Why use Google Docs for your Small Business?
Working virtually means being able to collaborate in many ways with regards to documents, projects and other information. The key part of online collaboration is being efficient and effective.
My virtual assistant business has a core team of six virtual assistants and on a regular basis we are working with approximately 30 clients at varying levels of service. We also have two specialty support Associates and like any business we have regular meetings with the team and clients. We are not a large group.
Our core team meets once a week to discuss any outstanding issues, special events for clients and also to deal with tech and support issues. We just happen to meet virtually as we are spread across Canada and the US from Florida, to Nova Scotia, to British Columbia and also Oregon and a few places in between. Bring able to share our info is vital to the team success.
Although we use a project management system and an online storage system for files, we also use Google Docs … A LOT!
Depending upon your situation and needs, this may be an ideal solution for you as well. The main benefits of Google Docs are:
- Ease of Access Online
- Collaboration options for sharing
- Control Accessibility
- Autosave feature
We use Google Docs in a variety of ways. A few prime examples are:
For our weekly team meetings we use a doc to put in questions and answers. Because Google Docs have shared access, anyone of us can be using the doc and someone else can be in it as well. Both editing and adjusting the content in real time.
We also use Google Docs to keep our Master Social Media Content Docs for all clients. These are spreadsheets, that we can share among the team as well as with clients so that all parties can create, edit and review the information and see where it is in the schedule or what needs work and updating.
It also means that we can see progress and because we follow the same format, when one VA is away and has to take over the work – it is not an issue. The setup is the same for every client and we can all follow along – this is even more important when staff changes – you can remove and grant access to old and new people as needed.
There are many other ways to use them as well. Recently I have started using one document as a giveaway in an online class I teach. I can share a link to the document, make it not editable and then anyone with the link can open the document. This allows others to view the document and then generally they copy and paste (or export a copy) to their own system and can work on it from there.
These are just a couple of uses for Google Documents – for collaboration, you really can’t beat Google Docs – especially at this price – FREE! And not only free but reliable and free.
What other uses do you have for Google Docs? Please share and let us all know.
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