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Business Idea #4

About a month ago, I described my last business idea of a Dating 911 phone line.  How cool was that, eh?  Anyone want to give me some friends and family funding?!

Marc and I have had a couple (2) other business ideas that have gone no where, obviously.  I won’t talk about those because he’ll probably kill me.

My fourth business idea could possibly be out there.  If it is, I want it and I need it.  I had lunch with Marc today and he’s pretty sure there must be something along that variation out there somewhere.  Readers, give me a shout if you have any inklings.

Here’s my dilemma.  Tons of family.  Tons of friends.  Tons of business contacts.  I am pretty good (I’d say damn fucking good) at keeping in touch with people.  Whenever I can, I schedule lunches with coworkers and friends who work nearby.  I organize happy hours and dinners.  I invite myself over to people’s places.  Seriously.  “Hey, can we come over some time?  We’ll bring dinner!”  But people slip through the cracks.  I’ve resorted to keeping a spreadsheet of my closest family and friends who I track with green or red coding.  Green means that in some way, I have contacted them or scheduled some time with them.  Red means it’s time to reach out.

I need an application that keeps track of my complete network.  Contacts are assigned descriptors: close family, extended family, close friend, friend, acquaintance.  Based on these descriptors or my own ratings, I get pinged when I haven’t been in touch with someone after a certain threshold passes.  For example, you haven’t talked to your parents in two weeks.  Call mom and dad stat!  I need birthdays and stork landing reminders.  Reminders for when close friends’ progeny celebrate their first birthday.  Stuff like that.  I can no longer keep track.

Another use is tracking my location.  Tonight I’m going to be at the Albatross bar in Berkeley.  I would like to setup an event in this application and the app can query which of my friends are in the area.  After I retrieve those people in my query, I can select those that I want to blast an email to.  “Hey East Bay peeps, going to the Albatross tonight.  Hope to see you there.”

Hanging out with friends should not stress a person out, but it stresses me out.  A friend of mine in San Jose just had a baby.  Not sure when I’m going to get a chance to see her.  Another friend of mine in Sonoma is preggers and I definitely want to find time to hang out with her.  Another friend just starting working at a salon in Russian Hill.  I want to fit her in as well.

Help, I need some technology that will track, coordinate, and help me keep my relationships organized.

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07.27.10

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Krimey

    August 2, 2010 at 2:04 pm

    (sorry, i’m seriously behind on my blog reading…)

    i love this idea. i suspect you can customize ACT to do what you want, but let me know if you find something more on point. great concept!

    Reply
  2. Catherine

    August 4, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    ACT! krimey, you’re genius. i’m going to look into that!

    Reply

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