Starting a business? Then a project management tool is a MUST. Think of a project management tool as a second brain. It should be the central place you store everything you need, do, and utilize to operate your business. 

Want to learn more about getting started with a project management tool? Check out this post.

Why you need a project management tool ASAP for your business

In this post, I’m linking to some examples from my project management tool of choice, which is Trello. These types of projects can just as easily be stored in your project management tool of choice. The way you organize them might vary with the tool, but the principle and idea still remain. 

Project Management

So let’s start with the obvious as it is called a project management tool; after all, you can use it to manage a project within your business. 

When I think of “project management,” I think of one-off or finished and done type projects as opposed to routine things you do to run your business.

This would be projects that are large enough to require multiple steps over several days/weeks. For example, I wouldn’t create a whole project (board) to say update my Facebook profile, but I would if I was rebranding my whole business. 

Project management type uses include:

  • Creating a course
  • A launch plan
  • Developing your website or rebranding
  • Managing client projects (like if you design websites or a graphic design project, anything that requires multiple steps over a set timeline)
  • Migrating your course platform
  • Individual goal mapping

Business Planning + Management

This is broader than a single goal or a single timeline. This would be utilizing your project management tool to run your day-to-day business operations, to help manage your big picture goals and routine tasks. This category includes things like:

  • Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly tasks
  • Client management
  • Tracking of goals and strategic vision
  • Content/editorial calendars

Here are a few examples of this from my business:

How I Use Trello To Keep My 90-Day Plan In Action
How To Organize Your Year Using Trello

Business Operations Documentation + Processes

This category may be part of the above projects/boards. For example, my editorial calendar includes my strategy, plus my process for creating my content. 

There also may be business operations and documentation that don’t necessarily fit into your strategy, and you should have a separate board(s) for those. 

I have a BHG Central Board, and it holds things like links to all my social media profiles, scheduling links, branding info, links to files with important documents. It also links to other boards as needed to act as the central hub for my business. 

Here are some more ideas:

  • Inbox management system
  • Customer service response swipe files
  • CRM
  • Operations video library
  • Template library

Organization of resources, ideas, research, and inspiration

Ever have a brilliant idea, but then can’t find the notebook you jotted it down in? No more! 

Now, this is one category that I do think some project management tools excel at, whereas others it’s harder to organize. Trello and Airtable, in particular, are better at storing database kind of information than Asana or Clickup, it’s easier and more user-friendly to navigate this kind of stored information. 

Types of boards you may want to utilize from this category include:

  • Content Bank
  • Course Hub/Learning Hub
  • Social Media Bank
  • Email Marketing Inspo Bank
  • Facebook Ads Bank
  • Idea Board (do try to start organizing your ideas for quicker recall)-I keep an idea board for my business and then for other ideas for new businesses or non-business related
  • Referral Resources- like VAs or other experts you might refer clients to or one day need yourself

And these different projects/boards can, of course, be interlinked. For example, as part of my weekly planning, I would link to the card on the courses board that I planned on taking that week. And on that card would be any notes as well as links to the course and Facebook group. I would also link to cards on my editorial calendar I need to take action on or to project boards I’m working on. 

Your project management tool should work as a system together and be interconnected to keep your business organized and running smoothly.

Need help finding the right project management tool for you? Take the project management tool quiz to get your match! 👇