I’m probably the last (Apple) person to upgrade to 10.5, but I have finally come around.

This was my Saturday afternoon as I stayed indoors with friends and watched Fresno State in the College World Series (CWS).

The upgrade from 10.4.x to 10.5 took a while, but in the end, I couldn’t have asked for a smoother transition. Everything worked as it should have. If it hadn’t, I was gonna be tore up from the floor up.

Next up, Snow Leopard.

Is your CRM, MIA?

According to a recent CRM (Customer Relationship Management) magazine article:

“Despite a wealth of information on the topic and no shortage of professional services to ease the way, many businesses continue to struggle with adopting and using CRM capabilities.”

Regardless of the size of your digital content business you have to start thinking about a relationship management system if you haven’t already begun to do so.

It doesn’t have to be elaborate at first. In fact, start small with a simple yet powerful contact management app. I’ll talk about what works for me a little later.

CRM + Networking = More business

I would argue that customer relationship management and nurturing your network should go hand in hand.

If you’ve gone through the expense of gaining and wowing a new client (and gaining a new client is both a huge expense in time and marketing capital) you must have a system in place to manage this new relationship or face the possibility of having to spend the same amount of time, energy and marketing dollars getting that client back.

Definition

I realize the acronym CRM can mean a lot of things to different people. Even Customer Relationship Management can take on plenty of individual meanings.

Quite simply, CRM means to me taking care of every single professional relationship, period.

CRM magazine defines Customer Relationship Management as a “business strategy designed to reduce costs and increase profitability by solidifying customer loyalty.” What independent creative professional doesn’t want need that?

Companies spend millions streamlining their systems:

Story posted: February 11, 2008 - 1:19 pm EDT

Banbury, England—FranklinCovey, a productivity tools and training company, announced its PlanPlus Online planning and CRM application is now compatible with smartphones with a Web browser, including iPhones, BlackBerrys and Palm PDAs. The mobile application, developed jointly by FranklinCovey and COMPLETExRM, a Web-based CRM company, includes sales management and CRM features, as well as team scheduling capabilities.

Like I wrote earlier, your system doesn’t need to be huge, elaborate or expensive. Start small, but at least get it started.

Step one: a contact management app

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