Shownotes
The Safe Haven IT Story
Even as a child Goran loved taking things apart and figuring things out. [4:03]Business Building Insights
The 5 things you need when you’re setting up your office. [5:43] What is it and why do you need a firewall. [7:07] All about the modem and the router. [8:15] Where to get help with your setup. [10:02] How to protect yourself from hackers. [11:10] How to get the most out of your antivirus software. [12:43] Email risks and cautions. [15:40] Backing up the right way. [16:36] Cloud services. [22:10] Computer life span and properly disposing of old computers. [30:18]When Computer Disasters Strike
The nightmare scenario. [20:50] The steps to take when your computer fails. [24:00] Finding help locally. [28:21]Recommended Reading and Listening
Contact Links
Website Facebook TwitterIf you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Hi there.
Speaker:This is gift biz unwrapped episode 119.
Speaker:Your weakest link to your computer and to getting a virus
Speaker:is yourself.
Speaker:Hi, this is John Lee,
Speaker:Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:and now it's time to light it.
Speaker:Welcome to gift bears,
Speaker:unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop
Speaker:and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Mona height.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:It's Sue and welcome to the gift of biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or
Speaker:are just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
Speaker:business. And today I have the pleasure of introducing you to
Speaker:Goran denote the founder of safe Haven.
Speaker:It Gordon has been dealing with computers since he was 16.
Speaker:Back then he was building his own computers and helping friends
Speaker:fix theirs.
Speaker:He went on to work in corporate it departments,
Speaker:and he saw that something was really lacking.
Speaker:There was an absence of quality it providers who truly understood
Speaker:the needs of the small business owner.
Speaker:So he started safe Haven it where today he helps the
Speaker:small business owner with remote management and monitoring consulting services.
Speaker:And installation.
Speaker:Goran says his goal is to become the trusted advisor to
Speaker:as many small business owners as he possibly can.
Speaker:And boy,
Speaker:do we all need his advice and help Goren thank you
Speaker:so much for joining me on the show.
Speaker:Pleasure to be here.
Speaker:So I like to start off because we're all creators here
Speaker:by having you jump into what probably isn't normally your area,
Speaker:the whole creative zone.
Speaker:And I'm going to have you describe what your motivational candle
Speaker:would look like.
Speaker:So if there was a color that just resonates with you
Speaker:and a sane or a quote that really describes you or
Speaker:describes how you feel about your approach to business in life,
Speaker:what would your candle color be and what would be your
Speaker:quote? Well,
Speaker:Sue, my candle color would be blue,
Speaker:kind of like the sky and tranquility that I bring to
Speaker:it. Small business owners,
Speaker:panic, whenever they see any type of errors or if their
Speaker:computer's not working.
Speaker:And I bring a sense of tranquility when I go in
Speaker:and I'm competent and able to resolve their issue and truly
Speaker:make them feel safe and bring peace to their business and
Speaker:understand that they're panicking.
Speaker:But I come in with kind of like a utopia,
Speaker:like don't worry,
Speaker:everything will be okay.
Speaker:And my motivational saying that I've always gone through life is
Speaker:reach for the stars and grab the moon reach for as
Speaker:high as you can to achieve the best and most success
Speaker:and reaching for the highest point.
Speaker:You might not achieve the highest,
Speaker:but you will get far in life,
Speaker:Right? You might as well reach as high as you can,
Speaker:because if you go lower,
Speaker:why do that?
Speaker:Why would you limit yourself?
Speaker:Exactly. We'll biz listeners.
Speaker:I have to tell you that Goran is my trusted advisor
Speaker:for computers.
Speaker:And when he just said blue and the tranquility and all
Speaker:of that,
Speaker:he is able to do that.
Speaker:I have called you in times of panic Corrine,
Speaker:and you have been there and I'm sure a lot of
Speaker:our listeners have experienced the same thing about,
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:what do I do now?
Speaker:And you totally freak out.
Speaker:Right? Exactly.
Speaker:Cause our dependence on it now is,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:everything in our businesses,
Speaker:whether we like it or not,
Speaker:it's the way of the world.
Speaker:And if small businesses aren't using it,
Speaker:their competitors will eat them up because there's other companies that
Speaker:know how to use it.
Speaker:And that's why I come in as a small business trusted
Speaker:advisor and help them grow their business by implementing the right
Speaker:technology. And when I say right,
Speaker:I'm not here to sell you the most expensive technology,
Speaker:I'm here to listen to your needs and to ensure that
Speaker:the technology that I recommend will help your business.
Speaker:Got it.
Speaker:The right technology.
Speaker:Perfect. Okay.
Speaker:So just a grounding us a little bit.
Speaker:What got you interested in computers way back when you were
Speaker:16? Well,
Speaker:I've always been a kid that takes stuff apart.
Speaker:When I was younger,
Speaker:I took apart my Commodore 64.
Speaker:I used to take telephones apart.
Speaker:I was always in electronics,
Speaker:Keke at 16,
Speaker:when I got my first computer,
Speaker:I started getting in and doing the whole internet prodigy AOL,
Speaker:and just got me more and more interested.
Speaker:And then I started taking computers apart,
Speaker:putting them back together from there on,
Speaker:I just moved up in rank and started my career.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it's so interesting because it continues to reinforce that there are
Speaker:things that we all innately are attracted to.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:you taking things apart and putting things together.
Speaker:It's the same type of thing with the audience.
Speaker:We always talk because people will say,
Speaker:well, you know,
Speaker:I don't know I'm working a nine to five,
Speaker:but I want to do my own thing.
Speaker:And one of the things we always talk about is like,
Speaker:well, what gave you joy way back when you were younger?
Speaker:So what is that inside you?
Speaker:That is a passion.
Speaker:And how can you apply that to your business?
Speaker:And that's what you're doing now with your business.
Speaker:Exactly. And you know,
Speaker:I always enjoyed helping people and being there to calm people
Speaker:down when their computers aren't working,
Speaker:because when computers,
Speaker:aren't working small business owners and general public,
Speaker:they freak out because the unknown scares people.
Speaker:And when I walk in and I say,
Speaker:don't worry,
Speaker:we'll get it up and running.
Speaker:They kind of get back and start breathing again.
Speaker:Is that right?
Speaker:No question about that.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Well, we are going to talk about what you do when
Speaker:that happens,
Speaker:but first let's approach any of our listeners here who are
Speaker:just setting up an office.
Speaker:They're just starting to think about having a business.
Speaker:What equipment do you think from your professional perspective?
Speaker:Should they be looking at,
Speaker:to set up a starter office?
Speaker:If you will Start,
Speaker:her office usually falls four to five pieces of equipment.
Speaker:You have your desktop computer,
Speaker:whether it be laptop or desktop,
Speaker:they're generalizing now,
Speaker:computers, laptops,
Speaker:and no longer considered a laptops because some of them are
Speaker:bigger and you can't put them on your lap anymore.
Speaker:You have a printer and then you have internet connection.
Speaker:Whether it's Comcast,
Speaker:whether it's the cable or DSL or any other type of
Speaker:service, you need to have that in order to be out
Speaker:on the internet.
Speaker:Once you have that equipment,
Speaker:usually Comcast will provide you a firewall or in a wireless
Speaker:device. So this way you can take your laptop and go
Speaker:into another room and to surf the internet there,
Speaker:those are usually at four or five pieces of equipment that
Speaker:you need.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:the computer,
Speaker:the internet connection,
Speaker:cable, modem,
Speaker:and router,
Speaker:and usually a printer.
Speaker:Okay. So let's go through these a little bit.
Speaker:Obviously we all understand the use and purpose behind the computer
Speaker:and the printer.
Speaker:And I think we all also understand an internet connection because
Speaker:that's how you are able to connect with the world.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:if you're just starting out,
Speaker:maybe you don't need the internet connection.
Speaker:If you're just doing,
Speaker:you're building your business plan online or something like that.
Speaker:But in terms of being able to communicate with anybody,
Speaker:even email,
Speaker:you obviously need the internet connection.
Speaker:Tell us a little bit more about in really simplistic terms,
Speaker:the firewall,
Speaker:that's something that's online,
Speaker:right? No,
Speaker:that's a physical hardware device.
Speaker:And what that does is protects you from the hackers and
Speaker:people that want to cause trouble.
Speaker:And that doesn't allow people from the outside to connect inside
Speaker:to your computer.
Speaker:It protects you from going out in the world and having
Speaker:people try to hack into your computer.
Speaker:The firewall is basically the fence mechanism that separates you from
Speaker:the bad guys.
Speaker:Okay. And is that part of the modem,
Speaker:depending Upon the service that you have,
Speaker:Comcast does provide you a all in one device,
Speaker:which is a modem and a firewall.
Speaker:If you have only a cable modem,
Speaker:you will have to have a firewall.
Speaker:So that all depends upon the service that you get with
Speaker:your internet providers.
Speaker:Smaller businesses would usually use a cable or DSL system that
Speaker:has all in one package,
Speaker:little bigger businesses might have just a cable modem and use
Speaker:their own router.
Speaker:If they're using any type of special features,
Speaker:static IPS,
Speaker:or if they have a computer doing some sort of a
Speaker:hosting to the public.
Speaker:So it all depends upon a service.
Speaker:Okay. So then what is the difference between a modem and
Speaker:a router?
Speaker:A modem basically connects you to the service provider to router
Speaker:will be able to actually take your computers and network them
Speaker:and have all of us be able to communicate with the
Speaker:outside world.
Speaker:The cable modem is not able to do that.
Speaker:If you have more than one computer,
Speaker:a router is needed.
Speaker:Okay. So if you only have one computer,
Speaker:you don't need a router,
Speaker:correct? If you have more than one computer,
Speaker:you do need a router,
Speaker:correct? You do need a modem,
Speaker:which usually whoever your internet provider is,
Speaker:would provide that piece of equipment.
Speaker:And the question there will be,
Speaker:is there a firewall on the modem?
Speaker:Correct? That's The usual question that most people come to us
Speaker:like, do I need a firewall?
Speaker:And it all depends upon your service.
Speaker:Okay. So at the time that you are establishing service,
Speaker:that question should be asked if there is not.
Speaker:Then where do you get a firewall?
Speaker:We sell partners with Sonic wall and WatchGuard and Cisco.
Speaker:So we're able to provide you the firewall and the right
Speaker:equipment for your business needs.
Speaker:Okay? So we have people listening to this show.
Speaker:Last count was 69 countries.
Speaker:So not everyone here.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:a majority of our listeners are not necessarily local.
Speaker:So you would want to find someone if someone like Gorn
Speaker:even exists in your area,
Speaker:who could help you access that,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:And Gordon has already talked about certain manufacturers that you could
Speaker:be looking at for a firewall.
Speaker:So what is the specialty that you ask for?
Speaker:Let's say someone is already lost because I certainly would want
Speaker:not want to be setting all this up myself.
Speaker:Right? Who do you go to get help from?
Speaker:If you're like,
Speaker:okay, I'm not doing this myself.
Speaker:I need someone.
Speaker:Oh, the manufacturers are pretty good with their tech support.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:if you buy from a reputable manufacturers like Cisco or SonicWall
Speaker:or WatchGuard,
Speaker:if you call them,
Speaker:they're usually pretty good in helping you establish the basis of
Speaker:the, get you on the internet and make sure that you're
Speaker:protected, of course,
Speaker:any special or any type of advanced features,
Speaker:they may charge if it requires special configuration,
Speaker:but basic configuration,
Speaker:all manufacturers will get you online.
Speaker:Okay. Perfect.
Speaker:Or you could ask your kids to help you and pay
Speaker:you a little bit.
Speaker:Maybe That's right.
Speaker:Today's children are all born with a tech spoon in their
Speaker:mouth. Exactly.
Speaker:But I think the point is,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:no need to pull your hair out.
Speaker:There are people that can help you and get you set
Speaker:up properly.
Speaker:Absolutely. You don't have to do it yourself.
Speaker:Correct. Okay.
Speaker:So we're at the point now where we're all set up.
Speaker:Okay. Everything's working connected to the internet and all of that,
Speaker:we hear all the time in the news.
Speaker:Now that Gmail gets hacked and banks are getting hacked and
Speaker:records are being exposed to the public,
Speaker:all of that.
Speaker:What types of things can we do to protect ourselves?
Speaker:Okay, well,
Speaker:I'm going to go with the basics for right now.
Speaker:And then I'll go,
Speaker:Marvin, first and foremost,
Speaker:your weakest link to your computer and to getting a virus
Speaker:is yourself or your employees clicking and not understanding that they
Speaker:read the email and they think,
Speaker:Oh, Johnny wants me to share this.
Speaker:Or Johnny wants me to open it.
Speaker:You need to read the email and ensure that Johnny actually
Speaker:sent that email.
Speaker:It's happened way too many times where I go into a
Speaker:business say,
Speaker:well, John sent me the email and then John goes,
Speaker:no, it wasn't me.
Speaker:My Gmail was hacked and you just clicked and you got
Speaker:a virus.
Speaker:So that's the most important thing that I teach small business
Speaker:owners with whether one employee or 50 employees is that teach
Speaker:your employees not to be click happy.
Speaker:They see an email that's atrocious with grammar,
Speaker:and they're telling them to click this or they just $1
Speaker:million have them first read the email and I'd say,
Speaker:Hmm, is John usually send me these types of emails while,
Speaker:let me verify with John it's happened so many times,
Speaker:even to myself,
Speaker:that I get an email from a client when Gmail was
Speaker:hacked with shared folders,
Speaker:I get an email from a client.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:this email is not a typical email.
Speaker:I get from a client asking to share their folders with
Speaker:me. So I replied back to the client and I say,
Speaker:what is it that you're sharing with me?
Speaker:And he replies back saying,
Speaker:I did not send this.
Speaker:This was sent by,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:a hack in my account.
Speaker:So always verify,
Speaker:who's sending you the email.
Speaker:That's your first line of defense is you now,
Speaker:as far as your computer and hackers,
Speaker:do you know you have your antivirus.
Speaker:There is a bigger necessity of antivirus nowadays than there has
Speaker:been in the past.
Speaker:There's always people trying to sneak an email that you click.
Speaker:And if sometimes,
Speaker:if you click on the email,
Speaker:if you don't have an antivirus,
Speaker:it'll let it through.
Speaker:But today's antiviruses are very intelligent.
Speaker:That even if by chance you click something that you shouldn't
Speaker:have to antivirus will trigger and say,
Speaker:no, no,
Speaker:no, you can't do this.
Speaker:And so having an antivirus,
Speaker:that's up to date and current subscription,
Speaker:I've walked into so many different situations where I ask a
Speaker:client, do you have a antivirus installed?
Speaker:They're like,
Speaker:yes. And then I take a look at their software.
Speaker:It's, hasn't been upgraded 2014 antiviruses your subscription models because there's
Speaker:so many new viruses coming out every day and they update
Speaker:their software.
Speaker:Constantly think of it like a database.
Speaker:If you don't have the latest antivirus on your database in
Speaker:loaded into that software,
Speaker:you're only as good as the last time.
Speaker:It updated Perfect information.
Speaker:And I think really,
Speaker:really important because you know,
Speaker:we look at it just easily with apps on our phone.
Speaker:They're updating those almost every day and apps aren't anywhere near
Speaker:as important to some of the stuff we have on our
Speaker:full computers.
Speaker:So keeping up to date for sure.
Speaker:Now I know that there are free antivirus softwares that you
Speaker:can get versus paid ones.
Speaker:Are there certain things we should be looking for in our
Speaker:antivirus? I truly don't believe in the free antiviruses.
Speaker:I go under the notion you get what you pay for
Speaker:and in today's antiviruses are not that expensive.
Speaker:Number one is Norton.
Speaker:I swear by it.
Speaker:I think it's the best antivirus around not to say that
Speaker:there isn't other ones.
Speaker:You have Kaspersky,
Speaker:you have McAfee,
Speaker:you have Panda.
Speaker:There's a whole bunch of other ones.
Speaker:So a few come to me and you say,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I hate McAfee.
Speaker:Great. We'll go with Symantec.
Speaker:If you've had bad experience,
Speaker:say I really hate Symantec.
Speaker:I like Kaspersky.
Speaker:That's fine.
Speaker:We'll go with Kaspersky.
Speaker:I'm open to every one of those antiviruses,
Speaker:but having a paid one,
Speaker:it gives you better peace of mind that you're being updated
Speaker:to the latest.
Speaker:And there's a company behind them.
Speaker:That's actually doing R and D looking at two new viruses
Speaker:and always making sure that their customers are protected.
Speaker:Perfect. Okay.
Speaker:So the two basic steps that you've talked about thus far
Speaker:are one being really careful about what I'm terming,
Speaker:careless clicks,
Speaker:right? Correct.
Speaker:And you know that while you were talking,
Speaker:I didn't want to jump in and interrupt you,
Speaker:but you know how you get a lot of companies who
Speaker:will say,
Speaker:we will never email you for your password or log in
Speaker:information. You're like,
Speaker:there'll be those little lines in some of their texts when
Speaker:you're just getting started.
Speaker:Correct. It's really important.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:they're doing that clearly just for this reason,
Speaker:but it's really important to remember that.
Speaker:And also,
Speaker:if anybody is asking you for any of that type of
Speaker:information, I always go back.
Speaker:I don't answer there,
Speaker:but I'll send another email and say,
Speaker:Hey, are you guys asking me for this?
Speaker:Sometimes it's like,
Speaker:right in front of your face,
Speaker:I get emails from certain banks and I don't even have
Speaker:an account in there.
Speaker:So, I mean,
Speaker:you just have to understand that if it's a legitimate company,
Speaker:no, one's going to ask you for credit card information.
Speaker:No, one's going to ask you for a username and password
Speaker:on an email.
Speaker:So if you ever get anything where someone's asking you for
Speaker:personal information to be emailed,
Speaker:that's the biggest red flag ever seat immediately deleted.
Speaker:If you want to call the company and say,
Speaker:Hey, there's a phishing email.
Speaker:I just got,
Speaker:are you guys aware of that?
Speaker:So this way they can notify their customers right away.
Speaker:Hey, don't click on this.
Speaker:This is not from us.
Speaker:Right. Perfect.
Speaker:Okay. So no careless clicks everybody and then make sure you
Speaker:have an antivirus installed and that it's up to date and
Speaker:you regularly update every time a new version comes out or
Speaker:an enhancement or something like that,
Speaker:is that all for the basic school?
Speaker:No, there's one more piece of technology I would implement this
Speaker:backup. Backup.
Speaker:Backup is very important to have a backup of your data
Speaker:because let's face it in today's technology world.
Speaker:That's the most important thing is QuickBooks files or your word
Speaker:documents or Excel spreadsheets.
Speaker:That's what needs to be protected.
Speaker:If your computer dies tomorrow and you have a proper backup,
Speaker:computers are very affordable.
Speaker:Nowadays, you can pick up a computer for five to $600.
Speaker:That's not the costly part as a small business.
Speaker:Your most valuable asset is the data,
Speaker:your accounts payable,
Speaker:your accounts receivable,
Speaker:knowing who owes you money and who you owe money to.
Speaker:So there's two avenues that there's one called the onsite backup,
Speaker:where you actually have the backup stored at your office for
Speaker:immediate recovery,
Speaker:where, you know,
Speaker:Oh, I deleted this buyer.
Speaker:I'm going to go get it from my a USB drive
Speaker:or whatever,
Speaker:to be able to get that file.
Speaker:But in today's ransomware written world,
Speaker:on-site backup is just not enough because if you have your
Speaker:onsite backup,
Speaker:plugged in,
Speaker:when you get hit by a ransomware that can also be
Speaker:affected. If you have what we call offsite backups,
Speaker:a piece of software that sends your data to a secure
Speaker:data, location and servers and all that,
Speaker:where not physically located in your office,
Speaker:you have a better chance.
Speaker:If you get hit with ransomware or a virus that you
Speaker:can recover quicker by getting the offsite data back onto your
Speaker:computer and having all your data recovered within maybe a day,
Speaker:instead of losing it.
Speaker:Absolutely. Now I use Carbonite and you and I have talked
Speaker:and you have given me the check Mark that that's an
Speaker:okay one to use,
Speaker:right? Correct.
Speaker:I've had such peace of mind knowing that I have Carbonite.
Speaker:And I'm just going to make a comment just for everybody
Speaker:right here,
Speaker:because right on your computer,
Speaker:you can see that it's continually backing up the files.
Speaker:You can also go and access those files.
Speaker:Let's say you don't have Dropboxes or something where you have
Speaker:access to your information,
Speaker:everywhere service like Carbonite.
Speaker:You can go in and just grab random files,
Speaker:but it's also good Goran when you're switching out and upgrading
Speaker:a system or your computer crashes,
Speaker:because Carbonite's saved everything and you can just reset everything.
Speaker:I know I'm making it way easier than it is,
Speaker:but you can reset everything.
Speaker:You haven't lost any of your information.
Speaker:If your computer totally failed.
Speaker:Correct. And that's the whole thing of having an offsite backup,
Speaker:where if something catastrophic your office burns down and now you
Speaker:have no access to anything,
Speaker:or God forbid your office gets broken into and now your
Speaker:computers are stolen and you have no data while you need
Speaker:to make sure that you have the resources to get that
Speaker:data because you know,
Speaker:let's face it today's world.
Speaker:Those are real possibilities.
Speaker:And boy,
Speaker:does it put you back in your business if you're going
Speaker:to have to spend time figuring all of that out versus
Speaker:being able to get back up and running.
Speaker:Okay. Cause that's the name of the game is how quickly
Speaker:can you get back in business?
Speaker:Am I feel a Sonata question?
Speaker:If, if you're going to get hacked or if you're going
Speaker:to get a virus,
Speaker:it's a matter of when and being protected against those bad
Speaker:guys and viruses and all that is using the proper defense
Speaker:mechanisms. Okay.
Speaker:So give biz listeners be careful of careless clicks,
Speaker:make sure you have an antivirus and then also some system
Speaker:to back up.
Speaker:And so now I have no idea what you're going to
Speaker:say, go on.
Speaker:So I don't know if I'm covered here or not,
Speaker:but what would you say in the more advanced arena you
Speaker:were saying that in terms of keeping safe,
Speaker:you're going to do the basics.
Speaker:And then there was a higher level.
Speaker:Well, I mean,
Speaker:having a system that's onsite and having a multiple layers of
Speaker:that, not only having one onsite hard drive,
Speaker:but having a couple that you switch around.
Speaker:So this way you make sure that your data is always
Speaker:readily available.
Speaker:I can't stress that enough of how many times I've run
Speaker:into business and their hard drive fails.
Speaker:So their computer fails and it's all sun Daryl panicking because
Speaker:they have no backups.
Speaker:And that's why my remote management and monitoring service,
Speaker:we put business owners at ease because we're able to monitor
Speaker:and get all the logs and all the errors that we
Speaker:see and better assist the business owner say,
Speaker:Hey, your computer's about to fail.
Speaker:I think it's time for us to replace the computer instead
Speaker:of, you know,
Speaker:you'll never hear a computer go,
Speaker:Hey, Sue,
Speaker:I'm ready to fail.
Speaker:Are you ready for me to fail?
Speaker:Because I think you know,
Speaker:that big project you're working on.
Speaker:Yeah. I'm not going to give you access to that project,
Speaker:but don't worry.
Speaker:My hard drive is going to go to,
Speaker:are you going to have the right backup?
Speaker:That's the main thing is most small business owner.
Speaker:Well, I don't need to go peers $400.
Speaker:Yes. But your data is the most valuable asset.
Speaker:And if you can't get to that data or if your
Speaker:employee is sitting there for two days until you get a
Speaker:new computer and try to recover the data,
Speaker:what's your ROI for that employee not being productive for those
Speaker:two days.
Speaker:Absolutely. I agree with you.
Speaker:So a remote service who is retaining the backup and then
Speaker:also has kind of an advanced radar out of what's going
Speaker:on with your systems.
Speaker:Correct. Okay.
Speaker:How do you feel about the iCloud services for things like
Speaker:your accounting program and all of that?
Speaker:Do you think they're safe versus storing them locally?
Speaker:I am a big fan of Microsoft's one TRIBE,
Speaker:not to say that Apple's one cloud isn't secure versus another.
Speaker:I use Apple's iCloud for my iPhone and all my pictures.
Speaker:God bless it.
Speaker:If I ever lost all the pictures,
Speaker:I would be totally out of luck in yesteryears.
Speaker:We used to print all the pictures.
Speaker:Now I barely have any pictures of my youngest child.
Speaker:They're all on our iPhone or on our devices.
Speaker:And so yes,
Speaker:having a cloud service is definitely the way to go.
Speaker:Whether you go with Dropbox,
Speaker:whether you go with Microsoft's one drive,
Speaker:whether you go with iCloud,
Speaker:definitely having that constitutes offsite backup because we all can put
Speaker:our phones,
Speaker:plugging into our system and do a backup of our pictures
Speaker:and all that stuff.
Speaker:But in today's busy world,
Speaker:how many of us have the time to sit every week
Speaker:and say,
Speaker:Hey, let me plug my phone in and download all the
Speaker:pictures. Most of us,
Speaker:we really need the pictures on our phone because there are
Speaker:business owners that take pictures of certain things that need to
Speaker:be able to get it at their fingertips.
Speaker:Whether they're real estate,
Speaker:weather chefs,
Speaker:or cupcake makers,
Speaker:they want to post the latest creation over to Instagram and
Speaker:they need the pictures to be on their phones.
Speaker:So how safe is it?
Speaker:Like I use QuickBooks and I'm doing my accounting in the
Speaker:cloud is all of that safe and heck resistant or whatever
Speaker:Resistant as the company that provides the services.
Speaker:Big companies invest millions of dollars in their it infrastructure and
Speaker:in their security.
Speaker:So of course they're going to have the best security available
Speaker:now is that necessarily going to stop all the hackers all
Speaker:the time now,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:just how g-mail gets hacked and companies speak,
Speaker:retail stores get hacked,
Speaker:it's going to happen.
Speaker:And yeah,
Speaker:best thing to do is to make sure that you have
Speaker:backups on your computers and on the iCloud and have multiple
Speaker:sources for those pictures.
Speaker:That only depend on one.
Speaker:It's always about segmenting.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:it's the old saying of,
Speaker:don't put all your eggs in one basket,
Speaker:same thing here.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Now let's get into really scary part that you were referencing
Speaker:earlier in terms of,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we walk in for our day,
Speaker:we're ready to get going.
Speaker:We turn on the computer and OMG,
Speaker:something's wrong.
Speaker:What do you do in those panic situations?
Speaker:What would you advise?
Speaker:First of all,
Speaker:you don't panic.
Speaker:When you panic,
Speaker:you try to make rash decisions.
Speaker:And the point of it is if something does appear on
Speaker:your computer and you're not aware of it,
Speaker:first thing to do is shut down the computer.
Speaker:You don't want anything else.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:you want to make sure that it doesn't spread.
Speaker:So that would be the first thing.
Speaker:Then the second thing is contact your local it professional,
Speaker:whether it be safe,
Speaker:Haven it or another company that provides the same type of
Speaker:services and let them know,
Speaker:Hey, I saw this error message and this has happened.
Speaker:Okay. And they would come onsite or you can take your
Speaker:computer to them.
Speaker:And they would turn on a computer and figure out what
Speaker:this is and clean out the virus or any type of
Speaker:ransomware that you may be hit with and either recover your
Speaker:data or wipe your computer and start all over.
Speaker:I know that there have been times that I've experienced with
Speaker:you, Goran,
Speaker:where it's not working and you say,
Speaker:well, shut down and try starting up again.
Speaker:Would you suggest that first,
Speaker:before you just shut down and take it somewhere,
Speaker:It would depend upon what your it professional will tell you.
Speaker:That's why the first thing to do is contact one of
Speaker:them and see,
Speaker:Hey, I'm getting this message.
Speaker:What should I do?
Speaker:An it professional would be able to tell you,
Speaker:this is just a windows error and go ahead and shut
Speaker:down and restart.
Speaker:If it's something where you get hit with the fibrous and
Speaker:all that and shutting down and having to come on site,
Speaker:and then they would be able to turn on the computer
Speaker:and get you off the internet and your networks.
Speaker:So no other computers can get infected.
Speaker:They would be able to give you a better understanding of
Speaker:what just happened.
Speaker:Okay. And this actually did happen to me just last week.
Speaker:So how apropos right?
Speaker:And one of the things that I did that I thought
Speaker:was really helpful is instead of having to remember what that
Speaker:message is,
Speaker:just grab your phone and take a picture really quick of
Speaker:the screen before you shut down,
Speaker:because then you've got everything.
Speaker:You can send it over to an it person,
Speaker:whatever needs to happen.
Speaker:Correct. Okay.
Speaker:So I guess in terms of being careful,
Speaker:when things go wrong is first,
Speaker:I'm going to go back to those careless clicks.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:just be really smart on how you move around the computer.
Speaker:The other thing that I've found a lot of our customers
Speaker:over in my other business,
Speaker:the ribbon print company,
Speaker:we'll go over to sites where you can download free fonts
Speaker:and any sites.
Speaker:That's an example,
Speaker:but there's other sites like that where you're trying to capture
Speaker:things. And especially if they're free,
Speaker:they have all these links and all these clicks on the
Speaker:pages. Cause they're trying to get you to install the bidding
Speaker:tool bar or go under a new search engine or like
Speaker:all these different,
Speaker:crazy things.
Speaker:So even in those situations,
Speaker:you have to be super careful that you are clicking and
Speaker:downloading what you you're clicking and downloading,
Speaker:right? I'm not saying not do it,
Speaker:but just be super careful and triple check before you click.
Speaker:Usually in that aspect,
Speaker:if you're looking for certain fonts or certain programs,
Speaker:make sure that you contact other people in your industry and
Speaker:say, Hey,
Speaker:what is a good website that I can go get this
Speaker:font? Once you get a proper site,
Speaker:you can go ahead and bookmark it and know that that
Speaker:site is not going to get you any viruses or any
Speaker:type of malware.
Speaker:Now, what I've seen in today's world is a lot of
Speaker:things have changed and now software's become a subscription model and
Speaker:installing or purchasing Adobe Photoshop used to cost eight,
Speaker:$900. Now you can get for $20,
Speaker:you can get things more affordably.
Speaker:If you need a font and you can buy a program
Speaker:that installs 5,000
Speaker:fonts for $50.
Speaker:I usually like to pay for those kinds of stuff,
Speaker:because even myself,
Speaker:I don't want to go through and say,
Speaker:Oh, this site's bad.
Speaker:Or I got to click through here because it wastes your
Speaker:time. If you know,
Speaker:how much does your time worth?
Speaker:If you have to spend an hour looking for a free
Speaker:font and when you can buy complete package from a reputable
Speaker:website for 50 bucks for 500 or whatever,
Speaker:font to me,
Speaker:it's a little bit more applicable than sitting there for an
Speaker:hour, trying to find one free font.
Speaker:Perfect. That's a good idea.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And I think in terms of finding someone locally,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you're really saying two things,
Speaker:don't panic,
Speaker:shut down,
Speaker:make sure you've captured what the error is,
Speaker:so that you can explain it.
Speaker:But then right away,
Speaker:contact someone locally for help.
Speaker:Where can people find those local people?
Speaker:Most of your big retail stores best buy all them.
Speaker:They have their services like geek squad,
Speaker:contacting them and saying,
Speaker:Hey, I've gotten this error.
Speaker:What do you think?
Speaker:And they will be able to tell you,
Speaker:if you want a consultant that would work with your business,
Speaker:just doing a local search on it,
Speaker:consultants in your area,
Speaker:you might get a call them up and ask them,
Speaker:get all their information as to their charges and how long
Speaker:they've been in business and be able to make a decision
Speaker:on who you want to be your trusted advisor.
Speaker:Perfect. Okay.
Speaker:And I would go one step further even than that Gordon.
Speaker:And that is you and I met through the chamber.
Speaker:Correct? So I think developing a relationship with someone who is
Speaker:in this field,
Speaker:even if you don't need them right now,
Speaker:but next time you're at a networking meeting with the chamber
Speaker:or any other groups that you're in.
Speaker:If there is someone with this skill,
Speaker:it's worth making sure you have their card at the very
Speaker:least, and then developing a relationship,
Speaker:if you can.
Speaker:So that then,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I know Goran,
Speaker:will you go out of your way for everybody?
Speaker:I know that,
Speaker:but I will just say right here,
Speaker:one Sunday morning,
Speaker:you jumped in your car and came over here because you
Speaker:knew you had a packed week.
Speaker:And I was in trouble.
Speaker:I don't know that a lot of people will go to
Speaker:that extent.
Speaker:But I also trust anything you say,
Speaker:because I know you now,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we've had this relationship not calling you just out of random
Speaker:act because I was desperate.
Speaker:It's really good to get these types of relationships established before
Speaker:you're in trouble.
Speaker:I was saying,
Speaker:if you know,
Speaker:like, and trust them,
Speaker:you will buy from them.
Speaker:And same thing with it.
Speaker:If, you know,
Speaker:if I can trust your local it guy,
Speaker:you're more able to be at peace,
Speaker:say, Oh,
Speaker:okay, I got this meshes.
Speaker:I'll call Johnny from the chamber.
Speaker:I know like in trust,
Speaker:Absolutely totally agree with you.
Speaker:One more thing to ground out,
Speaker:all of this it information.
Speaker:And that is how long do you feel?
Speaker:A computer's life span is In a typical corporate world or
Speaker:small business.
Speaker:I would say between four to five years,
Speaker:if you push a computer mortar five years,
Speaker:you're on what I call borrowed time.
Speaker:Meaning the computer can at any point,
Speaker:decide to die.
Speaker:Cause you know,
Speaker:the equipment,
Speaker:your hard drive is and mechanical having SSD drives does extend
Speaker:that life a little bit,
Speaker:but anything over five years,
Speaker:your software's going to start to get long in the tooth
Speaker:as they call where you can start slowing down.
Speaker:You're not going to be able to run the optimal speed
Speaker:because your computer is five generations old.
Speaker:And so then what is the safest way to get rid
Speaker:of that computer to protect yourself?
Speaker:The computer itself is not,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you can always get rid of it.
Speaker:But the biggest thing is the hard drive that's in that
Speaker:computer. That's your garage.
Speaker:That's where you store all your files and all your data.
Speaker:And most people think,
Speaker:Oh, if I do a format or if I trust recycling
Speaker:company to do a format,
Speaker:they're going to do it.
Speaker:The thing is a simple format.
Speaker:It's not going to raise your data.
Speaker:And there's many articles on the internet enters a great posting
Speaker:that I have on our Facebook page that shows that people
Speaker:have gone in and purchased these recycled hard drives that people
Speaker:claim they have wipe and through a simple $50 program that
Speaker:you can find on the internet.
Speaker:I can go in and recover all deleted data file.
Speaker:There are ways to do a proper format.
Speaker:It's called the DOD department of defense format where it goes
Speaker:through seven times and it wipes out the data.
Speaker:But most people don't take that out for the easiest way
Speaker:that I've found is to take out the hard drive and
Speaker:physically destroy it,
Speaker:take a hammer to a take up large magnet,
Speaker:a very powerful magnet and decal set,
Speaker:and be able to get all that data completely off.
Speaker:You don't want to have the peace of mind saying,
Speaker:Oh, I'm going to just take it.
Speaker:They'll take care of it.
Speaker:Yes. They might do the simple format,
Speaker:but that's not enough.
Speaker:If you find a recycling plant that says we will physically
Speaker:destroy the hard drive and they give you a certificate that
Speaker:has been done that point,
Speaker:maybe that's a little better than just having a recycling company,
Speaker:wipe the drive.
Speaker:But again,
Speaker:I've chicken.
Speaker:So I always liked to take my hard drives and get,
Speaker:take a hammer to them and physically destroy them and be
Speaker:able to know that the data there is not recovered.
Speaker:And so then that destroyed hard drive.
Speaker:I believe you told me can just go in the trash
Speaker:recycling into recycling.
Speaker:Okay. And then the computer now is still good.
Speaker:It just doesn't have a hard drive.
Speaker:Right. Right.
Speaker:And you could donate that to charity.
Speaker:You don't have to throw the computer away.
Speaker:Correct? Yeah.
Speaker:There's a lot of people who still might want,
Speaker:even though it's older that they could still get use out
Speaker:of a computer.
Speaker:Absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker:Just regular grammar school kids that are typing their homework on
Speaker:it. That computer will be more than enough power and resources
Speaker:giving to the less fortunate is a way that I like
Speaker:to give back.
Speaker:So if I have computers and I do recycling for clients
Speaker:too, I donate to church organizations,
Speaker:red cross all these places that take computers and recycle them
Speaker:into the community.
Speaker:So the less fortunate are able to get a computer.
Speaker:You have given us such great information today.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:I wanted to keep this conversation going because all of these
Speaker:points are so important.
Speaker:And at this point,
Speaker:Gordon, I want to invite you to dare to dream.
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your virtual box?
Speaker:My virtual box has peace of tranquility for the small business
Speaker:owner. I'm making sure that the small business owner can continue
Speaker:to grow and to be understood and our technology to work
Speaker:for them to be protected against all the bad things that
Speaker:a world holds for the small business owner,
Speaker:as far as technology,
Speaker:and being able to be a true trusted advisor for small
Speaker:business owners,
Speaker:to understand that technology,
Speaker:people are here to help you and understand that we are
Speaker:here to make sure your technology grows and your business grows.
Speaker:So my virtual box is a sea of tranquility where I
Speaker:know that all my customers are protected and have peace of
Speaker:mind that if something bad does happen,
Speaker:they're covered or they're able to recover quicker.
Speaker:As you were saying that,
Speaker:and I'm not going to ask you to do this scoring,
Speaker:cause I don't even want to know,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:so much and you know,
Speaker:all the dangers that are out there because you see things
Speaker:right. A lot of times better that we just don't know
Speaker:that. Exactly.
Speaker:So inside Your box is like,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:all that stuff and we'll just stay peaceful cause you know
Speaker:how to fix it.
Speaker:And we don't need to know what the trouble is.
Speaker:We just need to follow your advice.
Speaker:Well, not everybody can be a tech person.
Speaker:Not everybody can be an account does same thing.
Speaker:That's why I T people are here.
Speaker:That's why everybody depends on us to keep the economy growing.
Speaker:But because the small business is the economy,
Speaker:the majority of the businesses that make up our new economy
Speaker:are the small business owners that need these types of services.
Speaker:And that's where I come in and others that are like
Speaker:me that want to protect the small business owner.
Speaker:So if any of our listeners are looking at getting in
Speaker:touch with you or learning more about information that you provide,
Speaker:where should they go to our website,
Speaker:www Safe Haven,
Speaker:I t.com
Speaker:or they can go on our Facebook page as well,
Speaker:safe Haven it.
Speaker:And we post regularly about any type of malware or information
Speaker:on our website.
Speaker:We have a information request thing where if you need more
Speaker:information, fill out the form and we will give you a
Speaker:call or if you want contact us via our phone,
Speaker:(847) 594-3209.
Speaker:We'll be more than happy to answer questions,
Speaker:come on site and give you guys ability to really feel
Speaker:at peace.
Speaker:Perfect. And if you're calling from Italy,
Speaker:you'll have to provide a plane ticket for going actually too,
Speaker:because I want to come to exactly.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:And give biz listeners,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:that there'll be a show notes page that has all the
Speaker:information as well.
Speaker:So if you're not anywhere where you could capture all of
Speaker:that information,
Speaker:you can just access the show notes page.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Goran fabulous information,
Speaker:really, really important information.
Speaker:So I thank you so much.
Speaker:You've put this down for us in a very,
Speaker:very logical way in terms of what we need to make
Speaker:sure that we protect ourselves.
Speaker:I so appreciate your expertise and sharing that with us today.
Speaker:And may your candle always burned bright?
Speaker:Where are you in your business building journey,
Speaker:whether you're just starting out or already running a business and
Speaker:you want to know your setup for success.
Speaker:Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,
Speaker:access the quiz from your computer at bit dot L Y
Speaker:slash gift biz quiz or from your phone by texting gift
Speaker:biz quiz to four four two,
Speaker:two, two.
Speaker:Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the
Speaker:next episode.
Speaker:Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company,
Speaker:looking for a new income source for your gift business.
Speaker:Customization is more popular now than ever grander products with your
Speaker:logo or print,
Speaker:a happy birthday,
Speaker:Jessica ribbon to add to a gift right at checkout,
Speaker:it's all done right in your shop or across studio in
Speaker:seconds. Check out the ribbon print company.com
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