Is Paperless Always Right for Your Home Business?

With the digital world omni-present these days, it is little surprise that paperless is becoming a way of life. Indeed, I can’t remember the last time I sent a paper invoice to a client. I usually just send one via email. Indeed, it can save money and the planet if your go paperless with your home business. But it may not always be the best thing. Mary Emma Allen at Home Biz Notes offers some very real concerns with regard to going completely paperless in your home business:

* What happens if your computer crashes? You might be able to recover the data, but while your computer is out of commission, you don’t have access to your records.

* The same is true of information stored online. You might get to it eventually, but you don’t have immediate access.

* What if your back-up method becomes obsolete?

* What if your business is hacked?

These are very real concerns. Since I have Gmail, all of my sent invoices are automatically backed up. (Of course, this doesn’t solve the immediate access problem. Or the fact that I am relying on Google for waaaaaay too much.) For me, the immediate access factor is not much of a problem. After all, the work I do allows for me to have the time to check up on payments at my leisure. My biggest issue is the fact that my bank account information is on Quicken, on the computer, and I rarely back it up. If the computer crashes, and I can’t recover the data, I’d have to use my online bank statements to make things right through manual input.

Do you see problems with going completely paperless for your home business?