How a graphic designer uses Highrise to keep his business organized

Eric Miller owns a Brooklyn-based web development and graphic design studio and is also the About.com Graphic Design Guide.

Why do you need Highrise?
I need Highrise to keep my business organized. Post-it notes are great and all, but Highrise allows me to organize everything in one system: contacts, tasks, meetings and project leads.

I like Highrise because it’s simple. There’s just enough there to customize it for my needs and not too much to overwhelm me with “feature noise.”

How do you use Highrise?
I treat Highrise as both a CRM and a project management system. When I get a lead on a new project, I add the contact to Highrise then create a deal and a task, even if I don’t have many details yet. If I seal the deal, I create a case to store all notes, tasks, and related contacts in one place. I use custom categories to keep track of tasks such as website launches, deadlines, meetings and phone calls.

Tell us about a situation where Highrise helped you out.
Highrise is a great tool to use in my writing for about.com. I’ll often think of an article idea and want a place to quickly record it where it won’t get lost. That always goes in the about.com case under the writing category, even if it’s due “later.” This way I can easily scroll through these tasks and decide what to work on next.

Read more on how Eric Miller uses Highrise at our Product Blog