Regular backups of your small business data are without doubt a vital practice for any small business. In the event of an IT disaster you could be left unable to trade.

I’m often amazed there are loads of small businesses paying for data backup services (often offered through expensive bank account packages) when there are far better services around for free.

Dropbox give you 2gb of data storage for free and you can set it so that it automatically backs up any files that you put into specific folders (such as My Documents). It integrates with Windows or OS X to make it seem like your backups are just another folder on your computer, though if your PC breaks your files are safe. You can even access your files on the go from a smartphone or tablet.

You can sign up for a free Dropbox account here. It’s pretty straightforward but I’d be happy to help you get set up if you have any problems.