"A Small Business Made to Seem Bigger" is a NY Times article that discusses people who run a business alone but want it to appear bigger than it really is — as if it has teams of employees and lots of resources. One of the article's subjects, Peter Sorgenfrei (below), uses Highrise to keep track of his email.
Peter Sorgenfrei, founder of a product development consulting firm, Sorgenfrei L.L.C in New York, uses a Web application called Highrise to keep track of his e-mail, so he knows when he last communicated with a client and what was said. Whenever Mr. Sorgenfrei sends an e-mail, a blind copy of the message is sent to his Highrise account, where it is archived. “I come across as completely buttoned-up and in-control,” he said, “because I have all the information, files and discussions in one place and can access them before talking to the client.” Recently, when an automotive manufacturer he works with couldn’t find some legal documents it had sent him, Mr. Sorgenfrei located them in his Highrise archive. It took him just minutes to send the documents back to the client.
Read the full piece or learn more about Highrise's email dropbox.
Sorgenfrei's use of Highrise and ShoeBoxed
Sorgenfrei also discussed Highrise at his blog, in the post "Tools of the trade: How to be a successful solopreneur."
Highrise: A customer relationship management platform from 37signals in Chicago. In addition to functioning as an address book, Highrise allows me to list tasks, assign tasks to project colleagues, and track deals and ‘cases’ for things I am working on. But the real genius of Highrise lies in the tracking of conversations. I have an email address from the system that I bcc every time I email a client or a potential client. If the addressee is not already in Highrise’s address book, the system creates an entry. The genius part is that it then saves the content of the email, including attached files, so that I can always check on past conversations before emailing again or before making a phone call or entering a meeting. That way, clients see that I am completely on top of their business, even when I’m handling 10 projects at any given time.
And he talks about using ShoeBoxed to get contact info from business cards into Highrise.
ShoeBoxed: Instead of having to enter receipts and business card information manually in FreshBooks and Highrise (see both above), I send an envelope with all my collected receipts and business cards to ShoeBoxed. The crew at ShoeBoxed then scans and verifies the information and provides me with an online record that my accounting program and contact manager can import. ShoeBoxed keeps me organized for tax season and ensures that I always have phone numbers and addresses with me when I’m running to meet a potential client.
Read more about the tools Sorgenfrei uses.
Sorgenfrei L.L.C home page.
