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James talks about how we constantly adapt using software for task management.
A podcast helping companies grow with marketing strategies, automation and time-saving tips and creative solutions.
James: Hello, and welcome to another
episode of behind the madness.
I'm your host, James Roberts,
founder, and owner of method.
A growth agency who are hell bent
on unlocking company's potential
through graphic design and branding,
web design and development, digital
marketing, and lead generation and
automation and time-saving techniques.
Today, I'm recording from my kitchen.
Where I'm currently getting the
Lemsips and Berrocca down my throat.
Are we allowed mention brands anyway.
There are others just not as good,
while I combat a cold, so hopefully
my voice sounds okay, and we can
edit out most of the sneezes.
I'm also using a new mic, really excited
about my Yeti by blue designs, and
we're also speeding up our editing by
using a new platform called descript.
Descript is a great little application
that actually allows you to edit your
podcast by removing the transcript.
So removing, pieces of text
that will actually edit your
audio, so go check that out.
What I'll do is I'll add both the
links into the show notes and maybe
we'll do a pod on how we do our pod.
Anyway on with today's topic.
Adapting as a business owner to
the speed of change we live in.
We're a small business.
And as such, we have the ability
to change direction very quickly.
We don't need multiple strategy meetings
to decide what we should be doing.
We can go on a mixture of
gut experience and data.
And with the speed of change due to
the tech advances, since COVID 19, this
has really helped us to stay agile.
We're lucky that we've
always been a remote agency.
So we've already built up good
practices around how to use tech.
Now there has to be a
balance of staff trust.
Along with some big brother, but
how do you find that balance?
Task management systems of which there
are a lot and lots of pros and cons
goes with that can help allowing staff
members to know what they need to do.
And by when gives them the structure
to work If we dive a bit deeper
into task management systems.
Let's look at what they are
and what they should do.
So a task management system is managing
the doing parts of your business.
So what needs to be done for a
customer or a client, and by when.
When we started out, we
used to use base camp.
It was a great little platform for
letting us know what needed to be done
and by when, it was in a checklist
style and it was great, but it didn't
really have the complexities that
we have now within our business.
So since then we've been through
other systems like Wrike, we've tried
monday.com, but we've settled on ClickUp.
Now whichever platform you choose, make
sure it's covering what you need it to do.
For example, we run a number
of different types of jobs.
We could start off with one off jobs a
client wants a brochure or a banner, then
we can scale that up to our retainers.
So these are tasks that we
need to track time against each
month and they recur each month.
But then we could also have projects.
So a bigger project, like a website
build or a marketing campaign,
where a number of different people
need to be told when to do their
own tasks within a bigger project.
But now we need to make sure that the
one-offs hit their deadlines, that could
be a date, could even be a time of day.
But we also need to know where
at any moment in time, how many
hours have been used on a retainer.
And if it's a project, is it on schedule?
What needs to be lined up next?
What should somebody be looking at?
Or what do they need
to do their next task?
We have a lot of complexity
around task management and we
need to be able to oversee all
of this, at any matter of time.
So I need to be able to jump into reports
and understand where a project is, where
a retainer is, or where these single
tasks are and where problems might arise.
Now, one other thing that we
need to consider is allocation.
So take Laura, if she's working on an
exhibition design for a client that needs
to be finished by the end of the week.
Can she also work on a
logo or branding project?
How long is the exhibition going to
take, what exactly is her capacity?
So our system has to be able to understand
this so we can get things scheduled
in and also meet clients expectations.
The worst thing we'd want to say,
is take on something, take on a
deadline from a client and miss that.
Now sometimes what we may do is add a
bit of time in, because we think it might
take longer, And then we'll always try and
beat that or come in before that, but this
is down to us knowing what is scheduled
in and when it's scheduled in for.
So all of this is great.
It's a system that really does
help us manage our tasks and our
jobs and helps us do the doing.
But sometimes there are curve balls,
there are illnesses, there are stress.
Projects take longer than expected and
quoted, and this is where you have to
rely on your team and your staff members
around you to pull out the stops work
together and get that project done.
So we have a flexible task
management solution, which is
really the foundation to the pod.
As we adapt as a business, we
have to make sure the tools that
we have around us can adapt to.
Primarily in this instance,
we're talking about ClickUp.
So our business has changed over the
last two years and we've changed some
of our strategies and even though
these bigger business directional
changes have happened, we've been able
to implement them by using ClickUp.
We've been able to support those
changes through our task management
system, because it has that flexibility.
Take for example, this podcast, I
know it might seem that it's unplanned
unscripted and thrown together, but each
episode forms part of a strategy that may
support other topics being shared across
social media platforms at the same time.
Or maybe an episode is in line
with a trend that is happening
or new product release.
Take the HubSpot CMS starter episode,
for example, this was in line with
HubSpot's own rollout strategy.
So there are a lot of things that
we need to document, log track.
But again, they have a start
and a due date or an end date.
So our task- based system for doing
the doing is also flexible enough
to allow us to do this change.
So our change when we
decided to add the podcast.
Fitted in to the systems
that we were already using.
We had to customize them a little
bit, but we knew we could do that.
So you shouldn't be hampered
by the systems you are using,
that may be stopping you evolve
as a business at the same time.
Now, these could be older systems,
it could be these older systems
are holding you back from growing.
We realized this when
we were using base camp.
It was a great product, everybody
loved it, but we were starting to
bend how we worked into that system.
So moving from base camp in those
early days was a big step, it was
the first time we'd decided to change
from something that we relied on so
heavily every day something that
was strategic to our business.
We knew it wasn't working, and we
couldn't have continued the way we were.
We just wouldn't have been
able to grow as a business.
With any changes like this,
one of the main issues tends to
be around staff and adoption.
Changing to systems some people
love and jump into straight away.
Whereas others don't want to change, they
don't like change, so for them, it's very
difficult to buy into your overall vision.
In these instances, you need to
keep them in the loop early, work
out what they're finding hard.
How can you help them as a business
to make their lives easier?
Once you start there and really understand
what will make a difference to them,
you can start to backtrack into the
reasons you are making the change.
Help them understand that it is for them.
The change is going to help some
of these points that they have.
One last thing, and this is
probably a good way to wrap up
this episode is don't let the
systems you have end up owning you.
I'm pretty sure that's an
adapted fight club quote.
But it basically means work out what
you need to achieve first before
being restricted by your software.
We're all good at thinking about
what we've already got in place
and trying to make the processes
that we have fit into that.
Whereas, what we really want to do is
work out what processes we need to do
and how we need to achieve them, and
then find the software to do that.
I hope you enjoy today's episode,
please leave a review if you did.
If you have any questions, drop me
an email@jamesathellomethod.co.uk.
Also do check out our Instagram
at hello, underscore method aware
Jamie and the team have been doing
an amazing job of creating some fab
content, so do go and check that out.
Lastly hit the subscribe button.
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