Staying Connected

© Susan MacLaren 2020

As every small business owner knows, it is important to stay connected to your customers.  With Covid-19, that has become a challenge, especially if you were not prepared for this sudden transition to social distancing.  
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As a small business consultant, I’ve been getting questions about what tools I suggest for easing into an online existence. I decided to put together a few free resources to get you over the technology hurdle of engaging with your clients, staying connected to your income, and most of all, keeping your sanity intact.

Free Meeting Scheduler

I cannot stress how valuable it is to have your clients set their own meeting times without having to interact with you directly.  It is a huge time saver. It means less back and forth emails, and availability for more clients. It means setting up your schedule to include sanity breaks for lunch, walking your dog, or simply sitting and staring into space. 
 
The easiest way to set up free online scheduling on your website is with Setmore. I like it because it integrates with all of the platforms I use the most: Facebook, Instagram, Slack, Google Calendar, Office 365, Weebly, and Square.  
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Setmore has a clean, easy design. It provides auto-notifications and reminders, which means I never miss a meeting.  Clients and customers are able to reschedule if necessary, so they never miss a meeting. It also allows you to collect payments upfront, which can bring important revenue to your business.
 
If you use a Facebook Business Page as your website, you can use the free appointment scheduler they offer. Check here for the handy guide on getting it set up on your Facebook Business Page today. 

Zoom In  ​

For online meetings, it is important to use a service that won’t leave you frozen on the screen.  Zoom is by far the best video conferencing service I’ve used.  It’s free and unlimited for one on one meetings, or free for forty minutes with up to 100 participants. 

Participants can choose to call in or use the video chat function instantly, or at a scheduled meetup time. It allows each participant to share their desktop, application, or screen. It also has a texting function if you need to mention things without interrupting the speaker.   

​Zoom also allows you to schedule a meeting directly from Google Calendar or Office 365.  Once you sign up for Zoom, download the extension you need and you’ll be ready to face to face, or face to ear, right from your calendar. 

Track Your Time

As a consultant, one of the easiest ways to lose revenue is by forgetting to pay attention to your time when talking with clients. Now that people are relegated to working from home, it’s helpful to have a consistent account of how you spend your workday; for yourself, for your clients, or for your boss. 

A great free service for tracking time is Toggl.  Toggl has a clean, easy to use interface that is multi-functional.  You can set billable rates and track in real-time, manually, or with calendar integrations. You can start the timer on your phone while on a walk, and then turn it off on your desktop when you get home. Toggl allows you to create instant reports for your time - perfect for attaching to those client invoices or to make your boss happy. 

In this time of global pandemic weirdness, it turns out technology may be a bit of a savior.  Working remotely shouldn’t be a scary endeavor for you, for your business, or for your client base. These free services are just a few of the many available, but they are little life-lines for me, and for my mental health.