OK, I posted this in the General section but someone thought this would be a good posting area too... So here goes:
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OK all you organized people.... I need help!!
Usually I'm a very neat organized person but somehow 4 kids (6Yrs - 18Mo), a house to manage, a part time job, and cakes have done me under.
I saw the wonderful thread on organizing my stuff... OK there... now I need to organize me! If any of you have that one great thing you do that keeps you on track -- PLEASE (PLEASE) Share it!!!
It's mostly regarding your orders, your time, your potential customers...
1 - How do you manage your orders, monthly, individually, by date, name, etc... or it there are any other better ways let me hear them!
2 - How do you keep it all together for showing potential customers your work, your ideas (photos), your recipes, pricing, etc. (I'm working on my price list but it keeps growing as I keep getting more detailed... am I to detailed?)
3 - How do you do your cakes, bake ahead and freeze, is this good or bad, does it change the taste of the cakes? Likewise with regular BC make ahead and freeze ???
4 - ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D CARE TO ADD... These are just a few, top on my list! It doesn't have to be listed above to share!!!
Thank you all... Looking forward to some great tips as I know CC members are famous for!
- Paula
PS -- If you have any on the other stuff like catching me up on my laundry and getting my dishes done, and getting the kids to bed, I'll take those too! Very Happy
My secret weapon -- Flylady!! Read her book "Sink Reflections" and adapt it to any part of your life you need. That's what I do and it's proven to be a great blessing!! Her website is flylady.net. Hope that helps some!! 
I don't sell cakes, but what I do is:
Make BC 3 days ahead (say on a Wed.)
Make the 2 cakes ahead (Thur)
Fill and decorate 1 day ahead (Fri)
Deliver on day 4 (Sat) (or Fri, if time permits)
Quit your part-time job.
Barter cakes for weekly housecleaning.
The older kids can help sort/put away some of the laundry.
Learn to live with several messes. This is not the time to be a clean-freak----especially since it's impossible with so many little ones!
I have those.... I don't even know what they're called. Folders with a bunch of pockets for files and whatnot. I have two of those and they each have 6 pockets, so 1 for every month. I use that for my Wilton Classes I teach so I organize them by month. I just keep my photos in a little photo album but soon I am going to make a Scrapbook instead. my mother has invested in this crazy $400 scrapbook machine so now I have to start making scrapbooks too. lol.
I don't think I would organize my cake orders by month though, I would do them by the week. Then after all the cakes (contracts or whatever) from one week are finished move them to another folder and store them by last name.
Thats what I would do.
And I never freeze anything. I only did once will not so great results. I've heard that people do it, and it works for them. But not for me. If I have a cake due on wednesday this is what i do:
Bake on Monday
Decorate on Tuesday
Final Touches/Deliver on Wednesday
Paula,
Danielle has the right idea; a 3-ring binder. Put photos in 3-hole punched photo pages (I think office supply stores carry them, if not, 'Century Plastics' sells them + the binders). You can slip a 3x5 card behind the photo that tells the cost & customer name. Next, on loose-leaf paper, write your customer's name on the top left side and the cake due date & time on top right side. Underneath, write phone #, directions if delivering, customer's cost, amount of time to complete, # of cups of batter & icing, etc. You can also put copies of calendar pages at the beginning of this section & highlight the cake due dates so you can see at a glance how many you have per month. As Danielle mentioned, it's good to keep the orders in DATE order until they're finished, then file them in alpha order in another notebook (be consistent when writing your customers' names; always write either the first name or last name FIRST). I also agree with her baking, icing & decorating schedule. 
Lots of luck & don't get discouraged. In my opinion, it pays BIG in the end to spend lots of time getting organized. 
Kelleym, as I read through the replies, I was surprised that no one had mentioned CakeBoss yet. It's a wonderful program, everyone should definitely check it out!!!
While we are still Beta Testing, it is FREE for those helping us test! If anyone wants more info on testing, cost, etc, please email me at [email protected], or check out Jackie's thread about CakeBoss in the Announcements forum:
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopic-70241-0-days0-orderasc-.html
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