One of the biggest questions I get about project management (beyond “What system should I use?” … which we’ll get to, promise) is how to know what to use a project management tool for. After all, so many creative business owners struggle with organizing tasks, clear communication, and boundaries. Sound familiar? Project Management tools can solve all three of those problems for you. Don’t believe me? Take a look!

Organization

Being organized in your business is all about creating workflows. What’s that?

So a workflow is simply how you move from doing to done!

What might be put into a workflow in your own business?

• client onboarding
• monthly retainer client to-dos
• logo design timeline
• packaging and shipping tasks
• blog posting and newsletter sending
• adding new products to your online shop
• scheduling social media posts
• outreach for guest posts and podcast interviews
• client off-boarding/wrap up
• publishing videos to your YouTube channel
• complete website design packages

Get the idea? So a workflow can be built from anything that is repeated over and over in your business. You post a blog every week. You design 3 new logos every month. You update your social media posts every other week. These regular tasks are what go into your project management system.

[Tweet “What’s a workflow? Learn how to easily define them in your creative business.”]

Now I hear you saying, “Val, I know how to do those things without thinking about it. Why go through all of the trouble to write it down and check if off each time?”

Well, pal, even world renowned brain surgeons who perform the same operation daily use a checklist. Yep, the smartest people on the planet use workflows and checklists to make sure they don’t miss a single step.

Sure, you can always go back and fix things if you make a mistake (after all, not inserting a Click to Tweet or Read More button is waaaaaay less stressful than, say, forgetting to sew up someone’s brain), but why use up your precious brain space remembering those things? Let a workflow take care of it for you! In fact, I often wonder if those super-smart brain surgeons are so smart because they’ve freed up valuable brain space by writing down their workflows.

Pre-planned checklists for regular tasks = more brain space for your genius work. And more of your genius work = more revenue in your business. Now that’s a reward worth working toward.

[Tweet “Can creating checklists really make you more money in your creative business? Find out.”]

Clear Communication and Boundaries

So you struggle with keeping your clients on task and getting you the info you need? My first question is: are you using a project management tool?

With a project management tool (like Asana, for example), you can lay out to-dos and checklists for everyone so communication is clear and organized. Remember my client onboarding checklist from last week? Check it out:

Each task there can be assigned to anyone invited to the project. Afraid your clients won’t check into your chosen project management tool? Here’s the trick: if you use it, they will too.

I love what my friend Brittany Becher of Scoop Industries has in her email auto-responder:

 

See that client note? Brittany trains her clients (before they’re even clients, for that matter!) that all of their interactions happen inside Basecamp.

To make things even better, almost every PM tool will allow for email notifications. So if your clients just can’t get out of their inboxes, they can still use email to interact with Basecamp, Asana, Trello, etc.

Clear communication does one other thing (besides keep you from going nuts with multiple ways to stay connected).

Keeping things in one place helps projects run on time and shows everyone what they’re responsible for. You can assign due dates, responsible parties, and even link directly to calendars. If a client misses a deadline for, say, first draft logo design approval, they can see in the system that it’s past due and you can follow up right there.

Of course, no system or tool will actually make someone do the work (that’s called a cattle prod 😉 ), but having a workflow laid out with clear communication is a step in the right direction to saving your sanity one checkbox at a time.

[Tweet “Saving creative business owner’s sanity, one checklist at a time.”]

At this point you’re probably wondering about specific systems and tools for your project management needs. Tomorrow I’ll have an overview of my favorite systems for creative business owners coming your way.

Lastly, I appreciate every one of you who take a moment to pin, tweet, and share with other creative business owners you love. And be sure to follow along on Bloglovin’ every day this month as I share my answers to the top questions I’m asked every single day.