Organization is mission critical for any small business. Your business can have unique offerings or expert consulting advice, but without organization, your business cannot deliver on what it does best. As a business leader, taking notes that organize your thoughts, remind you of certain items or assist in the idea generation process will allow you to capitalize more, and spend less time trying to recall information or inspiration. Enter Evernote. Tagline: Remember Everything.
Evernote is truly my favorite free product. “Use Evernote to save your ideas, things you see, and things you like. Then find them all on any computer, phone or device you use. For free.” ~ Evernote
Discover the 4 ways Evernote can impact your small business:
1. Searchable Note Taking in ONE Place
Note Taking P.E. (Pre Evernote)
I used to take notes these ways: in the Memo section of my phone, e-mails to myself, pictures on my phone, bookmarks of items I wanted to refer back to, scrap paper, my favorite Levenger Circa Notebooks or just tricking myself into thinking I would remember something without taking a note. Yeah right! This worked OK for taking the notes, but when it came time to find the note? A heavy search usually ensued: shuffling through the batches of paper on my desk, flipping through my notebooks, searching the many emails I had sent to myself and a lot of general head scratching.
One of Evernote’s greatest features is that it consolidates all my note taking into one place. I click on one program, enter one search term, and my notes are returned to me instantaneously!
2. Almost Anything Can Be An Evernote
Your ideas and inspiration for your business come in many different formats – not just text.
Maybe you’re browsing the web, and see a website with a layout you’d like to implement in your web redesign. You can use Evernote web clipper (a tool you’ll install in your browser toolbar) to save the entire page as an Evernote note.
SalesBlend is so clippable!
If you’re out window shopping and see a perfect window display; just take a picture with your phone, add some text and save the note.
Need to record a note quickly but don’t have time to type? Record an audio note directly in Evernote.
If you’re reading an interesting blog post on Google Reader that you want to reference, you can use ifttt so that any blog post you star will be saved directly to an Evernote folder.
All your favorite blog posts together in one place.
Took notes on paper or on a whiteboard? Just take a picture with your Evernote app, and the image and any accompanying notes will be saved. Any text that’s in the image is readable by Evernote, so you’ll be able to search for terms in the image itself.
For me, notetaking used to be pretty one-dimensional. Now, there are few limits to what can become a note!
3. Notes Accessible from Anywhere
Part of the problem with a notebook is that you don’t always have it with you to reference. But it’s hassle-free to access Evernote from pretty much everywhere.
I have Evernote open on my desktop throughout the day and also access it through my smartphone. If you’re lucky enough to have a tablet, you can access it there too. Access to notes is informational power!
4. Super Shareable
If you opt into the premium plan, you’ll be able to share notebooks with your team, and everyone will be able to make edits and work on the same notes.
Not ready to shell out for the premium plan? You can do one-way sharing, where others can view your notebooks, but can’t make changes. And you’re always able to share a specific note with a teammate. Just click share at the top of the note, and you can e-mail the note to whomever you please!
Evernote is an incredibly powerful free tool for small businesses. Take multimedia notes, access them everywhere and keep yourself and your business organized. Get started today!
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About Mary Chevalier
Mary is Co-Founder of SalesBlend and works closely with clients to help them use digital marketing to achieve measurable business results. Follow Mary on Twitter @MaryVChevalier.