Getting Organized!

Tips to keep your act together from your fellow resalers
And more tips from professional organizers
Some possibilities to help even the most flibberty-gibbetish of us get our acts together
Ideas to help your clientele

Next, how some Sharers keep organized:

Peggy: I email the store from home with to do lists.

Deb McD: I call and leave myself a message!! I'm also an avid list maker-even if I forget the list, I can kinda visualize what I wrote down.

Toni: When my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas, the first thing that came to mind was a Daytimer. It has been a blessing! I am using it to make home and store lists (on the same day's to-do listing), that way they are together and I can work on them together.

Jessica: If a lot of what you need is on a computer, and you have internet access at the store and at home, a product called PCAnywhere put out by Symantec is a life saver! It allows you to operate your store computer from home and vice versa. The product costs about $35 online. 

Kate: A square-bottomed canvas tote plus a clipboard or plastic see-thru envelope for notes. That way, physical things and lists get where they are going. My staff knew to clip (with spring clothes pins) notes to me to the tote rather than rely upon my remembering it in the middle of a hectic day. The tote's square bottom meant it sat upright, easy to toss things in, obvious to remove and do something WITH whatever was in it. 

Add a yearly diary. In it, record when you started planning your St Pat's event, when you called Yellow Pages to change your ad, daily/ weekly/ monthly/ YTD sales figures, exceptional happenings ( even name and phone of a customer who offered to help, had an in with a specific group, etc.) This diary functioned as a "Beat Last Year", scheduling reminder, and contact database. I suppose PDAs do the same, but I'm more tactile: I remember and think about things a lot better if I write them down rather than keyboard them.

Bonnie: Like Kate, I use a big tote bag back and forth from home to the store everyday. It usually goes full both ways - clothes that need washing, bills, notes get put in the bag all day. Then I deal with it when I get home, and start filling it up with stuff to go back to the store. My daytimer lives in the tote unless I am using it. Still, I always manage to forget something!

Janis: A "phone message book" that is in duplicate with a post-it note feature. I or employees write notes & phone numbers and take/send them home so I can remember to do stuff ... and the copy is there at the store in case I forgot! I also keep old books to keep track of things. I have a tote bag/brief case that I carry the papers & bills back & forth. I use vinyl pencil cases for each day of the week - whoever closes will put the daily reports, receipts, messages and backup disk in them. Usually, it's me who closes, but the idea is that anyone can keep up with all the daily stuff. I keep the past couple days at home and rotate them - each day has a backup disk, so I actually have 6 historical backups.

Connie: Go with a voice recorder. You can buy those for around $30. Also you could leave yourself or employees a voice memo on the answering machine. (That is, if your machine has this feature)

Rachel: ...consider a pda. I used to have all these little slips of paper, which I would subsequently lose... I kept buying new and better planners, but I just couldn't make them work for me. I switched to a pda and it's been a life saver. Not only does it remind me of my appointments, I have it set up to remind me when it's time to file taxes, do payroll, make payments, etc... Recurring tasks don't need to be entered but one time. I keep running notes with shopping lists, errands etc... Mine is an iPaq that I picked up in a pawn shop. Palms are nice too.

MarKay: My method is kind of primitive, but effective. I tape or staple a Post-It note around the handle of my purse.

Some possibilities to help even the most flibberty-gibbetish of us get our acts together:
Backpack It is an Internet based solution you may find useful
For those of us who feel things hanging over our heads all the time
Goodness! There's even a Get-Organized Month!
Is nothing sacred? How to organize your socks