The 6 Must-Have Tools to Start Your Business - Part 7

This last post of our 6 Must-Have Tools to Start Your Business series is about: your video conferencing tool.

Thanks to COVID-19, we now live on our video conferences, so it's likely that even if you never needed to use video conferencing, you need it now. The good news is that Google Meet video conferencing comes with your Google Workspace at no extra cost. Neat!

The Business Starter edition of Google Workspace has Google Meet basic functionality;
The Business Standard edition has recording capability as well as breakout rooms -- the most commonly used features during this time of increased remote work.

Here's a chart showing some of the other Google Meet features you might find helpful in your business:

Google Meet video conferencing (built into Google Workspace)

Google Meet	Gmail: Free	Business Starter: $6/user/mo	Business Standard: $12/user/mo	Business Plus: $18/user/mo	Enterprise: Contact sales as needed
Participants need Google Account	yes	no	no	no	no
Max. participants	100	100	150	250	250
Number of meetings	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited	unlimited
Meeting length (maximum)	3+ participants: 1 hr after June 2021	24 hrs	24 hrs	24 hrs	24 hrs
US or international dial-in phone numbers		✔	✔	✔	✔
Digital whiteboarding		✔	✔	✔	✔
Meeting recordings saved to Google Drive			✔	✔	✔
Polling and Q&A			✔	✔	✔
Moderation controls			✔	✔	✔
Hand raising			✔	✔	✔
Breakout rooms			✔	✔	✔
Attendance tracking				✔	✔
Noise cancellation					✔
In-domain live streaming					✔, 100k viewers
			Nonprofit similar, but no recording

As you can see from the chart…

💎 KloudGem 1:

The benefit of Google Meet through Google Workspace (as opposed to through Gmail): your invitees do not have to have a Google Account of any kind or jump through any hoops to join your meeting. (Meetings set up from a gmail.com address, do require a Google Account even for invitees.)

💎 KloudGem 2:

For common video conferencing functionality, you really don't need to have extra overhead.

This concludes our series about the business tools that constitute the backbone of your business.

OK, so how do you feel? That IT setup doesn't sound so complicated, right?

Now, there are other bells and whistles that Google offers that you can optionally use with your basic IT setup. Some are free, some are paid.

• A blog through Blogger (free).

• Traffic analysis on your website and/or blog through Google Analytics (free).

• Marketing tools, like Google My Business listing (free), YouTube (free), and Google Ads (paid).

• Phone number with business tools through Google Voice (paid business version).

Some other needs might be met through other, 3rd-party tools that may be free or paid:

• Email tool for your newsletter: for this, if you want to see analytics on how many people opened your emails, you will likely use a 3rd-party tool, e.g., MailChimp (which integrated through single sign-on with with your Google system), or ConvertKit, or ConstantContact, just to name a few.

• Booking tool: a tool that lets your prospects book time with you, for example Calendly.

• Payment system, like PayPal, Stripe, or Square.

And now that you know what it takes, I encourage you to learn to set up and manage your IT system yourself. I am happy to help. This is an investment that will save you maintenance costs over the years, and you will have gained a brand new skill. You will be well on your way to being your own IT guru. Contact me for a free first consult: https://www.kloudgem.com/get-in-touch/contact  

Do you know someone who could use these KloudGem tips? Feel free to send them this link: https://www.kloudgem.com/follow-resources/newsletter

KloudGem website: https://www.kloudgem.com

The 6 Must-Have Tools to Start Your Business - Part 6

Moving on to our next topic: your office software suite.

Your Google Workspace system comes with a full office productivity suite, much like (and compatible with) Microsoft Office. It comes with a word processor, a spreadsheet tool, and a presentation editor -- plus a number of extra tools by Google and Add-ons by 3rd party companies. The sky is the limit.

In this post, we'll touch on what comes standard with an office suite and list the extras that come with Google Workspace. In addition, I will call out some of the time saving and collaborative functionality that sets Google apart.

As you start working in your business, you will likely need some kind of office software. You don't necessarily need to spend extra on Microsoft Office. Your Google Workspace already comes with a full office suite of software, much like (and compatible with) Microsoft Office.

Office software (included in Google Workspace)

Your files are stored in Google Drive, and you can access them from anywhere.

→ The tools include the basics:

Google Docs - word processor

Google Sheets - spreadsheet tool

Google Slides - presentation editor

→ And then some:

Google Forms - survey tool, contact form tool, signup tool

Google Jamboard - whiteboarding tool

Google Drawings - drawing and graphics tool.

→ In addition:

You can add maps, websites, program scripts.

→ + in addition:

You can add other cloud-based tools as Add-ons to expand your toolset.

You can also store Microsoft Office files in your Google Drive.

Access your Google Drive files right form your desktop through Windows File Explorer or Mac Finder using the Google Drive for Desktop utility.

And you can store almost any Google or non-Google file within Google Drive.

💎 Extra KloudGems:

The Google file editing tools also lend themselves to:

• Sharing

• In-file collaboration (synchronous or asynchronous)

• Linking and reducing duplication for files: leveraging a primary source document to create others and linking them together for automatic updates with the click of a button.

Give Google Workspace a try here.

Next week, the final post of the series: Your video conferencing tool

Do you know someone who could use these KloudGem tips? Feel free to send them this link: https://www.kloudgem.com/follow-resources/newsletter

KloudGem website: https://www.kloudgem.com