Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

All I have to say is Holy Smokes there is a lot of information flowing through my mind at any one given time since the thought of starting my own business has crossed my mind. I seem to constantly write down notes only to hvae them drift off and I seem to be revisiting the same topic over again and writing down the same ideas over and over again.

What techniques do any of you use to organize the thoughts about marketing, sales, services, products, financials that go through your head and that get jotted down?

I use a PDA phone (Palm 700w) with a "Notes" entry for each category.  Then under each category I just list my thoughts.  I`m sure with the right digital recorder you could do the same with audio stored in folders (by category name). 

I use a digital recorder and then listen to my words at a later date, to reevaluate the comments. If I consider them viable the second time I listen, I will write them out in detail and pursue it. I often pursue 5 ideas at a time because some ideas take time to develop and connect with the proper supportive people.

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Vincent Wilcox (a.k.a. KRAKR)
Drummer
My band: Letters Make Words

I do it the old fashioned way with a pad and pen  by me wherever I go. Then they get put in a file next to my computer and when I have some time I type them up and put them in E files to pull out when I need them.

I`m a writer and have a bazillion ideas and notes everywhere. As a database analyst (at one time) I figured there had to be a way to organize it all. I wanted fast, easily connected, a "mind map," and also to be easy to use. I`m not affiliated with any of the below thoughts, but have sent comments to the developers as I think they have good products.

The first is "WhizFolders" - An outline with internal hyperlinking, formatting, editor, and can handle external links, pictures, and links to other files and topics.

The second is "Personal Knowbase" - This is a fast little database with basic editing, simple external links, and now, I think internal linking. What makes it special is you can put in whatever Index words you want, to keep things organized by topic, and search by keyword or show only those keyword articles. Very good for a daily diary kind of thing.

Finally, for things I want to do, remember, or that are just post-it notes, I use "AT Notes" - I`ve tried all the Post-it kind of programs, and this one is the one that`s free! and never fails, never causes trouble, and works exactly like it`s supposed to work.

Between those, I have a very old (v 1.0) copy of InfoSelect, with free-text searches that works incredibly fast. But it was designed for Windows 3.11, and isn`t available anymore. The aforementioned site offers their newest version(s), but I find I like the blazing speed of the original.

I have all the files in a ZIP file, so if you`re computer savvy, could send it. That one is super-fast, and keeps track of things where I can`t remember what I called it, but I remember it has something to do with "widget...or wodjitt...or something." :-)

CraigL,

Adding a link is fairly easy.

Type your text and select the part of it you want to create the link.
You will see some buttons on top of the area you are typing your text. The last button is the "Add hyperlink" one (it looks like a little chain).
Click on it and type the URL for the site...that`s it!

Hope it helps.

Andre



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Andre Costa DaCosta Chocolates, LLC www.DaCostaChocolates.com

Zounds!! I didn`t even see that! (And commented in an email to SuN that it would be nice to have exactly that feature...which I didn`t see...added!)

Thanks very much Andy, you`re a credit to a race that wasn`t always human!
:-)