Are you an entrepreneur? You’re a project manager!
Hear me out on this one: If you are an entrepreneur, you are a project manager. I know- I work with small business owners every day, and one of the first things I hear in my coaching sessions is, “But I’m not organized! I can’t do project management.” And I’m here to tell you, not only can you do project management - you are already doing it!
Anyone who has started a company, is growing a company, or is trying to keep their existing company going is automatically managing multiple projects. Think about it- do you need to expand your existing office space? That’s a project. Do you need to hire a new head of R&D or HR? A hiring campaign is a project. Do you need to design and ship the next model of your project? Guess what- that’s a project, too. By definition, a project is a temporary endeavor taken on to accomplish a goal or set of goals. If you think about this way of defining projects, nearly everything we do as business owners can be construed as a project. And more importantly, I think we would all benefit from applying project management skills and tools in order to get these projects done.
At its core, project management is about setting priorities and getting the most important work done. This is something I see entrepreneurs doing every day of the week. That ability to call the shots and set priorities is a key skill in project management, and something that can be a huge benefit to teams and anyone who might be working with or for you. If you can get clear on what is most important to your business at the current moment, you can set your team up for success by sharing that information and making sure everyone is focused on achieving the most important goals first. This is what the best project managers do for their projects, and is something every entrepreneur can do, too.
Project management is also all about controlling budgets. It starts with getting a good estimate in place for a project (reminder: see my video on 3-point estimation for an easy life hack on coming up with time estimates), and then hinges on making sure systems are in place to track expenses and costs as the project continues. It’s exactly what entrepreneurs do every time we turn in a balance sheet or profit & loss statement (or work on one with our accountant at the end of the month). If you care about costs and staying within budget, you are a project-managing entrepreneur, my friend.
I could keep going for pages and pages on this one, but ultimately, I think it’s so important for entrepreneurs to realize that project management is very closely aligned with all the core values of owning a business. It’s not just about writing fancy reports and using business jargon, it’s about making sure the most important work gets accomplished, communicating important updates about those priorities and work, and making sure the money we spend to get a project done is within our budgetary limits. If we could all grow our skills in this arena, I think we’d see incredible, and profitable, results.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Are you an entrepreneur? Do you consider yourself to be a project manager? How would your company benefit if you committed to following more project management best practices? Leave me a comment or a DM with your thoughts! I’d love to hear from you!