Do I need a project manager? If you're asking that about your own business, there's usually one big piece of work behind the question.
It comes up every time you plan the month, and it gets moved again.
Maybe it's a switch to a new client portal. Maybe it's the rebrand that touches every page, form, and email you send.
You know what it needs, more or less. The people you have are already spoken for, and you'd be the one running it.
Underneath it is a simpler question: does this need someone to run it, or just more hands? The answer tells you what kind of help gets it off next month's list.
A project manager's job is the follow-through
Whatever the title, a project manager answers for one outcome. They decide what's in and what's out. They put the decisions in the order they have to be made, know who's doing each part, and keep the whole thing moving.
That's different from handing out tasks. Hand someone tasks, and the plan and the follow-through stay with you. Hand someone a project, and they hold it and answer for the result. To check which kind of work is on your desk, start with the difference between a task list and a project. For the handing over itself, read how to delegate a project, not just the tasks.
The person who does this could be a hire, a contractor, or someone who runs a defined body of work for you. Which one comes later. First, whether you need one at all.
The signs a piece of work needs someone to run it
Read these with your own project in mind. The ones that describe your week are the ones that count.
It needs handling now, while you build something else. You're working on a new service or a new direction, and that's where your attention has to go. This other work can't wait until you're free, so someone has to carry it in the meantime.
You know what to build, but not who builds it. The plan exists, at least in outline. In your week, it looks like this: everyone you could give it to is either new to this kind of work or already booked solid with their usual jobs.
I know this one from the design side. I've sketched a whole business on a single call, in minutes. That was a high-level design, though. It still needed documenting, and the ideas needed vetting. Then it all had to be put in place. Usually that means changes to the website, the backend systems, and the front-end marketing. Deciding what to build can be quick. Building it is the project.
It's a one-time mountain of work. Lots of parts, done once, never repeated. In your week, it shows up as a pile nobody owns. Each piece lands on whoever is free, or it lands back on you. Creating a permanent role for something that happens once doesn't fit. How to plan a big project when you don't have a project team helps you get the whole mountain onto one list.
Your own time is going into running it. You're the one remembering what's next, chasing replies, and deciding what happens in which order. Every hour of that is an hour taken from the parts of the business nobody else can do.
The parts depend on each other. The new emails can't go out until the forms are rebuilt. The forms are waiting on a decision about which services you're keeping. One stalled piece stalls everything behind it, and someone has to see that coming.
There's one more sign, and it won't show up on any list of tasks. You worked out what needed to happen a long time ago, and you could talk anyone through every step. Taking the next one on an ordinary Tuesday, with nothing outside you saying it's next, is where it stops. If that sounds like you, that's a sign too. It usually means the work needs a structure that lives outside your head.
When a different kind of help fits better
Plenty of work that feels big doesn't need anyone running it. If your honest answer to "do I need a project manager?" is no, it's usually one of these.
It's a list of tasks you're happy to direct. You know what comes next, and you need hands. A task queue or an assistant fits that, and it's the lighter option.
It's just a website or blog content, and nothing else. That's a build, and you need people who build websites and write content.
Just need a website or blog content, and nothing else? FableForge and its Tech Team handle that.
You want to design what to build yourself, at your own pace. Then you need a course and people to ask as you go. You don't need someone to run it.
Want a course for that, plus live sessions and a community for your questions? That's BP Biz Lab, my business design course.
You're not sure yet what to build. Deciding what the business or the project should be comes first. Nobody can run a plan that doesn't exist yet.
Still deciding what the business should be? That's my business design work.
Hiring can be the right call too. If you're weighing when to hire a project manager as staff, the answer is when the work is steady and permanent. It fits best when you want the role inside your business and have room to manage the person. That's worth deciding before you choose who takes the work.
If it is a project, know these four things before you talk to anyone
You don't need a full plan to ask for help. Rough answers to these four are enough to start the conversation.
- What done looks like. Say it in one sentence. "Clients book and pay online, and nobody on our side touches it" is a picture of done. "Better systems" isn't.
- The parts you can already see. A rough list is fine. You don't have to plan it all first, though the big-project planning guide will get it all onto one page if you want to.
- What has to stay your decision. Your pricing, say, or which clients you take on. Name those now, so whoever runs it knows.
- How you'd like it to end. There are three ways. Someone finishes the project. Someone builds a new process and runs it until you're ready to bring it in-house. Or someone keeps running it, because you never want it back. Not knowing yet is fine. You can decide up front or along the way.
Put together, those four answers are your project brief. It gives whoever you talk to something real to work from. A rough version is plenty, and a first conversation can start before you have any of it.
A few lines count as a brief, and so do your answers said out loud into a recording. Once the work starts, tell whoever runs it who on your side will answer their questions, even if that's you.
You're probably also wondering how much it costs to hire a project manager. Three things set it. The first is whether you hire someone, contract someone, or hand off a defined body of work. The others are how big the work is and how long it runs. For Sparkitive's typical ranges, see what it costs and how long it takes.
When you start talking to people who could run it, take the questions that show whether they'll get it done with you.
Hand off the follow-through, and the project stops waiting for your spare time
If the signs fit and the people you have are already spoken for, my company, Sparkitive, can hold the plan and the follow-through for you. Give us the parts you'd rather not carry, and keep your hands on the decisions that need you.
Do most of those signs sound like your week? Then it probably needs someone to run it. Bring your four rough answers to a free 30-minute discovery call with me. It isn't a sales call, and booking it doesn't sign you up for anything. Walk me through where it's stuck. Before we hang up, you'll know your next step.
