Yes, I'm a geek and I use Calc for the grocery list. My list has food items, aisle numbers, and quantities. Before each weekly trip I sort alphabetically by item and mark what I want. When I'm done I sort by aisle and print the list. It's quick, easy, and simple. It also saves me, at least, 40 minutes a week, as opposed to trudging through the store with a handwritten list. Oddly, I've spotted lots of men diligently going over their printed spreadsheets, while women typically fly down the aisles with their handwritten lists. I don't know how they do it.

How does this silly and simplistic example relate to your business, you ask?

First of all it's a perfect application of technology to get a job done. The setup was minimal, maintenence is minimal, and, if you save your list every week, there is valuable data that could be extracted to evaluate buying habits. No, I'm not that far gone... yet. It is also uncomplicated and didn't cost much, because it's Open Source and is right there on my Linux laptop. It's the essence of getting things done in a small organization, while saving time (read: money).

OpenOffice.org Calc can help your business, the same way and more. Here are some ideas.

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