The 20-minute CRM loop for a one-person business

Five minutes: recover the promises

Open overdue tasks, unanswered customer messages, unpaid invoices, and deals without a next step. Do not begin by cleaning every field. Begin with the commitments whose delay changes someone else’s day.

Close work that is truly finished, reschedule work with a reason, and attach the next action to the relationship it serves.

Ten minutes: move the live work

Review the few opportunities and projects that can materially move this week. Add the smallest useful note after a conversation, update the stage only when reality changed, and connect the document or invoice that proves the next milestone.

• Every active opportunity has one dated next action.
• Every delivery promise has an owner—even when the owner is you.
• Every sent invoice has a due date and a relationship context.

Five minutes: make tomorrow lighter

Capture new contacts, merge obvious duplicates, and write one sentence of context that your future self will understand. Then stop. A solo CRM earns its place by reducing cognitive load, not by creating a second job.