I Couldn't organise a whatsit in a brewery with my IT setupat the mo.

moneypenny2k

I'm hoping somebody will be able to give me some pointers on possible solutions to my problems. At the moment I seem to be going around and around in circles trying to get my head around organisation.

I've recently started out as a consultant, I sell my services to other businesses and have amassed a number of contacts in different sectors/posts. I have a mish mash of computers apps/programmes and I need to streamline. Does anyone have any suggestions?

• I have an ipad and a laptop. I use thunderbird for my email on the laptop.
• My contacts are on an excel sheet which means I have to update the sheet manually
• My ipad calendar doesn't update my pc calendar, have tried every which way but can't get it sorted.
• I want to use mailchimp to send out my mailshots
• Much of my business is generated via my website & Twitter.

What I want to do:-Keep private email separate from business

• Keep a single calendar on both ipad/pc and prefereable integrate tasks into that so I can click on an email and add it to my task list
• Maintain my contacts using tags to separate the types of contacts, eg journalists, head teachers, conference organisers etc. So that I can integrate into mailchimp to send out mailings.
• Ideally, I'd like to be able to keep notes to enable me to be a bit more personal - I have an awful memory.

I have looked at Zoho but I'm not sure it's a worthwhile expense for me at the moment, the free version doesn't appear to allow you to save people to different lists, but I could be wrong.


All suggestions will be met with gratitude.:beer:

DKLS

Drop the windows machine and get a MacBook or Mac Mini to use as a desktop.

Opinion

moneypenny2k wrote: »

I'm hoping somebody will be able to give me some pointers on possible solutions to my problems. At the moment I seem to be going around and around in circles trying to get my head around organisation.

I've recently started out as a consultant, I sell my services to other businesses and have amassed a number of contacts in different sectors/posts. I have a mish mash of computers apps/programmes and I need to streamline. Does anyone have any suggestions?

• I have an ipad and a laptop. I use thunderbird for my email on the laptop.
• My contacts are on an excel sheet which means I have to update the sheet manually
• My ipad calendar doesn't update my pc calendar, have tried every which way but can't get it sorted.
• I want to use mailchimp to send out my mailshots
• Much of my business is generated via my website & Twitter.

What I want to do:-Keep private email separate from business

• Keep a single calendar on both ipad/pc and prefereable integrate tasks into that so I can click on an email and add it to my task list
• Maintain my contacts using tags to separate the types of contacts, eg journalists, head teachers, conference organisers etc. So that I can integrate into mailchimp to send out mailings.
• Ideally, I'd like to be able to keep notes to enable me to be a bit more personal - I have an awful memory.

I have looked at Zoho but I'm not sure it's a worthwhile expense for me at the moment, the free version doesn't appear to allow you to save people to different lists, but I could be wrong.


All suggestions will be met with gratitude.:beer:

We use Zoho, four email addresses, works very well for us.

moneypenny2k

DKLS wrote: »

Drop the windows machine and get a MacBook or Mac Mini to use as a desktop.

Sadly finances preclude that option

Suarez

Dropbox

It isn't the answer to all your problems but it is brilliant for accessing and updating documents from many devices (Such as your excel contact list).

paddyrg

How about looking at Google's business offerings? You put all your contacts into GMail and they're available on your phone, tablet, desktop all synchronised. Then you use Google Drive so you have the exact same files available on all devices, so you can (for instance) edit and attach an Excel-based quote to an email on your phone, and the exact same info is available on the PC and tablet.

Basically, it abstracts you from your hardware :-)

wkdboi

Use thunderbird and get this to store the contacts rather than update the excell at all times, you can get thunderbird for ipad so this would keep both email cilents updated with contacts

As for calendar get Sunbird for the laptop and use a version of Caldav to sync with iCal this is fairly easy to do with a google search and their a are a couple of free services that do this

Thunderbird can keep 2 accounts and you can have these setup seperately just make sure to UNTICK Global Inbox when setting up and thus you would have 2 accounts, I have 5 in my TB so its easy to do.

Sunbird aslo intergrates with Thunderbird for adding appointments
If you want to keep notes theirs a addons for TB which allows you to basicaly store a post-it style note ontop the email that will stay with that mail until you close it.
Contacts and Tags can all be handeled by TB
mailchimp im unsure of but im happy to look into if you need

If you need help or are happy I dont mind helping you set this up using something like teamviewer if needs, also im can help via skype send me a pm and we can sort something out

Please excuses my spelling and punctuations its 3am