Tech Sunday - Mobile Documents

One of the great things about being a longarm quilter is that I get to work out of my home.  This is also one of the bad things about being being a longarm quilter.   I love not having a commute. I love that I can just walk up stairs for lunch.  I love that I don't have to dress to impress anyone.  I also love that I get to set my own schedule.  When I decided to go into business Matt and I had a discussion about customers and decided that I would meet my customers at a local quilt store.  Have I told you lately how much I love Wish Upon a Quilt?  They are absolutely wonderful and they let me do drop off and pick up at their store.  Love, love love them!

When I am meeting with my customer I do not have my computer or printer.  Yet I need to be able to tell them about when their quilt will be back.   I keep a spreadsheet in a Google Docs that has a list of my customer quilts, when I received them, when they are due, if they are custom or edge to edge so that I can look at it an estimate when I can get my customer's quilt back to them.   I can look at this spreadsheet on my smart phone, iPad, laptop, and desktop.  I can print it and put it on my wall in my studio.  I live and breathe by that spreadsheet and it goes EVERYWHERE with me.  I also put some of this information on a Google Calendar which I can access ANYWHERE.   Mileage tracking is easy because I have a spreadsheet for that as well.    I put my starting mileage in before I leave the garage and put the ending mileage in when I get home.  Then I can easily use the spreadsheet to calculate the mileage for my account at the end of the year.   I don't know how I would live without my smartphone and trust me none of you want to be around me if it goes away.