How to Use Online Resources to Better Your Business

Running a business can entail a hectic whirlwind of emotions and tasks. A high rate of productivity can help ease this, as efficiently completed and quality work will satisfy clients as well as your business’s morale. There are thousands of online resources that can help your overall work productivity and time management.

An important aspect of running a business is keeping up with the competition and, preferably, outpacing them. Working hard is important, though working smart is just as vital. An intelligent business leader seizes upon tools and opportunities that can boost productivity. Fortunately, there are a variety of online resources that can better your business:

1. Google Suite

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Business often needs to be accomplished promptly. This can make the prospect of implementing new software and tools among a team daunting. With Google, there’s a good chance many employees are familiar with the tools, or may already be using them at home. The familiarity can help integrating with Google Suite seamless.

Google Suite encompasses some tools and apps that can aid businesses tremendously. Beyond Gmail, Calendar and Hangouts Meet provide a way to organize schedules and engage in video conferences, respectively. Google Drive is a fantastic content management system, accessible anywhere from the cloud. Employees can collaborate on a document in real-time with ease, ranging from documents and spreadsheets to forms and easy-to-build websites.

Additionally, Google Suite enables a business to obtain a web address, like you@yourcompany.com, in addition to an ample 30GB storage per user. Plus, if you’re using older systems like Microsoft Exchange or IBM Notes, the data can be easily migrated. Overall, Google Suite offers a variety of great collaborative tools, which can be used to exchange universally helpful information, such as a competitor map that shows where your core markets are located to help provide an understanding of your business’s place in the market.

2. Slack

Slack is one of the most esteemed tools for team communication, whether it’s being used by friends playing a video game online or an international business speaking on a conference call. It is a wonderfully flexible communication tool that offers organized group messaging, file-sharing, message search and phone calls. It’s a great way to eradicate the nuisance of excessive group text messages or email threads, which can become quickly cluttered.

3. GoodHire and GoCo

Hiring staff can be a time-consuming task for HR, potentially causing them to neglect pressing internal issues. GoodHire is a tool that provides background and reference checks, drug screenings, driving record checks and education/degree verification, without any paperwork at all. Results are delivered within 24 hours. So adding to your team can be a quick and efficient process, helping spread HR’s duties out more.

Another HR-friendly tool is GoCo, which helps with most other HR work, including payroll and benefits management, time-off tracking, employee check-ins and performance management. GoodHire and GoCo can combine for a comprehensive, highly efficient HR experience.

4. Upwork

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It can be helpful for new businesses on a tight deadline to outsource certain tasks. Upwork is a great platform to do this on, with specialists in graphic design, social media management, copywriting, PR and web development waiting for the right offer. The site offers a bidding system in addition to a review and reference system. You get all the necessary information to make a bid that’s fair to both your business’s budget and the freelancer’s requests.

5. Telzio

Email and chat are common sources of communication. However, phone calls are still a very important means of communication for business. As a result, many are using Telzio to set up an office phone system, which can manage calls and messages from any location. Telzio offers an intuitive web interface that makes it easy to develop, run and maintain a phone system across a variety of positions, with no lock-in or termination fee being another incentive to give it a try.

6. Trello

Task management is a crucial aspect for many businesses, since disorganization can lead to miserable customers and clients. Trello comes in here. The tool allows you to create various cards and boards, with the ability to set up due dates, notes and more. Structuring and task management should be simple to add and read, which is what Trello emphasizes. Its user-friendly design makes task management feel more fun than an obligation.

7. Hootsuite

A strong social media game can result in more customers and a boost to the brand. However, posting the same or similar content manually across all sorts of social media platforms can be time-consuming. Hootsuite is a savvy social management tool that makes this process a lot easier. And you can use auto-scheduling to plan social media posts in advance, helping to free up time. You can also post on various social media networks simultaneously. Plus, Hootsuite offers an informative dashboard where you can analyze your social media metrics. You’re able to determine what’s working and what isn’t.

8. Dropbox

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Dropbox is a file storage alternative to Google Drive. It offers the ability to access the files on any device and share with others. It provides various storage options, including 2GB of storage for the free plan. Also compared to Google Drive, Dropbox has some interesting features. This includes great file syncing and the ability to be accessed on all major operating systems and browsers. Google Drive only offers bare-bones syncing in comparison.

The online resources above can help with a variety of tasks across all facets of business, from aiding HR with hiring and payroll management to providing better means of collaboration and communication among employees. Many of these tools have free versions or trials to test out if they aren’t entirely free already. These tools can provide a massive boost that can result in stronger overall performance.