Google Calendar is ideal to use with your small business to schedule important meetings, tasks, and multiple coordinate calendars. You can embed it to your website and have clients reach you remotely via video links.
Google Calendar is a scheduling and time management tool that allows you to organize your daily tasks, make urgent appointments, and remind you of the crucial events that you have to go to.
It’s an excellent tool for business people who have multiple things to do every day and need to simplify these tasks into manageable bits with reminders.
You can schedule remote calls with the click of a button to engage with your clients, your staff, business deals, or coordinate with vendors. You can also use Google Calendar to schedule non-work stuff but equally important to you.
We have compiled a detailed article to learn how to efficiently use Google Calendar to give your small business a daily boost.
Google Calendar Sign-In
To sign in to Google Calendar, you need to create a Gmail account if you don’t have one.
To create an account, go to the Google search box and type Gmail. Click on the Gmail icon and select “Create an Account.” Once you have keyed in the required personal info, you will get a prompt message welcoming you to the Google community.
Log in into your Google account, click on the “Google Apps” icon at the far-right corner of your Google page, and click on “Calendar.”
If you’d like to merge your calendar into your phone, you have to download it from Google Apps and work with it as an independent app, like Google hangouts – the instant messaging App.
Follow the prompts by signing in to Google Calendar.
Google Calendar Sync
To incorporate all your other calendars into one flexible tool, you can sync all your calendars in Google to see all of your important events in Google calendar so you can easily access your daily schedule.
To merge your existing calendars:
- Open Google Calendar, go to the “Settings Menu” icon,
- Scroll to “Import and Export” and click “Export your calendar.
- On your main calendar, use the same procedure and click “Import” to sync your calendar into Google Calendar so you can merge all your business events, schedules and to do tasks.
View Your Employees’ Calendars
If you work with a team of employees, you can view their Google Calendar to schedule meetings at everyone’s convenience.
To do this, go to Google Calendar, type your employees’ email address on the left side under
“Add Calendar”, ask for permission to view the calendar. Once it’s accepted, you can see your staff calendars.
Create Remote Meetings with Google Hangouts
You can efficiently Schedule meetings using Google Hangouts by creating a link for virtual meetings.
To create a link:
- Go to your Google Calendar and sign in.
- Go to “More Options” on the menu bar of your calendar.
- Click “add conferencing” and then go to “Hangouts.”
- Add all your details there and click “Save” once you’re done.
- Add the newly created link to Google Calendar
Once you add the Hangouts link, the individuals invited to your conference can find your event in their Google Calendar.
To schedule pre-arranged meetings, change your calendar with a specific day-week-month and year.
If your Google calendar has too many private events, change the view to access priority meetings for a specific week, month, year, etc.
Set Auto Reminders
To book meeting weeks in advance, set a reminder before the due date to complete essential tasks before it takes place.
To arrange an auto-reminder in Google Calendar
- Sign-in and go to the “Settings Menu” tool
- Click on Settings and go to “Settings for my Calendars,” then go to “Event Notifications.”
- Select an ideal notice before your events either in minutes – hours – days or weeks
- Choose a notification or an email alert and then click “Add Notification” in your Google calendar.
Sync Gmail Notification Events with Google Calendar
Have a fast-approaching trip, a business dinner date, or a private special event? If you get an email notification about it in your Gmail account, these will be automatically added to your Google calendar.
The events sync only happens if you have an exclusive email for your daily schedule to receive all incoming alerts about your meetings, events, and dinner plans.
Add Facebook Events to Google Calendar
If you have a personalized Facebook account that runs as your small business brand, you can merge Facebook events with your Google calendar. You can add personal events like celebrating your clients’ birthdays.
Get Automatic Daily Agenda via Email
If you’re always on the go with busy days, meeting with clients, and running multiple errands, you may need your daily plan emailed to you straight from your Google calendar.
To receive your daily plan, go to:
- Google Calendar
- Click on the “Settings menu,” and then go to “Settings.”
- Click “Settings for my calendars,” then scroll down and click on “General notifications.”
- Select “Daily agenda,” then click “email” to receive daily emails on your day’s tasks.
Easy peasy, right?
Display World Clock
If you’re an entrepreneur on the go, making regular trips abroad, you might want to add a world clock to your Google calendar.
The world clock lets you schedule important meetings and tasks in different time zones.
Here’s how to do that:
Go to your calendar, log in and head to the “settings menu bar
Scroll to “World Clock” and select the “Show world clock” box, and you’re good to go.
Add Tasks
You can create multiple lists to track your tasks With Google calendar and manage your daily routine.
To add tasks:
Open Google Calendar, click “Tasks”
Select the “Get started” button and then click “Add a task” and follow the prompts
Type your task, add due dates, subtasks, etc.
Set Your Working Hours
You can have public calendars inserted in your websites to allow clients and prospects or vendors to schedule a meeting at your convenience (or theirs). To manage public diaries, you can set in your working hours to enable sessions to run only during your working hours.
To set working hours in your calendar:
- Go to the “Settings menu.”
- Scroll to “Working Hours”
- Select your official working days and include working hours for each day
Attach Documents
Instead of typing out your meeting agenda every time you schedule a meeting, you can insert a read-only attachment for the concerned individuals to view on the Google Calendar. The accessories save you the hustle of lengthy introductions and explanations when your meeting begins.
To add attachments:
- Open your time-management icon
- Click on a specific day for your event
- Click the attachment icon (paperclip sign) to add your attachment
- If using Google Drive, use the search box to fetch your document
If not, click upload to select a document from your computer.
Sync iPhone with Google Calendar
To sync your Google Calendar with your iPhone, go to:
- Settings menu
- Click on “Accounts and Passwords”
- Add Google Account and type your Google Calendar email address
- Follow the sign-in prompts and sync your calendar contacts, events, and emails
- Your iPhone calendar will display all your planned events
Conclusion
Google Calendar is an excellent tool for small business owners better to manage your time, workload, and meetings. Most people have everything set up on their phones to work simultaneously while on the move, during lunch breaks, and any other time when not in the office.
The best part about Google Apps is that it has all the essential office tools small business owners need to work with from anywhere. Google calendar is a great virtual PA tool to manage all your business functions.
