Ihave a Gmail account, and you probably do too. Actually, almost everyone these days has a Gmail account. That’s one free app from Google that gives access to other free apps in Google’s suite. Here are the ones we think are most beneficial to fashion entrepreneurs for the growth of the brand.
Google My Business (GMB)
This is a free tool that you can use to give more visibility to your business. When people need a service or product, guess one of the first places they search? Right, Google! Setting up your business on GMB will bring up your business on Google Maps, and Google search.
Customers will be able to easily get directions to your physical location. Having your business profiled on Google My Business helps you generate customer leads while you are doing other things. Consider it a business investment that will keep bringing returns in terms of visibility, and potential customers.
Read our article here on how to get it right when creating a GMB account for your business.
Google Meet, and Hangout
These are two favourite apps that can help you create a standard communication channel for your brand. I make use of Google Meet and Google Hangout a lot because of the private feeling they give to calls.
Whatsapp is a good place to connect with people, but if you want communication that is less prone to distractions, try Meet or Hangout. Until recently, Meet was not available to people without a Gsuite account. Thanks to Covid-19 and Google’s jealousy of how popular Zoom has become, anyone can use Meet freely until September 30, 2020.
With Meet, you can arrange for calls with up to 100 people. Currently, there is no time limit, but after September 30, calls will be limited to 60 minutes for people with a basic Gmail account. If your business has a Gsuite account, you can have more people join the meeting.
On Meet, you can share your screen with people and give presentations, run through proposals, discuss with clients, or have a company meetup without worrying about distractions. On Hangouts, you can make video calls, audio calls, and chat with people you invite to hang out with you. You can have a lot more people on Meet, and do things like screen sharing, which is not available on Hangout.
Depending on how big your business is, and what communication needs you want to meet, either of the two will be a good choice for you.
Calendar
This has to be the one tool businesspeople cannot do without. It is important to keep your appointments, especially with potential clients, investors, speaking engagements, and other business activities that are crucial to your brand’s growth. Recording each upcoming event in the Google Calendar will help to make sure you do not forget any.
Noting it down in the Calendar app helps you plan ahead, and makes sure you don’t set two appointments for the same time frame. The app will prompt you when it is near the time for your event, I set my Calendar to prompt me 30 minutes ahead of online events, so I can get myself ready mentally and physically.
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If it is an engagement that I have to commute to, then I set the calendar to prompt me hours earlier, so I don’t have to rush to the event, or worse, go late to the event.
Punctuality is the soul of business.
Drive, and Contact
Backup, and backup always, or better yet, save it to Google Drive. Your basic Gmail account gives you 15GB storage space in Google Drive. Having your important electronic documents and files safely stowed away in Drive is good practice. It means that if you lose your flash drive, phone, computer or other devices, you won’t lose your documents.
Saving phone number and other contact details on a phone’s memory is the most popular way around, but what happens if you leave your device at home and need a phone number afterwards? Saving the contact detail to the Cloud means you can find it anytime you need it. Google’s Contact provides an easy way to do that from your phone.
You can create categories such as Business, Customer Leads, Family, and so on. Should you ever lose your phone, all you would need to do is sign in to Google on the new phone and all your old contacts will show up without stress.
Docs, and Sheet
Beyond chats and instant messages, documents are ways to capture specific information and make it available to people. Creating a document, or Spreadsheet makes it easier to share and constantly update it. You and other people can access and edit a file at the same time. It makes it easy to literally ‘be on the same page,’ pun intended.
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That concludes our list of apps from Google that are relevant to you as a fashion entrepreneur. If you have other alternatives that you use, and think others should try as well, please share in the comment section below. Otherwise, please give the article a like and let us know how helpful the list is for you.
