This has happened to more than a few businesspeople. In extreme cases, it has put companies out of business. And the worst part is this: It's completely avoidable. By backing up your data, you can retrieve all or most of what you lose.

Yes, yes, I hear some of you snickering about the hassle involved. Indeed, there is a hassle involved. But you owe it to yourself -- and your business -- to take stock of your backup plan (or lack thereof) by reviewing these tips. Most Important: Back up Your Customer Databases and Payroll Records

What's the heart and soul of your company? People have different opinions, but certainly your customer or client database has to rank high.

Inside one or two data files are all the nitty-gritty details including what they buy, when they buy, how they pay and so forth. Contact lists also are databases, and you might have yours combined with your customer list.

So, where would you be if you lost your database? How would you feel if you attempted to open your database and it wasn't there? Not good, I'll bet. So you should be backing up your database.

Also mission-critical for backups are your employee payroll records. You don't want to lose the information that you have to report to the Internal Revenue Service. Your employees don't want problems with the IRS, either. And they certainly don't want to be paid late.

Here are a few options for backing up your data in the form of a hard copy:

* AIT Tape

* CD-R, CD-RW

* DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+R

* Flash Memory Card Products

* R/W Magneto Optical Disks & WORM

* 1/2" Tape Cartridges

* LTO Ultrium Tape

* QIC 1/4" Data Cartridge

* Jaz & Zip Disks

* DLT tape / SDLT Tape

* SLR / MLR Cartridges

For anyone who uses a computer on a regular basis, data backup is very important. When you backup your data, you are storing your files on a disk or drive separated from your primary computer. In this way, if anything occurs to your computer or damage comes to your file on the computer, then you still have your data in backup so that you can restore it onto your original machine or another machine. This allows you to keep your data even if great damage comes to your computer. No one wants to have their system crash and then discover that all of their data is gone because they made no backups.

There are many methods for backing up your data. All that is required is to store your information on a drive or disk separate from your primary computer. If you operate on a home LAN system, for example, you can transfer your files to the other computers on your network and in this way ensure that even if one computer fails you will still have your files on another computer. There are also online backup systems where you can store your data on an online server.