Due to the fast spread of COVID-19, several business owners had to completely change the way they operate and set their companies up to work remotely. If you are one of them, then you know how much effort that takes, and how many things you need to take care of at once to make it happen.
Thankfully, technology is on your side – after all, there are so many applications available, that if you know which ones you are supposed to have, changing your way of work to remote shouldn’t take that long. So, if you wish to find out more about which applications you need to run your business remotely, all you need to do is keep reading.
Zoom
Since the ongoing global pandemic made it impossible for people to meet in real life, businesses had to find another way of conducting business meetings, job interviews, conferences, and so on. This made video conferencing and webinar apps more needed than ever.
Even though there are several options available on the market, it looks like Zoom has taken over, with more than 300 million daily meeting participants in April 2020. It even beat tools coming from technology giants such as Google and Microsoft.
However, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. According to experts from https://www.faxburner.com/, as well as several user reviews, “Zoom is simple to learn, easy to use, and has great video and audio quality.” Basically, it’s everything you could ask from a video calling app and more.
Slack
Now that going to the office is not the best decision, good communication is more important than ever. Communicating via email can be tricky – not only can your message get lost among many others, but it can also accidentally land in ‘Spam,’ which means that the person you sent it to might not even notice it. That’s one of the many reasons why you need to have a messaging app among your business tools.
Slack allows you to communicate with your employees in an organized manner – you can create separate channels for people working on a specific project or client. If you don’t want anyone else to see the conversation, you can set the channel to private – that way, only people already in the channel, or those invited to it can see it.
What’s more, Slack can be integrated with other apps, such as Google Drive, Outlook Calendar, Dropbox, Airtable, and so on, to make the communication even easier.
Google Workspace
Previously known as G Suite, Google Workspace includes everything you might need as a business owner. With each plan, you get a custom email for your business, as well as tools such as Gmail, Calendar, Chat, Drive, Meet, Slides, Forms, and so much more, making it a perfect choice if you don’t want to have every tool from a different provider.
Additionally, Google Docs allows several people to work on the same document simultaneously, which not only makes collaboration even easier but also gives Google an advantage over Microsoft Office tools.
Trello
When it comes to project management tools, Trello is easily one of the best ones available on the market today. Depending on your and our company’s needs, you can create several boards – be it for specific projects or teams. For example, you can create a separate board for employees dealing with Blog Planning or those who are part of the Marketing Team.
What’s more, you can assign tasks to specific people and monitor their progress. Trello is basically a virtual to-do list that keeps everyone on track even when working from the comfort of their own homes.
Evernote
As an entrepreneur, you need to have an idea journal – after all, the best ideas usually come to us unexpectedly, which is why you need a place where you can write them down before you forget them.
Evernote allows you to create notebooks to store specific notes – they can include images, text, links, and so much more. Furthermore, with Skitch, which is part of its suite of complementary apps, you can take screenshots and automatically store them in Evernote.
The Bottom Line
Running a business remotely is not an easy task – there’s just so much you need to take care of, and remember about, that it can get overwhelming pretty quickly. However, the current situation left many business owners with no choice – in order to slow down the spread of the virus, they had to introduce work-from-home policies into their companies.
If you are one of them, then you probably already know how difficult managing several remote employees can be – especially without the right apps that make communication and collaboration easier. Remember – while there are plenty of options on the market, not all of them will be the right choice for your company. The truth is that only you know which ones will be the best. Good luck!