How To Save Money Using Project Management Tools?

There are high chances that you are among those high achievers who love to have more money. Moreover, who doesn’t love money?

Competition and decreasing profit margins are forcing businesses to save money or shut shop. No matter what the condition may be, investors and creditors love to see positive numbers.

As a key decision maker, you have to take care of the people who are working with you. You cannot risk disappointing them by failing to save money or delay paying salary or other commitments.

Apart from these essential needs, you may have aspirations as well. Those aspirations should be fulfilled or else you will lose motivation gradually. Having money gives you the freedom to fulfill those aspirations. It gives you an opportunity to enjoy and spend quality time with your friends and family.

Running a business can be hard. It can affect you as well as the people around you. We all deserve a reward for the stress that we go through. All those sleepless nights deserves a proper reward. A little bit of extra money can help you to treat yourself or your family with a vacation. Everybody deserves to feel alive including you.

You may be running your business without realizing that you are using project management practices. Project management practices can be as simple as using a to-do list or using alarms.

Once your business grows, you will need robust project management tools to manage many aspects of your business.

A project is a combination of several tasks. The end goal is to create a product or service or the desired outcome within a certain time frame. It should be completed before a specific deadline.

The goal of any business is to get monetary value for the product or service. The project management tools help you in completing projects as per your client’s specifications. Your client base may consist of a few large clients or several million clients.

Sometimes, your clients do not know what they need. Often they are unable to convey properly. Generally, they convey their desire and ignore their necessity. As a business owner, it is your obligation to understand what is good for them and translate those briefing into tasks. This can help the stakeholders of the project to do tasks without any roadblocks.

There are two ways to have more money: earning more or saving more. Let’s see how project management tools can help you deliver the products or services that your clients will be eager to pay for and you end up with more money in your bank account.

Let’s look at how James and Robert were managing and growing their software consulting business.

1. LEVERAGING TEAMWORK

James and Robert started their freelance career in March. They were getting regular clients. At one point, they were getting more clients than they could handle.

James loved administrating and Robert hated the administrative part of the business. Robert wanted to hire a virtual assistant but James wanted to keep control in his own hands. Due to this conflict of interest, they decided to split their business.

After 6 months, James was running his one-person software consulting business. But, Robert grew his business into a full-fledged software consultancy firm. Robert’s firm was offering end to end solution to clients across the world. Robert was leveraging the skills of his virtual team distributed across the globe.

In this scenario, James was ignoring the importance of teamwork. Robert was well aware of his shortcomings. Robert leveraged the power of teamwork and took the first step in creating a team. He hired a virtual assistant to manage the areas that he was not good at.

2. TIME MANAGEMENT

James was managing his time by himself. James was dedicating more effort in time management than actual work. But, Robert was growing his company. Robert had manpower yet he decided to leverage the power of project management tools. Robert was managing time for himself as well as his team. This inculcated a habit of discipline in his team. The whole team was performing well and it was evident by the revenue growth.

Whereas, James was managing time for himself. He was way too preoccupied in time management than working on a project. But, Robert was using project management tools to manage his time as well as his teammates.

3. PROJECT TRACKING

On Christmas, James and Robert decided to go for a quick lunch together in a Michelin star hotel. They had a lavish meal and a good time recalling memories of their college time. James offered to pay the bill. Robert insisted and took out his American Express Platinum Card to pay the bill.

After paying the bill, they got out of the hotel lobby and strolled back to their home.

Robert: How is your business doing?
James: Nothing new. The business is a bit slow due to Christmas.
Robert: I can understand. Everybody is in a festive mood.
James: How are things going on your side?
Robert: The situation is the same on my side. There are 3 project deliveries in 6 hours. 9 clients are coming on board next week with an average order value of $7500. It is slow compared to the rest of the year.
James: You are aware of every single detail of your business even though you don’t like to organize.
Robert: Don’t worry my friend. I use project management tools. You should also give it a try.

4. SMOOTH COMMUNICATION

In the case of communication, James had an advantage over Robert. James had to communicate with himself and he was good at that. Unfortunately, Robert had to rely on Project Management Tools. He was able to communicate with his growing team. Robert’s team was living across different time zones. Robert was able to communicate with the tools available in Project Management Suite.

5. TASK DELEGATION

James was taking care of the business on his own. James was juggling with his work life and professional life. He was unable to handle the stress of running everything on his own. One day he got a call from Robert.

Robert: Hey man! What’s up?
James: All good. How you have been?
Robert: I am good. I called you to tell that you are coming this weekend for a Skiing trip to Japan with me and my whole team. I will email your tickets in the evening.
James: I appreciate it. But I have pending work that I need to finish by the end of this weekend.
Robert: Are you kidding me? Who works on the weekend?
James: I don’t have an army of employees with me.
Robert: Don’t be a spoiler. I have managed the tasks of my team members and they are always free on weekends. What’s the point of earning if you can’t splurge on yourself? We got one life. Live it.

CONCLUSION

Both James and Robert started their business in identical conditions and opportunities.

You can see that Robert leveraged the power of project management tools. Robert built a much bigger and larger enterprise than James. James was able to run his business but he was self-employed. The only visible difference was the use of Project Management Tools by Robert.

Even though his team was distributed globally, Robert was collaborating with his team. He was taking care of day to day acts of the business through project and task collaboration solutions. Robert’s customers, as well as vendors, were connected. They were working in a seamless environment together in one place. They were able to collaborate at one place rather than running around like a headless chicken.

There is a difference between being busy and actually working. James was busy running his business. But, Robert was working on his business. Robert identified his shortcomings and made the most out of his strengths.

Using the Project Management Tools, Robert was leveraging teamwork, managing time, tracking project, having smooth communication and delegating tasks. All these helped Robert to save more money, grow his income as well as the whole business.

Success is all about resilience and never giving up. Robert identified his unique aspect and focussed on that single positive aspect. Rest all fell into place naturally.

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Originally Published at www.crrux.com