Evernote Business brings your teams work together. Create documents, collaborate on projects, and store information all in one place. Teammates can access, edit, upload, and share notes and files from any device-even if theyre offline. Evernote Integration for Confluence. Copy notes from Evernote to Atlassian Confluence pages quickly and easily. CoSchedule is an all-in-one marketing calendar that helps you plan all of your content in a single tool. Go totally paperless by taking pictures of all your documents and then saving them.
I’ve personally used Evernote for years. It’s one of my favorite note-taking apps.
Even with the difficulties they ran into along the way, I’m still a fan.
However.
And it pains me to say this.
I cannot recommend Evernote Business under any circumstance.
The short story: Evernote Business is fine as a basic document tool. And it’ll help you manage workflows, store documents, and keep your team updated like any other basic document tool out there. But it has a fraction of the product depth at a price that’s much higher than all the other tools on the market.
Evernote Business charges way too much for far too little.
Let’s start by going through the core elements that your Evernote Business account revolves around.
Evernote Business Core Elements
Just like the version of Evernote for personal use, everything is built around Notebooks and Notes.
The notes feature lets you create a simple document that you can easily edit and fill with whatever content you want.
Notebooks organize your notes into groups.
Pretty simple.
Evernote Business also gives you access to Spaces which are the main product difference between the Business and personal Evernote plans. They have a few more UI elements that allow you to organize any notes and notebooks into a new group.
Here’s an example for hiring:
There’s a feed at the top, a place to pin critical notes, and a place to organize notes and notebooks in whatever order you want. This gives your team one place to see everything on a given topic or project.
The good news is that all of this is very easy to understand. But that’s also the bad news, it’s too simple.
Other than some basic notes and organization, there’s not a whole lot there. Evernote Business really is just the personal version of Evernote with access for multiple people for all your company notes and notebooks. That means your business will outgrow the power of Evernote Business before long.
And Evernote doesn’t offer anything that can’t be easily replaced by any other document tool out there.
Managing Workflows with Evernote Business
How well does Evernote Business help manage our workflows?
It’s fine. But it’s not great either.
Let’s take that use case of hiring. You could build a whole workflow in Evernote with different notebooks marking stages of your hiring process. Then keep a note for each candidate, moving the candidate’s note through the workbooks as they complete different stages. All of this would be easy for your team to view in an Evernote Space.
Then your team could track and manage candidates within Evernote Business.
I see two problems with this. First, it’s using documents and folders to create a basic workflow. This will work in any document tool out there. So there’s no added benefit from using Evernote.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong about using Evernote Business for managing workflows with basic documents, what’s the point? Use whatever document tool that you already have. G Suite and Office 365 are the main options. And if you’re looking for something more hip and fresh, try Notion or Quip which have both pushed usability in the document space forward. If nothing else, there’s always an old-school wiki like Confluence.
Second, by the time you need a dedicated workflow for something like hiring, you should be looking at real tools for hiring like JazzHR or BambooHR. Basic notebooks aren’t going to cut it at that point.
Evernote also offers an example workflow for managing customer relationships:
That’s a CRM.
If you need a CRM, go get a CRM. Some of the largest and fastest-growing software businesses are CRMs because of how important CRM workflows are to any business. As soon as you can no longer manage your customer relationships with a basic spreadsheet, get a CRM. Most companies completely depend on their CRM for their day-to-day operations, it’s not an area to skimp on.
Trying to build a CRM workflow within Evernote Business would be a waste of your time when you could be setting up a real CRM. Even in the super early days of any business, setting up a real CRM has a lot of advantages.
Whatever workflow you’re trying to manage, you can use any document tool in the early days. Then look for a workflow-specific tool when you outgrow basic documents and folders. Either way, Evernote Business doesn’t offer a compelling solution at either stage. G Suite and Office 365 work just as well and you’re probably already paying for one of them. No reason to double up and pay for Evernote Business too.
Using Evernote as a Knowledge Base
Think of a knowledge base as your company handbook. It’s a collection of all the information that you want to share with employees and make sure they have easy access to.
My knowledge bases usually end up as an organized collection of standard operating procedures (SOPs), postmortems, and overview documents.
One other way to think of knowledge bases: they include all the finished documents that you want to organize.
Like other use cases, Evernote Business is fine as a knowledge base but doesn’t do anything that other tools can’t. I can get all the same functionality by creating a bunch of Google Docs and throwing them into a Google Drive folder. When I want to build a real knowledge base for a company, Confluence is my preferred choice.
Evernote Business runs into the same problem as the workflow management use case. I can use any document tool for the same results in the early days and there are much better options as soon as I want a dedicated tool.
Managing Projects with Evernote
What about managing a standard project?
Does Evernote Business help manage all the notes, brainstorms, drafts, deliverables, and to-dos for a standard project?
It’s the same story here too, Evernote Business does just as well as any standard document tool. And not nearly as well as the dedicated project management tools out there.
Trello, Basecamp, Jira, and Asana all run circles around Evernote Business. And Trello has an amazing free plan so budget won’t limit you here.
For those of you that want to keep the number of tools to a minimum, Notion has much better document and project management features compared to Evernote Business at about half the price.
All of these tools give you a much stronger command of projects by helping you:
- Assign tasks to people
- Keep track of all tasks across a project
- Stay on top of deadlines
- Prioritize tasks
- Communicate updates across the team
- Give everyone constant visibility
Evernote helps you with these items as much as a standard Word document would help. Yes, it’s totally possible to manage projects with a basic Word doc (or Evernote). I know world-class project managers that have managed insanely complicated projects with just sticky notes to prove a point. But why make it harder than it needs to be? I’d rather get a tool that was built specifically for project management.
Collecting Research with Evernote Business
Evernote Business
Notes and research are probably the use cases that Evernote performs best. When doing a ton of research, having a stripped-down tool to collect all your notes does make things faster.
Bootable os x usb. This is the one use case that Evernote out-performs other document products since Evernote is simpler than any other tool on the market.
But it doesn’t improve the research process enough to justify paying $15/month per user. That’s higher than G Suite’s most expensive plan. I also have a hard time justifying an entire line-item in my budget just for note-taking across the team. People have such divergent preferences on note-taking anyway, it’s a fool’s errand trying to get them all using the same tool.
For me, I do all of my business related note-taking and research in Google Docs these days. They’re still streamlined enough that I never find them getting in my way. I don’t see any major cost by using another document tool for note-taking.
Evernote Business Pricing
Evernote Business = Too Expensive for Too Little
Ultimately, nothing in Evernote Business is bad. It’s fine. And for research and note-taking, Evernote does pretty well.
But with a price point of $15/month per user, Evernote Business doesn’t come close to other products on the market. Even G Suite’s most expensive plan is $12.50/month per user. And that includes a full product suite (Docs, Sheets, and Slides), Google Drive storage, company access to Gmail, and a full admin toolset to manage everything. Notion also has a deep product suite starting at $8/month per user. Both include much stronger products at lower prices.
And when part of your business outgrows basic documents, you’ll be better served by getting a dedicated tool for that workflow. Like a full-fledged CRM or project management tool. There’s no reason to stick with Evernote for the long-term or try to customize it too deeply.
Evernote Business simply doesn’t come close to offering the same value to businesses that other products do. Even though I personally love using Evernote for note-taking, I’d never move an entire team to it.
If you’re like most solopreneurs, you don’t have your best ideas when you’re at your computer. Creative ideas for your online business usually come when you least expect them… when you’re shopping, chatting with a friend over coffee, taking a shower, commuting to work, and so on.
And isn’t it infuriating when you later remember that you had a brilliant idea for blogging or marketing your website while running errands, but you just cannot remember the details?
Get into the habit of always recording an idea as soon as you possibly can. Grab it while it’s hot!
Not sure how to organize your business ideas effectively? There are many solutions available to record your ideas on the spot, wherever you are.
One of the most popular is Evernote. It’s an app that combines note taking, scheduling, bookmarking, and other features into a digital notebook you can access from anywhere.
Not only is Evernote available for all imaginable platforms, but notes that you create and collect automatically sync between your devices. Snow leopard server download. Snap a picture on your phone and access it on your computer when you return to the office.
Evernote Pricing
Evernote offers three versions…
- BASIC (free)
- PLUS ($24.99/year)
- PREMIUM ($49.99/year)
The free version should be sufficient for most users. The paid versions allow for more upload space, offline access and several additional functions. You can start out with the free version and upgrade at any time.
To create your free account, sign up here at the Evernote Registration page.
Using Evernote’s Web Interface
While not the most convenient way to create and access your notes, the advantage of the web interface is that it’s available on any computer in any browser connected to the internet. To sign into your account, go here.
In addition to allowing you to create and manage your notes, the web interface also provides links to all other available applications.
Using Evernote’s Windows and Mac Applications
For larger and complex notes that you create while in front of your computer, use the Windows or Mac application. Get the Mac application by searching for Evernote in the App Store. The Windows application is available here.
The Mac and PC applications offer the richest functionality of all the Evernote apps, especially for searching, tagging, and organizing your notes, as well as creating large and complex notes.
This is where you will most likely reap the results of your information sleuthing.
Tag your notes, organize them into notebooks, and search their content. Evernote even indexes text in images, so if you snap a picture of a page of text, it becomes searchable.
To illustrate, I took a photo of my newspaper and searched for a word on the front page. Not only does Evernote find the photo note, it even highlights where on the page the word is used…
Using Evernote’s Browser Extensions
Download Evernote’s Web Clipper as an extension in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. The Web Clipper allows you to quickly create notes while browsing the Web.
Evernote for Smart Phones
An Evernote app is available for iOS and Android devices. Take notes on the go, snap a picture, record a voice memo. Allow your phone to auto-tag the note with your location. Then access it later from your computer.
Let’s say you’re writing a review of a new restaurant that you discovered…
Take a picture of your dish then snap a photo of the menu (the text of which will be digitized by Evernote). Add a few notes and allow your phone to tag the note.
When you return home to write the review, access all that information from the Evernote application.
Evernote Business Templates
Looking for small business organization ideas? Try Evernote’s business templates. There’s a prefab template for just about anything you need for your small business, including (but not limited to):
- Meeting notes
- Interviews
- Sales contracts
- Meeting agendas
- Project overviews
- Project budget planning
- Marketing Plans
Other Options for Adding Notes
Evernote offers more quick and easy options to add a note…
A friend sent you an email that sparked an idea? Forward it to your Evernote email address (you’ll find it in your account settings) with a couple of comments.
You can even send Evernote a Tweet or a text message (SMS) to create a brief note.
Evernote Business Login
Evernote: An Easier Way to Keep Track of Ideas
Use Evernote as the single “bucket” to collect all your notes and ideas, wherever you have them.
Evernote Business Card Scanning
How are you using Evernote? Please share your tips and tricks in the comments.