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Generally, when on the phone, you get involved longer than planned unless you’re very self-willed.

With text messaging, you can send and receive messages at leisure and answer when you have time.  You also can access e-mail messages and send them with some phones with Internet access.  (One of my business colleagues does this instead of having her laptop with her all the time.)  Very rarely do the text messages require an instant reply so don’t interrupt what you’re doing or business you’re conducting.

However, consider texting etiquette when you use this method of communication and don’t acces your phone at inappropriate times.  It’s very annoying, when someone is talking with you face-to-face, to have them sending texts.  This also can affect your business if your customers feels talking with them is less important than your texting.

How do you utilize and manage texting in your business?

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When I was subbing for a secretary at a nearby school, I noticed the upright clipboard affair next to her computer screen.

When I needed to type on her word processor, I discovered how handy it was to have my paper on the clipboard and glace at it there rather than down on the desk.

If you’re not using it for  manuscript or letter drafts, you can clip memos, reminders or photos there.  Inspirational sayings also would be ideal on the clipboard when not in use for other tasks.

I’ll have to look into one for my office and writing projects.  I’ve also seen clips with an arm that attach to one’s computer.  You can attach manuscripts and letters to these.

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 Do you realize what impression you give if you always have the cell or a head set attached to your ear?  Or if you’re looking away from the person you’re talking with to check text messages or send them?

You tend to give the impression the people you meet aren’t important.  No, you’re not doing business with them at that moment, but they’re potential customers or may be talking to potential customers.

• Decide to organize your cell phone calls and text messaging so that you don’t have to answer when you’re talking with others, even in a casual conversation, ordering a meal, going through a check-out, dropping clothes at the cleaners, talking to a sales person.
• Make a decision that you’ll act professionally when you own a business and give the impression to customers and potential customers that they are important. 
• Let those who call you frequently know you’ll get to them as soon as you can. (Their phone number or message will be there.)

How do you handle your cell, iPhone or other calls in a professional manner to create a good business image?

Related Post: Do You Text & Drive?

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These might consist of simply a gathering at one’s home (if you operate an online or home business) or a time for greeting customers at your walk-in shop.

How do you organize?

• Set a date and time.
• Determine whether you’ll have scheduled hours or simply be open for customers and prospective customers stopping by.
• Will you demonstrate products?
• Will you serve refreshments?  If so, determine what they’ll be.  If you sell food items in your business, serve samples of these.
• Prepare invitations to send by mail, unless you plan on a large gathering.  Then you might put up a sign at your business as well as invitations.
• Are e-mail invitations appropriate for your Open House?
• If others in your town are joining together for a special Open House day or evening, see about planning yours at this time.  You might participate in some cooperative promotion.

If you’ve participated in Open House events, what tips do you have for organizing them?

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Memories image: sxc.hu

• Developing Memory Scrapbooking Kits for nursing homes, senior center or individuals.
• Teaching classes at these locations.
• Teaching more workshops on Writing Your Family Stories, such as I did at the Pease Public Library.
• Blogging at My One-Room School Heritage blog and seeing what spinoffs I can create from it.
• Writing my memoirs.  I hadn’t thought people would be interested in this, but a writing colleague keeps insisting I get it going.

Another friend urges me to create a brand for these memory related projects, something with which people will automatically associate me.  I must look at each of my memory related projects, see which I need to concentrate on first and how to promote it.  Eventually I can see all of them meshing into one brand.

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• What can you do to get started?
• Brainstorm and set ideas on paper, as many as you can whether they’re sane or foolish.  You never know what may happen when you think outside the box.
• Consider what you did last year that worked.  Can it be updated? 
• Check to see what others in your field are doing.  Don’t copy, but use as a springboard for your thinking.
• Review your budget for anything that may require an expense.  What is the maximum amount you have available for production and promotion?

Do you have any successful holiday tips?

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Organize Your Online Time for More Efficiency

Organize Your Branding for Best Promotional Results

Organizing My Addresses for Postal Mail

10 Tips for Organizing Your Web Presence with a Blog

Organizing Your Writing into Binders, Guest Post by Christina Hale

Did you find a favorite post at My Organized Biz this month?

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What are procedures you can do to be ”green?”

Paint the office green, I guess, to remind yourself.

Use green stationery, sticky notes, pens, pencils and organizers.

Then… recycle, reuse, and refuse to be wasteful. 

• Separate out the recyclable items.  We have a wastebasket for all the paper goods that we can dispose of in the paper waste at our recycling center.
• We separate cardboard for that bin at the center.
• Some of our paper goods are made from recycled materials.
• We use the back side of waste paper for printing and photocopying when we don’t need a clean copy.  We use these for taking notes, too.
• Any plastic containers with the numbers 1 or 2 are separated out for the recycling center.
• Metal, glass, colored bottles, aluminum cans…all are separated accordingly for the center.  (This separating has become automatic, so isn’t a chore anymore.)
• We use light bulbs that save electricity in office and home.

That is a starter…but they’re many of the practices we utilized in the home and on the farm when I was growing up.  We called it being economical.  Perhaps it also was a carryover from my parents having grown up during the Depression years.

What are you doing in your office that’s “green?”  You don’t have to go to the extreme or become involved in anything expensive.  Just institute simple, commonsense measures.

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I haven’t progressed to the electronic ones because I don’t like having to turn on a computer to find out what I’m to do for the day.  I’m wary yet of having my life displayed on my cell phone. 

We have a system that seems to work well for our family and business at this point, although I’m always open to ways to improve.

• We have a wall calendar with fairly large spaces around the numerals.  There the five of us write appointments, my substitute teaching dates, and family events since they all involves us to some degree.
• There’s a bulletin board nearby where my daughter, son-in-law and I post our weekly work schedules for the local supermarket.  Thus we all know when everyone is working and how to coordinate rides.
• For my blog writing, I have a notebook for each blog with deadlines posted there.  These are kept in a box with current writing notes.
• Business and financial dates pertaining only to my husband and me are kept on a calendar in our office.

This may seem cumbersome to some people, but it has worked for our families for years and seems to be a system that keeps us on track.  Some day, we probably will do more electronically.  However, the one time we put data on an electronic planner, it crashed, so dates, addresses and phone numbers all were lost.

What are your calendar successes?

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• Franklin Planner or similar
• Simple notebook
• Address book with yearly calendar
• Schedule book with calendar
• Wall calendar combined with one in your pocket or purse
• Calendars for different businesses or types of activities
• Calendars for business and family
• Calendars on the computer

What do you prefer?

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