If you’ve clicked your way over to this blog, you probably already know how important client relationship management (aka CRM) AND task management software programs are for running a business smoothly and efficiently. Literally, I think my brain would explode without these two types of software – that, or I’d have a post-it filled office. No thank you!

So needless to say, HoneyBook and Asana have completely changed the way I run my business. We’re talking – TOTAL game-changers.

HoneyBook (my CRM) allows me to stay on top of all my client communication and to do’s with streamlined workflows and easy to use templates. While my task manager (Asana) allows me to work with my team efficiently, giving us the ability to take big ideas and break them down into all the small action steps we need to take to make it a reality! 

So needless to say, I am a HUGE advocate for finding both a CRM and a task management software that works for you and your business. And today, I want to let you in on how I use my CRM and task management software together to maximize efficiency in my business. 

But – before I dive into how I combine tools from HoneyBook and Asana to create a task managing powerhouse software duo, I want to give you a quick little overview of how I use them individually. 

How I Use HoneyBook for my Photography and Education Business

HoneyBook is the hub for all things client-facing – for both my photography and my education business! My team and I use it daily. On any given day, I will be in HoneyBook sending emails or questionnaires to my couples, checking on the status of an invoice, editing a step in my workflow to make it more efficient, or simply knocking out some daily maintenance tasks for my active projects. 

For photography clients specifically, I use HoneyBook for every task up to the wedding or portrait session date, because for the most part, everything is scheduled based on the project date.  (Questionnaires send 4 months out from the wedding, or client education emails sending 9 months, 8 months, 7 months etc. before the wedding.)

I then switch to Asana for everything that comes after the wedding, because I now have a team doing many of the post production tasks, and I cannot assign them in HoneyBook

*Before I had a team, I had my entire workflow in HoneyBook from inquiry all the way to gallery delivery and beyond, so I’m not saying you can’t do it all in one, but once I grew my team, it became easier to use both.

How I Use Asana for My Business and Personal Life

On the other hand, I use Asana on a daily basis as well for a variety of projects both personal and business related.  Asana is our team’s master and oh-so detailed to-do list! This is where our internal task and project management magic happens! My team and I use Asana daily to check off our individual tasks, collaborate on projects together, and map out plans for future projects down the road. It is our short term + long term planner with every little detail in between! 

Some projects we use Asana for:

Business:

• Retreat Planning
• Course Launches
• Shop Planning
• Repeating Admin Tasks
• Repeating Financial Tasks
• One Off Tasks for all Businesses
• Post Production for Wedding and Portraits

Personal:

• Planning my wedding!
• House errands and supplies
• Meal Planning
• Gym Schedule Planning

Asana is essentially my hub for every thought, braindump and to-do in my entire life and business.  With so many ways to communicate these days, it’s easy to let one off tasks get lost in the shuffle between text, Facebook messenger, Instagram DM’s, email, etc.  So my process is anytime someone texts or messages me with something I need to do, I put that task into Asana on my One Off Tasks Board and I set a due date for it! It makes me sleep so much better at night!!

Creating the Task Management Powerhouse Software Duo 

Now, you might be wondering why I would need to combine these two programs to work together. Don’t they serve their own purpose individually? 

Well, yes. HoneyBook and Asana have two very different jobs when it comes to my team’s workflows and systems. But, when it comes to streamlining something even further, I am always up for a challenge! 

By combining HoneyBook and Asana to tackle different parts of my wedding workflow, I was able to save even more time on my post-production process and assign key tasks to one of my team members who manages nearly everything after the wedding day! 

Here is how it works: 

1. Inquiry Workflow – lives in HoneyBook; all tasks associated with a new inquiry are managed in HoneyBook via the project and task manager 

1. Pre Wedding/Session Workflow – lives in HoneyBook; once someone books, I use HoneyBook to complete all of our communication and planning leading up to their big day – think: questionnaires, emails, vendor communication, timeline creation, family formal list creation etc.   All of these tasks are primarily based on the date of the wedding or the session, so it makes the workflow very easy to create and execute in HoneyBook.

1. Post Production for Weddings and Portrait Clients – This is where Asana comes in! 
   1. Let me start by saying, not all post-production tasks are easily linked to a project date or a corresponding task in the workflow. 
      1. What I mean here is that every project is different, sometimes you might be waiting for edits to return from your editor but you are ready to complete other tasks in your workflow. 
      2. OR, you might want to bring in a team member (like we do) to help you knock out some of those tasks. 
      3. With the few limitations of HoneyBook triggers and the inability to assign tasks to different team members, you might be limiting your efficiency during the post-production process. 

1. SO, with all of that being said, I choose to transfer all of my post-production tasks over to Asana. I use a pre-made template in Asana of all my post-production tasks. Then, I duplicate this template. After I’ve duplicated the template, I go through with my team and assign people and dates to each of the tasks in the project. 

1. That way, my team and I can work together in one project to get all of the important deliverables out the door in a timely manner (without having another task in the workflow trip us up along the way!)
   
   
2. And, in Asana, I can have multiple people working on different tasks on the same day.  The way HoneyBook’s workflow work, I would have to create different workflows for each team members task and give them a login and it just gets very complex.  You also can’t change due dates on HoneyBook tasks so I didn’t love that when I was going on vacation or away after a wedding, I had all these overdue tasks when really, I just was pushing the start date back a few days.
   
   
3. In Asana, I can change the due dates on everything as needed.

The Key Difference Between HoneyBook and Asana

All this being said, I don’t want you to get confused thinking Asana is a replacement for HoneyBook.  Asana is a free software that is a project management system AKA a glorified to-do list for every project under your business or personal life.  My clients are not in Asana, nor can I have contracts, invoices, or emails in Asana. It’s strictly a task management system for projects.

HoneyBook remains the place where all questionnaires, emails, invoices, proposals, contracts and any client correspondence happens!

With these two programs working together and helping me manage all of my client work, I am able to rest easy knowing that everything in the right place at the right time in my workflow. 

If you are looking for advice on how to manage your workflows and systems, let the Laura Lee Creative team help! We offer full service workflow implementation for all types of creative businesses – whether you are a photographer, graphic designer, or makeup artist. We work with you and your team to build a customized workflow for your business and implement them directly into your CRM. After we set up all of your workflows and templates, we have a mentoring session with you and your team so you can start using your workflows that same day! 

If you are interested in learning more about workflow implementation services, CLICK HERE! 

And last but not least, I want to say a BIG thank you to HoneyBook, one of our 2019 Move Mountains Retreat sponsors. As part of the retreat, I was able to dive deeper into workflows and task management with the attendees to help them run their businesses more efficiently. These amazing, in-person educational retreats would not be possible without amazing sponsors like Honeybook!