It’s All In The Planning

In my last post I asked the question if VAs use other VAs to help complete projects. At the time, I was asking because I am taking a personal coaching class for 4 weeks and had a couple of personal projects swimming around in my head, neither of which I thought I could even work on because of multiple client projects.

No sooner had I hit the “publish” button than I saw on Twitter that Michelle Schoen at VA Demo Girl had an interview all about how to handle multiple projects. Michelle and her guest discussed how to handle multiple clients and their individual needs, how to schedule client projects, and the tools she uses to schedule projects and meetings. Basically, if you have the clients and the manpower, then the solution is in the planning.

I started off in January using a real pretty desk planner where I could keep track of individual projects and their costs. It served me well (when my desk wasn’t cluttered with paperwork!) but now that I have attracted some retainer clients with recurring projects, the desk planner just didn’t cut it anymore.

Now I’m using Backpack (by the makers of Basecamp) primarily for the calendar (which I can color code for each client) but it also has some blank “pages” where I can put notes, to do lists, and any other info I can think of. It’s good for taking notes while I listen to podcasts or doing research for one of my personal projects.

It’s working fine for me right now but it’s not perfect because I still have non-retainer projects and prices in the desk planner. For some reason it’s real hard to give up! It’s really just trial and error because one of my retainer clients is testing out a bunch of project management applications to find which one is easiest to use with HER clients. Maybe it’s trial and error and depending on how your business grows, it’s possible to outgrow whatever planning system you currently have.

The key is to never miss a deadline and to be flexible…