5 Best Project Management Tools For Entrepreneurs

Do you want to stay productive but don’t know-how. Don’t worry, here are some of the best project management tools for entrepreneurs, like you!

Now, what exactly is project management? According to the Project Management Book of Knowledge(PMBOK), project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to projects activities to meet the project requirements.

You might be a skilled business person with an established company but making sure that everything that will make or break your business gets done well and on time is a huge challenge you’ll face.

Specifically, if yours is a startup and you’ve tight resources and everything is on your shoulders, working things out is an extremely difficult task.

Now, c’mon, there’s nothing to worry about when we have the best project management tools for entrepreneurs. There’s a wide range of the best project management tools for entrepreneurs that can help to keep track of everything you’ve got going on.

And the amazing part is that most of the tools are accessible for free which is suitable for single and small-team users.

Now let’s move on to the best project management tools for entrepreneurs to help keep track of your projects.

Best Project Management Tools for Entrepreneurs

Recommended Products	PRICING	Rating
JIRA	Free For Upto 10 Users
TRELLO	$5 per month/ user
ASANA	Free For Individuals or Small Teams
TEAMWORK	$12 per user/month
SMARTSHEET	$7 per user/month

JIRA

Jira Project Management Tool

Jira is one of the best project management tools for entrepreneurs developed by the Australian company Atlassian. The basic use of Jira was to track issues and bugs related to your software and mobile apps.

It’s an easy-to-use Agile project management tool that favors any methods such as Scrum (scheduled work in a short sprint) or Kanban (a small spurt of work items that result in endless releases of deliverables).

You can also adopt any supported framework and even use your customized method of getting things done.

From boards to reports, you can easily create, plan, track and manage all your software development projects using a single tool to release higher quality software.

It is also affordable to use by keeping your operating costs under budget. It is completely free for ten users or a team.

Cons

• Users are not satisfied with the mobile version due to the tedious navigation, which is otherwise smooth on the web version.
• Difficult to integrate or migrate from other ALM (application lifecycle management) systems. Manually integrating is time-consuming.
• Not being able to download JIRA graphical reports as images and when using alternative methods, the resolution gets altered resulting in poor images.
• Not able to upload a file of more than 10MB. The file size can be set higher but it requires administrator privileges.
• The UI has a confusing structure, and the filtering tools are not easy to use.

Pros

• Jira, one of the best project management tools for entrepreneurs, enables users to sketch out a bigger picture
• It provides a single view and also allows to organize the tickets into sprints and releases.
• It integrates with 3rd party software like Hipchat and Slack.
• Allows customizing workflows depending on the requirements of a company.
• Suitable for all kinds of users like developers, project managers, engineers, managers, and other non-tech business professionals.

Also read:- The Right Tool for the Team: How to Use Jira for Agile Project Management

TRELLO

Trello Project Management Tool

Trello is a subsidiary project management tool of Atlassian. It is a visual tool that can help your team collaborate on any project using Kanban boards. It’s easy-to-use since you have to just drag and drop tasks and create a custom workflow leading up to the end goal.

This project management tool is useful for design and development agencies. You can also continue to use programs you’re familiar with like Slack and Google Docs and ensure that everything project related is in one place.

The simplicity of Trello is what originally attracted me to it. It’s a tool that allows us to manage multiple projects at a time, keeping the entire team on the same page.

Dan Skaggs, Founder of One Thing Marketing

You can limit your team boards to ten if you want to use Trello for free. Or you can upgrade to unlimited boards and more functionality.

Cons

• Since it is an online software it needs data to function. Without Internet access, no Trello.
• Once posted comments cannot be edited.
• There’s a limited storage capacity. In the free version of Trello, it allows attachments only up to 10 MB per upload. It can be upgraded to 250 MB by upgrading your Trello subscription to Gold.
• Even though it is suitable for small projects, once the team grows and the project becomes complex it’ll become an issue.

Pros

• No disruptions while working on Trello, one of the best project management tools for entrepreneurs. Updates appear automatically without any delay or disruption.
• Easy to add new members by simply putting down the email address of the new user and the new user is added automatically.
• It has a responsive web design. Easy to access from any device like mobiles, laptops, computers, or tablets.
• It features the Kanban system, where it is easy to create tasks and also break down tasks into smaller tasks.
• One of the sharpest features of Trello is its notification system. Every single activity made on Trello will be notified by email notification or push notifications for mobile users.
• Trello also got a reasonable pricing plan of $25 i.e. approximately 1834.63 INR.
• It’s also an environment-friendly project management tool. Say bye-bye to post-it notes and make use of the notes available on the software.
• Easy to use software with a simple and user-friendly design.

ASANA

Asana Project Management Tool

Asana, founded by Facebook’s co-founder Dustin Moskovitz is one of the best project management tools for entrepreneurs that helps maintain work seamlessly. Your company might already have set the workflow and you’re in the process of searching for a smooth program to manage your company’s workflow, then Asana is just right for you.

It is an advanced-level task management tool with remarkably rich integration, and it’s easy to use too. It comes with a long list of characteristics and a spontaneous design, which is suitable for all team sizes.

In Asana, you can easily switch from list view to calendar view or board view, which will help you and your team members to organize and view tasks according to the due dates and act according to the priority.

It also allows sending emails to create a task. The basic Asana plan is free to use.

Cons

• Asana feels advantageous to experienced users whereas new users feel overwhelmed because of the various available features.
• It’s not suitable for small teams or single projects due to the over-availability of options and features, there is a chance for it to kill basic projects.
• It doesn’t have a time tracking feature to track the time spent by the members. Often users complain of having to use another third-party software for tracking time.
• It has a limited exporting feature. Files cannot be exported in PDF or Excel formats. It only supports JSON and CSV formats for exporting files.

Pros

• The free version of Asana, one of the best project management tools for entrepreneurs, is sufficient for small teams with a high budget and still have competent project management software.
• It also effortlessly merges with most of the third-party software available.
• Helps users stay productive as tasks are easy to prioritize with the help of labels and deadlines.
• Project managers can lockdown projects using permission and privacy controls.
• It’s highly customizable and allows team leaders to track each task separately.
• Asana also allows you to invite co-workers, partners, guests to view the tasks and projects. Publicly accessible projects can be viewed by all of the members of the team.

TEAMWORK

Teamwork Project Management Tool

Teamwork helps you and your team members to plan projects, collaborate throughout the entire process, and also to access real-time progress reports.

It also has got a central file management system where users can access all of their files, comments, and attachments from a central location.

By using the email integration feature of Teamwork, you can ensure communication occurs simultaneously via e-mail, allowing users to set tasks using their emails. Teamwork is free to use for a team of 5 or fewer members.

Cons

• The mobile version of Teamwork, one of the best project management tools for entrepreneurs, is not good as its web version.
• The project options in the free version are limited.
• New users find it difficult to handle the UI.
• Expensive for small teams and organizations.

Pros

• Teamwork is flexible and intuitive and suitable for all types of organizations.
• You can easily make changes to your timeline.
• Gives an easy way to view the projects and progress of your team members.
• Easy to organize the project flow for an effective guide for the team members.

SMARTSHEET

Smartsheet Project Management Tool

A project management tool for entrepreneurs developed to set free the advantages of greater work skill and collaboration by providing a powerful forum for planning, capturing, managing, and reporting work.

If you’re familiar with Google Sheets and Docs, then you will be comfortable using Smartsheet’s spreadsheet-based program.

It can also incorporate tools that you might already be using like Google Docs, MS Outlook, Azure, Office, Salesforce, OneDrive, Box, Jira, etc.

Cons

• Higher pricing when compared to other project management software.
• This doesn’t support the time tracking feature and one must rely on third-party software for that purpose.
• The calendar view only shows a limited number of tasks at a time, therefore we do not get a bigger picture.
• Even though it is similar to Excel, not all excel formulas work on Smartsheet.

Pros

• Easy to attach files and comment. It’s compatible with various third-party software and supports numerous file types.
• Gantt Charts Column feature comes in handy for knowing who is working on a specific task.
• The availability of card view allows users to import their boards on Trello into card view and use them in Smartsheet.
• The simple and clean UI design of Smartsheet, one of the best project management tools for entrepreneurs, makes it a user-friendly project management tool.

These are some of the best project management tools for entrepreneurs. Well, an entrepreneur must stay productive to be successful.

Hope this article helped you to find the best project management tool suitable for you!

Also read: 6 Exclusive Project Management Tips for Entrepreneurs

FAQ

Does Google have a project management tool?

No, Google doesn’t have software or application developed as a project management tool. But it has an alternative tool that formulates project plans called Google Sheets.

What are commonly used project management tools?

The commonly used project management tools are Microsoft Project, Trello, Jira, Evernote, and many more.

Is Microsoft Project free?

While most of the best project management tools for entrepreneurs offer a lot of free plans to their users, the Microsoft project doesn’t offer any free plans to users.

Why is MS Project better than Excel?

MS Project provides better features than Excel in regards to managing project information, timelines, and resources.