The early days of a self-funded venture are usually rife with examples of creative bootstrapping to maximize resources. Garages are transformed into work spaces. Office furniture is acquired through a combination of opportunistic dumpster dives and rummage sales. For some incredibly determined entrepreneurs the peanut butter and jelly sandwich becomes standard fare in an effort to minimize expenses.
But just because you’re in startup mode doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice on organization and business efficiency when it comes to managing projects. Thanks to a variety of project management applications that are available online you’ve got numerous free options to keep a business on track. Below are three no-cost project management solutions that are growing in popularity among early-stage entrepreneurs.
Google Docs
The spreadsheet, available within Google Docs, is the original and most used project management solution among beginning entrepreneurs. The advantage of working within Google Docs is that you provide yourself and employees located anywhere in the world access to view and edit the same document. As a result, you’re able to monitor the progress of numerous projects in one spot.
The downside of course is that as your business grows spreadsheets will quickly become difficult to manage. If you’re just starting out and only have 1 – 4 employees Google Docs can work as a nice interim solution to track projects, but you’ll want to view this as a temporary bridge only.
Asana
Looking for a more robust / feature rich application than the spreadsheet? Consider checking out Asana, a free web-based project management tool that allows you manage project tasks from anywhere there’s an internet connection. One of the advantages of using Asana is that it allows you to setup different “workspaces” to separate projects. If you’re doing consulting work, you can setup a new workspace per client for improved organization. You can even give clients access to their own workspace, allowing customers to login and see the real-time progress of their project without sending you an email. Cool!
Keep in mind that you will be limited to 30 users per workspace within Asana. But if you’re managing more than 30 employees and customers per project anyway you can probably afford to upgrade to the paid version at that point.
Comindware Task Management
If you’re an avid user of Microsoft Outlook for business communications, check out Comindware Task Management (CTM). Like the other solutions referenced in this article, CTM is a web-based collaborative task management platform that can be used anywhere. The key difference with this tool is that you can integrate the program with Microsoft Outlook to assign tasks and distribute work straight from your inbox. This can end up saving a lot of time since it removes the need to log into an additional program to get things done.
Image by VancouverFilmSchool
