allow me to quickly get up and running again should stuff be taken. Similarly I try and back up my accounts package regularly. The important thing to remember is not to keep the back ups in the same place as you don’t want these being stolen as well as the originals. Obviously I take my laptop home with me every night.

[steve]

PHIL why did you make it so difficult for me to steal all your gear ive made a right old mess of the front of my jag ill try the roof next time 😕 😉
i am truly sorry for you there but for the grace of big G and all that

[Neil Kelly]

Hi Phill
Sorry to hear of the attempted break in the potential devestation to the business would be unthinkable.
Re backing up data I think the lap top is a great idea I my self have a DAT tape system installed on my server it is programed to back up all my customer/accounts data at 3.00 am every day I use 5 tapes one for every day of the week and take the previous days tape home each day or when i remember, so if the worst was to happen fire/burglry I would hpefully only be 24 hours away from a compleate backup. The problem is the tapes capacityis 24 Gig but im filling up the hard drive fast it has about three years work on it, so im thinking of a better system for the future if any one has any ideas id like to here them.

Best of luck with the repairs.

Neil………

[ruth]

Hi Phil,

I have in the past been a business continuity planner for large banks in the city so I can be quite confident in the following advise….

TAKE A COUPLE OF HOURS AND WRITE A BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN

You need to identify key elements of your operation for example
Stock
Work in Progress
Vinyl Workstation
Routing workstation
Fabrication
Accounting
etc.

For each element write a page which sums up what that element contains
a description of that element contains with regards hardware and in the case of computer elements software&data

Work out how you would manage without that element for a day, and for a week and in the case of needing replacement.

Options include a reciprocal arrangment with another signmaker. If my place burns down you will pick up all my work in progress, likewise I’ll do the same for you. Perhaps you could go further with loan of facilities. Many of us will have some facilities at home or at someone elses home which we could fall back on, worth thinking how that would work and having a chat with the wife or brother in law before the event gives peace of mind and speeds up the process in the event of a failure.

With regards data and software remember you have a license for most software and so losing your copy is not a barrier to using the same software elsewhere, have you got a backup copy? Dongles?? Where could you get a replacement, what is the process?

Sods law says that the flood, fire, theft or crash will happen when you are on that fantastic holiday that you just shelled out all your savings for, if you have a BCP then you can leave someone else to do the elementary recovery in your absense but if all the key info is only in your head then you too become an element that needs to be planned for.

You may decide that your plan is to ring all your customers, appologise for the inconvenience, give them the contact details of a friend in the business and to rebuild at your own pace without stress but if you signed big money contracts that may not be an option.

Remember that data can be backed up very cheaply, easily and automatically to webspace accessible only by you on the internet, safer, more reliable and much easier than remembering every day to cut a cd and take it home.

Write a BCP it won’t take long and statistically at least once in your working life you will suffer a significant failure, don’t let it cost you your business!

[John Singh]

Excellent advise Ruth 🙂 🙂

Interestingly my wife works for the Government UK Sport as an Administrator
(Its where they do all the anti-doping for athletes)
She was going on about the office continuity plan……
Measures to take if there was a sudden disaster or emergency

Well I reckon I’ll have to get her to mine 😀 😀

John

[Neil Kelly]

Thanks Ruth
very good advise I think the concept of a reciprocal agreement with another sign co would be an excellent idea.
Do you have a template document as a guide to writing such a plan

Regards Neil……..

[ruth]

I’m sorry I haven’t got a template. My plan is to pack up shop until I sort things out. I doubt my plan would work for many others but it doesn’t need much in the way of documentation.

Kind regards
Ramjam

[fluidedge]

We have an original Sign deterrent for would-be burglars…

“We sponsor a local sunday league football team. Break in here and we will organise a special training session using your head as the ball. Smile, you’re on CCTV!”

(:)