Task Scheduling Management: Project Prioritizing for Multiple Projects

I spoke with a freelance writer and a DJ, both of whom have said that August and September have been record-breaking months for them, not just record-breaking, but rather record-shattering. They both relate that even their positive contingency plans and "best case scenarios" couldn't have predicted this success.

When we started to talk about what problems they were facing, I must admit I was surprised. A higher workload for good marketers who don't compete on price is not a surprise. What did surprise me was exactly how similar their problem was:

Time.

In both cases, they could do unlimited business if they had unlimited time. It's time that's holding them back (and, they joked, the physical limitation of only being in one place at one time). They each only have 24-hours a day, 365 days a year. That's 8760 hours in a year. And each of them is working a lot of those hours to keep up. While others have limited supply of inventory, this writer and DJ have a supply chain problem of a different resource: the hours in a day.

My regular solutions were working for them, but they weren't necessarily holding back the flood of business:

• Increase prices
• Schedule farther out
• Specialize
• Pull back slightly on marketing efforts

These are good, solid things to do when business is booming and you can't keep up. And yet the phone was still ringing off the hook for the writer and the DJ.

The DJ was finding that he could only book so far out. People don't often plan events more than a year and a half in advance. The writer was finding that writing steadily for 18-hours each day during this busy period was still keeping him from maintaining deadlines. His schedule was too dense and he couldn't spread out farther. In both cases, they had concerns about outsourcing because of the level of quality that would be attached to their name.

So we had to drill down more deeply for new solutions. For them, and possibly for your business, these might be appropriate solutions to try once you've done the four mentioned above. However, implement them carefully as they may not work in all situations.

• Prioritize your customers and make sure your top ones are getting their work completed first and best. The other ones will simply have to wait.
• If possible, cancel everything for just a couple days and focus not on catching up but on surpassing your plans. If you're always playing catch-up, it can be frustrating and clients notice. Instead, get ahead.
• If you can't outsource, find another service provider and offer a referral fee to send them business. Make it clear to the client that you're not doing the work but simply that you're recommending another provider.
• Find software that lets you run things on autopilot (such as billing and project management).
• Learn to say "no," except to your best clients.
• Pull the plug on your marketing all together but have it ready to start back up at a moment's notice. (And don't wait too long to start it back up).
• Use this time to test new ideas since you've already got the clientele, you don't have to worry about some of your ideas not panning out.
• Identify the top 10% of your clients and keep them happy.
• Identify the most time consuming and lowest paying clients and finish their projects as soon as possible without renewing the contract.
• Everyone else in the middle should be listed on a prioritized to do list and worked through one at a time.