Project Management Tools You Can Use As a Small Business Owner

Project management is surprisingly easy in a small business environment. Yes, there are fewer participants and fewer steps to take. However, large companies frequently employ separate project managers for sales, product development, and marketing. On the other hand, the project manager for a small organization is typically responsible for managing several different departments. Finding project management software that can assist you in maximizing output while balancing everything else on your plate is crucial.

Best Project Management Software for Small Businesses with the Most Extensive Free Plan

1.     Trello

Trello is an easy-to-use visual project management tool that uses Kanban boards. Also, Trello doesn't have the same learning curve as most project management software because its simple, drag-and-drop user interface enables your team to get started immediately.

Create a new board by starting from scratch or selecting a template from hundreds of choices in marketing, sales, design, team management, and other areas. Each Kanban board can be configured to mirror the backlog, in-progress, and completed lists seen in the conventional agile format. Alternatively, you may utilize your imagination and turn the boards into tools for collaboration or ideation, where team ideas are collected, categorized, and approved as necessary. Cards (i.e., tasks) can have custom fields, labels, attachments, comments, and more in addition to checklists and due dates.

Simply drag the task cards to the relevant list when you finish them. From the activity menu, you may keep track of all remarks and tasks that refer to you or that you are observing.

Trello also provides one of the best free plans available, with ten boards, unlimited users, tasks, and Power-Ups, as well as 250 Butler automation command runs each month.

2.     Paymo

Paymo is a fantastic alternative if you require a project management system to manage projects, invoices, and billing for numerous clients.

Projects are set up per client in a billing-centric manner, and you can choose whether to bill for the project using hourly rates or a flat fee (or not at all). You can track the time spent on each work and project because a timer is integrated into the user interface. Paymo will automatically generate the invoice based on that data.

Each project contains the tasks and subtasks that are related to it, and there are five different ways to see the work: list, table, Kanban board, Gantt chart, or calendar. Additionally, you may utilize Paymo's filter to arrange all of your tasks by status, due dates, priorities, and other criteria for each client and project. You may chat with coworkers, monitor timesheets, and preserve all project-related data within each project.

Paymo stands out as an economical but capable alternative to manage task lists for numerous team members if the majority of your projects are services for clients that call for billing and invoicing.

3.     Wrike

You will inevitably continue to manage a portion of your projects via email, regardless of how capable your project management app is. This is made really easy with a built-in email connector that enables you to link your inbox activity to Wrike.

This email integration is unique compared to the Gmail or Outlook connectors in the app directory. Instead, you just need to add and validate one or more "from" email addresses because this native email integration is already configured within your profile. Any email sent from one of those accounts with the subject line "wrike@wrike.com" will instantly appear in Wrike.

Using email, you can use Wrike to create new tasks, assign tasks, add attachments, schedule tasks, update task statuses, set task priorities, add comments, and add functions to one or more subfolders.

You can get a lot done without ever leaving your inbox, but ultimately you'll check in to Wrike and manage projects from there. The design of projects in Wrike initially resembles that of Asana. Wrike offers more organized flexibility, allowing you to tailor (and standardize) what information is an essential part of each work.

4.     Nifty

Give Nifty a try if you're searching for a straightforward project management program that is anything but basic. To be fair, the software doesn't scrimp on features; it includes a ton of user permissions and controls, customized views, and even time monitoring. But the fact that Nifty's project management just works is what sets it apart.

You may start working on projects immediately, thanks to the abundance of project templates available across various departments and use cases. The streamlined project dashboard is among the most helpful I observed, offering everyone a high-level view of the project outline, members, and recent activity. (Alternatively, you can import projects and tasks from your current project management platform.) For further information on project milestones, timing, and percentage completion, click Roadmap (to the right of the Dashboard tab).

The clean and practical Kanban, list, calendar, swimlane, timeline, and roadmap views are switchable in the top-right corner of the Task tab, and you can choose one as the default view for each project in the settings.

The communication and collaboration tools in Nifty are yet another feature I adore. They made it simple to keep all conversations regarding a project or job together. Team members can discuss individual tasks and the project as a whole in Discussions rather than going to Slack or email.

Which small business project management software should you choose?

As you choose a project management app, ask yourself a few questions: Do you value structure more than flexibility? Do your initiatives require specific metrics? What kinds of project-related data must you keep on hand?

Every app on this list has a free trial version so that you can try it out. We advise you to choose and try the option that best fits your needs. Go on to the next tool if it doesn't work for you.

Just keep in mind that the greatest approach is the one that provides you with the framework and psychological support you need to complete your tasks quickly and with high-quality results.

7 Tools I Use In My Business

Owning an online business is a lot of work! If you’re an online business owner, you wear many hats: tech support, customer service, social media manager, copywriter, editor, business strategist, financial analyst.

It’s a never-ending list.

With limited resources and personnel to complete your unending to-do list, it’s essential to manage business operations to maximize your efficiency strategically. Often this includes embracing technology that allows us to automate systems and set them up to work for us while we’re working on other areas of our business.

This post is a compilation of my favorite business tools that I use to manage and streamline operations in my business.

This post contains affiliate links through which Skyrocket Virtual Solutions may earn a small commission if you choose to purchase, at no additional cost to you. We only share products or services we personally use and love!

7 Business Tools I Love To Use In My Online Business

Canva

Canva is where I create all of my social media content for myself. I’m no graphic designer. Canva is perfect when I create my graphics for Instagram and Pinterest. I also use it to create my freebies, workbooks, and ebooks.

You Might Also Like: How To Use Canva For Your Online Business

Google Drive

I love Google Drive. I store everything in Google Drive. All of my blog posts, client notes, anything I write, I start in Google Drive. What I love the most about Google is that it is entirely online, which means I can take it with me anywhere. If you don’t want to purchase Microsoft Word, Google is the perfect alternate.

Wave

Wave is an app I use to invoice clients if I am a subcontractor. It allows me to track the invoices I’ve sent, when they pay and when they are unpaid. It’s straightforward to use, and it will enable me to duplicate previous invoices easily. It saves me so much time. I can create an invoice for a client in less than 5 minutes, send it off, and get paid in less than five days!

Dubsado

Dubsado is a website that I also like to use for invoicing, but it is a WHOLE LOT MORE! Dubsado is the leading tech I use for my business. I do everything with Dubsado. Proposals, contracts, invoices. It also serves as a CRM, and I store my information about my clients and my leads. Dubsado is not cheap. However, if you want to try it out, you can use it for your first three clients/contacts for free to see how it works. When you enter your fourth client, you are charged. Click on this link, use my code, which will give you a 20% discount on your first year.

You Might Also Like: How To Use Dubsado For Your Business

Tailwind

Tailwind is my bread and butter when it comes to scheduling for my Pinterest management clients. Pinterest allows you to schedule pins, join Tailwind tribes, and use their smart loop. The best thing about Tailwind is that it saves you time! Depending on the plan you choose, you can schedule anywhere from 100 to unlimited pins on Tailwind. If you want to read more about Tailwind, check out this blog post I wrote about it. If you want a free trial of Tailwind that allows you to schedule up to 100 pins for free, you can click this link here. The basic account is less than $15.00 per month.

You Might Also Like: How To Use Tailwind With Pinterest

Buffer

Buffer is similar to other social media schedulers like Planoly and Later. They all work in the same way, but I enjoy using Buffer and find it easy to use. The free version allows you to publish to schedule up to 10 posts to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Grammarly

Grammarly is a useful tool for checking your writing, especially if you’re not confident with your grammar or spelling. It is a great tool to check your website, email, and blog content before you publish it to the world. It is effortless to use, and if you also do a lot of writing for your clients, you can use it for that as well. Grammarly is free to use, but if you use the paid version, you have access to their plagiarism tool as well.

Final Thoughts About My Favorite Business Tools

As you can see, you don’t need to spend a ton of money on managing your business operations if you are starting.

This post is proof that you can start your online business with a limited amount of money and still have everything you need to run your business effectively and efficiently.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to drop them in the comments below.