Like thousands of Americans, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced me to work from home. As a small business owner, an extended shelter at home order terrifies me. Thankfully, technology has advanced to the point where many of us can work remotely at least some of the time. To help in my own small way, I created this list of the best tools that I know of for working remotely.
Video Conferencing
Staying connected with your team has become a lot more difficult since the COVID-19 epidemic has forced so many of us to work from home. Being able to see your coworkers’ or employees’ faces is so much better than just sending a text, but there are a lot of options when it comes to video conferencing. I made this list to help you compare some of the more popular options.
Starting Price: Free or $14.99/month/host for Small Teams
Zoom has had a lot of criticism recently for security issues that are way over my head, but the times that I’ve used Zoom have all gone very well. I always have fun changing my background to look like I’m at the beach. You can get away with using the free version for a while, but calls on that plan are limited to 40 minutes and then they end automatically.
Starting Price: Free or $8/month/user
I use Slack almost every day to communicate with my team, so when I found out that they introduced a video call feature, I was really excited. It doesn’t have all of the extras and frills that Zoom has, but the convenience of being able to make calls and chat all in the same program is worth it. Their free option includes 1 to 1 video calls, but if you want to include more people you will need to upgrade.
Starting Price: Free
I’ve heard a lot of good things about Microsoft teams. The free version will get you unlimited chats, audio and video calls, and 10GB of file storage for your entire team, plus 2GB of personal storage for each individual. Not bad for the a small business.
Starting Price: $6/month/user for Basic
If you love everything Google, then you’re probably already paying for G Suite. If that’s the case, then you should take advantage of the Google Meet service that comes with it.
Messaging
At the childcare center that I own and manage, we use a software called Smartcare to communicate with parents. Because that might be a little too niche for small businesses generally, I created a list of amazing free messaging systems that you should be using to keep communication up between you and your team.
Starting Price: Free
I have used Slack a lot and I think it deserves to be at the top of my list. It works great for small teams and large companies. You can use it pretty seamlessly from the desktop app to your phone. Their new video chat feature has been really convenient for working from home.
Starting Price: Free
If your main focus is privacy, then Signal is what you need. Edward Snowden famously said that he “used Signal everyday”, and there is a good reason for that. Security, privacy, and safety are what you’ll get if you use this messaging service.
Starting Price: Free
If you are still looking for another option, Whatsapp launched a business messaging app that you can download from the link above. Whatsapp is owned by Facebook and is a lot more popular outside of the United States, so if your small business has any foreign clients you might want to give this one a try.
Starting Price: $6/month/user for Basic
Gmail is pretty much the standard these days when it comes to business email. Their Basic plan comes with a ton of features including Google Meet video calling, shared calendars, 30GB of cloud storage, and a bunch of other services. I wanted to include some more options on this list, but
Starting Price: $5/month/user
If you’re on team Microsoft, Microsoft 365 is a pretty good deal. The Basic plan comes with Microsoft Teams video calling, web versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, and 50GB of cloud storage. I think they’re trying to one up Google’s offering with price points and what they’re offering. Take advantage of a good deal while you can.
Project/Task Management Software
The best project management software is the one that you actually use. I really like Asana. It is one of the lower priced options available and does everything that I need it to. However, the others that I listed have thousands of great reviews and are surely viable options as well.
Starting Price: $10.99/month/user
Asana has a ton of great reviews and is one of the lowest priced task management softwares available. I personally use it every day and it has more features than I could ever know how to use.
Starting Price: $99/month
I used Basecamp for a while at the company that I worked for before I started my own business. I’m sure it has grown and changed a lot since then, but it was great then and the reviews I see for it now all say that it is great now too.
Starting Price: $12.50/month/user
Trello has a lot of great reviews too. I’m not as familiar with the system, but a friend of mine swears by them. $12.50 per month is a pretty low price, so it could be worth a test.
Starting Price: $39/month/user
I have used Monday before. I remember it being easy to use and a good way to communicate with your team. This system has thousands of great reviews and a ton of good features.
Scheduling
Starting Price: Free
Even if you’re not a salesperson, Calendly is a great tool for scheduling meetings with team members or clients. Instead of sending back and forth emails 3 of 4 times until you both find a good time to meet, just send a Calendly link and the receiver can easily find a time in your schedule that works best for both of you.
Conclusion
There are so many amazing tools out there to help you while you’re working from home. I hope that this crisis ends soon, but in the meantime, take full advantage of all of the features here. If you’re on a tight budget, the amount of free features included with these tools should go a long way to getting you and your small business where they need to be.