Is too much convenience a thing to complain about? G-suite is anything but too much for a one-person business.
Most start-up owners are usually quick to set aside money for marketing, supplies, rent, and all those things that are necessary for smooth business operations. However, very few ever take software seriously.
We’re living at a time where the majority of business operations take place online. A desk drawer and filing cabinet won’t be of much help. It’s convenient software like G-suite that can really make a difference in business management.
As the owner of a one-person business, your main aim should be saving as much time as possible. G-Suite will help you do that.
Time is the biggest investment you can ever put in a business and the last thing you ever want to do is spend time doing non-productive activities.
What is G-Suite?
People think that G-suite is just about hosting professional emails for businesses. It’s so much more than that.
G-suite is a collection of productivity tools that come with online cloud-storage features. Just as the name suggests, G-suite is a service provided by Google.
Not only are your tools all in one place, but they’re also intelligent enough to able to automatically communicate and sync information from one another.
Chances are you’re already using one or several tools from G-Suite.
Google Drive, Google Docs, and Gmail- Do any of these sound familiar to you?
I’m sure you’ve heard how effective and convenient G-Suite is when it comes to bringing teams on board for maximum productivity.
What about one-person businesses? Is G-Suite worth it for start-ups and small businesses? Or, Is G-Suite too much for one-person businesses.
Read on to find out.
Most Important G-suite Features
We’ll be going through what I think are the most useful G-suite tools for one-person businesses.
Remember, the main aim of productivity tools is to allow you to do a lot in less time.
You need to spend most of your time growing your business and increasing revenue. Not struggling with low-value activities like data management and scheduling- Activities that can be handled by the right software.
1. Gmail
Probably the most popular email service provider in the world, with over 1.8 billion users. G-Suite comes with an ad-free version of Gmail.
You might be asking, “Why wouldn’t I be happy with my current free version of Gmail that works perfectly fine?”
It’s true that for some businesses, a regular Gmail account would be more than enough. However, professional email addresses are slowly becoming a requirement.
Clients and potential clients are more comfortable dealing with people using professional emails instead of personal emails.
Something like jamescook@nameofthebusiness.com- It has more appeal and also helps with brand awareness.
2. Google Drive
I know we’ve all been there- Using our personal Google Drive storage for business use. You know how disorganized it is. Not to mention how hard it is to find business documents buried under tonnes of family videos.
Most likely, you’ve also been hit with the “storage full” or “low storage space” notification several times. 15GB is not enough storage space for personal and business use.
The professional email address offered by G-suite also comes with at least 30GB of storage in Google Drive for business use. It’s also scalable, and as your business grows, you can upgrade your plan and add in more users, each with enough dedicated storage space.
3. Google Docs and Spread Sheets
You know just how important these tools are for business. Creating content, doing quick financial math, and many other uses.
Sure, these tools are already freely available, but with G-suite, you get a special feature that only business people will understand its importance.
That special feature is known as “Cloud Search.” It allows you to search for all manner of information across all tools linked with G-Suite. It might be a document, picture, video, or even a sentence. To find it, all you have to do is enter the keywords you remember.
Business sometimes involves the sharing of sensitive documents with contractors and other business associates. G-Suite is a central management tool that will help you regulate access and manipulation of your shared documents.
4. Google Calendar
Google Calendar makes scheduling so much easier. You can set appointments on your calendar right from your inbox. You can schedule everything from calls with clients, project reminders, and even meetings.
The best thing about Google Calendar is the fact that those reminders will be shared across all devices. You’ll never miss a thing. Your schedule will stay organized with just a press of a button.
5. Email Marketing
G-Suite enables you to establish and run an email marketing center. You can use your user account to create several other email aliases that will help you look and sound more professional to your clients.
For example, you can have a sales@yourbusinessname.com, customersupport@yourbusinessname.com and many more depending on how many departments your business requires.
The cool thing is the fact that you can use all those email aliases to send and receive emails. In addition to that, for convenience purposes, all emails will be handled in your user’s primary box.
6. Video Conferencing
G-Suite also comes with a powerful video conferencing feature (Google Meet) that can handle meetings of more than 25 members at a time. In fact, the video feature itself is not what makes G-Suite a stand out service.
It’s the chat and document-sharing abilities that can be done while on video conferences. It’s incredibly easy to share and pass information to other parties.
Why You Should Use G-Suite
There are top-notch productivity suites out there like Office 365 and Zoho. Why should you use G-Suite for your one-person business and not any other tool suit?
1. It’s easy to use
Probably one of the main selling points of G-suite is the fact that most people are already using the majority of tools from Google. I’m pretty sure we’ve all used Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Drive at one point in our lives.
Not much is going to change as you transition from using these tools in a “casual” manner to using them more professionally. All you have to do is familiarize yourself with the G-Suite control panel.
Even as you work, your personal account will not be far off. Google has made it very easy to switch accounts across all devices.
2. It’s the most secure productivity tool suite
Google is the best when it comes to data safety. G-suite also offers that.
You rest assured that all of your business information is securely stored in the Google Cloud Platform.
Below are but some of the few measures put in place to secure your data.
- Email encryption in transit.
- Data retention
- Privacy
- Transparency
Conclusion
Is G-Suite too much for a one-person business? No, it’s not if you want to save a lot of time and organize your business information in an orderly and easily accessible manner. It’s also one of the most affordable productivity suits in the market.
Sure, the G-Suite control panel might be overwhelming the first time you set your eyes on it. However, with time, you’ll get the hang of it.
Even though you’re currently running a one-person business, it’s important to grow your business around a stable and effective productivity tool suite like G-suite.
You’ll realize G-Suite’s true potential as your business grows and you hire more staff to work with you.