Whether you own a business or work for someone else’s small business, you know that project management is a task that will often fall into your lap regardless of your job title or level. These tasks are much easier to accomplish with the right tools though. Unfortunately, many tools make you feel as though you need specialized training. With this in mind, here are a few that do not.
Prosperworks is a great option for small to medium-sized businesses that find themselves relying on the use of a lot of Google applications (e.g., Google Docs, Sheets, Gmail, Drive, Calendar) because ProsperWorks design is quite similar, making it easy to use. Tallyfy says that some of the items you’ll find well-designed within this tool’s dashboard include:
- Leads: When you send an email, you can easily add ProsperWorks to all your CC’d contacts simply by syncing your inbox here directly to your Gmail or by including the ProsperWorks email address to your BBC line when you send an email.
- Sales: This platform scrapes contact information from your emails and adds it to its system.
- Activities: You can track various activities such as making, receiving, and logging phone calls. Any notes you need about previous or future calls won’t be lost either. This is because ProsperWorks has a built-in VOIP calling service, so your phone calls are all handled through the CRM. The feature makes things more transparent for everyone involved.
- Notifications: Aside from being told when it’s time to follow up with potential clients, you’ll also receive summaries of how your pipeline is doing and sales forecasts. These are simple reports that you don’t have many filtering options for. However, it’s easily and seamlessly integrated with Google Sheets. This system is very useful since now you can easily track engagement in real-time since the system sends you alerts through email, in-app notifications, and text. You can set these up for something as general as someone mentioning you somewhere to something as complex as reminders regarding assignments you’re working on.
- Communication: There’s a centralized system within which everything is synced. Simply install The Google Chrome extension for Gmail, and it’s even integrated with your inbox. They even offer templates to facilitate repetitive work. These help decrease your leads’ response time while improving your ability to track and measure responses.
With Asana you can stop wasting time shuffling between your email, spreadsheets, and sticky notes when managing your projects. This is because all your team’s work (e.g., goals, calendars, files, notes) is kept in one place, which is why Capterra says it’s the only tool you need for coordinating and tracking your projects. One of the main benefits of Asana though lies in the fact that you’ll no longer need to hold meetings for checking on a project’s status or when a last-minute emergency arises. Now you can spend more time working on the project itself.
Working with your team is effortless. Transparent communication exists throughout every step of your project. All of this is made possible because you’re given a workspace in which you can set up your specific tasks. You can then assign these tasks to individual team members and give them a set deadline too. In doing so, everyone is made aware of what they need to work on and when they need to do so. This is why Asana is great when you need to break large objectives down into bite-size chunks that your team finds easier to handle.
Asana also offers templates so you can quickly add new tasks, create lists for you and your team, create projects that are broken down into subtasks, share boards, and you can even turn a task into a project if necessary. These are all things that your team can comment on too. You can even send email updates to specific teammates who need to be “in the know.” As a manager, you’ll always know what is going on.
The Huffington Post says that the greatest thing about Asana, besides its clean interface, is how easily customizable it is. This is true for even the smallest aspect of this tool. They also mention that the only real drawback is that you can’t assign the same task to multiple people. Overall, this is a great option.
BaseCamp is a project management tool that millions of people trust to keep everything they need for their projects all in one place. This popularity stems from the fact that it has a lot of general features that apply to a wide array of businesses and their employees, which is why so many people are familiar with it. Over 2.5 million people use this tool and converge on the tool’s “discussion boards,” which are one of its top features since it helps cut down on confusing email chains by consolidating team communication in a single place.
This is a tool that most companies will eventually need, and Entrepreneur says it’s the first one they should turn to when they’re ready to move from using email to manage things to a project management tool with a broad array of features that are great for beginners.
With Basecamp you’ll have a central location for company-wide or team communication about each project individually. This is better than using email chains to keep everyone updated regarding tasks because it’s more centralized.
You’ll also have a “To-Do” section through which project managers can assign and track tasks. In addition to this, there’s also a place where you can attach important files for each project you’re working on and a calendar that you can use to schedule meetings and establish deadlines.
These are just three of the many tools that exist today. All of them have their advantages and disadvantages. Since you’re the only one who truly knows what you need from the more tools today, you’ll want to be the one to sort through these tools and decide which one works best for your business. The nice thing is that if you start using one and find that it doesn’t suit your needs, you can easily try a different one. Eventually, you’re bound to find something that’s perfect for you. Good luck!
