Your clients will run projects - poorly

Do your clients have capable project managers in their business? I don’t necessarily mean people with the title “Project Manager” but people who know how to run a project.

Project Management is one of those things like marketing, or skiing, or hanging wallpaper, that look pretty simple to people who have never tried to do it. Only when they end up with a broken leg or covered in wallpaper paste (and marketing can result in both of these things) does it start to dawn on them that there might be a bit more to it.

This might explain why so many small businesses are so poor at running projects – even some of those who do have people called Project Manager and run projects for a living. Poorly-run projects can result in everything from a few wasted days of effort to a completely failed software implementation that materially damages a small business. If the project is customer-facing then delays and cock-ups can impact your client's reputation and customer retention.

Take the recent example of someone who is implementing an ERP in his manufacturing business – and has watched the project end date slip by a month every month for the last six months. At the root of his problems was a project manager who had never run a project before and a plan which was never a real plan but a sort of picture of what someone thought a plan ought to look like. In another example, in import/distribution, the owner tried to implement a significant change in his business with no project manager at all; he was trying to co-ordinate various project activities himself whilst also running the day-to-day business. With a month to go to the completion deadline he realised that there was no single view of what was complete and what remained to be done and the deadline had been slipping away since day one.

Most of your clients will not need or be able to afford a full-time project manager. What they do need is a) a way of recognising “a project”, b) an understanding at the top of the business of how projects are run and how to avoid or spot problems early and c) either a temporary professional project manager or a trained and supported internal manager to run their one-off major projects.

You can help them spot the projects in their business and understand how to run them properly.

For resources to help you become a better business coach take a look at this website.

Based on an original post on my website www.nickbettes.co.uk

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