Here at emdash, we have everything set up on OneDrive. Everyone does their work online and saves it in our WIP folder online — to which everyone has access. Which means, there’s no file in any employee’s local memory. Everything’s stored on the cloud.
Why is this a great arrangement for freelancers?
Backup
When I first started freelancing, I did this as a way to back up everything. Plus, we all know how temperamental MS Word and other word processors can be. How many of us have lost stuff to a notorious crash?
We still have archives of all our work from years past — and no one has to sacrifice their C or D drive to preserve all our content.
Collaboration
Working entirely online makes it easier for my team to collaborate. When we all work on the cloud, it’s extremely easy and important for somebody to pick up where someone else left off. If a member of my team’s on leave or if someone retires for the night with half the work done, someone else can attend to it and get it done.
If a client pings me on a Saturday for a particular design file, I don’t have to ruin my designer’s weekend, since I know exactly where to find it. And if someone quits, I don’t have to be after them to transfer all their work from their personal computer to where I can reach it.
Independence from devices
The #1 reason I love doing this is that none of my work is dependent on a particular device. If my laptop suddenly stops working, I have no reason to panic. There’s nothing on the laptop that I absolutely need — if I’m traveling and I urgently have to take care of something, all the files are accessible. All I need to do is to log into my OneDrive.
I’ve got to admit, I’m also a bit obsessive. At the end of every day, I make it a point to shut down my laptop. I also like to restore my laptop to factory settings from time to time and start over again. And there’s practically nothing I’ve lost in the process because everything’s on the cloud.
So consider setting up a virtual workplace on the cloud if you haven’t already. Google Drive, DropBox, Box are all perfectly workable alternatives too.