Helpful tips on keeping your company straight or..your self.
P.s I see how long this post is..I don't know how many people are going to read this or not..but I feel for those who do read this and is trying to get a step up and grow...this would be information they would love to have.
Some of the biggest issues you can have is not having everything set up in a new orderly way. Doing so can be hard when you are trying to take notes and add things to a calendar running here and or there keeping track of phone calls and deals you have going.
So here are some things we use to help keep things simple.
Both desktop and WORK laptop (buy a laptop ONLY for work...no games or anything else I will explain this later) should have a share file and or a cloud (server) folder that you can open either documents in. Using Google Docs is a great tool for something that you may need to edit from more than one computer and or have many people edit it. The link to is docs.google.com The reason for this if you make an edit on lets say your P&L's it will show up on all computers and you dont have to worry about is this the one I just updated kind of thing.
Another great tool is a simple and easy way to log all phone calls away from your private phone calls. A good way to do this is with a VOIP type of phone, Google once again had something to fill this spot called Google Voice, Its free to use and has alot of options. Something you may want to look into if you are still using your private phone number.
Having a flow chart. This may seem dumb but sitting down and thinking on how things should flow is not only helpful for you when you get busy but it cuts everything into stages. When you follow the flow chart people tend to think you are more "together" as you seem to know WHAT you are doing even tho at times you are not even sure what the hell just happened other than...it sounds good lmao.
Using labels and or tags inside of your email. This will let you find the "action" e-mails.
When you are taking notes its best to use the computer and or laptop that is tied to the server thing I was talking about and or Use Google Documents as you cant spill anything on it is easy to find. In your notes put DATE and TIMES as this will let you know the last time you talked with the person as well as the next date you have to talk with them if another date was set up. Use a GOOD note taking system.
If you dont have a P&L book you should make one as it will help you find out where you are spending the most money. P&L is a simple Profit and Loss Statement and each time you spend money you put the reason date time and amount. A simple line out I will show at the very bottom of this post.
Calendar is a HUGE thing and should be taken with as much care as your notes. Find away to set up either yahoo and or google (I use google) to send you a txt and or have it sync with your phone and the calendar on your desktop and laptop. This way you can add and or remove dates in more places than one...no reason to tell your self that you will do it later because you do not have the means to do so now...doing it later the note and or you just plain old forgetting.
Having a paper note book can be helpful but should not be for 100% use. Any data you CANT lose should be on a server and or cloud so it will not and cant not be lost.
Now for the simple P&L line item sheet.
Date = account item = money out = money in = cash box = charges to credit card = money taken from bank account = money placed in bank = total bank cash
Starting from the first one and going all the way to the right.
Date = so you know what date this line item happened. You should brake everything into 1 week cycles and redo accounting every week.
Account item = Lets you know what was the reason for money moved.
Money out = I deal in cash..so this is cash I spend out of cash box so I can keep track of all of it.
Money in = Shows cash that came from items I sold either it be a load of steel or an item or money being moved from bank into cash box.
cash box = this should only be used for money at the end of the week so you can look back and see what was in your cash box 3 weeks back.
Charges to credit card = simple to understand this one
money taken from bank account = this is me paying people by paypal and or taking cash out of bank
money placed in bank = should be simple to understand
total bank cash = same as cash box
Here is a photo to kinda show you how this would be setup as you can see...its simple but has all the data you need so you know what from what.
http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/752/screenshotcg.png
Mod...please fix the photo link...its not working..for anyone reading this...just click on it and it will open up in a new tab.
