Guest article provided by: justaddthat.com
Technology affects the world around us. In fact I don’t know a single person who is not touched by technology in some way.
What exactly makes our society’s technology different than the past? The biggest thing would be the amount of technology that we have accessible to us.
Literally, we don’t have to think at all like we used to. We have some kind of device to think for us every day.
What happens when we decide to change our line of business from a traditional brick and mortar store and start having collaboration tools now to run the same business online? Now there’s a whole different concept.
So, what kind of collaboration tools turn a simple storefront business into the technological renovation that you need to make the big bucks? That’s where we’re going to dive into our discussion today.
We’re going through the top five best collaboration tools that are going to keep you and your team organized.
And did we mention that we’re going to do it all on a budget that you can actually afford?
G SUITE
First on our list is Google’s G Suite. Most people don’t even know what is G Suite.
G Suite is it something that’s not new to Google but it finally has a name for the technology. Everyone has probably seen or used the products available in the G Suite platform at some particular time with Google Docs, Sheets.
They’ve seen advertisements for the conferencing tool like Google Meet, and various other different things like Slides and Business Gmail and Calendar. All these features are pretty accessible on a typical Android phone (and if you don’t have an Android it’s as simple as going to your Apple Store to download it).
So, why G Suite? G Suite Basic is really interesting at $6 per user per month. If you have a small business and it’s just you, being the sole user $6 a month to keep all of your team organized is pretty reasonable. And if you need to bring on more team members, a team of three or five is still much more affordable than somebody who is trying to accommodate a larger team, say, a corporation and thousands of people.
And G Suite is the tool that gets the job done at a price you can’t really beat for technology you can actually trust.
Trello
Next on our list is Trello. Trello is a fantastic app for bringing everything together whenever you’re trying to organize a team,
Trello is perfect because the basic features are free.
And the best part about Trello is it’s a great collaboration tool to keep you and your team organized.
Let’s say you don’t really need spreadsheets and slides. Your team does need to know when the deadlines are to complete tasks. So you designate point B and point C, to be perfectly stocked by our imaginary employees named Joe, Jane, and George.
Trello will help everybody stay on task even if they’re not there for the same shift. The best part is, they can access it on their phone, as well as like in the store even better on their own home PC.
Maybe you have particular things that you need them to bring in, like it’s going to be potluck for the company and so you need somebody to bring in side dishes so you send so and so to bring a side dish and you send another employee, a dessert list. And so you delegate all of these different things so Trello helps keep your team organized and on task, without all of the fancy, unnecessary features.
Trello keeps you on task without the drama. Well, too much drama anyway.
Cozi
Next we’re gonna mention the app Cozi. Cozi isn’t really so much a collaboration tool for your business needs, but literally it helps organize your personal life as well as your business life.
Cozi is definitely the best app for trying to keep track of everything that you’ve got to do. It’s free with ads or a small fee as free.
Cozi helps organize your lists and your to do tasks. And the best part about it is you can actually assign family members to different tasks and chores.
If you’re in a pinch and you don’t know what to fix for supper and you find this recipe which Cozi conveniently has, you can send it to your honey do list for your husband or wife to pick up. The best part about it is the kids have no excuse saying why didn’t know I was supposed to do this chore.
Users can access lists from their email or on the app itself. And they are given a designated task, Cozi definitely is a win for keeping the family organized.
What if you don’t have a family, how does this work? Well think of it this way you can also do the same exact thing with roommates, or even your team members that you have on board.
Get everything done with Cozi in one handy tool.
Zoom
Next on our list has to be Zoom. Zoom isn’t necessarily so much a collaboration tool but you can definitely do some collaborating with this conferencing too, so it definitely has to stay on our list.
Zoom has so many different features that the other options seem to be missing right now in the trending world of COVID-19. When we’re struggling more than ever to try to stay on task, (whether it’s with freelancers or your regularly paid team or friends and family that you’re just trying to collaborate with on various different projects) you definitely need to have some sort of conferencing tool in your life and Zoom definitely fits the bill.
Zoom has various different fun, interactive features including being able to change your background, as well as interactive features.
It is a top choice for conferencing tools for a reason because of its user friendliness and ease of use. Enjoy the chat option when you guys have ideas and somebody’s microphone is off and they want to contribute, or enjoy quick phone calls add one for people who don’t have internet access that you want to bring in to collaborate still on the team who doesn’t have internet in this dark age.
Dropbox
One last tool that we’re going to mention is Dropbox. Dropbox allows you to only pay for exactly the space that you need. If you’re not going to be doing all the other fancy stuff like spreadsheets, Dropbox is definitely a quick fix just for file storage. Bring everything together and pay for exactly the space that you need. No wasting money, no extra cost, and you know that Dropbox is good since it’s been around for a while.
Dropbox has been around since 2007, meaning that it’s probably here to stay. And it doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere, anytime soon so an oldie but a goodie.
Final Thoughts
Now there’s a few honorable mentions that I would like to mention that didn’t make this top five list (and I can hear all of the naysayers now).
Microsoft 365 & Teams
One of the runner ups that definitely was close to I get to list that didn’t was Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams
Microsoft is definitely a household familiar and it’s definitely something that most people are familiar and trust. Teams has amazing features, but the real reason it didn’t make it on our top 5 was basically the overall costs. The licensing that goes involved with the Microsoft products are not cheap but it is a familiar name and product.
You can’t go wrong with a Microsoft product, since it’s been around and it’s usually a very reliable product, but we just couldn’t justify putting it on this list because of the overall costs. Another honorable mention is Zoho
Zoho
Zoho is a great collaboration tool that is definitely on the opposite end of Microsoft Teams and it is highly affordable Zoho has everything you can need to build a website to work on documents or spreadsheets.
It’s an all in one tool, and it’s at a really affordable low price on an annual spend.
However, Zoho did not make it on our list because unless you have a tech background, it can sometimes be confusing.
There is very little to no support because of its affordability and cheap costs. So if you make any kind of major errors or boo boos you are on your own.
Zoho however is great if you have a huge tech savvy background, and you know exactly how to go in there and fix the errors that you make quickly and efficiently.
It can definitely save you a lot of money in the long run. So it’s definitely one worth mentioning.
Evernote
Another honorable mention is an oldie but a goodie, Evernote.
Evernote is an amazing tool that is great for keeping track of your notes, as well as working together with collaboration on projects.
It’s easy to jot down a quick note to send to your team member and say hey, I want you to write an article on point A, point B, and point C.
Plus, Evernote is a great way to send that via email to your various team members.
So tell us what you think belongs on the list, something that we may have left off that you feel deserves an honorable mention. We need you to write that in the comments below.