Posted by Dana Larson on April 26, 2010
With the increased popularity of social media tools, and the State of Collaboration report released recently, the topic of team collaboration has been a hot one. More and more businesses are feeling the need for this type of business collaboration solution to increase communication between team members.
The blogosphere has been chattering about team collaboration recently. Here are some recent blog posts to bring you up to speed on team collaboration.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 23, 2010
We love talking with our current and potential customers. Because of this, we are offering a OnePlace Web Demo every Thursday morning for attendees to learn more about OnePlace and how it can make their business even more efficient and effective.
At 11am CST each Thursday morning, join Steve Kickert - CEO and co-founder of OnePlace - as he takes you through using OnePlace to improve your small business organization and communication. You will review the different features of OnePlace, including online project management, team collaboration, discussions and file sharing. You will also learn how OnePlace will empower your people to be successful, so your business is too.
You can register for the OnePlace Web Demo on our homepage at http://www.oneplacehome.com to hear more about how OnePlace can positively impact your business.
See you on Thursday!
Posted by Dana Larson on February 19, 2010
This morning I read an article from Candice Arnold called “A Positive Attitude at Work Could Make Tough Times Easier to Bear”. The article struck me as interesting, as I try to stay positive most of the time, and I try not to let the little things get me down.
But this article went ahead to explain that business owners - while trying to make it through the tough economic times - may be putting on a positivity charade in front of their employees. They may be saying that everything is fine; meanwhile their business is crumbling around them.
On the other hand, business owners shouldn’t fall down the negativity rabbit hole either - all that brings is gloom and doom, and no one is encouraged to get any work done because they feel it’s worthless.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 16, 2010
OnePlace is proud to say that we have some great customers with whom we work to increase their business success. And they help us too. We thrive off of customer feedback and are always working to make our small business organization solution better.
One of the customers who has offered some great suggestions to OnePlace is Accountants-4-Less - a provider of back office solutions for businesses that need a way to better manage time consuming tasks. And in turn, Accountants-4-Less has received a great business benefit from OnePlace.
Accountants-4-Less had been using Basecamp from 37Signals for a couple years prior to moving over to OnePlace. They liked how OnePlace gave them more features for less money, and the hierarchical project feature better suited their project management needs.
After utilizing OnePlace in 2008, Accountants-4-Less was able to reduce time spent on project management by 50%. Now the staff has more time to focus on keeping their clients happy rather than managing tasks in another project management system.
You can read the entire Accountants-4-Less case study on our website, and view other case studies to see how more small businesses are using OnePlace to increase the success of their people and their business.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 11, 2010
In online project management, the ability to track time spent on tasks is almost as important as the ability to manage tasks in the first place. Knowing how long it takes to complete a task or a project aids in project planning and ultimately the team’s success of that project.
For small business project management, effective time tracking can mean the difference between a well-oil machine and an over-worked stressed out team. You want to make sure you are planning appropriately for the capacity of your team, as well as giving yourself enough room to complete quality work in a timely manner.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 09, 2010
When you think about it, there aren’t many companies that couldn’t benefit from any type of project and task management system. There are certain small businesses that don’t need this type of solution yet, but if they have any hope of being successful in the future, finalizing processes and getting organized now will definitely help.
Task management software like OnePlace can keep individuals organized, as well as business teams. And for a growing business, strong organization is necessary.
Imagine how you would handle Annie’s situation without a project management system. Annie is a young accounting professional that, after getting her first taste of the corporate world, decided to go out on her own and start a financial virtual assistant company. Annie helps small businesses with their financial needs including accounts payable and receivable and financial forecasting.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 08, 2010
We are starting a new trend every Monday here on our blog, which is to feature blog posts from the past week that we think are informative, educational, interesting or just plain awesome.
Because we at OnePlace focus on increasing small business productivity and employee success, below are some great new blog posts featuring additional ways to improve upon that success.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 05, 2010
The world seems to be changing faster than ever. With the aid of new technology and the emerging personalities of new generations entering the workforce, the traditional ways of doing business are being pushed back to make way for new business practices.
There may be people in your company who don’t know how to use email. There may be people who need a business organization solution to keep projects straight. Entry-level students who grew up with the internet don’t know how to work without social media and team collaboration tools. You are going to need to offer training and education for many members of your team throughout the life of your business.
Whether you are hiring someone new or looking to enhance the skills of your current team, there are many options available to improve their workforce skills.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 04, 2010
When we developed OnePlace a few years ago, we wanted to ensure our solution met the needs of small businesses to increase their business success. One need we saw over and over again was the need for project management within the business.
Online project management allows you and your business team to organize and manage projects and tasks in an efficient and effective way. Keeping track of projects across multiple team members can be a bit challenging without the aid of an online solution. We kept all this in mind when developing OnePlace.
Posted by Steve Kickert on February 03, 2010
At OnePlace, we are strong believers in making the individual successful - not just professionally, but in their personal life as well. We understand the lines between work and home life are blurred more than ever, and want to manage that blurred line to keep organized and benefit all facets of life.
We have built our small business organization solution to focus on the individual first. Because of this focus, we help the individuals in any business setting improve their organizational styles and communication techniques. The skills our solution aids in developing are incredibly important workforce skills that increase the productivity and the success of that individual. And you definitely want successful people in your business.
Why? Without good, successful employees, your business doesn’t stand a chance.
Posted by Dana Larson on February 01, 2010
A main component of our small business organization solution is online project management. We are all very organized people, and like to help others stay organized as well.
Because of Post-It Notes, calendar updates and reminders on your cell phone, there are just as many ways to manage tasks as there are tasks to complete. And while we love it when stuff gets done, we want to make sure the people in your business are remembering what to do, and getting the right things done.
Here are 5 ways to manage tasks more effectively to ensure greater efficiency:
Posted by Steve Kickert on January 29, 2010
When a position opens up at your company, you go through many applications and rounds of interviews to make sure you are choosing the right addition to your team. You need to ensure they are capable of the job at hand, as well as making sure they fit in with the culture of your company. This can be a long process, but once you choose the right person, everything should work smoothly.
Then, on their first day, you give them the basic office tools - desk, computer, email, phone and chair. But what else? How do you know they can keep organized at their job? How do they know how to communicate and collaborate with other team members?
Posted by Dana Larson on January 22, 2010
I recently came across an article published in October 2009 from Web Worker Daily entitled The Pomodoro Technique: A GTD Alternative?” After reading the article, I found myself relating to the issues that the Pomodoro Technique claims to alleviate.
If you’re not familiar with it, the Pomodoro Technique is a way to manage time and projects to get the most accomplished. It targets those people who are easily distracted by outside factors when trying to get work done, and those who have anxiety over looming deadlines and the “ticking clock.”
Posted by Dana Larson on January 20, 2010
At OnePlace, we take any chance we can to make small businesses more efficient and effective. There are hundreds of available tools to keep the individual productive, and we like to think we bridge the gap between personal productivity and small business productivity tools with OnePlace.
We also know that in order to be successful, sometimes all it takes is a cheerleader in our corner encouraging us to be the best we can be. That is why we wanted to highlight some of our favorite productivity blogs here - to share with you a few more resources to help you manage tasks.
Posted by Dana Larson on January 18, 2010
Even in today’s economy, there are new small businesses starting up left and right. Once an idea is formed, a multitude of meetings have to occur to plan for success, such as making sure the business strategy is secure, identifying the sales and marketing plan and key messaging, and targeting the right prospects.
It’s a true fact that there are too many meetings in business. On the flip side, it is true that meetings do need to exist. The trick is making meetings as efficient and effective as possible.
When working with OnePlace as your online collaboration solution, discussions play an important role in eliminating the need for multiple meetings, and can impact the major decisions that make a business successful.
Posted by Dana Larson on January 15, 2010
Do you ever have those days where you were really busy, but didn’t end up getting anything accomplished? Or when you can’t overlook the amount of work you have to complete, so you just don’t do anything?
The team at OnePlace knows how important it is to keep on top of your goals to get work accomplished. Heck, that is why OnePlace was created! We believe that task management and team collaboration can improve the efficiency of any small business team and make them more productive.
Here are some easy to follow tips for improving your business productivity:
- Schedule Your Work - Outlining exactly what you have to accomplish each day and managing your tasks gives you a nice visual of all your work, and allows you to choose which to work on next. And nothing beats the feeling of checking things off your to do list! (read a blog post on scheduling here)
- Take Notes - Have you ever left a meeting and forgotten your next steps? Take notes when in meetings, on the phone or anytime they pop into your mind. This saves time by not having to revisit the conversations later.
- Organize Your Workspace - A chaotic workspace can distract you from the work at hand. Make sure your desk and computer desktop are neat and organized prior to beginning your work.
- Open the Doors of Collaboration - Brainstorming with team members is a powerful tool. So is the opportunity to run an idea by a coworker to see if you’re on the right track. Team collaboration tools help to open the doors and keep team members connected all day.
- Love Your Job - If you don’t like your job, you are automatically going to suck at it. Make sure that you are doing the best for your boss and yourself by finding the right job for you. If it helps, take a career assessment to find out what skills match your personality best.
- Know When to Procrastinate - Procrastination is one of the worst time-sucks in the workplace - but there is a time and place to procrastinate. By managing your tasks, you can complete what you feel like completing, and move the other items out to another time.
- Attack the Big Rocks - There are some tasks, however, that need to be worked on right away. Start working on those “big rocks” first thing in the morning. Once you get them done, you’ll feel more accomplished for the day.
- Delegate to Team Members - If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the work in front of you, ask a coworker for a bit of help. Taking 5 minutes to reassign a task and explain it to someone else will free up a lot of task time for you to accomplish everything else.
- Exercise - A mid-day heart rate boost can increase productivity for the afternoon. If you can’t do jumping jacks in your office, a lunchtime walk works just as well.
- Keep Team Members in the Loop - By sharing your to do list with coworkers, you are instantly held accountable for completing that work. Ensure you are using a team collaboration solution that offers transparency and allows team members to see other’s work easily to manage that accountability.
- Eliminate Distractions - Get rid of email, Twitter, Facebook, and other distractions on your computer and get to work. Without the distractions of questions, tweets and status updates, you will find yourself working harder on your task list.
- Work When You’re Productive - There are always going to be times in the day when you are more productive than others. For me, it’s first thing in the morning. Identify these times for yourself, and plan your work accordingly.
- Just Do It - Sometimes the best way to get stuff done is to start working. Get to work and see how much you can do :-)
Being aware of what you have to accomplish can help push you get more done. Learn what tools help you work more efficiently and continue to use them to wow your boss and feel good about your work.
What other tools do you use to keep productive?