Business and its terms are constantly changing. I've worked in offices and have been an office manager much of my career. Before project managers, office managers handled a good majority of the tasks that might be considered projects in today's business world.
It was fine by me, but I've been asked to do certain tasks that a seasoned office manager could definitely do. And at the end of the project (smile), I asked if they had someone internally that usually did that type of work.
In some of the conversations, it turned out that a company thought they were saving money by having someone come in for a short period of time; rather than hiring someone who had a general knowledge of the needed support. That approach works for some people. However, some companies would be better off spending money hiring an office manager or specialist either full time, or as a contracted service. For small and independent companies, I think a good rule of thumb would be:
- If the project you are working on is outside of what the business normally does, a project manager would be appropriate. Otherwise, hire a skilled office manager.
For example, if you are about to run a major awareness campaign, and marketing isn't your primary business, then by all means, hire a project manager to run the campaign. But if it's something routine,
