A Place to Put Your Stuff

The late comedian George Carlin had a wonderful routine on “Trying to Find a Place to Keep Your Stuff is the Whole Meaning of Life.” And it’s funny, except when it pertains to keeping track of your “business stuff,” it then takes on a whole new meaning. Clients, prospects, projects and detailed notes are the life blood of all businesses. Keeping this information organized and easily accessible is key to your success.

Previously, in this column, I wrote about managing your day to day “to do” list with a simple 3x5 index card.  Based on the response to the article’s post, a lot of people found that simple productivity tool immensely helpful. Simplicity was the key.

Keeping track of the who, what, where, why and when (the 5 Ws) of your business dealings is something we, as business owners, do every day. More than 90% of businesses with 11-plus employees utilize a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, yet only 50% of businesses with 10 or fewer employees utilize a CRM tool.

If you’re a left-brained person you tend to be logical and like to do things in a planned, orderly way. If you’re a right-brained person you like organizing things to show relation, you read for main details and have a preference for summarizing over outlining.

One of the best tools I can recommend for keeping businesses organized and functioning is the MS Office Suite of products (Outlook, Excel, Word, PPT).  If you’re a left-brained person, and you like the structure of rows and columns for organizing things, then MS Excel is your go-to program. If you’re a right-brained person, you prefer visual cues, so some added color indicating what needs to be addressed and when is important. 

The number of CRM products and tools available is mind numbing.  A majority are web-based, take a while to learn, and may require an admin or IT support staff to operate.  Enter W5Templates.  An easy to use, Excel-based software program + mobile app for keeping track of your “business stuff.”

As an independent business owner, I prefer to Keep It Super Simple (KISS) and use a tool I developed for my consulting practice, utilizing a software base that I didn’t have to relearn (MS Excel).

What I came up with is an easy to use, cost effective spreadsheet-based tool to help track, control and succeed in business endeavors. The product, branded W5Templates, is named for the 5 Ws mentioned above. The 5 W’s are universal for every type of business.

So, I’m a right brained and a left-brained guy. I like to see the big picture (a right brained dashboard view of the world) and a detailed person (left brained planned and orderly, getting into the weeds). 

[dashboard]

W5Templates was developed to allow business leaders and clients to see a customized big picture while having access to as much chronological detail as necessary to successfully manage prospects, win a new business proposal and then manage the project details going forward. 

[chronological notes]

In today’s technology-based business environment, any business software should also be mobile.  The W5T mobile app takes your Excel information, securely stores it in the cloud, and gives you access to your “business stuff” (contact/project information, historical notes), directly on your mobile phone where you can type or voice dictate new notes, which “auto-magically” sync back to your W5T Excel document. 

[mobile app]

An open invitation.  To try the W5Temples Excel-based system and mobile app, visit W5T.biz, click the blue button and follow the directions to download a FREE demo copy of the tool. Full functionality, no time limit. If you’d like some assistance in getting started, I’m happy to help you set up a system for you to store and manage your “business stuff.”