Small businesses often face challenges when it comes to organising their tasks, projects, and workflow. With so many moving parts to manage, it’s easy for things to get out of hand. However, with the right tools, small businesses can streamline their processes, improve their efficiency, and grow their business. In this Notion review, we’ll explore what Notion is, it’s features and some of the advantages and drawbacks of using the tool. By the time you’ve finished reading, hopefully you’ll have a good idea of whether it’s right for you.
What is Notion?
Notion is a powerful all-in-one workspace that enables users to manage tasks, projects, workflows and knowledge efficiently. It offers a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for users to organise their work and collaborate with others – both internally and outside the organisation. As a cloud-based software, Notion can be accessed from anywhere, making it convenient for remote teams.
The SaaS software has come a long way since it was first launched in 2016 as a note-taking application. Today, it has evolved into a comprehensive workspace tool that combines to-do lists, calendars, notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. It has gained popularity among individuals, teams, and businesses of all sizes due to its flexibility and customisation options.
How Notion helps small businesses
Notion has many applications to support small businesses, making it flexible and highly capable of managing different aspects of the business. Here are just a few ways in which it can be used:
1. Project & Task Management
Notion can be used as a project management tool to keep track of tasks and deadlines. Users can create to-do lists, assign tasks to team members, and set deadlines. Notion also offers a calendar view that shows all tasks and deadlines in a visual format, making it easy to prioritise and track progress. The addition of recurring templates helps to streamline repeated workflows too. It’s a good way to bring order to projects as all team members can access the same information in real-time, eliminating the need for constant email threads and updates. This ensures that nothing falls through the cracks and that work is completed on time.
2. Knowledge Management
Notion also serves as a knowledge management tool to store and share information. Users can create a knowledge base that contains company policies, standard operating procedures, wikis, support documentation and more. The application offers a flexible database system that allows users to organise data in a way that makes sense for their business. Team members can access important information quickly and easily, without having to dig through multiple files or emails. Not only does it save time, it also reduces the risk of losing important information.
3. Team Collaboration
Notion makes collaboration easy by allowing users to share pages and databases with team members. Users can leave comments and feedback on pages; the integration of Slack also makes it easy to see messages directly within a Notion page, so all interactions take place within one simple space. Above all, Notion is especially useful for capturing ideas and then keeping a log which can be easily accessed in the future. Notion can improve communication, reduce miscommunication, and help teams work more efficiently.
What types of small businesses is Notion for?
There are a wide variety of use cases for Notion. Here are just a few examples:
- Technology: Notion is popular among technology companies, particularly startups, who use it for project management, knowledge management, and team collaboration.
- Web development: agencies create project boards for client project, assign tasks to team members, and track progress to ensure projects remain on schedule.
- Marketing: marketing teams use Notion to manage campaigns, track analytics, and collaborate on content creation. It’s particularly good for remote teams.
- Education: Notion is used in the education industry to create lesson plans, organise notes, and collaborate with students and other educators.
- Nonprofits: nonprofit organisations use Notion for team collaboration, project management, and fundraising.
- Design: design teams use Notion to manage projects, organise design assets, and collaborate with clients and team members.
- Freelancers: individuals manage their whole business and personal life on Notion, given they wear different hats from client acquisition and business administration to carrying out the projects.
- Ecommerce: small e-commerce businesses use Notion to manage product inventory, collaborate on new product ideas, or manage potential supplies.
These are just some of the examples of organisations (and individuals) who are using Notion, which shows the flexibility and scope of the application.
Advantages of Notion for small businesses
- All-in-one solution
Notion offers a comprehensive solution for small businesses, with features for project management, knowledge management, and team collaboration – all from one software. It’s continuously improving the application to add more automations (including AI), to improve productivity and efficiencly even further.
- Customisable templates
Notion’s customisable templates save small business owners time and provide a framework for organising their work. There are a wide range of customisable templates available for different use cases, as well as complete template operating systems for businesses. These templates can be easily edited to fit the team’s specific needs, saving time and providing a framework for organising projects, tasks and information. Other important features are the ability to customise database and views, sort and filter data so it can be completely tailored to the organisation.
- Integration with other tools
Notion integrates with a variety of other applications, making it easy for small business owners to connect their existing tools and streamline their workflow. These include Google Drive, Slack, Trello, Zapier, Git Hub, Jiro, IFTTT and more. This makes it easy for small business owners to connect their existing tools and streamline their workflow.
- User-Friendly Interface
Notion’s user-friendly interface makes it easy for small business owners to organise their work and invite others to collaborate. Master Notion’s features and its both easy and flexible to adapt to specific needs.
Disadvantages of Notion for Small Businesses
1. Steep Learning Curve
One of the biggest challenges is that Notion can be overwhelming to set up, especially for those who are not tech-savvy. There are so many features making this a benefit but also a downside. It’s worth getting the hang of the basics because you can do quite a lot with the tool.
2. Poor search function
Carrying out a search on Notion can be a little frustrating. Being able to narrow down a keyword search to individual pages, sections, lists and grids would make it easier to find information.
3. Inability to set recurring tasks
Notion recently released the ability to create recurring templates but as yet no simple recurring tasks. Yes, it can be achieved with workarounds but it should be available right out of the gate.
4. Design & styling
It doesn’t tend to look quite as modern and streamlined as some other tools. It can be achievable with a little bit of work to make it more visually appealing. This is more a nice to have, than a deal breaker.
A solid business management tool
Notion is a powerful tool for small businesses that want to optimise their productivity and streamline their workflows. Not only can it centralise project management, collaboration, and knowledge management; it also comes with customisable templates and helpful integrations with other tools. Sure, there’s a learning curve, but when it comes to helping your business grow, these things are small prices to pay.