These Platforms Can Boost Small Business Team Productivity

From the moment you say “I do” to owning a business, you’ve made a lengthy commitment that makes many demands. Each day, you’ll need to attend to sales, marketing, and administrative duties, and with so much on your task list, finding the best tools to stay focused should become a top priority. You might have the luxury of hiring employees to fill important roles and help your company grow. Or you might also be a one-person shop, dauntlessly running the show alone. Whether you lead a team or fly solo, check out these three productivity platforms that help keep the daily details under control.

Asana

Asana keeps your projects on point and allows teams members and other stakeholders to work under one umbrella. The slick task management function lets you and your employees easily create a “to do” list and organize those duties into sub-tasks. The more-detailed sub-tasks can be individually assigned, clearly defining who needs to do what, and when. Conversations surrounding each parent- or sub-task can be started and maintained to assure that any questions or constructive comments can be viewed at a glance on designated team pages.

As a business owner, you may want to get a high-level or more granular view of what’s on your agenda at any given time. Asana provides you with a customizable calendar or dashboard snapshot, which can be quickly accessed from the sidebar, progress tab or dropdown menu. The “My Tasks” feature zeroes in on what you should be working on today and what tasks lie in the near future.

Trello

For small business functionality, Trello gathers all your interested parties in one virtual room on its project board. Sales reps can customize the board to reflect what stage of the game a lead might be at. As each phase of the sales process is completed, customized cards can be moved from one status to another. You or a manager can follow leads from the point of initial contact all the way through to delivery of your product or service. 

Trello aims to keep you more productive by offering “Pro Tips”, a concise tutorial that covers topics such as keyboard shortcuts, importing, and creating new cards from your email inbox. You can simply forward a message from Gmail or Outlook to your Trello email address and a new card is automatically designed and stored for project integration or reference.

Basecamp

So much of a project management platform’s usefulness can be determined by how well it gets along with others. Basecamp runs via a web browser but local apps are also available for PC, Mac, Android, and iOS.  The collaboration software seamlessly integrates with other business utility apps through Zapier, which assists you in automating certain tasks without the need for a developer. Mesh Basecamp with Quickbooks, for instance, to track invoices or manage payroll from one spot.

Often, meetings don’t fit into your team’s calendars but you need to get multiple status updates. Basecamp’s automated check-ins can be scheduled at regular intervals so you can get caught up on sales negotiations or competitive intelligence. With a few clicks, this feature gets you a regular feel for the state of the business and the engagement level of your employees.

Wrapping It Up

If anyone told you running a company would be easy, they lied. Don’t hold it against them. If they’ve been in your shoes and succeeded, they too understand that the rewards justify the hard work. You can always toil a little less and produce a lot more by using any one of Asana, Trello or Basecamp.

Author: Thom Tracy

Thom Tracy, a 25-year veteran of the financial consulting and insurance industry, finally figured out that he liked writing about stocks and bonds more than he liked selling them. He regularly publishes pieces on basic investing, real estate, career advice, and small business. If he could do it all over again, the money he spent remodeling his kitchen in 1997 would have been plunked down on Amazon stock and you wouldn’t be reading this right now. Buy and hold, folks. You can find Thom on Twitter or pay a visit to his website.

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