[Bruck]

I'm a Grad student just about to finish up my MBA. I am going to try out my shot at a self sufficient consultant. I am in search of software that will allow me to catalog, plan, organize, and tally in certain ways - my "business"

I don't quite need quickbooks (my mom is a bookkeeper for hire/consultant and will be doing my "books") I'll probably allow her to do my invoices as well - but I'm going to need some client management software for myself.

For instance...

I got a new client inquiry today - they are interested in business organization consulting.... but other clients will be coming to me for photography work.


Does anyone do this - or should I delete this post and start designing software too?

[Big Mac]

There is time management billing software out there for the Mac. An app was recently reviewed positively, but I don't recall the name of it right now.

[-Q-]

Sounds like you'll have to spend some time with your mom quantifying the hourly rate (or however you're charging) for your various services and setting each up as a billable item in your QuickBooks.

From a CRM perspective, you can do some basic things with Entourage, but you'll most likely want to use something more robust like Now Up-to-date and Contact or an online service like SalesForce.com. Apple has links to quite a bit of software here: Apple - Downloads - Mac OS X - Business & Finance

[peeb]

Well, frankly, photography and business organizing are pretty different fields, with pretty different workflow needs. While you might want some basic billing software (although depending on how many different clients you need, a basic spreadsheet might work) that's probably about all that you will have in common on those two tasks.
I have two-three clients per year, and just use Excel, Word and Address Book.

[Bruck]

thanks, but i think they will have more in common.

1) Client Management (name,contact info, records of communication, indexing of emails?)
2) Scheduling (independant calendar management - maybe with a way to sync it into ical as "work calendar")
3) Keeping track of hours performed - general calculation of expected billing amounts
4) Did they pay yet?
5) Competion level of job - they may be different processes, but they can have similarly labeled stage gate type models of progress tracking
6) Time management, how many hours per day i will need to work on job during it's task

Maybe the specifics are different, but I'm thinking the organization of it will be handled in very similar ways.

thanks for your insights so far

[Peter]

check out soho or daylite.

[peeb]

Well, maybe. I guess it depends on how many clients. I do all of that on spreadsheets, but then, I have only three- four clients, and I tend to work whole or half days at a time, not really billing by the hour.