Q+A: How can I run my business virtually?
With the COVID-19 epidemic in full swing and forced “shutdowns” of all kinds at play, we’ve heard from many business owners asking this question…
“How can I run my business virtually?”
So today we’re sharing our favorite resources for operating a business virtually!
Zoom - This is our top recommendation for hosting virtual meetings. There is a free plan available, but we use the Pro Plan for $14.99 / month and can host up to 100 people in a meeting at a time. We will be using this for our Speed Meet + “Germ Free” Greet event next week and using the “break out” feature which split attendees into separate video chats. Zoom is also a good option for webinars, but we prefer Crowdcast for that purpose.
Crowdcast - We love this platform for webinars. It’s super easy to set-up and participants don’t have to download anything to their computers. You can share your screen or slides, invite others to co-present with you, include a call to action on the screen, and chat with participants. It also automatically records your session and it’s available almost immediately for replay at the same link. You can also password protect a session or charge for entry. There is a starter plan for $20 / month.
Whereby - This is our go-to for video chats on the fly. We use the free plan which includes video conferencing for up to 4 people. It’s a beautiful, user-friendly interface that doesn’t require participants to download any software. Plus you can create a custom URL with your company’s name which is pretty sweet!
Google Hangouts Meet - Google is showing up big for businesses right now. They will be be rolling out free access to advanced Hangouts Meet video-conferencing capabilities to all G-Suite customers globally including: Larger meetings (for up to 250 participants per call), live streaming for up to 100,000 viewers within a domain, and the ability to record meetings and save them to Google Drive. This will be available at no additional cost to all customers until July 1, 2020.
Loom - This is one of our all time favorite tools for communicating with video to our clients and community. With a simple, free browser plug-in, you can record videos & screen recordings and email them to your clients, customers or employees. We use this to welcome members to our community, provide feedback to client or employee emails, and to communicate in a really unique way. It will notify you when a message has been viewed and they have a wonderful free plan that works for most businesses. Here’s a sample video if you want to see what it looks like.
Marco Polo - For on-going virtual communication look no further. Marco Polo is an app that you use from your phone to video chat on-demand with friends or clients. We use it to chat 1:1 with coaching clients, in mastermind groups, and with our team members. Naturally, we also use it with our friends. The blessing of this app is that it’s not live. You can leave a video message for a friend today, and she can watch it tomorrow. It’s free and there are some fun filters if you want to play around!
Facebook Live, Instagram Live, and YouTube Live - We’re seeing a lot of business owners embrace live streaming to communicate with their customers & clients, and keep their business going virtually! Everything from offering free education and classes, to creating a space for people to connect, and more. Stay tuned because we’ll be digging into this topic more in the coming days!
Now we’d love to hear from you! What tools are you using to work virtually and remotely?
PS. If you need support right now, let us know what's on your mind. We are here for you, always.