Organizing Clients in Basecamp...

When it comes to managing your clients and projects, you want to setup the easiest system possible.  For our company, we utilize the services of Basecamp.  Inside of Basecamp, we organize each of our clients by creating separate projects for each.  These projects are blanket labeled with the client’s name and inside of that project, various tasks are broken down by messages and to-dos.

To illustrate, we have created a fake client account in our Basecamp and we have included screenshots below.

Step One: Create a New Project

You can see that when we create a new project, we call both the project and the company by the same thing.  This will then alphabetize our clients in our main Basecamp list and also show the client that it is truly their project.

Step Two: Setup Messages to Define Individual Projects / Tasks

Once we have the client’s project setup in Basecamp, we then use the messages area to setup individual projects / tasks.  This allows us to segregate out the conversation around each item.  We also use labels like [In Progress] or [Complete] to give our client an easy way to see the status.

Step Three: Setup Corresponding To-Do’s

The to-do lists let us assign the work to multiple people and organize the individual to-dos for each project / task.  We always reference back to the original message thread so that we don’t lose the conversation and so that the client has easy access to it as well.

As you can see, segregating out Basecamp for individual clients is actually quite easy.  There are many more options for organization and we cover those in our Basecamp 101 course.  Learn more about that here.

Project Management Tools for Virtual Assistants...

When you setup your virtual assistance business, navigating through the world of possible services can be time consuming, overwhelming and frustrating. There are endless options and sometimes, we can run the risk of adding way too many services to our companies. When we do this, we pay excess fees and we end up with things we may never use.

Over the next few blog posts, we’re going to explore some of the services that I feel are the most vital for virtual assistants to have in place and why.

Project Management Tools

The first set of tools I want to talk about are project management tools. Project management involves anything you need to do to organize and execute on projects for your business or for your client’s businesses.

I’ve tried at least ten of the most popular project management tools. I’ve used Basecamp, WebEx Office, Smartsheet, Sharepoint, Microsoft Project, Web Collaboration, My Client Spot… to name a few. What I’ve found is that the majority of these tools did not meet my standards and requirements for managing projects.

For the last three years, possibly four, we’ve been using Basecamp to manage our projects. We love this tool because it combines messages, to-dos, milestones/deadlines, files and writeboards to create a compact place for you to organize business. The ability to create multiple projects means that you can set it up for multiple clients easily and efficiently.

Inside of Basecamp, we use messages to track conversations around a particular project. These messages are given a strong subject line and we use square brackets to annotate that conversation’s status. For example: [In Progress] or [Complete]. Keeping threads separate is key as you want to maintain consistency, clarity and focus in your delegating efforts.

The to-dos are used to break down the individual tasks. These are added inside of a specific client’s project in Basecamp but can also be tracked at the dashboard level by team member. To-dos are often linked to the individual threads / messages so that conversations can be easily tracked.

Milestones are used to mark specific recurring tasks or deadlines that we need to remember for a client. They appear on a per client basis or on our main dashboard calendar. The main dashboard calendar shows all of the milestones across all projects so it helps to keep the team on task and focused.

We use the files section to upload any files that need to go to a client and the files section can be sorted by type, size, etc. It makes searching for client files easy and effortless. However, we also use Dropbox to store files in a more organized, file folder style, manner. Dropbox is then setup with individual client folders and access is given to the client and the team members on that project.

Writeboards are used to track operations, processes, user names and passwords and other information that we need to go back and forth on a lot.

With all of that being said, Basecamp has been a really great tool for us and for our clients. It helps keep them organized and ahead of schedule. We are also in the midst of moving over some of our projects to Web Collaboration. This tool is a newly introduced tool from Mercury Grove here in Ottawa that just might be a Basecamp killer.

If there is a tool that you would like us to explore, I’d love to hear from you. I’d also love to know which tools you are most curious about or where you feel there are gaps in your business. Leave your questions on our Formspring account!

Communication Tools for Virtual Assistants...

When you setup your virtual assistance business, navigating through the world of possible services can be time consuming, overwhelming and frustrating. There are endless options and sometimes, we can run the risk of adding way too many services to our companies. When we do this, we pay excess fees and we end up with things we may never use.

Over the next few blog posts, we’re going to explore some of the services that I feel are the most vital for virtual assistants to have in place and why.

Communication Tools

The next area that I want to look at is communication. Communication tools are vital for a virtual assistant’s business because of the nature of how we work. Working virtually means that we lose out on the face-to-face opportunities that are present in the real world. To get around this, we need to have open lines of communication with our clients.

As we mentioned in our discussion on project management tools, a lot of our communication goes through Basecamp or Web Collaboration. However, not all of our clients like working through these tools and some prefer to have a more direct line to our team.

Skype becomes one of our most direct connections to our clients. With Skype, you have the ability to do computer-based telephone calls but more importantly, you can instant message through the tool. Not all of our clients are on Skype and not all of our clients use it to message us but for those that do open up that line of communication, it becomes a valuable tool.

Using Skype though means setting some ground rules with your clients. For example, I don’t pick up Skype telephone calls unless they are scheduled into my calendar. I also won’t allow our clients to delegate items to me via Skype.

The way that I explain to them that they should use Skype is to get quick answers or do quick check-ins. For example, “Where are we at with the sales page for the upcoming telesummit?” or “I sent over a fax, did you receive it?” Quick check-ins like these alleviates the stress that your client may face when sending things off into the black hole that is the Internet.

Aside from Skype, Twitter has become an awesome tool in opening up the lines of communication for our clients. Twitter allows our clients to do the same thing that they would do on Skype – quickly check-in. It also allows them to see what I am up to as a member of their team. If I am Tweeting about going to lunch or checking out early, they are made aware of that as well.

As with Skype, you want to set some ground rules here too. For example, you don’t want your clients getting into the habit of direct messaging you items they need done. All of your delegation should happen in one place. For us it is Basecamp / Web Collaboration but for you it could be another place or another tool.

If there is a tool that you would like us to explore, I’d love to hear from you. I’d also love to know which tools you are most curious about or where you feel there are gaps in your business. Leave your questions on our Formspring account!