Throughout 2010, I’ve spent a lot of time working on process, procedures and collaborating with a geographically diverse team. It goes without saying that there have been challenges along the way, but the challenges were simply opportunities to hone, review, improve or get rid of processes that didn’t work. I thought I would share 3 Online Business tools that I’ve used this year to build my business and support team. These aren’t in any particular order – I really couldn’t rate one more highly than then other!
Google Apps
I’m not sure where I would be without Google Apps! Google Apps are an awesome suite of applications that simplify things for Small Businesses.
Early in 2010, I migrated my business away from using MS Outlook to the Google Apps Calendar and Email function. This immediately gave me much flexibility in accessing my email remotely and syncing mail and Calendar to my Blackberry.
Google Docs became a standard for document creation – making it easier to share content with my team and clients.
I liked Google Apps so much, that it became part of my standard service offering to our hosting and web design and development clients. In doing so, my clients have generally experienced cost savings and definitely experienced performance improvements.
You can find out more about simplifying your business communications using Google Apps by contacting me or, by visiting the Google Apps website.
Box.net
Box.net is a great online collaboration tool, file sharing and more. I initially thought that Box.net was simply a ‘cloud storage’ service, but it is so much more.
With integrations to services like Google Docs, Basecamp, Piknik and a host more, Box.net really became the logical central repository for documents.
Dropbox
Whilst Box.net is great, sometimes something a little simpler fits the bill.
If you want to share files with a team, and be able to access them on your local computer, simply want to transfer large files to one another, then Dropbox is the one to consider.
Very simple interface, you can manage multiple folders and invite collaborators to share different folders. I don’t think Dropbox is as powerful as Box.net, but sometimes the simpler method is the best.
These are just some of the tools that I have implemented over 2010 to streamline my own business.
