The benefits of project management software for small businesses are manifold. Without the mammoth budgets, extensive visibility, and endless resources, there’s pressure to make every process as efficient and effective as possible.
In this constant battle for time and resources, there’s no greater tool in the small business owner’s toolbox than project management software. Whether you’re leading a dynamic team of 10 or 50+, the benefits of project management software are clear.
These tools make project planning, resource management, and successful project execution far easier. Here are the 7 biggest advantages of project management software for small businesses and how you can be sure you’re getting the most out of it.
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7 Key Benefits of Project Management Software for Small Businesses
- Turn core objectives into clear, actionable task lists
- Manage time and resources at multiple levels
- Standardize workflows with templates and forms
- Save thousands of hours with task automation
- Give meaningful context to conversations and documentation
- Track progress and dependencies and spot bottlenecks early on
- Make truly data-driven decisions
1. Turn Core Objectives Into Actionable Tasks
Task management is an essential part of the best project management software. It allows you to split any project or objective, no matter how complicated, into smaller, easier pieces.
Individual tasks can then be assigned to the most appropriate team member. Plus, you can set deadlines, add essential instructions, and ensure your team has all the details and tools they need.
This allows the project to move forward in an organized way. A project management tool also helps prevent common headaches like “scope creep,” which can quickly throw a project off track.
Pro tip: Many project management tools allow you to create multiple levels of subtasks. This is useful in some cases—but be careful of going “too deep” into layers of subtasks.
It’s a particularly insidious form of micromanagement that many project managers fall prey to. You inevitably lose visibility with each additional layer, which opens up your project to scope creep.
Instead, break projects or objectives down into a single set of subtasks, then focus on providing context and resources for the assignee to complete the job on their own.
2. Manage Time and Resources at Multiple Levels
For small businesses, resource and time management is critical because tight budgets mean even a few extra hours worked each week can significantly affect profit margins.
That’s why the ability to track and allocate resources—whether it’s people, equipment, or digital tools—is a major benefit of project management software.
Tracking available resources helps keep everything and everyone on schedule and within budget. For small businesses, especially, project management software can be a game-changer in this respect.
It’s not just about tracking; it’s about optimizing. With the right project management software, you can identify which tasks are eating up too much time or which resources are over or underused.
This allows small businesses to adjust their strategies on the fly, ensuring every minute and every penny is used as effectively as possible and directly contributing to their bottom line.
Pro tip: Many project management solutions include time tracking with base or standard plans. Some, like ClickUp, even include time tracking on their free plan.
There are also stand-alone options, but just make sure they integrate easily with your chosen project management system. Otherwise, you’ll spend more time matching tasks to time entries than it’s worth.
3. Standardize Workflows With Templates and Forms
Running a business is increasingly difficult in today’s world and can feel a lot like herding cats, where everyone is doing their own thing and going in different directions.
Without a standard playbook outlining how things should be done, it’s harder to ensure consistent customer satisfaction and spot when your team is making costly mistakes.
Plus, without clear processes, team collaboration can also be adversely affected. Standardizing workflows can lead to smarter, better-organized processes.
This means a better use of resources and an improved product and customer experience. This is one of the key benefits of project management software, as it’s an area where these tools excel.
By using templates, you can set up repeatable steps that still allow for changes depending on the situation (like who the customer is or what product you’re working on).
Likewise, forms help you collect information consistently, whether it’s feedback from customers, quality management checks, or other important data.
This not only makes it easier to look at your data but also makes sure you’re asking and answering all the right questions.
Pro tip: Creating company-wide standards for your different business operations or processes is also one of the best ways to set your company up for success as it grows and scales.
Project management apps like Monday.com and Zoho Projects offer templates and forms to help streamline all your workflows.
4. Save Hours With Task Automation
Task automation is a powerful and versatile tool that can help make your small business significantly more efficient. At first, assigning routine tasks to a computer can seem a bit scary.
The idea of handing over core parts of your business to a machine makes many small business owners hesitate. Plus, if you’re not familiar with the “language” of automation, it can be overwhelming.
Fortunately, popular project management tools make it very simple to create, test, and implement automations. You’re also sure to find detailed instructions on how to start automating common tasks.
Here are some examples of how you can automate common business processes to lessen your team’s work:
When a new client fills out a form, automatically send a welcome package, set up their project in your system, and schedule an initial meeting with an account manager.
Set up recurring tasks for regular activities such as data backups, status updates, or inventory checks so that routine but critical activities don’t go overlooked.
Ensure you never run out of supplies unexpectedly by automatically reordering products or alerting the responsible team member when stocks fall below a certain threshold.
Automate the process of gathering customer feedback by setting up a system that sends out feedback requests after a service or product delivery. Then, automatically create and assign tasks to address the feedback or implement suggested improvements.
Periodically send out anonymous mood surveys to your team. Based on responses, automatically initiate team-building activities, schedule a talk with HR, or adjust workloads in response to team morale.
Eliminate tedious reporting tasks by automatically generating weekly or monthly progress reports, for example. Send these directly to project stakeholders, keeping everyone informed without manual effort.
Pro tip:
Some project management software, such as Monday.com, allows you to combine automation with AI for some seriously powerful, time-saving workflows.
For example, you could send a personalized, AI-generated follow-up email to a contact when their status changes in your sales pipeline. Or, you could set up an automation to summarize meeting notes after regular check-ins and send them to all participants.
5. Give Meaningful Context to Conversations
Scattered documentation and conversations can lead to confusion and frustration among team members, wasted time, and extra costs for small businesses.
Effective project management software addresses this issue by offering a centralized space for storing resources, guidelines, and discussions across multiple projects.
Task descriptions, message boards, comments, in-app chat, embedded resources, and other communication and collaboration features make it easy for your team to find everything they need to complete tasks and meet objectives.
Pro tip: A flexible suite like ClickUp offers a wide variety of ways to embed instructions, resources, and conversations in and around projects and tasks.
You’ll find everything from in-app document sharing to comments, dedicated chat boards for projects and tasks, and even a powerful whiteboard tool for better collaboration.
6. Track Progress and Dependencies
Project management software is a great help for teams juggling multiple projects. It lets you keep an eye on the details of individual activities, entire projects, and even company-wide initiatives.
Visual tools like a Kanban board or Gantt charts, common among those who adopt an agile project management methodology— are available in project management tools like Teamwork.
These help clarify a project’s timeline and show project managers how tasks depend on each other. This makes it much easier for your project team to know what to focus on first.
You can further enhance this oversight with simple automations that spotlight any snags in the workflow. This enables your team to address issues before they derail the project.
This is one of the most effective ways to ensure your team doesn’t get bogged down waiting for one or two sticky tasks. It keeps everyone on the same page, too.
This includes the project manager and external stakeholders who want to be looped in on project progress data, for example.
7. Make Truly Data-Driven Decisions
The ability to collect and analyze the data a project manager needs to make informed decisions is one of the most powerful and advanced features of a good project management system.
Consider these data types and how they can serve your company:
By tracking individual contributions, time spent on tasks, completion rates, and work quality, managers can identify high performers and those who need additional support and assign tasks according to their team’s strengths and weaknesses.
Analyzing the time spent on different tasks and phases of a project’s progress can help a project manager highlight bottlenecks and other opportunities to streamline processes, redistribute workloads, and implement new strategies.
Project management solutions allow you to track customer feedback, issue resolution times, and overall satisfaction levels, which are crucial for understanding how you’re meeting customer needs and expectations, as well as identifying areas for improvement.
All the data on how resources are used across different projects and tasks will help the project manager identify over or underutilized resources and ensure they’re allocated efficiently.
By tracking project expenses, budget allocations, and actual spending, project management software can help a project manager make cost-effective decisions, avoid overspending, and manage their budget properly.
Project managers can identify potential risks based on project timelines, resource allocation, and external factors, so they can proactively address potential issues and minimize the impact on the project’s success.
Pro tip: Data is most powerful when it’s shared within a company. One way to do this is to implement a bi-weekly or monthly ‘Data Day’ where project managers and team members present key data insights they’ve uncovered that could impact the business.
Project reporting in this way helps foster a culture of transparency and collective learning, all while turning data review into a regular, engaging activity that the whole team looks forward to.
Conclusion
Monday – Affordable, Easy to Use, and Powerful
- 10+ Project Views
- Generous Free Plan
- Powerful Workflow Automation
Navigating the complexities of the small business landscape demands smart, strategic tools like project management software for pipeline forecasting, change management, and more.
From task management to team collaboration features and the time-saving power of automation, project management software helps ensure every step taken is one toward growth and profitability.
In the face of shrinking budgets and increasing competition, leveraging project management software is essential for staying ahead.
Check out our list of the best project management software for small businesses to find the right fit for your company and take back control of your day-to-day operations.
FAQs
Does a small business need project management software?
Can project management software be used in small projects?
Which is the best project management software for small teams?
References
- Top 5 Causes of Scope Creep (PMI)
- Top Team Building Activities to Try (TheMuse)
- What is Project Reporting? (Indeed)
Christian Rigg
Business Management ExpertChristian holds a BSc in Psychology with an emphasis on organizational management and is the current Head of Operations for Eleven Media, where he oversees day-to-day business operations, manages a team of project and account managers, and otherwise greases the sticky wheels of company-wide collaboration. Prior to this, he managed operations for a hotel chain in the South of France while completing a Masters in History. When not geeking out over automations and data analysis, he can usually be found cycling and hiking around the French Riviera.
