Running a small business is a huge job, and only the entrepreneur with solid project management plans can be successful in the long time. Project management plans are much more than just a fancy expression for planning. They are the key to developing long term project management processes for everything you do in your business.

So how do you go about creating these project management processes? You probably created them out of necessity when you first started your business. This makes it very difficult for a business owner to evaluable his own project methodology. Thankfully, a virtual project manager can easily step in and look at the project methodology with a critical and unbiased eye.

Sometimes it is just impossible for a business owner to see that the way she has done things for so long may not be the best way. There may be another process that allows for better process management workflow.

Developing a better process management workflow allows business owners to discover ways to run their business more efficiently. A business that is streamlined perfectly through a solid process management workflow will always outperform a business that just functions.

When it comes to project management processes, if in doubt, just ask a virtual project manager who specializes in business development consulting. The purpose of business development consulting is to develop your business so it can go further than you ever dreamed of before. Business owners who are having trouble meeting their goals will find the entire process a lot easier after they ask for business development consulting. Virtual project managers and other members of a business development consulting team all specialize in various ways to help you increase your revenue.

Many business owners think they can’t afford business development consulting, or they place it low on their list of priorities. However, doing this can actually prevent them from maximizing their revenue because they do not have the expertise it takes to develop solid project management plans. Instead of asking themselves whether they can afford business development consulting, they should be asking themselves if they can afford not to get it.

Project Management Plans

The first part of the chunking process is to set up your project management plans. A virtual project manager can help you create project management plans that will suit your business perfectly. Once these project management plans are in place, you can begin to break each part of the overall plan into several action steps.

Operations and Process Management

One of the most important things to think about when breaking down your project management tasks is operations and process management. It only makes sense to break all of these project management tasks down if it helps create a smoother project methodology. You’ve heard it said that there is a method to the madness, and this is certainly true in all cases of operations and process management. A virtual project manager can help you determine where the project management tasks can be cut down into steps, and which tasks must be part of the same step within the action plan.
Just think of your business as an assembly line. Your project management plans require specific tasks to be taken to complete them, and each task can be broken into specific steps. However, an important part of breaking these project management tasks into action steps is figure out where each break should be. For example, if Suzy has always taken care of two parts of the assembly line, it may be difficult to see why she should cover two different parts. Maybe it makes more sense for Suzy to cover two parts of the assembly line that occur concurrently, rather than one piece in the early part of the process and a second piece in the later part. A virtual project manager provides an unbiased opinion of business workflows that can see past the reasoning of “We’ve always done it that way.”

Everyone has felt the need for an extra set of hands at work once in a while, and many small business owners or entrepreneurs seek out virtual assistance to find the help they need.  However, one of the questions I am asked very often is about the difference between a virtual assistant and a virtual project manager.  Both forms of virtual assistance have their place in the global market, but the work done by a virtual administrative assistant and that done by a virtual project manager is quite a bit different.  Both forms of virtual assistance involve independent contractors, but the similarity ends there.

What is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant is someone hired by coaches, speakers, or small business owners to take care of the small tasks they just do not have time to do.  Virtual administrative assistants may do anything from schedule appointments to manage airline tickets.  A virtual assistant business is the small business owner’s right hand person when it comes to staying on top of the fine details of running a business.

A virtual project manager: your efficiency expert

On the other hand, a virtual project manager offers much higher level help.  Instead of helping the speaker or entrepreneur with the little details involved in operating a business, a virtual project manager actually helps the business run more smoothly.  Think of a virtual project manager as an efficiency expert, someone who provides an extra set of eyes to make sure that your productivity and revenues are exactly where they should be.  A virtual project manager can help you streamline processes and offer solutions for all of your business needs.

So before you begin thinking about virtual assistance, think first about exactly what kind of professional you need.  If you feel like you’re having trouble getting everything done, don’t assume that you need a virtual assistant.  A virtual project manager may be able to show you ways to get it all done in record time.

Project manager planning

Project manager planning is the key to streamlining all of the processes within your business. After all, you are probably full of wonderful ideas, but sometimes it can just seem like an uphill battle when it comes to implementing those ideas. An implementation project manager has the ability to step back a bit and see your business processes as parts of the whole. This enables you to focus on actually running your business and leaves the details of project manager planning to the implementation project manager.

Sometimes project manager planning is just outside of a business owner’s area of expertise. After all, your customers pay for your knowledge about your industry, and not for your expertise in running a business.

Improve your project management processes

Hiring an implementation project manager will also help you improve your overall project management processes. Each business is essentially a set of projects that must be completed within certain time frames, and often we need someone else to look over our project management processes in order to spot all of the holes in them. After all, running a business is a very personal task, and we all naturally feel as if our way is the best. If we didn’t, then we probably wouldn’t have the strength to be in business at all. But the personal nature of running a business also means that it can be very difficult to see that our project management processes can be improved. An implementation project manager will focus on strategic business development by ensuring that your project management processes are the absolute best way to run your business.

Better project plan execution

An implementation project manager will also help improve your project plan execution. Every business owner has certain ways of completing each of the processes within his business, and some of these project management processes are good, while others could be better. Hiring an implementation project manager gives you an expert outside of your business who can see ways to make all of your projects run more efficiently. Time management is truly the key to better project plan execution, and a project manager can help you see where all of your time is going.

Increase profitability

An implementation project manager will also provide ways for you to increase profitability. After all, businesses that are run efficiently naturally earn higher profits because there is less waste. Waste can take the form of wasted time, wasted money, or even employee talents that are not being utilized. Better efficiency means more ways to increase profitability because it cuts down on all of the waste.

Sure, higher sales will also increase profitability, but sometimes there are some changes needed to your project management processes before those sales will ever be seen. Efficient project plan execution and solid project manager planning are two keys to increase profitability. An implementation project manager can spot which of these project management processes need to be changed in order to increase profitability.

Virtual Project Management

Another area in which project managers can help increase profitability is by helping you create a business that will last forever. Virtual project management can help you streamline your business, create solutions to problems, and increase productivity and revenues. Virtual project management will give you plans for all of your business processes so everything can run as efficiently as possible.

Christina G. Martin, Owner of Virtual Project Management Solution, offers small business owners real-world solutions to increase their profitability and productivity on http://www.yourvirtualpm.com. Subscribe to their mailing list and receive a FREE Special Report that all business owners MUST read: “Don’t Put Your Business in Jeopardy: The Top 6 Must-Haves for New Business Owners”.

Productivity Solutions to Eliminate Common Time Wasters

Did you know that 80 percent of results are actually achieved from about 20 percent of the work? This is known as the 80/20 rule, and understanding this basic principle is essential to creating time management strategies that work. Time management strategies are all about .managing procrastination

Everyone procrastinates sometimes, and eliminating common time wasters is the first step toward productivity solutions that actually work. Email is actually one of the most common time wasters. It does save time from having to make a bunch of phone calls, but the problem is that it’s too easy to get lost in a mass of email, reading the same ones over and over again without responding to them or taking care of the issues they present. If email is one of your time wasters, one of the best productivity solutions you will find is to set specific times to check your email. Keep the email closed the rest of the time, and don’t forget to set up an auto-response on your email system so people know what times you check your email. If it’s an emergency, then they should call you instead of emailing.

Another common time waster is waiting for the mood to strike. Productivity solutions for this one are as simple as diving into a task, even if you don’t feel like it. Often you will find that as the task progresses, you’re able to pick right up and get into it as if you never had a problem at all.

Productivity Measures: Creating an Action Plan

Another important aspect of time management strategies is prioritization. The method of productivity measures you take depends entirely on what kind of organization you need to see each item’s priority.

One of the best productivity measures you can take is to create an action plan. This action plan doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It should be a list of everything you need to do, categorized by priority. If you’re having trouble prioritizing, try writing each item down on a separate scrap of paper.

Then divide the scraps into piles according to category: things that must be done now before dire consequences occur, those that are urgent but can wait a few hours or one day, and those that you can focus on much later. You may also be able to organize your productivity measures by things you can delegate and those you must do yourself. Another way to create your productivity measures is to make your to-do list by due date.

A Better Workflow Model

Sometimes procrastination is more about the feeling of being overwhelmed than it is about purposely trying to avoid certain tasks. One of the easiest time management strategies you can do to cut back on that feeling of being overwhelmed is to set up a workflow model. Creating a workflow model basically involves creating a series of action steps to get things done. Breaking a task into a series of action steps makes it seem much more doable, and sometimes a clearer workflow model is all you need to break the ties of procrastination.

Streamline Business Processes

Sometimes time management strategies require finding ways to streamline business processes. One simple change to streamline business practices can mean that a new world of time management strategies is discovered. The best way to streamline business practices is to focus on simplification. The simpler a process is, the more efficiently it can be done. Time management strategies and methods to streamline business practices should never be complicated.

Christina G. Martin, Owner of Virtual Project Management Solution, offers small business owners real-world solutions to increase their profitability and productivity on http://www.yourvirtualpm.com. Subscribe to their mailing list and receive a FREE Special Report that all business owners MUST read: “Don’t Put Your Business in Jeopardy: The Top 6 Must-Haves for New Business Owners”.