Are you an Entreprenuer and have trouble following up?

Most entrepreneurs have known that they were different since childhood. They are very creative, are hard workers when they want to be, but don't like being told what to do. The key to staying organized is not a neat desk. It is finding what works for your brain (in my opinion). One of my partners uses a 3x5 card tickler file to follow up with people and writes as much as he possibly can on a 3x5 card and staples this to the persons business card. This works great for him but not for me. What I do after I meet someone is take their business card and write the day and how many days after the event that I send them a follow up email. For example: Sent email 4/12/09 two days after event. <ul> <li>I immediately put a reminder in my calendar to follow up again in one one week or one month and make that a recurrence with a monthly reminder.</li> <li>After this I place it in my clear card file so that I can see the card and the date on it.</li> <li>The reason I do this is because as long as I know the date of an event that I went to (remember I wrote 4/12/09 two days after).</li> <li> I can go back to that event and look at the persons profile and get 10 times the information that I could possibly fit on a 3x5 card.</li> <li>Also if the persons information changes they are probably not going to think of telling me but they will update their profile.</li> <li>Two weeks or one month from now I will get a reminder on my blackberry and on Outlook to follow up with this person.</li> <li>If I feel like it is too soon I will ignore it and it will remind me next week or next month.</li> </ul> So remember to send out an email as soon as possible after the event and almost as important write down the date that you send the email. Also find some way to remind yourself in couple of weeks or a month to touch base again. Do you have trouble finding things because of lack of organizational skills? <ul> <li>Do you leave the lights on in the car or lock your keys in the car.</li> <li>One thing that has helped me is that I always keep my keys in my pocket (if you have a purse that works to).</li> <li>When I am going to be leaving the next morning and I want to take something with me I immediately put whatever it is that I want to take under my car keys for the next day.This way I cannot leave without the item I want to take.</li> <li>If you carry a briefcase besides your wallet or purse.Set your car keys next to it so that you won't be able to leave until you take this.</li> </ul> ** This is very important** <ul> <li>Place the briefcase in the same part of the room as often as possible.</li> <li>For example near the door or in the corner near the water cooler, something that will key your brain to know where to look for the briefcase.</li> <li>When you get out of the car (everytime) make sure that you touch your pocket like I do to feel the keys befoe you close the locked door.</li> <li>If you have a purse take just a couple of extra seconds to look and make  sure that the keys are in that same secret pocket.</li> </ul> The important thing is to make a habit with critical things like keys and follow ups. It is ok to be different just find some way to get organized and stay on top of your keys and your follow ups. This will help your business grow. I hope this information is useful to at least one person out there. If you have any questions about this please let me know. 2009-04-13T02:41:24Z