But what about your images? Whether they’re digital or physical, what would you do if disaster struck? Would a fire, flood, theft, or crash rob you of thousands of hours of effort and thousands of dollars of inventory?

Better yet, what can you do right now to prevent such losses?

Digital art:

Back up your work regularly. Ideally, if you work every day, you should back up your files every day. At a minimum, you should back up your work every week. There is software that can do this automatically for you. The no-cost solution: write a note to yourself on your daily to-do list, or on a sticky note that you attach to your monitor; then copy your work to CD, DVD or an external drive before you shut down for the day.

Keep a healthy computer. Use anti-viral software to avoid those nasty bugs that can cause crashes. Check your hardware’s health regularly, too, and replace drives that are getting old or balky.

Keep a copy offsite. There are several ways to insure that your work exists in more than one place. You can make CDs and keep them in a safe deposit box at a bank, or in the care of a trusted friend or family member. If your work and home are at separate locations, keep copies in both places. Or use an online storage service. (The Digital Artist offers reasonably priced memberships that allow you to store, as well as show and sell, your digital images.)

Physical images:

Store your work safely. Fire and water are your worst enemies. Get that work up off the floor and in a fireproof or fire-resistant location. Consider renting space in a secure rental warehouse or at least getting a fire-resistant cabinet.

Insure your work. Ruined is ruined: you’ll have to start over. But make sure you at least have some monetary coverage for your work. Don’t assume that your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance provides coverage! Call your agent and ask about a rider to your policy. It will cost relatively little to help protect your livelihood.

Document everything. Photograph or scan every image as soon as it’s complete. If you lose the original, you will need some proof for your insurer. And, at the very least, you’ll have the images for your portfolio.

Remember that it takes relatively little time, effort and money to secure the product of your hours of effort, especially compared with the cost and pain of losing it all.

For more articles on the business of art, and the inspiration to keep it going, click here.