Hybrid Work

Traditional workspaces are quickly transforming into hybrid environments where office-based workers coexist with remote workers. For many workplaces, it is the logical transition post-pandemic. Unsurprisingly, both employees and employers love the new trend. Employees love the flexibility as they can work from the office or check in from home. It enables them to save on commuting, spend more time around their families, and enjoy a better work-life balance. Meanwhile, employees are excited by the potential for increased worker productivity, longer working hours, and reduced overhead.

Below are seven popular tools both teams can adopt to boost hybrid workforce productivity.

Zoom (for e-conferencing)

Let’s begin with Zoom, the popular tool many people have been using to communicate with team members and collaborate on projects over the past few years. Zoom provides a seamless and secure video environment where companies can bring their project teams together. Additionally, users have access to vital conferencing tools, including Chat, Zoom Phone, Video Webinars, and Rooms. These tools enable teams to collaborate virtually without the need for additional resources.

Microsoft Teams (for communication)

Microsoft Teams is a central hub where project teams can communicate with each other and collaborate without traditional bottlenecks. The key features include a chat function, document sharing, tools for online meetings, and screen sharing. You can also look forward to document storage in Share Point, audio conferencing, and full telephony support. Microsoft Teams is also straightforward and easy to use on any device.

Basecamp (for project management)

Hybrid workforces also need project management tools for planning, pipeline forecasting, improved team collaboration, and balanced resource management. Basecamp is one of the best project management apps available. It simplifies complex tasks into separate projects and comes with comprehensive features. Features include; messaging boards, scheduling, to-do lists, file storage, and group chats for faster task completion. It even has automatic check-in questions for security. Additionally, you can assign tasks per person, so users only see their current tasks.

Zendesk (helpdesk app)

Zendesk is one of the best help desk applications. It enables project teams to track support team metrics and has been shown to reduce resolution time by up to 16%. The application also allows organizations to automatically solve 69% of support tickets. Thus, freeing up valuable time and resources for profit-generating areas of the business. Zendesk also has a web widget so you can provide enhanced customer support on all platforms.

TMetric (for timekeeping)

Time is precious in hybrid work environments as the pressure to keep up with tasks can be overwhelming. TMetric solves your time tracking worries by allowing the organization to track time spent on each task. It can also track employee attendance and time off, track offline workers, and set project rates and budgets based on time worked. You can also generate relevant reports on-demand.)

Calendar (scheduling app)

Finally, hybrid workplaces can also benefit from a dedicated scheduling app. Calendar ticks all the boxes and is simple to download and set up. More importantly, it offers multiple valuable features to boost productivity and enhance efficiency. For instance, it has an address book that automatically syncs contacts. It also features reminders, event management features, and data sharing functionality.

Summary

There are so many business apps available on the market. However, to boost productivity and enhance collaboration among your hybrid workforce consider the apps above. These apps are some of the best available in terms of cost, usability, and functionality. Empower your hybrid workers today!


Looking for help? Tired and believing there has got to be a better way?

Let's talk about your business. With over a decade of experience leading companies and transforming lives, and a Master's degree in Org. Development and Leadership, Mike can help you find the best way forward!

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Mike Gingerich life leadership business coaching

Artificial Intelligence: Best AI apps for business.

Artificial intelligence, which was once deemed futuristic, is now becoming commonplace. This has made it possible for businesses to improve productivity in the current digital world. AI tools are perfect for businesses and organizations that are constantly searching for ways to increase work efficiency with minimal labor and expenditure. One of the most popular AI tools is productivity apps. Productivity apps are applications or software that make work easier and enable users to complete their tasks within a shorter duration. Below are some productivity and time-saving AI apps you should consider for your business.

Best Business AI Apps for Saving Time and Increasing Productivity

1. Timely

Timely is a powerful AI time tracking app designed to track your daily activities. It also groups tasks into projects automatically. Using a time tracking app boosts productivity by showing how much time is spent on various small activities. These small activities often add up to many hours each week.

The Timely app has a reliable and easy-to-use interface that works seamlessly on all devices. It assigns tasks to project blogs and classifies them automatically. Like other AI-powered apps, the more you use this app, the more accurate it becomes in assigning and classifying items.

2. Conversion.AI

Writer's block is a common challenge for many copywriters, digital marketers, and scriptwriters at some stage. If you have experienced this before, artificial intelligence, through Conversion.AI, makes it possible to overcome it easier than ever before. Also called Jarvis, this AI-powered software enables you to get started on your blog posts, product reviews, and other content simply by choosing a template.

You should then fill in the title, type, and best tone for the content piece. While this tool won't replace copywriters, it is a collaboration tool that helps overcome writer's block and provides out-of-box inspirations for copywriters. Many writers use Conversion.AI to creatively inspire them when feeling uninspired.

3. AgoraPulse

Social media platforms have made it easier for brands and businesses to market their products and services. It is now easy for businesses to interact with their customers and target audience through these apps. However, managing your social media presence across multiple platforms is a big challenge, especially if you have to respond to user comments.

Fortunately, several AI apps, such as AgoraPulse, have made it easy to post content on social platforms within a short time. AgoraPulse allows digital marketers to run multiple social platforms, such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn, simultaneously from the same dashboard. You can also reply to user comments on different platforms from the tool without separately logging into each platform and switching apps.

That aside, AgoraPulse scheduling feature makes it a must-have if you want to improve productivity. You can schedule social media posts in advance, allowing you to pre-plan content.

4. Fireflies

Taking notes during your online meeting is not a simple task. Fortunately, Fireflies, an AI-powered note-taking application, can make your life easier. The app assigns its assistant, Fred, to handle the tedious task of writing notes during your meeting. Simply use this tool by inviting "Fred" into meetings that you want to record and transcribe.

"Fred" will join the meeting from the beginning and record everything said during the meeting. With this, you can revisit the discussion and dig for useful information that you might have missed at the time.

5. Crayon

You should expect tough competition from other vendors regardless of your industry. However, to grow your business, you should research the various strategies used by your competitors. Unfortunately, tracking these activities manually is tedious and time-consuming. This is where Crayon comes in.

This AI-powered intelligence app saves you time and effort. It gathers and analyzes every step taken by your competitors. It also compiles data from various channels into a single dashboard to ease competitor analysis. Researching has never been this simple!

Conclusion

There are multiple ways of using AI to improve productivity and save time in your business. Regardless of the task at hand, there is no simple and shorter way to make your work easier than using business AI apps and tools for business productivity.


Looking for help? Tired and believing there has got to be a better way?

Let's talk about your business. With over a decade of experience leading companies and transforming lives, and a Master's degree in Org. Development and Leadership, Mike can help you find the best way forward!

Subscribe to receive my latest business tips and tactics in your inbox.

Mike Gingerich life leadership business coaching

Productivity tools for small business owners.

The early stages of business are the most challenging. Small business owners often have to juggle many different tasks daily. Fortunately, productivity tools can make this a lot easier. The productivity software business is expected to be worth $46.4 billion by 2021.

As more and more software is launched, choosing the right tools becomes harder. Below, we will be covering a number of the most helpful productivity tools for your small business.

1. Evernote

Evernote is one of the best note-taking apps, with over 225 million users. Although competition has intensified in the last decade, this app is still a favorite among small business owners. Some of its key features include:

2. Daylite

Daylite is a CRM and business productivity app that helps small businesses build stronger client relationships, close deals, and deliver on their commitments efficiently — which increases revenue. Daylite is a macOS and iOS app that works seamlessly with many of the built-in Apple apps, and all the Apple devices that you know and love! Daylite is consistently ranked among the top CRMs for small businesses by leading review sites for business software and is highly rated by customers worldwide.

Integrate with Apple Mail
Spend less time in your inbox while staying on top of all next steps. Save your emails to clients, appointments, and tasks so you have a full history of conversations in one place. Plus, create tasks in Daylite right from your inbox.

Remember every detail
Remembering the little things makes clients feel special and builds trust. This opens the door to repeat business and more referrals. Daylite makes it easy to remember everything by keeping track of emails, notes, calls, and next steps in one place. You can even set up follow-up reminders so that you never forget a special occasion or miss an opportunity to reach out.

Always stay in touch
Say goodbye to things slipping through the cracks because important information was forgotten or lost in someone’s cluttered inbox. Daylite keeps your team in sync by organizing and sharing everything in one place. Worried about protecting confidential information? Daylite's user permissions have you covered.

More projects, less stress
Do away with the unending stress and chaos of trying to figure out what's been done in a project and what needs to be done next. Daylite gives you visibility on the stage of each project and any next steps, so you never drop the ball.

3. Xtensio:

Xtensio is a project management tool that helps businesses connect with teams with ease. Available as a web app, you can use this tool for sharing live documents, presentations and for connecting with teams. Some of its features include:

4. Indy

Indy is a comprehensive project management software that includes everything you need to stay on top of your projects, from marketing to management to billing.

You can keep track of different tasks for multiple projects by assigning filters or moving tasks from one project to another. The tasks tool also allows you to assign tags, making it easy to see at a glance which project has the most tasks remaining. The deadline and reminders feature ensure you also deliver your work on time. At the end of the week or month, you can link your hours to an invoice by adding your hourly rate before sending the document to a client.

Features of Indy include:

5. Asana

Asana is a project management application.  Helping businesses stay on top of their goals and achieve deadlines. Available as a web app, and Android, plus IOS versions. The standard features include;

6. PeachPay

PeachPay is a versatile and exclusive invoicing platform for freelancers, companies of all sizes and streamers online. PeachPay is the first payment software allowing you to select how to split the transaction fees.

Key Features:

7. Pocket

Pocket is an offline reader that allows you to save articles and read them later without needing an internet connection. The original name of the app was "Read It Later" but later changed to Pocket in 2012. Mozilla then acquired Pocket in 2017. Here some of the helpful features of Pocket for business.

8. Microsoft To Do

Formerly known as Wunderlist, Microsoft To Do is a task list application that lets you create lists and tick them off once they are completed. Originally launched in 2011, Wunderlist joined Microsoft in 2015. Here are some of the features that have made it a success.

Bottom Line

Productivity tools for business are important. Often the simpler the productivity tool, the more effective it will be. Integration is another aspect that to consider in a productivity tool. Remember, cost doesn’t necessarily translate to value. If a cheaper or even free alternative is available that solves your problems, why waste money. Productivity tools are designed so you can focus more on what matters, growing your business.


Looking for help? Tired and believing there has got to be a better way?

Let's talk about your business. With over a decade of experience leading companies and transforming lives, and a Master's degree in Org. Development and Leadership, Mike can help you find the best way forward!

Contact Mike today to start the breakthrough!

Mike Gingerich life leadership business coaching

 

How-to-Select-the-Right-Social-Media-Management-Tools-700

Social media is important for any business’ marketing campaign. However, managing five different platforms while trying to run your business can become overwhelming. It’s probably time for you to consider investing in a social media management tool. Here are just some of the ways that social media management tools can help your business:

With so many great options to choose from in the market, it can be difficult to find exactly what’s right for you and your business. The growth of social media marketing has led to the introduction of different assistants and productivity apps, all of which have varying strengths and features. How do you figure out which tool is going to be ideally suited to meet your needs?

4 Key Factors to Choose the Right Social Media Management Tools

Your Goals and Needs

As you develop tactics and action plans, you need to consider what you actually want to accomplish through your social media presence. Your social media goals and needs will have an impact on your choice of a social media management tool. Some of the common goals that most businesses want to achieve with their social media tools are:

Once you have a clear understanding of what you’re looking to get from a social media management tool, you’ll have a solid foundation to measure your options against.

Scheduling and Engagement

No matter what your job entails, it’s impossible to be active on social media at all times. But with social media management tools, you can set a schedule for your social media updates to go live at your chosen times. To make this choice, there are various factors to consider:

Social media management tools that make scheduling easy and hassle-free can save you a lot of time and stress. Read our article on Top 5 Scheduling Tools for more detailed information.

Your “Must-Have” Features

You need to determine which features you must have and which ones would be nice to have.  Here’s one way to make this decision:

Lots of tools add on options that don’t really do much for the user but sound great. If you’re not careful when comparing the tool, you’ll be left with features that are more of a distraction than informative and necessary for your business. Because most tools don’t meet every social media management need, you may want to find one that offers easy integration with other tools, to allow you more flexibility.

Analytics and Reporting

Do you know how your business is performing across all your social media platforms?  When choosing a social media management tool, consider its analytics features and what type of reporting functions it offers. You may want to use the tool to check on engagement, follower growth, content performance, and publishing analytics. Before picking a tool, make sure it provides all the data you will need to track your social media marketing campaigns. It can also be useful to have a tool that automatically presents reports of your performance over some time.

Social media management tools are an investment worth making, especially in the digital age. If you’re just getting started with social analytics or are looking for a more streamlined and powerful tool, contact Mike today and he’ll help you make an informed decision.


Looking for help? Tired and believing there has got to be a better way?

Let’s talk about your business. With over a decade of experience leading companies and transforming lives, and a Master’s degree in Org. Development and Leadership, Mike can help you find the best way forward!

Contact Mike today to start the breakthrough!

Mike Gingerich life leadership business coaching

Jamboard-for-Digital-Brainstorming_-Now-in-Google-Suite-315No more frantically looking for a dry erase marker that works. No more writing "Save" at the top of your afternoon brainstorm session. The arrival of Jamboard to Google Suite completely changes the game. That old whiteboard in your office is about to get replaced by a 55" 4k display high-tech whiteboard. One that doesn't need markers and saves directly to the cloud.

Jamboard has joined Google Suite, a cloud-based series of Google’s famous applications launched in 2006. It joins communication apps Gmail, Hangouts and Google+, storage app Drive and Google’s Docs, Sheets, Forms, and Sites.

Collaboration Redefined

At its core, Google Suite is about helping you work better together, and Jamboard takes that mission to its next logical step. Conference calls, online meetings and video conferencing have their limitations. Jamboard breaks another wall down, letting your team work together seamlessly, in the same room or from any other point on planet Earth.

Creativity isn't confined to the wall any longer, either. With a single cord setup on a custom-designed cart, Jamboard's "whiteboard" moves with you.

More Than Words

Going way beyond the collaborative effect of old-school whiteboards, Jamboard is more than just a conducive writing surface. It interacts with the other members of Google Suite, allowing you to import pictures, attach "sticky notes," and pull things from the web on to the huge 55" surface.

When it's time for the next "jam," there's no need to try conventional methods to save your progress. Just save it to Drive, and you can pick up where you left off without needing to divide valuable whiteboard space.

From a Distance

Even if parts of your team can't be in the room, they can still be a part of the collaboration via phone or tablet. And there's no need to worry about conflicting operating systems. The Jamboard app is cross-platform, working on both iOS and Android. Jams can be moved from one board to another as well via the cloud.

The Jamboard app also allows a user to "claim" the Jamboard when they walk in the room, immediately adding Google Suite content to get the jam going.

Under the Hood

The Jamboard comes to life on a 55" Ultra HD 4K touch display. Out of the box, it runs a variant of Android Marshmallow as it’s operating system. It also features a built-in wide-angle HD video camera, a mic, speakers, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB Type C, HDMI 2.0, Bluetooth connectivity, Wi-Fi, and NFC. Google Cast is also on board to allow streaming to the surface. A Nvidia Jetson TX1 is embedded to control the Jamboard.

Two white stylus pens are included but not necessary to draw on the surface, and a mouse-like device acts as an eraser.

Jamboard is available now to take your team's collaboration to the next level.

metrics-to-measure-the-success-of-your-digital-marketing-form

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The Top 5 Ways to Stay Organized for Productivity

Unfortunately, there are going to be some days that you just don't feel totally productive.
Days where you sit down at your desk, look at your to-do list, and immediately think, "My brain just cannot handle this today." However, when you're running a business, there aren't many (if any) days that you can afford to be unproductive. That's why it's incredibly important to come up with processes to stay organized and fuel your productivity, day in and day out.

Here are 5 Steps to Aid Your Productivity

1. Plan your day

You can accomplish more with a proper plan. Don't let your work day be a free-for-all. Create structure throughout your day by spending the first 10 to 15 minutes creating your plan of action (or the last 10 to 15 minutes of the previous day--whichever method works best for you).

When you get to the office, pull out your notepad, planner, or an online app like Trello or Google Keep. Write down your top three priorities or biggest projects for the day and get started on them first, during your most productive hours of the day. Create a list of other tasks that need to be done to complete during the second half of the day.

At the beginning of each week, you also want to spend 15 to 20 minutes planning out which tasks need to be completed and by when. Giving yourself hard deadlines is the best way to make sure everything gets done.

2. Create a routine

Humans are creatures of habit and routines work well for us. Make work easy and follow a process that's natural. After creating your plan of action for the day, perhaps you want to check emails and social media notifications. Then, spend some time prepping for any meetings or appointments you may have that day before really diving into your projects and task list.

Essentially, you want to create a basic schedule that you follow daily, so your brain becomes used to the system and follows it easily and quickly.

3. Make schedules and deadlines

As I mentioned earlier, the best way to ensure you complete a task is by giving yourself a hard deadline. To make this happen, you'll need to create a schedule that works for you. Determine how long certain projects will take, then use time blocking and mark off time on your calendar. That way you'll be working on your projects and won't be tempted to schedule meetings.

4. Stop emailing

Make communication faster and easier by texting, or using a messaging service. Instantaneous conversation helps to avoid miscommunications and allows you to convey your needs and expectations much better than an excessive email chain would.

Messaging services like Slack and G-Chat (comes with Gmail) are great for instant communication between team members. Save emails for weekly updates and other announcements and employ a messaging service for all other communication.

5. Turn off your phone and desktop notifications

You simply cannot be productive if you have email and social media alerts disrupting you every few minutes. Turn off all of your phone and desktop notifications and set aside designated times to check and respond to everything. This allows you to have uninterrupted blocks of time to work on your task list.

Building and running a business requires a lot of hard work, and unproductive days can hinder your progress. Use these tips to stay productive and continue moving forward in your business.

Time Saving Tools with IFTTT

How can you save more time? Automate many of your online business tasks with an application called IFTTT.

Short for “If This Then That,” IFTTT is a web-based service that lets you create conditions where one action can lead to another action.

It’s handy for routine online work as well as social media, especially for those who use several different social media networks but don’t always have time to post to each of them.

For example: What happens if you take a photo – does it get posted on  Facebook? Tweeted? Put in Dropbox? Use an IFTTT recipe to do all of those automatically!

A recipe is just that, a formula or set of ingredients that you mix (connect) and you end up with a great time saving tool that automates a task.

It’s simple to put together recipes and actions. In fact, many you don't have to create at all but can use what others have created.

You can browse through hundreds of pre-created recipes for shortcuts to everyday activities, or create your own.

For those interested in the potential of IFTTT, and want to save time by automating tasks, here are some popular recipes.

Contacts - If you have an iPhone or iPad, when you add new contacts, you can have them sent to a note you’ve created in Evernote.

Evernote is the popular app that lets you organize your research, lists, and checklists. IFTTT Contact Recipe

Photos - If you take photos with your iPhone, you can have the photos automatically go to your Dropbox account.

This is handy if you use different devices throughout the day – instead of being only on your smartphone, the Dropbox photos can be accessible from computer or online. IFTTT iPhone Photo Recipe

Favorites - If you ‘favorite’ a Tweet (or someone favorites one of yours), that message can automatically be posted by you to your LinkedIn updates. IFTTT  Favorites Recipe

Leave a message - If you want to give yourself extra reminders about important appointments and other upcoming life events, leave yourself a voice message that includes times, places and other details.

ifttt note to self

The message can be automatically added as an event to whatever electronic schedule you keep. Leave a Message IFTTT Recipe

Get a text transcript of a voice message - Even better, give yourself an additional reminder via the ability to give yourself an actual verbal and written reminder.

If you call an IFTTT number, your voice greeting/memo/question will be converted to a mp3 file plus you'll be provided with a text transcript of the call via email. Transcript of Voice Message IFTTT Recipe

ifttt appointment assistant

 

Welcome home! - You can set your phone’s geographic/location settings to create a “Welcome” message for whenever it registers you're arriving at a certain destination.

This can be handy as a reminder to take out the trash or to turn up the heat! Arrival IFTTT Recipe

Slap it on - If your device’s weather/temperature app detects a certain heat /ultraviolet index, (usually at least 6-7), it can send you a reminder to apply sunscreen before heading out the door.

This works much better than trying to remember yourself. IFTTT Slap on Sunscreen Recipe

Keep it quiet - How often have you forgotten to silence your phone when you get to work, and then it rings? Or if you miss a call because it’s on mute and not vibrate?

Here you can create a task where if your phone detects your location is “work,” it will automatically change your phone’s volume setting to something quieter. Keep Phone Quiet IFTTT Recipe

Make it loud - If you use the preceding recipe, it makes sense to program the reverse – you can program your device so if your device detects you leaving work, or arriving at “Home,” the mute, or vibrate setting can be turned off, and your phone set to a higher volume level. Turn on Phone Volume IFTTT Recipe

How about that for some time saving automation tools?  All free of charge!  Go over to www.ifttt.com to explore more.  Set them up once, and then start saving time!

Time Saving Tools with IFTTT 1

Make Your Lead Follow-up Easy With Hubspot Sidekick 4

Hubspot is well known for its online marketing software, and its tool, Sidekick, provides another way to make business marketing life easier.  Sidekick integrates with Gmail and other email clients and is available for users of the Chrome browser, as well as for iPhones and iPads.

Overview of Features:

Hubspot Sidekick provides significant value for businesses who use it as part of their sales funnel or lead generation strategy, enabling tracking of individual emails, formerly an option only available in bulk sending email marketing.

Below we'll dig deeper into Sidekick's key features.

Profile Information

Make Your Lead Follow-up Easy With Hubspot Sidekick 3

Creating an efficient workflow is an important part of a business' operations. Instead of clicking through to a customer management system to pull up vital information on a prospect, Sidekick brings the information directly into Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple Mail. Sidekick goes where you are. It uses information from Hubspot and Salesforce, if available, to provide vital data. Sidekick also displays a history of previous sent and tracked mail per contact. This "conversation log" keeps correspondence on track and relevant.

Email Scheduling

Make Your Lead Follow-up Easy With Hubspot Sidekick 3

Sometimes it takes multiple connections to get some type of response from a lead. Instead of manually sending out emails or setting up a generic auto-responder campaign, Sidekick allows companies to customize the emails for each lead. Sidekick makes it easy to pay special attention to high-value leads who need more targeted information. Businesses can also set reminders, so they know when to send an email so the lead doesn't feel overwhelmed or unduly pressured.

It's also great if you're working after hours. Schedule your email to go out during your next work day. Then potential clients don't get the idea you're available after work hours.

Email Read Notifications

Make Your Lead Follow-up Easy With Hubspot Sidekick 2

This is the biggest key in my mind...Sidekick makes it easy for a business to find out when an email is opened. Sidekick tracks emails, so the company knows when they've been opened and what device is used. If people are reading emails on mobile devices, the email format and style can be altered to be more mobile friendly.

Sidekick is a no-brainer addition to the marketing toolkit of businesses already using Hubspot products. Even if you're not using Hubspot, this is an excellent way of adding intelligent business tracking and efficiency tools to your normal email efforts. Available with a robust free version, Sidekick just makes sense to try!

Email scheduling is a handy feature and being able to see when a prospective client opens an email from you will allow you to follow up immediately with the next email in a nurture series.   All of this makes Sidekick a great tool for small businesses.

Have questions on this or a web topic you'd like addressed here?  Email them to [email protected].

 

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