How does a fully remote agency grow? With a few click(Up)s

Back in the day, with fewer clients, projects and employees, rogue Google documents and sheets, post-it notes, notepads, napkins-notes scattered around on people’s desks all over the country and a team that communicated everything solely through Slack, was chaotic but somewhat manageable. We also had that old physical presence thing, so we could shout out for help or a cup of coffee. Coffee please, anyone?

Now, being a fully remote boutique marketing agency in such a fast paced environment, can be exhilarating and can bring a lot of enthusiasm, but is, by no means, easy or straight-forward. Our days are packed with internal calls, meetings with customers and partners, hundreds of inbound and outbound emails, lots of deliverables, never ending to-do lists, a Slack workspace that just won’t stay quiet for five minutes and much more. The fun nevers ends and the challenges can be many.

One thing you need to know about us is that we evolve. We do not shy away from acknowledging issues that come up and we are resourceful in seeking solutions and tools. So, when we started growing, we realised that we need to put a method to the madness, even crazy needs its process. It was at that point we were introduced to ClickUp, a Project Management tool that would help us in so many ways.

Before ClickUp, we used to spend copious amounts of time on organising, comparing and sharing notes that were post-it-ed even on our foreheads. But you know how time is valuable, you need to get your work done with excellence and go surfing or something. ClickUp offers templates and lists and now everything is in place and in a manner that can be easily linked, reviewed and planned, on a one-to-one basis or a bird’s eye view. Our meetings now are faster, to the point and reviewing our workflow is easier and more streamlined.

And those clouds, not the cute ones shaped like sheep in the sky, the digital ones, where we keep all our documents, scattered around that can cloud your head looking for them. How many times have you wished, maybe with some foul language and out loud that you need to have your Google sheets integrated with your Project Management Software (PMS) and assigned to their respective folders? Swear no more. ClickUp does that for us. All our documents and sheets can be mirrored on ClickUp, making it easier for everyone to monitor their work, their updates and, therefore, up our game.

Pro Tip: Assign a ClickUp Champion that will make sure everything runs smoothly, like me!

And all those countless emails, bombarding your inbox? Monday morning feels like an attack, especially when there is a lot of communication about a specific task, within a specific list, within a specific folder, within a specific space (Inception, anyone?). With ClickUp, all the communication pertaining to any given task, be it comments, attachments, emails, anything, is assigned to that task, so you don’t have to wear your camouflage and go on a rescue mission.

Pro Tip: Use templates for repetitive tasks. Repetition is the mother of learning!

When an agency is small it is easy to keep track of who does what, when and for whom. But if you are on a growing path, you need to make sure that things will not get out of hand. And without boards, oh they will. By boards I mean views within which one can view workflows, timelines, workloads, statuses on each and every task or project as a total, unassigned work, pending items, deadlines and more, so nothing falls through the cracks. We love all shorts of boards and this one secures our seamless growth.

Pro Tip: Use views to manage people’s workloads. Don’t you always enjoy a nice view during sunset?

Let’s not forget something very important though; we strive as individuals, but we are a team nonetheless. ClickUp embraces this and supports it in every function along the way. Team collaboration is highly valued and equally encouraged, either through direct mentions for making sure a specific person is notified when assigned to a task or simply by sending them an emoji to boost up their morale and reward their effort. A cup of coffee is always better than an emoji, but remote work has its downside, what can you do?

However, our team is not only the people within the digital walls of our company. Our customers become part of our team. And us, being transparent, want them to be able to check on the status of their project at any given time, say Sunday noon when we are out having a blast. Well, ClickUp comes in again and we can share our workspace with anyone as a public link, with limited permissions to them and with full control on our hands, eliminating countless unnecessary emails, follow-ups and phone calls. More time for virtual Nerf gun wars with the team.. woohoo!

Pro Tip: Use automations for repetitive tasks. And then, goldfish memory troubles will not be an issue

Of course, when adopting new technologies, even tiny struggles sometimes require much research, effort and time to resolve, resulting in confusion, stress and falling back on other items on our to-do lists, and of course, time wasted scales in direct correlation with company growth. So whatever you do, find a company with customer support as responsive and helpful as ClickUp’s team has been with us. Their customer and technical support, as well as account managers, have been on our side along the way and do their best so we don’t lose time unnecessarily.

Pro Tip: Reporting is what matters; use estimate versus tracked time within tasks

Well, I know what you’re thinking: oh, another tool that I need to figure out how it works, clicking on random things to see what happens and probably miss half of it all. Say no more. ClickUp University is full of tutorials, videos and literature that introduces someone step-by-step into the platform; simplified ways to dive into it gradually and start building processes aligned to your business’s unique needs. Most importantly, this tool can be very intuitive and set up is key for a solid foundation.

Any software that does all that and more, that helps your business scale, and scales with you along the way, is bound to be somewhat complicated till you get the hang of it. When we first adopted this solution, each and every one of us went through the proper training modules for the functions that we needed on a daily basis and this has become an integral part of the onboarding experience for any new hire since.

Double Dot has grown exponentially over the past few years that we implemented ClickUp. We have saved a lot of time to focus on further upping our game and spending quality time on maybe doing nothing, and more importantly, our team is stronger, happier and more punctual than ever. As a proud Doubledotter and a long time project manager that has tried many PMSs out there, I have to admit that Double Dot would not have evolved and scaled to what it is today, without the support of ClickUp.

Growing pains and learning curves are not only part of our industry, but also part of life. Embrace them, use the proper tools out there and be ready for more success.

Don’t be afraid of change! You got this, I know you do!

Cheers to our team and whatever future holds for us! We are one Click-Up-step ahead!