Business Smarts article posted on examiner.com – June 9, 2010
Local website designer and computer whiz reveals organizing secrets
by Jennifer Palais
What are the best organizing tools to run a business? The ones that work for you. Eddie Jauregui, owner of Business Smarts in Culver City, was kind enough to reveal some of the business essentials he uses to keep himself organized.
You may be surprised. Considering the high tech industry Jauregui works in, sometimes the simplest of tools fits the bill.
Jauregui designs websites, marketing vehicles and fixes pretty much every computer hardware and software issue under the sun for small to medium size companies.
In order to manage the magnitude of incoming virtual and physical material Jauregui has gathered a few favorite organizational tools that match his high energy, can-do style. He admits with an impish grin that he’ll switch between different ways of organizing a project from time to time, just to keep his creativity flowing and mix it up.
For his biggest day to day administrative challenge, invoicing, he admits to using a simple $3 invoice book from Staples or Office Depot. Jauregui laughs and sighs with a little eye roll and explains he has been on a witch hunt for the perfect solution for a long time, but that after much trial and error with BlackBerry apps, online productivity tools and other intricate invoicing programs this little notebook has proven to work best in the end.
Jauregui offers a wealth of services and this simple invoicing book provides him the flexibility he needs in order to invoice the client according to the specific service(s) provided that day. At the end of the week he hands it off to the bookkeeper to get added into Quickbooks – the perfect marriage of old school and new school organizing.
Another old-school tool Jauregui gets a lot of mileage out of is his giant white board. The whiteboard helps him organize his own thoughts, to do lists and his day. Another way the whiteboard comes into play is to create a project workflow for a client. With characteristic enthusiasm Jauregui explains, “I’ll brainstorm the workflow, with a client or on my own, then take a picture of it and place the jpeg in the client file.” Having a picture of the whiteboard creation on file is another example of the marriage of old school and new school organizing. This method allows Jauregui to brainstorm and create freely, capture the moment, then move on.
On the more technical side of organizing Jauregui has found his favorite way to keep track of all of his clients’ website information: Coreftp.net. This is a free program that allows him to have an online list of client sites and key information related to them. Next to his Blackberry which, admittedly, he says he could not live without, Coreftp.net is a favorite organizational tool.
Also online, Evernote.com is a program Jauregui uses to organize his communication between himself and his clients. Because of the sheer volume of content required to create virtual property, Jauregui takes advantage of Evernote.com’s premium membership (the basic membership is free) in which individuals can share notebooks. Jauregui explains, “There is an add-in for Outlook so all of my emails (by project) go in there.” He sends his clients the notebook link when he has updated the information and they can take a look at the new notes, pictures, links, voice recordings or web pages located in the notebook. It is just another great way Jauregui keeps track of information coming in from multiple places and medias.
In our highly technical and fast moving environment we are all searching for the top ways to stay productive and to organize the influx of information. Eddie Jauregui of Business Smarts gave us some invaluable methods to successfully do just that. Thank you Eddie Jauregui and Business Smarts! If you have questions for Eddie Jauregui or want to find out more about Business Smarts’ web and IT services call (424) 672-0099 or go online to http://www.businesssmarts.us.
