Archive for March, 2009
Five tips for using Project Management in your small business
- Learn common Project Management Terminology – This will allow you to communicate effectively with your contractors, subcontractors and customers. Consistent communication will save your company time and rework.
- Get the low hanging fruit first – There are lots of inconsistent processes in your business. Focus on easy ones first and fix it using project management principles to gain momentum and early wins.
- Keep it simple – You don’t have to use all project management tools and techniques on the very first project you work on. If it is too complicated, no one will follow it.
- Less is more – This is an excellent time for small businesses to make a mark. With power of project management behind your ideas, you can deliver results faster than big businesses, with fewer resources.
- Learn from your mistakes as well as successes – To become successful business owner you have to make lots of mistakes and learn quickly from them. Project Management processes allow you to capture lessons learned during the project. It is important you use that insight gained from one project to use it in the next project. So you don’t keep reinventing the wheel.
Accept you are suffering from information overload
I remember my school days when it was hard to get information on a subject. Information was expensive and information was king. Then came the internet era and Information overload came into our lives. Now, my regular workday starts with checking emails on three separate accounts, checking Facebook and LinkedIn.
In theory, it sounds great to have any information available to me just by clicking and typing few words in my browser. This information was never available to a small business owner before. But what is the point of all this information? Everyone else have access to the same information as well. So where is the competitive advantage? What can we do about it?
First step in solving any problem is accepting that you have a problem.
I know that I am spending a lot of time on unnecessary things and tasks in my daily life. I don’t know the solution yet, but at least I have admitted it is a serious problem for my business and for my daily life. I am opening it for discussion and potential solutions to information overload.
