Small businesses, entrepreneurs, and freelancers can’t afford to be disorganized. In order to grow a business from the ground-up, there is no time or money for time or clients lost to disorganization.

We’ve all been there. When I first began searching for project management systems, I was completely overwhelmed. The software seemed bloated, expensive, and more complicated than I needed or wanted to deal with.

However, after a good bit of trial and error, we found 2 project management systems that are perfect for managing 2 different types of projects. Both are from refreshing web 2.0 technology company 37 Signals and are simple, intuitive and affordable.

The Challenge: Multiple Projects, Multiple Project Members

The Unlimited Web Solutions team had the challenge of managing upward of 20 projects at a time, handled by as many as 8 different people. The problem was that emails would get lost between the client and all the different people who needed the information, causing bottlenecks that could lead to missed deadlines, unanswered emails, and plain and simple mass confusion.

The solution

Basecamp proved to be the ideal solution. Now everyone can communicate in one place on the Basecamp system and receive emails when updates are made. Now we never lose documents, images, or communication because they are all in one central location.

Cost:

• $24 a month for 15 active projects
• $49 a month for 35 active projects
• $99 a month for 100 active projects
• $149 a month for unlimited projects

With any of these, there is no limit to the number of people that can communicate within the projects

The Challenge: Multiple Clients, One or Two Contacts

My personal dilemma was managing the assignments for the 50+ companies that I write for. I didn’t really need the full features of Basecamp because my problem wasn’t communicating with lots of different people; it was keeping on top of all of those different assignments. I did need to share the project info with one or two freelancers, but not with the clients themselves.

The solution:

Backpack, another 37 Signals project was the resource for me. With Backpack, I can create multiple project “pages,” each that include checklists, notes, file uploads, images and more. Like with Basecamp, there is a shared calendar feature to keep everyone and every project on track.

Cost:

• Free – 5 projects
• $5 per month – 25 projects
• $9 per month – 100 projects
• $14 per month – 1000 projects

Hopefully these can help you make your business more effective. They’ve certainly worked for us!

Tags: General Business Issues //