Organizing your own stuff

I get a little push-back sometimes when I say things like, If it isn't code, do it in-house.

Here's the best way I know to explain it:

Think for a moment about all the things that are in your house right now.

Every drawer, every garage box, every pantry shelf.

Now, imagine hiring someone to take all of your stuff and “organize it better.”

But here’s the catch: you won’t be involved.

You’ll go on a one-week vacation. And while you’re gone, they’ll pull out every little item in every little box and decide on “just the right” place to put it.

Then they’ll leave, and you’ll come back to a “perfectly organized” home! Yay!

Yeah. Not something most folks would want.

Sure, we all wish our stuff was better organized.

And it would be great to have someone else to do the organizing.

But if you're like me, it's hard enough to find things that you yourself have filed away.

If I hired someone else to do it, I'd be spending the next 6 months calling them every day to locate a screwdriver or a nail clipper or a handkerchief.

Still, you could hire a home organizer to help you decide what to keep, what to throw away, and how best to store things based on how you expect to use them.

And you could hire an extra hand or two to help you do the moving of things from one shelf to another.

But the actual organizing of all your stuff? You really need to be closely involved in that.

Here's the thing:

Your CRM data is some of the most important stuff that you own.

And your CRM system is the home where you and that data will live together for a long time.

If you want a home for your constituent data that's easy to use, you can hire help to figure out how to organize it well.

But you probably want to be very hands-on with the process of structuring, editing, and organizing it.

If you possibly can, do it in-house.

All the best,
A.