While there are plenty of resources for almost anything imaginable, from SEO best practices to high-quality photography tips, I’ve found that operations and agency structuring resources are not as easy to find. Operations may not seem as exciting as other aspects of agency life, but it’s still a very important topic for any company to assess. Let’s discuss a few helpful software systems for your agency operations.
Shared Calendars
A shared calendar service is an essential tool for teams. Shared calendars are useful for coordinating important meetings and events between busy schedules, creating separate group calendars for conference room reservations and out-of-office days, and being able to show or hide other calendars with ease.
Basecamp – for startups and small agencies, also a great project management tool
Teamup – for small to medium-sized agencies
Google Calendar – for any size agency, works best with G Suite email domain
Internal Communications
Our team is a huge proponent of internal group messaging platforms when emails aren’t enough. Convenient internal communication is a great way to increase work efficiency and reduce physical interruptions throughout the workday.
Slack – for any size agency
Google Hangouts Meet – for any size agency, works best with G Suite email domain
Asana – for any size agency
Project Management
Having a project management system that is either all-inclusive or has integration abilities is also important for an agency. The ideal system bridges project-related things together easily, such as timesheets, estimates, jobs, and invoices.
Basecamp – for startups and small agencies, includes shared calendar abilities, works well with FreshBooks invoicing and timesheets system
Function Point – for medium to large agencies, works well with QuickBooks invoicing system
Mavenlink – for large agencies, includes its own built-in accounting/invoicing system
File Organization
A centralized file organization system is another necessary collaboration tool for your agency. When deciding what’s best for your team, it’s important to keep these in mind: safety, security, folder structure/organization, and size of the data.
Dropbox Business – for startups and small agencies, cloud-based servers
QNAP NAS – for small to medium-sized agencies, physical on-site servers
Box – for medium to large agencies, cloud-based servers
One of the major goals of operations should be to develop simple but effective systems for your team that can carry the weight of the agency’s daily needs. Also, as an agency grows, the systems must adapt to the growth. Fostering the ability to utilize robust systems yet still be adaptable in our ever-changing industry is a key factor in keeping an agency’s operations healthy.
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