{"id":25904,"date":"2020-04-17T08:49:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-17T13:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/?p=25904"},"modified":"2020-04-15T10:52:33","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T15:52:33","slug":"work-from-home-tools-small-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hostgator.com\/blog\/work-from-home-tools-small-business\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Work From Home Tools to Make Your Small Business Run Smoothly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the wake of the current global health crisis, 90% of Americans<\/a> have been ordered to stay at home. Additionally, to help protect the public, businesses are either temporarily closing their doors or asking employees to set up work from home stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While abrupt work from home initiatives is a cooperative step in the right direction, it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s an easy transition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without some element of preplanning to work from home, it can be difficult to prioritize work, get the rapid responses you\u2019re used to, collaborate with team members, and even focus (cue children screaming and dogs barking in the background).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"stay<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The good news is there is an abundance of work from home tools-many of them free-that will help make your small business run smoothly during this challenging time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a quick overview of seven intuitive work from home tools you can start using today (unfortunately, none of them are AI childcare services…sorry).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Zoom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s with good reason that Zoom\u2019s revenue has skyrocketed from $330 million in 2019 to $622 million so far in 2020<\/a>. As a smart, cloud-based video conferencing and chat service, Zoom provides one of the most necessary tools for enabling employees to work from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoom offers HD video and audio conference calls, chat functionality, collaborative workspaces, and video webinars. With one click on a unique Zoom link, employees in any global location can easily connect and meet together in a virtual conference room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoom\u2019s basic free account is sufficient for most small businesses. This is especially true considering Zoom temporarily suspended its 40-minute conference call limit<\/a> on basic accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To sign up for Zoom, all you have to do is enter some basic account information and Zoom will provide you with your own cloud-based conference call account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you open your Zoom account, you will see a screen where you can start a new meeting, join a meeting, schedule a meeting, or share your screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"zoom<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once you are in your meeting, you can enable or disable audio and video for you and other participants, record your conference for future reference, manage your participants, and share your screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"zoom<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When hosting a meeting, Zoom will allow you to send your unique meeting ID to participants via email. All your participants will need to do to participate is click on the link and enter the meeting ID and password.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"people<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you have additional questions about how Zoom works, you can participate in one of Zoom\u2019s free training courses<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Slack<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What do you do when you need to collaborate with your coworkers or ask a series of quick questions about a project? A Zoom call would be completely overkill, so you need another solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this situation, there is Slack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"slack<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Slack is a free and highly organized chat tool that makes it easy for remote teams to stay connected virtually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To get the most out of chat, you can create a Slack space for everyone on your team and send out an invite. When team members receive the invite, Slack will require them to create a unique username and password.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have specific questions for one individual, you can chat directly via direct messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also create Slack channels for different projects, departments, or teams. Here are some popular Slack channels to give you an idea of how you can organize your Slack account:<\/p>\n\n\n\n