If you’re building a business right now you either have a team or are going to need one in the very near future. There used to be a time when everyone who worked in your business had to work in the same place and at the same time. But today, technology makes it possible for you to have team members all across the globe working together.
Here at Better Than Success its a little bit of a mash up. For the most part, everyone comes into the office and works a pretty regular schedule, and most of that time overlaps during regular business hours. But some of the people on our team do come in a little earlier, some of them come in later, and a few of them work remotely.
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As with any team there are times when things come up. Someone may get sick, have an emergency, or need to travel to visit a client. Also, because of the nature of our work at Better Than Success and our parent company Lidyr Creative, we are rarely face to face with our clients. Most of the communication that we have with them happens over email or file sharing applications.
We learned a long time ago that if we were going to successfully manage all of our clients’ requests and information we were going to need a central location where everything could be stored and also accessed remotely. We also needed tools to help track and manage tasks and projects, even when team members were out of the office or across the globe.
Even if all of your team members work within a few feet of you, having a project management system and client management system will drastically improve the quality of the work you do, your relationships with your clients, and lower your stress level— because you’ll have a clear view of what needs to be done and when.
So I wanted to share with you some resources for team management and project management. These resources are great whether you’re a new entrepreneur with just a part time virtual assistant, or a little bit more experienced and have a full team.
1. Asana
Asana is a project management system that allows you to assign tasks and even schedule due dates. It also has conversations functionality and connects with your Dropbox account so you can link necessary files directly to the project or task. You can keep track of various projects by following them and even configure the platform to send you notifications to your phone.
2. Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud based storage system, but the awesome thing about Dropbox Pro Plans is that you can license your business’ account and give remote access to several users. This is great if you have staff that is out of the office or that may be working from home. They will be able to access all of the files necessary to complete their tasks. And added bonus to using Dropbox with Asana is that the two sync up and you’re able to connect the tasks with the files needed to complete them.
3. Buffer
Buffer is a great tool if you will have multiple team members managing your social media accounts. The app allows you to see who’s doing what, allow people to make contributions that are not automatically scheduled but need to be approved, and keep track of all the content that’s being shared in Buffer’s library.
4. Google Docs
If you and your team are collaborating on documents, for example editing them or making updates or creating them together, Google Docs is a great app that will allow everyone to contribute in real time from their respective locations. This free application is included with your gmail account and if your plan on using it extensively for your business you can upgrade to Google Docs for Business.
5. Zoom
Zoom is a video conferencing and meeting platform. Using Zoom, you can host virtual meetings with your team or clients to discuss projects, tasks and more. This is especially useful for teams who have team members that work remotely or an entire virtual team. Users can also join via an app on their mobile devices or by calling in. You also have the ability to record the calls so that you can go back and reference them later.
If you’re focusing on building your business you know the importance of a strong team. And strong teams are built on effective communication and task management. Even if you haven’t gotten started with building your team yet, start to incorporate these tools into your project and task management system and it will save you lots of time and confusion in the long run.
