Whether it be Google Apps or BaseCamp or Evernote, the right IT tool, program or app can revolutionise the way you work, bringing in profits and clients a plenty. However, as with all things, the key to reaping these rewards is to find the ones that are right for you.
But how do you actually do that? Let’s use Kipling’s six honest serving men (What, Why, Where, How, When and How) to answer this question.
What are IT tools, programs and apps?
IT tools help you carry out tasks. For example:
- Managing your project:
- Capturing Client Information:
Why should you seek them out?
Finding a good tool allows you to do what you’re currently doing but:
- in less time
- for less money, and
- with less effort.
For example, I used to write my invoices in Microsoft Word. It would take about 15 minutes per invoice, and I would often mess up the GST. To fix this annoyance, I bought an invoice writing app for $40.
It now takes me less than a minute to write up an invoice. As such, I’m saving 14 minutes per invoice.
“So what?” you ask.
I reply, “This time saving adds up to an extra 1 hour every week, or 52 hours per year to do the things I would rather be doing. I now spend those extra 52 hours I have up my sleeve on things I’d rather be doing. So instead of writing invoices, I now spend that time playing computer games talking to clients about new projects.”
By finding an IT tool suited to your needs, you can save time, energy and money too.
Where do you start?
There’s a trick to this. Don’t start by looking for tools. Start by looking for problems! It’s counter-intuitive I know, but the idea is that IT tools deliver the greatest benefit when they solve a problem.
And the easiest way to spot a problem is to look for:
- The things that irk you
- The things you complain about to your friends
- The tasks you wish you didn’t have to do
For example, complaints I often hear include:
- There’s never enough time to do everything I want to do!
- I have to explain basic tasks to staff over and over again!
- My clients are never clear on what they want!
Once you’ve found one of these pain points, you can find a tool to fix it.
How do you find the right tool to fix your problem?
Research is the key here. Some of the techniques I use include:
- Talk to others in your network about the problem you’re experiencing, and see what they did to fix it. Then copy them.
- Type your problem into Google and see what results are returned.
- Download a few trial versions of tools which claim to address your issue, and see how well they work for you.
Be warned that this does take time and effort. But when you succeed in finding that tool, you will either be freed from the problem, or at least minimise it.
When should you do it?
There’s no time like the present! An easy way to start is by spending a few moments taking note of something that’s irking you.
Who can help?
A business analyst or business consultant can help you identify problems and recommend tools to address them – including showing how to best use them in your business. Indeed, that’s what I do for a living, so if you think I can help, give me a hoi.
Over to you! What’s your favourite tool? What pain does it address? How did you find it?
12 Responses
I would be lost without Dropbox. Love Asana for project management. Also use Evernote, but not to it’s fullest. And I’ve not started using a CRM, perhaps I should so I get the info out of my head!
Will check out your tools too!
I love that Dropbox – a single straightforward application – gives you:
Sharing between computers and phones
Sharing between colleagues, and
File Backup
So much value from something so simple!
I love Evernote too – including for the home. My wife and I use it to collect research on projects (such as our body corporate and our flat renovations), as well as to create the shopping list.
I also use Evernote as my CRM. I’ve set up a folder for each of my clients and when I have an idea, or a piece of knowledge I want to remember about them, I add a note to their folder.
Asana looks great! I will check it out.
Evernote as a CRM – that’s a clever idea. I love the integration I get with CapsuleCRM (with social media, my accounts and Gmail) but for someone starting out, that’s a nice simple approach.
I also suspect you have a lot more client interactions to manage than myself – given the nature of copy writing, your employment of staff/freelancers and your social media presence.
For my business, I used a CRM for a while – but found the time spent working with it outweighed the benefits it brought me.
Given the nature of my business, I have only a limited number of client interactions I need to keep track of. Mainly I keep notes about things which are good to remember (such as how long it takes to drive to their premises) and ideas I could pitch to them.
So Evernote – with its simplicity – combined with my email Inbox works for me.
And that’s the thing isn’t it – weighing how much time you’re investing in the tool VS how much benefit you’re getting.
Indeed.
And in the end, everything within your business – including your business itself – can be seen through this lens of cost vs value. Not just your IT tools.
If you ask yourself the question, am I getting more out of this than I put in, and answer it truthfully, and then ask, how could I improve the ratio of cost vs value, you can’t go far wrong.
Asana looks great. It has a lovely look and feel.
The one I use (http://trello.com) has a very similar conceptual foundation. Tasks occur in projects and can be assigned to people and given due dates.
One problem I found with Trello (and that you may find with Asana) is that Trello doesn’t tell me what I should be doing each day to meet my task deadlines. I found juggling in my head the things that I should be doing – especially over a long period of time, like a month or so – quite stressful.
I found a way to solve this problem by using google calendar. (http://webgeneration.com.au/tools/google-calendar-time-management-tool/)
That said, how do you work out what you should be working on when in order to meet your Asana task deadlines?
Thanks for a great guest post David! I love your tip about considering your problem before the app. It can be easy to get caught in “solution mode” without really understanding the problem you need to solve.
I love CapsuleCRM. I found it after trying a few others and I very quickly realised it was the one for me. It makes it really easy to capture client info (including last contact and sales) which, in turn, makes it easy to see my pipeline. That kind of info can have an influence on my strategic direction so it’s worth capturing.
I also use Dropbox a lot to ensure I can access my current projects where ever I am. I never used to but a series of power outages forcing me to work outside of the office made me realise I needed cloud access!
Thanks again 🙂
Thanks! And you’re welcome.
I haven’t looked at CapsuleCRM – but I’ll check it out.
Having spoken with you previously, I know you have as enviably fantastic set up of systems to support you at CopyWriteMatters.
However, one tool which I thought may appeal to you which you may not have explored is Zapier (https://zapier.com/). Zapier (and similar tools like ifttt and cloudwork) allow you to have different systems talk to each other and share information. This integration of systems allows you to streamline your workflows.
For example, I’ve set up Zapier so that every time I add a task with a due date to my to do list (http://trello.com), Zapier automatically adds an item to my Google Calander so that I can schedule in time to do it.
This means, I can be assigned a task by a client, enter that task on my to do list on my smart phone (one of the reasons I like Trello). Normally, it would just sit in my to do list and I would have to remember to look at it when I did my scheduling, but with Zapier and it is automatically added to google calendar.
If you have lots of systems which could benefit from sharing data and interacting together, maybe Zapier could help.
Oooh I like the sound of that! I’ll check it out.
Thanks!
Thanks David for the list.
Let me suggest few more apps to the list
Amazon Cloud Drive is new promising online file store option.
Insight.ly (http://Insight.ly), Pipedrive (http://pipedrive.com) seems to be simple to use crm
Zilicus (http://zilicus.com/) is complete PM tool, for SMEs, though Asana/Trello can be good option for personal/small projects
Thanks,
Josh
Thanks for the additions Josh.