6 Tips for the Business Owners to Handle Their Projects

“Ownership” comes with a high level of responsibility. Both in the sense of taking credit for success or answering for failures. There’s also a sense of authority in making big decisions.

A business owner utilizes project results. They’re also responsible for the costs incurred during the implementation. Projects can also have multiple owners. Meaning that they’ll share the expenses and be represented in the steering group.

A project can get along fine without the full-time participation of the project owner. But for ambitious, complex, and long-running projects, your participation is vital. You must take charge of your vision and overall direction of the project.

Managing a project can be a daunting task. That’s because challenges are likely to arise and you must be prepared to handle them. If, for instance, you’re not equipped with project management certifications. You may also have the certifications but lack the experience of a great project owner or manager.

Note that there’s no perfect advice for every situation when handling projects. Your solution will depend on the specifics of your situation. That’s why you need a project owner guide to help you handle a project successfully.

It will enable you to deal with unique situations based on the nature of the project. As well as the culture of your organization. The set of principles in the guide will direct your actions.

How to Handle Projects as a Business Owner

Handling projects can be quite stressful. That’s because of the challenges that come with executing the projects within a set timeline.

Projects can turn out wrong without strategic planning and management. This can cause you to abandon a project you had invested so much into. It’s for this reason that you must take precautions before investing your resources. The tips here will help you handle your projects better next time.

1. Determine the Project Scope and Timeline

This is the first step during the project’s initial stages. This is where you define what you want to achieve. Set the objectives and highlight the points not included in the scope. It’s advisable to write down everything important and can lead to success. Think from a broad perspective to visualize what you’ll be executing.

While working out the scope, start big and narrow down your project focus. You must also remember to define the project’s timeline. How much time will you assign the project and when do you expect it to be completed? These are questions that must be answered during the initial stage.

Thus, you need to estimate the time for every task in the project. Note that the project’s deadline is fixed and shouldn’t change. Finally, present the project scope to stakeholders to get their opinion.

2. Provide the Needed Resources

Ensuring there are resources for the implementation of the project is the job of a project owner. Thus, you must check to know if the available resources are enough. Evaluate the investments, machinery, human resource, and the necessary equipment. This will help you to realize possible bottlenecks in the implementation.

You may realize that team members need extra laptops. Or that stakeholders need extra hours in the conference room. It could also be that a team member is having a health issue. You must be available to provide sensible solutions. Remember that it’s your responsibility to manage the shortcomings.

An instance is where someone working on a major part of the project has unexpected reasons to take leave. You must be able to replace them before their absence affects the execution of the project.

Be sure to check that team members are getting what they need. This will ensure the project advances without disruptions.

3. Train New Employees

When you hire new employees, there will be a temporary increase in work. You won’t be able to immediately offload tasks and complete the project in time or have the free time you wished for.

That’s because even if they are skilled experts, they won’t immediately acclimate to your business. That’s because they’ll need time to learn the ins and outs of the business. They’ll need to understand your expectations of them. Then they’ll have to mentally put the puzzles together to learn how the small pieces add up to your goals.

So don’t expect them to hit the ground running on day one. If your employees are not experienced, you can get them to expand their knowledge. You can use Microsoft project training for beginners to help them learn how to handle projects.

MS Project training is designed for those who want to understand the concept of project management. It will help them to organize and create basic reports independently.

Microsoft Project training courses will also help them to learn how to plan and manage projects. At the end of the training, they’ll have all the basic knowledge about how to:

• Set up files
• Track progress
• Work with Views
• Assign resources
• Create a Gantt chart

4. Keep Track of the Time Spent on Tasks

Keeping an accurate record of the time spent on tasks is important especially if you’re a freelancer.  It helps you to know which tasks are taking the longest. That way, you can find areas for improvement. This is also crucial for budgeting especially if you charge hourly.

Tracking time will also help with allocating the budget. As well as determining the scope of future projects. Remember that time can easily get away when people are working. For that reason, it will be good to get a project management tool with clock-in and out capabilities.

It can also have a feature to show you the hours spent working on a task. This will be significantly helpful with project management.

5. Get Accounting Software

Tracking expenses will help you get a grip on the cash flow. It also helps you to categorize your expenses, hence getting a clear picture of where the money is going.

You can also use the software to upload expense receipts and record information from the scanned receipts. This ensures that you don’t store paper receipts that can easily get lost. A good accounting application must have a timesheet module.

This will help you in charging clients based on the time spent on the project. Timesheets help in managing a project from the budgeting time. It also helps in invoicing clients.

It will make sure you don’t overbill or underbill clients. After the completion of a project, the timesheet enables you to compare the actual hours worked and the original budget. This helps you in planning more accurately next time.

6. Improve Internal Communication

When working to achieve a common goal, your team needs an environment to communicate. But placing them in one room won’t be the best way to do this. We are referring to strengthening communication using online software like Slack.

This will ensure that your team communicates in real-time no matter where they are. It will also help to save time and avoid wasting time on ad hoc meetings.

Final Take Away

Projects have deadlines.  Unfortunately, some challenges can arise during the planning and execution stages. These challenges can delay the project’s completion or make you give up on the project. These Situations may not be in your direct control. But we believe that the tips here like better communication, time management and a few more will help you manage your projects better next time. Even if you are not directly involved in a project, as an owner, if you keep a check on these points, it can help in project success and business growth.