Ever feel like your projects are managing you (instead of the other way around)?
Find out how The Bottom Line team has tamed the chaos with Teamwork.
Some people hate having lots of balls in the air. But I get energized by them.
That's why I love…L-O-V-E…Teamwork.
[Tweet “I get energized by having lots of balls in the air. That's why I LOVE @Teamwork.”]If you're a born multi-tasker like me, you know that the hardest part of having a million great ideas isn't implementing them…it's the mental energy of trying to keep them all in order and maintain your workflow.
I was a few years into my role at The Bottom Line and several systems deep when one of our client/partners introduced me to the system that changed my life: Teamwork.
I have to confess, I was hesitant to bring another management tool into the mix. Like I said, I was kinda “half-in” on a few different systems at the time, trying to figure out how to collaborate and plan and execute all the things we wanted to do.
But once I fully GOT how powerful Teamwork was, what all it could do, its integrations with Google Drive and other platforms, I was hooked. I got fully committed and never looked back.
[Tweet “Once I fully GOT how powerful @Teamwork was, I was hooked.”]What Does Teamwork Do That Other Project Management Systems Don't?
It's not so much one single amazing feature; it's more that Teamwork is a very ROBUST project management tool that doesn’t require use of stringing multiple systems and things together in order to use it.
Here's just a few of the ways Teamwork has made my multi-tasking life so much easier:
Integrations
I love how Teamwork integrates with Google Drive, which lets us link in client files for every project to keep things seamlessly organized. It also saves us storage space in Drive (which means saving a little money on storage fees).
Teamwork also integrates beautifully with InfusionSoft and Zapier, two of the tools I've long depended on. For instance, I can automatically create tasks in Teamwork Projects based on when a tag hits a client. This was a manual task list for someone to do before when certain events would happen and the Teamwork-Zapier interface just helps me get it there…like magic!
But what really changed my life was Teamwork Desk. It's a beta-mode program that lets you create a task FROM a ticket and then resource the ticket from your Projects dashboard. This is just…I can't even describe it.
Time Tracking
I track EVERY ounce of my time. It's how I make sure my work = productivity, and not just spinning my wheels. I also need those fine details I can get from the team to see where we are spending our time and where we could tighten up.
In the past, I used a myriad of different time tracking tools. But Teamwork is all I need–multi-functional and flawless, it has many ways to track time, in general and on actual tasks. It helps me identify workload among the team, assess our productivity, and the Chrome extension makes it TOO easy.
A time-tracking function that saves me time? You can’t beat that.
[Tweet “A time-tracking function that saves me time? You can’t beat that! @teamwork”]Links and SOPs
Before Teamwork, we never had an easy, organized way to access URL information when we needed it. Someone might have made a doc or spreadsheet with tons of links, but finding it was always a hassle. (Is it in Google Drive? Maybe it got pushed into Evernote…)
With Teamwork's “Links” section, all our URL information is not just there–it's accessible, which means it's USEFUL. We have really tricked out that section of Teamwork, even saving links from our handy-dandy Chrome extension. We can even create tasks straight from a web page when we're working for research and all that jazz.
Another roadblock was in the form of SOPs. I'm a firm believer that EVERY business needs well-defined SOPs, but it’s a super slow process getting them together until you really figure out where and how to put the info together.
That's why Teamwork's “Notebooks” section is literally saving my sanity. (With the help of the amazing team at Tina Forsyth's business mastermind.) It lets us build and refine SOPs as a team, so that our workflow is more consistent and efficient than ever before.
Before Teamwork, my inbox on Gmail was OFF-THE-CHAIN. You know exactly what I'm talking about–the millions of different email threads that make it impossible to get everyone on the same page with a project. And is there anything more disheartening than sitting down on a Friday morning and seeing that your inbox “Unread” folder is bigger than it was on Monday?
But Teamwork has cured all that. Instead, all of our communication–both internal and client-facing–is centralized in Teamwork's message center.
Teamwork messaging creates a communication record that everyone on the team can see. People can chime into what used to be private conversations, and we have a detailed communication chain right where it needs to be on a task or message or link, etc. No other system has this level of integration.
These days, I get VERY few messages inside my Gmail. Need I say more?
How Teamwork Is Helping Us Win RIGHT NOW
- Teamwork has totally streamlined our new client onboarding process. This was a hodge-podge of a process before, but with Teamwork it is evolving into a beautiful thing. (Meaning something that other people can do besides me. Yay!)
- Teamwork has helped me understand my own personal use of time and the time/productivity of the team as a whole. Since we don’t bill by the hour to our clients, it was important to understand where our time goes to evaluate if our package pricing is the right fit or we need to tweak it. EVERY business should track time as tightly as they can–after all, time is money![Tweet “@Teamwork has helped me understand my own use of time + the time/productivity of whole our team. “]
- Teamwork has centralized and streamlined (coupled with Teamwork Desk) all team, client, vendor, inquiry communications. You can tag things, search things, just about do anything inside Teamwork. It’s nice to know I have all that history just waiting for me, anytime I want to search for it. We find things know, we can go back and dive into issues to help improve, and we know what the heck is on our plate!
The Bottom Line
We are gearing up to launch our new The Bottom Line Profit Club where we will be supporting online entrepreneurs and retailers on how to create financial systems AND plans that help boost the bottom line so they can confidently pocket their profits.
We have tons of information we’re piling in there, but we have plans for adding a module within this monthly membership program that is going to specifically address workflow and SOPs. And you can bet that Teamwork will be the star tool we will use to help train our members on its use and setup. We are SO excited! 🙂
