If I could take a wild guess, I’d say that you’re here because the sea of post-its and random notes inside your 3 notebooks has gotten a little out of hand.
And if you’ve got someone else in your business? Then communicating and managing your projects has likely become a time-consuming challenge.
Believe me, I get it. I was there once.
I knew I needed a project management tool because it was time to get all of my tasks and projects in order both for myself and my VA…
And I chose Trello.
I wanted to make sure that everything got communicated and done in an efficient and effective manner.
But after a while of using (and loving!) Trello, I made the switch to ClickUp...
…and it’s been a game changer!
Why We Used Trello for Project Management
Like you, I had all the color-coded post-it notes in the world, all over my desk and notebooks.
But when I hired my first VA, I realized that there was no way for her to be able to know what was happening at any given time, as it was all in front of me only.
I was looking around at a few options and Trello seemed to be the most user-friendly.
Coming from a design background, I loved that Trello is a very visual project management tool, giving you the ability to have different lists under one board and to customize it with different colors and backgrounds.
Luckily, a coach I was working with also was using Trello at the time and she showed how she structured hers with her own team, so I replicated that structure.
It was very easy to get started.
Trello Features
While my team was largely made up of myself and my VA, Trello was a great tool. Some of our favorite features were:
1. It’s easy to get started.
Trello is extremely user friendly.
Creating boards, lists, and cards is very straightforward… and the easiest part?
You don’t have to start from scratch!
Trello has templates that you can use and test out to see what set ups make the most sense for you and your business needs.
2. Trello is a visual project management tool.
Like I mentioned earlier, Trello is a project management tool that lets you organize your projects and tasks in a very visual way.
You can create boards for different projects. Each board will contain lists and cards to track to-do’s and progress for each project.
You can also add stickers, images, and colors to customize your boards. Want to customize your boards with your brand colors? You can!
3. Trello pricing
Trello’s free monthly plan lets you create 10 boards and unlimited cards, which was really helpful for me and my business at first.
Once your team grows or you need access to creating more boards, you can pay $5 a month per user.
Why we ultimately chose ClickUp vs Trello
Although Trello was great at first, we eventually outgrew it.
As my team and the needs of the business grew, Trello was no longer a convenient or efficient project management tool for us.
Trello Cons
With Trello, you can only see one board/project at a time. While it is dubbed a “visual” project management tool, I needed the capability to see some (or all) of my team’s projects.
Trello doesn’t have that capability.
If I had multiple team members doing different tasks, it became harder to manage projects inside of Trello.
Not only did it start to slow down projects, but it made it so that tasks weren’t getting completed on time (or at all!).
It was bottlenecking us, BIG TIME.
Eventually, trying to find “workarounds” to work with our needs was starting to become too time consuming.
Since Trello is limited to “board view” and “lists,” we found that we were spending more time trying to find tasks and change up how things were laid out to make them easier to find than actually getting the tasks done.
ClickUp Features
Enter: ClickUp.
The good thing about ClickUp? There’s A LOT of options that allow for complete customization.
My team and I needed the flexibility, visibility, and options in order to keep the business running smoothly!
1. Specific Project Views
This has been so helpful for us to save time and stay efficient! Some of the projects and things we’re working on do best with listview, while others really need board view. There are also views great for specific projects, such as calendar view, gantt view, or table view.
2. Individualized Dashboards
I love that each team member can have their own customized dashboard!
That way, each person can view whatever they specifically work on and/or need to view without getting distracted with other projects and tasks going on in the business. Dashboards can also be used for things like weekly meetings, tracking leads and financials, and are endlessly customizable!
3. Customized statuses
Sometimes tasks need more than a “done” or “not done” status.
The ability to customize statuses within lists and folders has been so helpful!
Sometimes we need multiple lists or folders under one space, or there are different people working inside the same projects.
Having different status options allows for larger visibility so that the team members inside the project know exactly what’s going on and what everyone is working on.
Different statuses also allow you to customize lists and databases to serve as information hubs, such as SOPs, social media content, important information, or anything else you can imagine.
4. Guest Access
If you have a contractor that needs access to just one space or list for a short time, you can add them as a guest to your ClickUp account!
Adding someone in as a guest gives them access to certain spaces/lists without needing to pay for additional members that won’t be using it the same way everyone else is.
5. ClickUp Pricing
ClickUp gives you access to 5 workspaces with unlimited tasks and members for free until you’re ready to upgrade!
And at $5 per member per month (paid yearly), you get unlimited workspaces and Guest Access!
ClickUp tip: Due to all of the options for customizations, it can take some time to figure out how you want to utilize it in your business and then set your team up to be using it as well.
I also started with watching YouTube videos of how different businesses were setting up their ClickUp spaces, dashboards and lists.
But the best thing I could do was to vocalize what I was looking for and then have a member of the team set up everything to align with that! Delegate and enjoy!
Note: While there are templates available, each business is different and relying on templates can sometimes limit the usefulness of ClickUp for your business.
Trello vs ClickUp – which is best for me?
Trello is excellent when you’re first starting out and want to have a project management tool that’s simple to get up and running for you and/or a very small team.
If it’s just you and one other team member, perhaps Trello may be best for you.
However, when your team and business start to grow (and friend, if you’re here, I’m SURE it will!), then getting started with ClickUp will be a better long-term fit. ClickUp will grow with your business.
ClickUp’s complete customization abilities gives you the flexibility you and your team need to stay flexible and time-efficient with room to keep growing your business!
