How To Do Project Management For Startup Companies?

Most people think that project management is not important for a startup company. You too may have this feeling somewhere in back of your.

You may be a startup company founder or might be working in senior role for a startup and you might have a notion that project management required only by big organizations.

Let me categorically tell you that formal project management is as much important (maybe more crucial) for a new small-sized company than it for a regular large sized company. No matter what the the size of a company is, it needs a project manager.

Having said that, let us understand why I believe project management is useful for a new company.

Note: Before going further, let me allay this fear that I am not asking you to spend a lot of money and hire an expensive project manager. I realize that small organizations and startups have budgetary constraints and mostly do not have money to hire. I am asking you to “be the project manager yourself that you want in your team”.

Project Management for a Startup

Many of us think that only large scale organizations need project management to handle their sizable projects. But that’s not true. A startup needs project management as much as a large one.

Let’s understand what project management is. Project Management is taking care of all the tasks and related issues on time to avoid any delays and complete the project in a predefined budget.

A project manager is someone who manages and successfully completes the project within a specified budget. He/she uses his/her knowledge and skills to complete the project without any disturbances and if any risk or issue occurs then tackle that with intelligence without interrupting other things.

A startup is itself a large project. A failure of this project means startup failure. So, it needs project management skills more than a large company. Your setup will become more successful if you follow the modern project management techniques.

Do Startups need different type of Project Management?

No! According to me, that is not the case. Project management doesn’t change for small or large scale businesses. Only the scale of the project differs, the need for project management remains the same.

You can be the Project Manager for your own Small Organization

There is a project manager in all of us. All of us perform some kind of managerial tasks in our daily lives. Management comes naturally to us, which we don’t even notice.

From something as simple as taking responsibility for a function such as a small get-together to staging large scale performances in schools or colleges, we exhibit managing skills without giving it a second thought.  The tasks that you might perform in such functions might be:-

1. Decoration arrangement, which includes deciding the theme, booking decorator, giving proper instruction as per the theme, while maintaining your budget.
2. Preparing a guest list of all the guests who are coming from local areas or outside the city. Calling your guest and to take confirmations whether they are coming so as to make suitable arrangements.
3. Deciding menu items, food arrangement, and catering services.
4. Deciding gifts (if any) for the guests, purchasing & packaging those gifts.
5. Making lodging arrangements for guests who might be coming out of town.
6. Prepare a list of all the small and big tasks so as to not forget any task undone.
7. Giving responsibilities of different tasks to suitable people who can manage them.
8. Paying bills and keeping the invoice for future reference.

This example explains to you how in your life you become a project manager without having any certification, degree or course. There is an inbuilt manager which exists in all of us.

You can handle any project with ease. All you need is to gain suitable and substantial information. You need to develop your knowledge-base according to your needs. This knowledge needs to be practically implemented and improved as you go.

How to Implement Project Management Tasks in your Small Business

If you implement small things in your daily schedule, you will see remarkable changes in your organizational management skills.

1. Define your long term objective i.e. what do you want to achieve in 3 years, 5 years and 10 years from now.
2. Identify your target audience and customers.
3. Describe your product and services in a way that it can easily be understood by a layman.
4. Define a long term business plan.
5. Bake the long term business plan into small short term plans.
6. List all the tasks that have to be done to fulfill your plan.
7. Make a proper schedule as per your objective and short term plans.
8. Assign tasks to the team members.
9. Track the completion of the tasks.
10. Identify any risks or issues that might occur during the project and if there are any keep a risk management plan ready.
11. Always keep track of your objective. Do not get distracted and always keep an eye on the bigger picture.

Conclusion

Implementing project management in your business will help you to look after your business activities in an easy way. Project Management enables you to streamline and develop your plan in a systematic way. This would prove to be beneficial as it makes it easier to track your business development and its progress. This would also help save time and complete tasks within the assigned deadlines.

If you follow good project management practices in your business you will be able to clearly see the changes in your organization by yourself.