According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in June 2009 a typical worker earned $18.41 per hour (average across all non-farm industries EXCLUDING benefits.)

If we assume it takes about 15 minutes per day for a staff person to run and verify that an inhouse backup successfully completed, the “hidden” labor cost to perform this critical function can be calculated as:

1/4  hour  x  $18.41/hour  x  22 business days/month = $101.25 per month

This number does not include the cost of additional equipment or media – nor the time/cost associated with moving these backups offsite on a regular basis. Other costs such as worker training and periodic testing of backup reliability are also not factored into the equation.

Now suppose this company made a slight change and used Dr.Backup to perform daily backups (using Standard 10GB Package Plan) while continuing to perform a full in-house backup once a week. The costs might look something like this:

1/4 hour x $18.41/hour x 4  per month + $31.95 for Dr.Backup = $50.36 per month

Using this approach the company saves 50% on labor associated with performing backups. In addition, daily backups are now fully automated and professionally managed. Even if the responsible employee is sick or goes on vacation – the online backups continue to occur.

Given the importance of computer data to most businesses, perhaps this simple dollars and “sense” explanation will help a small business owner to save money and better protect their livelyhood.