Business Meets Google Workspace

We have tried a lot of different solutions for organizing our lives and each platform change brings chaos and new learning curves. We’ve recently switched over to the ecosystem of Google and here are our favorite parts so far:

GO FOR GMAIL

If you’re using Gmail in your browser, then you probably find it frustrating when your Gmail tab gets lost among all the other open browser tabs. There is now a solution.

Google just dropped the lightweight Gmail Go app on the app store. Gmail Go has all the basic email features plus customizable gesture controls, inbox filtering, multi-account swapping, pop-out window for your calendar, tasks, keep, contacts, and chat. You can customize the theme (of course) and inbox settings.

GOOGLE CALENDAR

Let’s be honest… No calendar system is perfect. With as many personal and work events that we have to keep track of, any calendar will become overwhelming. Google Calendar has a few distinct differences that are worth noting. It’s not just a scheduling calendar service but also a time-management solution.

We are loving this functionality and here are three reasons why we have ultimately decided to use Google Calendar to organize our lives:

During this virtual time - each new appointment automatically comes with a link to Google Meet for video conferencing. Plus it’s free! No more jumping back and forth from zoom to your calendar.

Start/end early - We’ve all struggled with back-to-back meetings that don’t leave time for bathroom breaks, snacks, or travel time. Google Calendar has a setting to build this into each meeting. Yes!

Sync & Share: You can load multiple calendars into one platform to show all your different meetings/activities plus those of your team members

GOOGLE VOICE

In the most simple explanation, Google Voice is a telephone service that provides calls, forwarding, voicemail, text messaging, as well as international calls.

Here is the catch, you must have a Google Workplace account in order to use this add-on incremental application. If you’re already using Google Workplace then it’s the obvious choice for a cloud-based phone system because it syncs with all the other Google tools you’re using.

Remember...your cell phone number is a valuable point of contact that you might want to keep private. Having a Google Voice phone number empowers you to keep your personal cell phone number private and use your Google number for business purposes.

GOOGLE CHAT

Guilty… We were communicating as a team through email, text, phone, and social media messaging. When Google Workspace came into the picture, we made a decision to communicate via email as needed with clients, but consolidate all internal communications to Google Chat. This was a game changer.

With Google Chat, you are able to create chat rooms for specific topics and keep all files and to-do lists about each topic in one thread. You may think this sounds like Slack and it should, but we would argue it’s a simplified version. As a small business, we don’t need the complexity of Slack just yet.

The Google Chat app works similarly to text programs or What’s App by providing notifications when messages arrive. Most importantly, this app allows your text messages and phone plans to remain mostly for personal use.

GOOGLE MEET

As mentioned above, Google Meet is making virtual call scheduling significantly easier. By auto-creating video and call information upon scheduling, this eliminates a few steps in the typical process. Unlike Zoom, you are able to create a meeting link in the future that doesn’t coordinate for a specific time, making it easy to move meetings around as needed.

Google Meet comes free with Google Workspace and also has an app which is easily accessible from phone or desktop.

This doesn’t mean we’re getting rid of Zoom. Many people have invested in Zoom, but we’re not sure how much longer that will continue… 1) Virtual Meetings will continue, but in-person meetings will come back and 2) the money we spend annually on Zoom may not be worth it, especially when there are free or included video conferencing options in programs that do much more than just Zoom.

GOOGLE SHARED DRIVE

With remote work being as commonplace as it is, having access to shared files wherever you are is critical. It’s also much easier and faster than having to connect to a VPN to download files from an office server.

Google Drive is storage and synchronization service, meaning you can access any file on any device where your Google account is connected. Additionally, it’s available to download to your desktop, which is not only convenient, but also frees up hard drive storage space, allowing your computer to run most efficiently.

Lastly, Google Drive has recently introduced the ability to edit documents even while not connected to the internet. Google will automatically store the document to your device and will automatically update the document stored in Drive when you’re next connected to Wi-Fi.

GOOGLE DOCS, SLIDES, & SHEETS

Google’s answer to Microsoft Office products, Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets are akin to Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, respectively. While Google allows a variety of file formats to be uploaded to Drive, when you create a new document, it will do so using its own tools.

While each of the programs functions similarly to Microsoft tools, the main benefit is real-time, multi-person editing. This allows for better collaboration and communication between teams when working on the same project.

Additionally, Google keeps record of edit history and saves your work automatically, which means no more losing important work. Finally, these tools are free, making it more accessible than many other similar tools.