5 ways Google Workspace helps us run our small business
We started CloudShed back in 2014 and it was born using Google Workspace (Google Apps / G Suite).
As Google Workspace trainers it probably isn't surprising to hear we have consistently used it for the past 8 years and as our business has grown we have embedded many of our processes within Google Workspace.
We train organisations across many sectors and help them embed their processes, this gives us new ideas all the time on how we can run our business better, faster, and stronger using Google Workspace.
We are sharing 5 tips on features within Google Workspace that we have found extremely useful when running our business.
Tip #1 - Project Tracking with Google Sheets
We love Google Sheets and we are proud of it. When running a training project with a client we use a Google Sheet to track the schedule, session sign-ups and feedback. Internally we use it for our scheduling, financial planning and internal project management (to name a few). But, what is so special about Google Sheets and why do we use it for these processes?
Feature | What it does | What we use it for |
Explore | Explore analyses your data using machine learning. Use Explore to ask questions about your data to get quick insights and visuals. | We ask it a lot of questions, hey it's quicker than working out formulas!  |
Conditional formatting & Data Validation | CF Enables you to highlight cells with a certain colour, depending on the cell's value. DV enables you to add rules, only allowing certain kinds of information in a particular cell, row, or column. | Colour-coded drop-down lists in a cell. For example, if a date is on hold (orange), confirmed (green) or cancelled (red).  |
Comments & Actions | You can leave comments and actions in Google docs, Sheets & Slides for colleagues, you can also @ them to tag them and notify them. | We both work remotely so we communicate via comments and actions regularly, once we have completed our work in a Sheet we leave a note for each other on what we need to be done next.  |
Notifications | This was one for Google Sheets but it is now in Docs! Get notified when a doc is updated or just when someone comments.  | We use this mostly in our scheduling sheets so we know when a new booking has gone in. Clients love this feature on finance sheets.  |
Live collaboration | All working in a Sheet at the same time! | We use this all day everyday...  |
Tip #2 - Client Spaces in Google Chat
This is a quick win to put into action, set up a Space, make sure external users can join and you have yourself a space you can use to communicate, share docs & assign tasks.
"It's just the two of us at CloudShed so we need to keep things quick & slick."
Tip #3 - Our Availability Calendar
Are you free on the 14th? Do you have availability for a half-day session this week? These are questions we get asked a lot, to save the back and forth for us and our client we created an availability calendar in Google Calendar that we give our clients access to. All we have to do is make sure this is up to date when a session is booked or we book a holiday!
Tip #4 - Templates in Google Drive
It's just the two of us so we need to keep things quick & slick at CloudShed and one of the ways we do this is with templates. We are in contact with clients on a daily basis and we need to make sure we are sharing the same information in the same format and of the same high quality. Templates allow this to happen as we have our core Google Docs & Slide decks that we shared with clients stored in the template gallery, we always know we are sharing the most up-to-date version and we know where to find and easily edit them.
Template examples:
Rate cards
Google Workspace & Microsoft 365 training programme
Intro to CloudShed Slide decks
Tip #5 - Keeping it Secure with Shared Drives
We all like to keep things secure, right?
Shared drives make this simple. Shared drive files belong to the team instead of an individual, if members leave, the files stay in the shared drive so your team can keep sharing information and work anywhere, from any device.
You can learn more about Shared drives in our 'Working as a team with Shared drives' session.
Don't forget
These are just a few ways you can be used Google Workspace to run your business - big or small! You can follow us for tips on how to use Google Workspace to its full potential
