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Let’s face it, running a small business is an uphill task. You have to be very intentional about how you handle your business operations in order to get a desirable outcome. You will be a Jack of all trades. Juggling working on devising brilliant business strategies, communicating with your clients, organising your employees, and delegating work while simultaneously responding to hundreds of important emails!
Project management is the lifeline of every company. No successful business, small or big, runs without planning, delegation of tasks, and monitoring of set and achieved goals, through the use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Successfully managing your project and clients doesn’t have to be stressful. It is as simple as putting the right systems in place to keep track of your progress and activities.
An online project management tool will help you overcome these challenges. The only problem is that there are thousands of fish in the sea. Sorting through all the options out there can be quite overwhelming. This is where ADX Virtual comes in; we do the work for you.
So let’s take a look at our front runners in matters of project management here at ADX Virtual.
Our personal favourite is BaseCamp. They claim to be “The All-In-One Toolkit for Working Remotely” and we couldn’t agree more! It is our primary project management tool. We enjoy its ease of use and detailed workflow. It also allows you to integrate your Google Calendar there and the events will be seamlessly transferred to Basecamp. It allows for real-time communication. Immediately after someone responds, an email is sent to the entire team.
Also, if you have clients, you can add them to Basecamp. They can monitor how you are working on their projects and be able to exchange feedback with them. Not many other project management tools have this function to give clients access. You can also put daily check-ins in Basecamp, and share files and documents. This helps to just keep your team in check and make sure they are staying on top of their tasks. You can also manage your team on the go as it comes with a mobile app as well. It is a very resourceful tool for managing a remote team. Some of the downsides however include:
Limited Project Views: In terms of project management tools, Basecamp is basically a powerful to-do list for task management
Can’t Prioritise Tasks: Aside from changing the due dates, there’s no way to assign priority levels to tasks.
Only Supports Basic Projects: Basecamp’s to-do lists, calendars, and team communication tools are perfect for small, linear projects. But for complex projects and agile project management, Basecamp might be a bit limiting.
The pros outweigh the cons! If you're looking for a cheap but valuable project management tool, we would totally recommend Basecamp. When starting your business we suggest using Basecamp Personal. It's limited to just the important features, but it's free. It allows you to have 3 projects, 20 users, and 1GB of storage. We use this free version but you can check out their pricing options here. It is free for teachers and students and offers 10% off for nonprofits and charity organisations.
Asana is another project management tool your business can use. Asana organises work so teams know what to do, why it matters, and how to get it done. It lets everybody know what the others are working on. It is also very clear and allows for integrations of tons of other tools e.g Google Calendar, Okta, Gmail, Microsoft Teams, Zapier, Outlook, etc. With Asana, users can view projects and manage tasks in several different ways, including Kanban boards, lists, calendars, portfolios, workloads, and timelines. Additionally, it makes it super easy to automate processes, repetitive tasks, and workflows that cross over into your other business tools. It also supports agile project management. It has clear project views and allows for collaboration among team members. Its free version has very rich features, unlike other project management tools. Asana doesn’t hold back, its free plan supports unlimited teams, projects, messaging, activity logs, file storage, multiple project views, and more.
What are the drawbacks?
Limited Mobile App: Asana offers a free iOS and Android mobile app at every plan level. While the app is generally fine, it can be tough to use.
Can’t Assign Tasks to Multiple Users: Asana doesn’t allow tasks to be assigned to more than one user. In theory, this is designed to make it clear exactly who is responsible for a particular task.
Email Clutter: Many Asana users complain about the number of emails they get from Asana with notifications. Ultimately, you’ll have full control over your notification settings. So you can change that at any time. But it can be a bit annoying at first!
You can check out Asana’s pricing options here.
Click Up is another project management tool that we can say has an edge over some of its competitors. This is because you can register an unlimited number of users on all plans and also ClickUp’s modularity for rich customization (deep modularity), fits many business models.
It offers 1,000+ integrations to easily import and sync so you can manage your projects in one place. You get access to multiple features and a pleasing range of templates. It’s suitable for both teams and individuals. The Click Up website is user-friendly and easy to navigate.
Like all the others, Click Up also has some stumbling blocks:
The Free Plan offers a limited amount of storage and goal-setting options
Only fee-paying customers get reporting, cloud storage, and Gantt Charts
While complete customization is an advantage; it is a double-edged sword. Users have to customise a lot to enjoy the full benefits of ClickUp.
They have a free forever plan that offers limited features but is still very comprehensive and efficient for small businesses. You can check out Click Up’s pricing options here.
At ADX Virtual, we understand that project management techniques need to be scaled to fit the benefit-to-cost ratio for every business. Partner with us today and we will advise you on what project management tools and techniques are best suited for your brand, and manage your projects for you.
