Running a business can be a bit like juggling. You need the perfect balance of so many things in order to keep all the balls on the air. And as a solopreneur or small business owner, it is usually up to you to keep all the balls moving!
As a certified Project Management Professional, I love all things project management tools. But I especially love Asana because it not only helps you manage your projects, it helps you see all of your responsibilities in a nice, simple list. Or even a kanban board, if that is how your mind works!
The fallacy of business ownership is forgetting that your business is more than just attracting and serving clients. It is also about keeping your business a well-oiled, running machine. Which is why it is important to not only keep on top of your income-producing activities but also the activities that build up your income-producing capabilities.
Everyone has their own way to organize their business, but here are some ways I use Asana to manage my business.
Lead Tracking
The money is in the follow up! If you aren’t following up with your leads, you are leaving money on the table! I use Dubsado for my client management, so I use Zapier to send new Dubsado leads to my Asana. They get assigned to me to follow up with after a week. Most leads book right away, but I keep track of outstanding leads bond set them as recurring tasks to follow up with every two weeks. I usually follow up for two months or until I get a hard no. My bigger projects usually take follow up and considerable conversations, so I always make notes on the task to note that I followed up and any information that may help me close the sale. Keeping track of your leads and having a simple follow up process ensures you increase your close rate – which means more money in your business!
Business “Housekeeping”
I have recurring tasks (check email 3x per day, check in with clients weekly, check in with team members weekly, update finances daily) that remind me to build in time each day to do the things I need to stay on top of my business. It is so easy to get focused on projects and client work that you can forget to do the basics. I build in reminders to check in with clients weekly- even if I don’t have official updates. It helps to remind them that they are important, and also heads off any feelings like I am not working on their projects. It also creates an opportunity to make sure projects are on track and I am following up on requests and so on. I can also see if I am missing opportunities to close out projects that are close to finishing that just get lost in the fires of the week. Happy, attended to clients that get their work closed quickly make fantastic referral sources. It also makes it easier to burn through your to-dos and be more efficient.
Marketing Planning
I build out my content plan months ahead of time but the specifics take a bit more detail. I create each topic as a new task in Asana. Then I type out the copy and assign a date to it. I can even attach the image I want to use for each post. Social media posting programs are ok, but I am in a lot of groups that I need to manually post in. I even tag which groups/outlets the posts are for. This helps me keep on top of posting (my task list shows what to post each day) and I can also plan out launches with posts and emails. The best thing is that I can recycle content since I know the exact day I posted the content so I can set it as a recurring task for six months or a year from now (especially for evergreen content!). Having my marketing planned out and built into my day just makes it automatic. The more I think about all the things I have to do, the more I get overwhelmed and procrastinate. By batching and scheduling my content makes it easier- and easier to delegate to others!
Project Planning
As I am building out new courses and launching courses, I need to break down big projects into meaningful, bite-sized tasks. I also need to assign tasks to different team members or partners and communicate at the task level. Asana is perfect for this. I am able to have my production assistant manage a task and then assign out sub-tasks to different partners, and they can mark their portion of the tasks complete while the main task is still within the responsibility of my production assistant. I liken it to “Russian Dolls” where tasks nest neatly within larger tasks and they build into a whole project. It is a great way to see at a high level how a project is progressing while also being able to drill down to granular levels to see details efficiently.
Team Management
I have worked with quite a few agency owners to set up Asana. It is a great tool to keep track of organizational tasks while also managing contractors and their projects. The great thing is that business owners and internal management can keep track of EVERYTHING in one spot by keeping all tasks in one project in the management team (I call this the “Business Headquarters”) but also tagging that same task in the contractor’s project. This means all the details for a client or project stay with the main task, but they can be tagged in multiple projects to have different views or organizational methods based on what needs to be managed or reported on.
This is all just the tip of the iceberg with Asana, but these are just a few of the ways that Asana can help you manage your business – regardless of what size of business you have. I hope these get you excited for all the possibilities for this amazing business tool.
If you enjoyed this and would like weekly tips and support, join my Grow With Jen list. You will get motivation, tips, and tutorials on how to organize, systemize, and automate your business to make it more effortless to run.
You can find your ticket to a more enjoyable business here: https://mailchi.mp/jenrudd/cwc