20 Remote Work Tools to Help You During the Pandemic

20 Remote Work Tools to Help You During the Pandemic

by | May 18, 2020 | Small Business Resources

In the past two months, business owners and employees have had to adapt to working remotely. The probability is high that even after we have a vaccine, there will be a paradigm shift. More of us are going to be working from home, and that means we’ll all need to have tools to help us manage our assets, collaborate, and connect with one another.

With that in mind, here are some of the best tools available for working remotely, now and in the future.

Asset Management Tools
A lot of companies have moved to cloud-based backup systems, but some haven’t. If you need a way to manage your data and assets online, so everybody can access what they need, here are some suggestions:

  • Google Drive is a free tool accessible to anybody with a Google account. While it updates frequently, and that can be frustrating, it’s easy to use and allows you to work on documents with colleagues. It also tracks changes.
  • Dropbox is a tool with free and paid options where you can have employees and freelancers put documents for you to access. It’s easy to set up folders to organize your content.
  • Canva is one a tool that’s intuitive and easy to use for creative content. They have a free option, but the premium account is ideal for business content and collaboration, even for people who don’t have any design experience.
  • Adobe Creative Cloud is one of my favorite tools to create and collaborate on visual content. You can add team members as needed and give them editing privileges.
  • If you’ve been reluctant to embrace cloud technology for file sharing and asset management, now is the time to embrace it.

 

Time Tracking Tools
If you bill clients hourly – or pay employees hourly – then you need a way to track time spent on projects. Here are three tools to try:

Harvest is a simple tool that allows you to create projects or to-do list and track the time spent on each item. It’s best suited for tracking personal time, but not the best tool for managing employee productivity.

iDoneThis is a tool that tracks team progress on projects. If you have multiple employees working on the same project – and you want to avoid duplication of effort – this is a useful tool to have on hand. It will send everyone on your team a digest to recap what everybody did.

Time Doctor allows you to create projects and track time spent on them using a clock. It’s ideal if you need to manage employees or freelancers.

Tracking employees’ time helps to keep people accountable when they work from home.

 

Virtual Meeting Tools
Virtual meetings are everywhere these days, and I’m willing to bet you’ve already tried some of the tools I’ll cover in this section. Keep in mind that some of these may be useful for keeping in touch with friends and family as well as for business meetings.

  • Skype is the original video calling tool. It’s not the most sophisticated tool on this list, but it’s suitable for one-on-one calls with colleagues or collaborators. There’s a chat feature where you can put links and other information.
  • Zoom is the video conferencing app that’s received the most attention. It’s useful for large group meetings. In addition to real-time conversations, you can share screens and record meetings for later viewing.
  • GoToMeeting is ideal for speaker meetings where you want people to be able to dial in and listen to a speaker or host. You can also record meetings to share later.
  • Google Hangouts are a free and convenient meeting option, especially if you’re already using Google Calendar or Google Docs.
  • Join.me is a great app for screen sharing meetings. You can also use it to create a dedicated meeting room for people to visit when they need to meet with you.

Keep in mind that Zoom’s free option limits meetings to just 40 minutes, but their paid plans start at just $14.99 per month. That will get you meetings up to 24 hours with up to 100 participants.

 

Remote Login Tools
Depending on your situation, you or a member of your team may need to log in to a computer in your office while you’re at home. Here are some tools that can help you.

Remote PC allows you to access computers and create teams to allow for easy collaboration with your employers or freelancers.

TeamViewer has a free option for personal use and a business option where you can allow multiple users to log in remotely.

LogMeIn offers a free trial and account options for business owners and IT professionals who may need to log in remotely to fix computer issues.
Keep in mind that for any of these tools to work, the computer being accessed must be turned on.

 

Project Management Tools
Even small businesses may have ongoing projects where multiple employees must collaborate to complete their work. Here are some of the best project management tools to try.

  • Asana allows you to create projects and tasks, assign them to employees, upload files, and communicate via live chat.
  • Trello gives you an easy-to-use dashboard where you can track projects, mark them as urgent, and even color-code them to make it easy for collaborators to see what they need to do.
  • Basecamp has calendar management and project management tools on a convenient dashboard. You can grant access to employees and freelancers for easy communication.
  • Microsoft Office Teams allows you to download Microsoft tools such as Word and Excel onto your computer and collaborate with employees.
  • G Suite is a Google-created tool that allows teams to collaborate and manage products using Google Docs and Google Slides, as well as creating and working from a shared calendar.

The likelihood is strong that working remotely will be the norm in the future. It’s going to be essential for business owners and employees to have the best tools to help them keep track of their assets and collaborate with one another. The tools on this list are some of my favorites

Keeping Your Business Relevant During a Pandemic

by | May 14, 2020 | Small Business Resources

There’s no question that we are living in a surreal and scary time. The COVID-19 virus went from being a distant headline to an overwhelming reality. Cases in the United States and around the world are increasing exponentially and in a short time, we’ve gone from business as usual to most of the world’s population sheltering in their homes.

For business owners, the element of uncertainty looms large. Governments are advising non-essential businesses to close to protect employees and the public. If your business is going to survive, it will be because you find a way to keep your products and services relevant to the people in your target audience. 

The answer for most businesses is going to require creative thinking. Here are some tips to help you find your relevance and maintain your audience during the global crisis.

Start with Your Customers
In a time of uncertainty, it’s always a good idea to let your customers lead the way. Ask yourself what your customers need from you right now – and what they’ll need from you a month from now. Better yet: ask your customers what they need.

While there’s certainly a lot of stress involved in running a business during a pandemic, it’s important to remember that we have resources that are still available to us even if our offices and stores are closed. We have the technology to help us keep in touch with our audiences. That’s not a small thing.

Your customers may need you to deliver services in a new way. They may need your services or products to adapt to their current situation. You won’t know unless you ask.

Embrace Creativity to Retain Your Customers
Once you know what your audience wants, it’s time to figure out how to adapt your business to provide it. The answer may be an obvious one. For example, many restaurants have transformed into takeout and delivery services. Diners may not be able to come in and sit down, but people still want to support their favorite eateries.

Here are some other suggestions that may inspire you:

  • Fitness trainers can do Skype or streaming classes. A great example comes from the martial arts community, where schools have been agile at switching to virtual classrooms to keep their students engaged.
  • Consultants, including personal coaches, lawyers, and financial consultants, can offer Skype or Zoom sessions in lieu of face-to-face sessions.
  • Some businesses (think electricians and plumbers) may be able to keep working with proper protective gear, including masks and gloves.

Keep in mind that you don’t need to figure everything out on your own. There’s help available.

Prioritize Safety
No business will survive the current crisis that doesn’t take the situation seriously. This is not a time to take the pandemic lightly or act as if the safety of your employees and customers doesn’t matter. People are being hit hard by an ever-worsening reality and they won’t thank any business that’s dismissive of their fears.

Some of the things you can do to show you care and that you take your customers’ health and safety serious include:

  • Posting a statement on your website and on social media outlining the precautions you are taking to minimize the risk. Here’s a good example from Target. You’ll notice that they’ve talked about what they’re doing to help employees, new cleaning procedures for their stores, precautions for product pick-ups and deliveries, and their community efforts to help people impacted by the pandemic.
  • Offering deals on your products or services that are specifically helpful to people at this time. That means being creative and being mindful of the needs of the people you serve.
  • Avoiding anything that seems opportunistic. Of course ,you are worried about the survival of your business, but showing empathy to the very real concerns of your audience won’t help you survive.
  • If you have clients or customers that owe you money, work with them to create payment plans if they ask you to. It’s natural to be concerned about cash flow but pushing people who are worrying about their own financial futures won’t make them pay you more quickly. In fact, it may make them avoid you. Be compassionate and you’re more likely to get paid.
  • In other words, you should market and advertise, but it’s essential to do it in a way that’s mindful of the current circumstances and shows your audience that you care.
    Embrace the Uncertainty

Uncertainty can be difficult to cope with, but the truth is that none of us knows what tomorrow will bring – or next month, or the month after that. Despite hopes that social distancing would be a temporary measure, the rising number of cases suggests that we’ll be battling this virus and its devastation for a long time.

One difficult decision that’s on the horizon for some businesses is the need to lay off employees. If you can’t meet your payroll, then it’s best to lay people off now and file a claim with your local department of labor or unemployment office. When you file as the employer, you’ll be smoothing the way for your laid off employees to collect unemployment benefits.

The businesses that will survive this crisis are the ones who manage to maintain their agility in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. As a business owner, you’ll need to lead your employees in a way you never have before, providing steady guidance and reassurance even if you’re filled with doubt.

Take Help If You Need It
Finally, and this is important, don’t hesitate to take help from any source that will provide it if you need to do so. I’ll go into greater detail about the help that’s available in another article, but you should be aware that the Small Business Association is providing disaster loan assistance to qualifying companies.

You can learn more here.  https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela/

Not every business will survive the COVID-19 pandemic. The ones that will are those that listen to their customers, get creative, and find ways to stay relevant. It’s going to be a long road, but your business can get through with some hard work and luck.