Ideas of organising contacts, network and business cards

[ladelstal 1]

Dear EN users,

I am trying to get organised. And go digital using EN. I need your help and inspiration. Please bear with me, I am not super-savy when it comes to technology and software. 

1. I would like to set up a system to keep all the contacts in my network organised. It is not a fully fledged Customer Relationship Mangement System (CRM) but rather a 'place' where I add all new contacts (name, contact information) and short notes to remind me of where we met and so forth. I want to scan business cards BUT also have a place to list all my contacts in one note, not have each contact as a separate note in a notebook. Any ideas on how to create an overveiw of all contacts.

2. Today I have contacts in a table with 2 columns I have created in EN - One column for name and contact information and one column for some personal notes. A bit tedious. Must be another way.

3. Scan business cards - I have a EN premium account so super-nice to easily to add contacts by simply scanning the business card by taking a photo using EN. In addition to this, I have tried Scannable and CamScanner - Don't really know which of the 3 alternatives is best and if one has an advantage over the other, but the EN version is really simple.  But with the EN scanned business card, how can I add these to the table I mention in 2 so I do not have to write all information?

4. Finding contacts - Some contacts are for one part of my business, others for another part of the business but also for other areas. Can I tag each contact so that if I would like to find all contacts in, for example, a certain country or who work with a particular issue? Or is there another way to easily find all contacts that I might want to connect with at a point in time?

I would love to hear your experience, and how you have managed to organise your contacts. Many thanks, Lotta

 

[DTLow 5,736]

1 hour ago, ladelstal said:

1. BUT also have a place to list all my contacts in one note

It's easy to create the note.  Use the copy links function and paste into the note.  

This can be done in a single pass for your entire set of contacts (Windows/Mac)

>>2. Today I have contacts in a table with 2 columns I have created in EN - One column for name and contact information and one column for some personal notes. A bit tedious. Must be another way.

Separate note(s) for each contact.

>>3. Scan business cards

Evernote function

>>4. Finding contacts

Tags work well with the separate notes

 

[ladelstal 1]

Smart! So if I go with what I have now - a simple table with two columns - I would manually add the information I want to be able to find people and then copy the note link and add to get easy access to the business card I have scanned. Thanks.

Do you know if it is possible to, within that table, add tags or something else to each invidvidual that would enable me to easily access all contacts that I have in a certain category, for example that work with food (and I have 'tagged' or whatever I would have to do to find this category)?

Many thanks, Lotta

[DTLow 5,736]

6 minutes ago, ladelstal said:

Do you know if it is possible to, within that table, add tags

I added to my post.  I would add the tags to the contact note (2), not within the list note.

[ladelstal 1]

That is a great idea. Just tried it and works fine. Super. Many thanks. Lotta

[gazumped 11,664]

Hi.  Depending on how many contacts you're managing,  having them all in one table in one note may be less efficient than having separate notes for each contact.  Within Evernote it's possible to have tags for company,  business,  birthday,  picture(s) - any variables that you want to track;  and it is possible to set up shortcuts to searches for some of those options - like everyone relevant to company X,  or everyone with birthdays in November.  If you simply title your notes for the (single) person they contain,  whether it's photographs business cards or notes related to that person,  you'll be able to see all,  or any part of the complete "record" (spanning several notes) that you have to date on that one person by searching "intitle:<name>" for their name.  If you want to allow for two or more people with similar names,  pick another variable and search -forinstance- for intitle:<name> intitle:<zip> or <city>

The most important thing about Evernote-based systems though,  is to pick something that you're comfortable with,  and can use consistently and quickly.  Try out a few options and see what works best for you!

The second most important thing is:  keep backing up your system (including your database) on a regular basis.  Evernote does provide you with a local copy of the database on any desktop device,  and will have the originals of your data on their server;  however it is your data.  I don't believe in trusting a server in another country with sole charge of my original personal,  precious data.  Evernote haven't failed me in 10 years.  I don't want there to be a first time...