How to be an Organised Entrepreneur (Technologically Speaking)

By David Eedle |

The world came to an end in our house this morning. Our Bigpond ADSL was not connected when I woke, and restarting the modem resulted in a few minutes of connectivity, then another drop out. I resorted to tethering my iPhone to my Mac for enough internet access to Skype a couple of people who I knew were expecting me to be online, mainly to explain that I was having problems.

Incidentally, I did ring Bigpond, our ISP. A nice woman asked “what colour is the DSL light” (red); “do you have a dial tone on the phone line” (yes); “is the modem properly connected to the phone socket” (yes). “OK, I’ll have to escalate this to our Level 2 support, someone will call you within two working days”. Fabulous, given this was a Friday.

This morning’s shenanigans are a reminder of just how dependent many of us are on constant internet connectivity, and our technological tools. Yet how many of us really exploit those tools in a way that truly improves our productivity and organization as entrepreneurs?

I spend my day with my MacBook and iPhone surgically attached. If you totalled up my waking hours, I spend more time on my Mac than I do with Fiona and our kids. It’s a tight relationship, tempered with the occasional outburst when the gadgets seem to be channelling our children and refuse to behave.

I thought I’d share with you some of the software tools and systems that I’ve gathered over the years, and that through trial and much error have proven to offer real benefits.

Please bear in mind I use a MacBook Pro as my primary computer, although thanks to the joy of Parallels software I also have Windows running on my Mac. Also please note that most of these software packages do require you to pay – but it’s generally a modest fee, usually around $US50.

1. Things
www.culturedcode.com

I’ve tried all sorts of To Do systems from Outlook’s Tasks to various task managers, but the one that’s held my attention longest is Things. It’s one of the simplest task managers, but it’s that simplicity, teamed with a delightfully designed interface that’s given it longevity.

Stay organised with Things

I can load up tasks with ‘do by’ dates, tag them, and organise them by project. The entries are flagged and colour coded according to whether they are overdue or not. I can quickly pull up a timeline-based list of tasks and work through in order.

There is an accompanying iPhone application that synchronizes via my Wi Fi network, so I can keep my tasks up to date either from my phone or my Mac. The only thing missing is OTA (over the air) synchronization, where they could stay up to date wherever my phone is located.

2. Evernote
www.evernote.com

Evernote is the newest addition to the stable, and came about through a strong recommendation from a good friend. Evernote is a sort of electronic ring binder and filing cabinet. Essentially you can write notes in a notebook, accompanied by pictures and files. You can have any number of notebooks and any number of notes.

It’s dead easy to use, yet has a remarkable range of functionality. I can type in a note, drag and drop in a PDF or other document, take a photo, clip a web page – and then email the note to someone.

There’s a very good iPhone application as well, with complete OTA synchronization, so everything stays in sync between the phone and Mac all of the time.

I’ve always been one to lug around an A4 workbook and write notes during meetings and phone calls. Now I almost exclusively work directly into Evernote. I’m writing this blog post based on a bunch of notes I wrote in Evernote the other day.

You can even send notes into your notebooks via Twitter and email – brilliant.

3. omniGraffle
www.omnigraffle.com

A great deal of my time is spent interacting with customers and writing and scoping and specifications to interpret their needs into a logically, and technically, based framework.

omniGraffle produces easily produces terrific looking flowcharts and diagrams

omniGraffle is a flow chart and diagram drawing program. There are plenty out there – many people will have met the Microsoft Visio product.

Being a male, I tend to think in very linear fashion – which means I mentally flowchart lots of things. Often if I’m in a discussion with someone about how to go about a certain task, I’ll sketch up the process in omniGraffle, to break down the workflow into manageable and distinct segments.

omniGraffle both has a cool name, and effortlessly produces really good looking diagrams. It has several layers of complexity but even if all you want to do is draw a simple flowchart for a presentation, it offers a great range of stencils and templates, including ones created by third parties – for example, I have stencils created by someone especially for outlining web pages.

4. Skype
www.skype.com

Whilst I realize it would to difficult to find someone who’s not heard of Skype, I’m not sure everyone understands just how powerful a business tool Skype can be. Did you know you can do all this with Skype?

Desktop Sharing – the latest version of Skype allows you at the click of a button show your desktop to the person at the other end of the line. Perfect for presentations, demonstrations – or as with us the other day, me showing Fiona how to do something, despite the fact I was in San Francisco and she was in Melbourne.

Voicemail – yup, Skype has voicemail just like your cell phone. You record a greeting, and if you don’t answer a call, people can leave a message.

Call forwarding – I have my Skype forwarding to my cell phone, so I can be away from my computer but still receive calls.

Skype Out – you can make calls from Skype to regular phones. And their international call rates are terrific compared to the normal phone companies.

Skype In – Skype can provide you with a local phone number in countries around the world. Someone calls that number, and it rings your Skype. I have a local number in San Francisco for example.

5. 1Password
agilewebsolutions.com

Ever forgotten a password for a web site? Not any more. I have LOTS of passwords to LOTS of websites, administration systems and so on. But I hardly know what any of them are. Because it’s all handled with smooth aplomb by 1password. The software creates and stores very secure passwords (eg lots of letters and numbers) that you could never recall in a month of Sundays. You access 1Password with a single password. But then when you return to a web site for which the program has previously saved a password, you click a button and it logs you in.

Never forget a password again

1Password doesn’t just handle passwords, it can also securely store bank account, credit card and other personal identity information.

There you have it, the five tools I use almost every minute of the day, every day. And I can testify that these gadgets really do make sense, and do save time. They help me work more efficiently, they help me interact with the people I do business.

There is a whole other list of little software tools I use for web development (how does any web developer exist without Firebug for example?) but we’ll save those for another day. Don’t want to scare the non-geeks too much.

I should just reinforce that many of these products are for Apple Macs. And I make no apologies for taking a partisan approach. I’ve experimented, and on occasion wasted money, to whittle down to the right combination. Some do require purchase, but even those will offer a free trial so you can give them a go for a couple of weeks and evaluate whether they can improve your entrepreneurial efficiency.

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