Project Management Software & Online Survival

I remember “back in the day” when I was just starting to do online stuff.  I would work about 1-2 hours per night between the time of putting my kids to bed and before heading off to bed to watch some bad reality TV shows.  I did everything those days:

• I wrote articles
• Submitted articles to directories
• Designed the website
• Updated the website
• Managed my own PPC campaigns
• Did my own graphics (these were shockingly bad, too!  I used a tool called PictureIt!, which I don’t think exists anymore)
• and Everything else involved in making money online

It was good, but there was not much direction.  In some ways, I think I got lucky with a niche and some the tasks I was doing.  I remember hitting the $1000/month point and feeling pretty good.  But I knew I physically could not do any more.  I was getting sloppy with my tasks and I really needed some help.

I started to outsource my article writing first.  I went to places like Elance and started to hire people.  After about 2 months (and about 8 writers), I found 2 writers that kicked-butt!  We broke away from Elance and they started to work for me on a weekly basis directly.  For nearly THREE years, I worked with these ladies via email.  There *were* deadlines in place and there *were* topic & delivery instructions, but these were derived through about a half-of-a-dozen emails per week.

Sometimes I forgot to pay them.  Sometimes they forgot to send me the article.  It worked, but it was not efficient.

I finally sat down with a strategic last year (2009) while I was going through a “down period” with the business (like many people did).  The one thing that he was *shocked* about was my lack of Project Management software.

Personally, I didn’t think I needed it.  Why should I pay for something that I am already doing.  He directed (more *commanded*) that I go and check out BaseCampHQ and try it out for a month (they offer a free 30-day trial).  To appease him (and try to prove a point that I didn’t need it), I joined and set it up.

The tool seemed basic at first (and I felt that this did everything that I was already doing with email or Google Docs).  I set up a project and added my 2 writers as users to that campaign.  Then I created their writing tasks (like I normally do).

But here is where my eyes were opened:  Our dialog and conversations where starting to take place in the BaseCamp portal (as Messages).  Their questions where getting answered faster and the deadlines set started to send them reminders.  After the first week, I found I spent less time communicating with them, yet I had my deliverables uploaded into the BaseCamp system before the deadline.

Again, I don’t know quite how to explain it, but my management skills started to become streamlined.  I even created a project called “Matt’s Tasks” and started to set up my own To-do’s (which the BaseCamp system held me accountable for).  From this alone, I would estimate that my own working efficiency has increased by at least 25%.

My point here is that having some “formal” organization in the way you manage your online business should almost me a MUST.  I’m disappointed that I never used this early-on.  Sure, you can do this stuff using email and Google Docs like I mentioned above, but you are still trying to manage all of these resources separately.  It is the integration of your project into a single, simple portal like a project management software tool that streamlines the entire process.

I’ve been using BaseCamp now for about a year and love it.  I’m sure there are other tools out their that are similar, but the fact that this is web-based and again, also basic in nature to use, makes it an ideal choice for me to management my online business team as well as my own tasks.

(And remember, you can try BaseCamp for 30-days free.  Click here to learn more…)

cheers…matt

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