Too often, supplier and client contacts live in private inboxes or someone’s memory. When that person is sick, on holiday, or leaves the company, the whole team scrambles. One missing contact, and ordering slows, projects stall, or opportunities are lost.
This week’s action step: Build a Central Supplier and Contact List.
The goal
No more dependency on one person. Efficient and seamless workflow.
The rules
Chose a CRM-style list or a shared address book (Outlook or Gmail).
Every contact entry should include:
Name, Company, Phone, Email, Role, Notes, Homepage
Preferred ordering process
Emergency out-of-hours contact
Service or product supplied
Price list
(add informations that are important for your business)
Use lists or tags so you can quickly see how many options you have in each category.
How to set it up in one hour
Decide and set up the tool you want to use.
Define the contact categories and the information your team needs to work efficiently.
Set up all criteria fields and test them.
Create one sample contact in each category and record an SOP.
Assign one person to gather all contacts, sort them by category, and import them into the new system.
Make sure everyone on the team knows how to use the system and update it.
Assign one person to be responsible for keeping it clean and current.
Your action for today
Block one hour next week to set up your categories, select your tool, and create your first sample contacts. From there, assign responsibility and roll it out across your team.
Space To Focus is here to give you back your time so you can lead, grow, and enjoy your business. Share your wins and challenges with me, and I will be with you each step toward making your business future and exit ready.
To your success,
Jennifer
Structure That Gives You Space to Focus