Complete office technology solution for $5/month

How to get business email, website, .com, calendar, storage and more for $5/month

Google Apps for Work covers everything you could need to run a business and does it for $5 per person per month.  Currently I use it for our business website, email, document storage, calender and most communications.  One of my favorite uses is the quick scan of receipts and documents that are automatically uploaded into our storage.

Here’s how it works:

Sign up for Google Apps for Work  (there is a free trial and it is $5/month/user)

This include a domain name, this is a .com or .net website address. I recommend something short. Continue the setup and set your email. At this point you now have a dot com and matching email.

Website hosting is included and an easy way to create a site. The product is called Google Sites and I was able to get a site up in a few minutes.

Now you have a website and email!

Let’s move on to more of the day to day stuff.

You will want to install Google Apps on your smartphone and computer.

Google Drive –Document Storage -Document Scanning –Document Management

From any device, I can access any file in our cloud storage. I also can scan from my phone directly into its corresponding folder. This makes managing receipts and paperwork on the road very easy.  One of the other features that saves time is using the spreadsheet app, Google Sheets, and having links in the spreadsheet to the original document (example, the insurance amount or taxes amount has a link next to it that brings up the scanned original document.

Calendar –Can be setup with multiple users and shared calendars

Hangouts –Screen sharing of your computer to team members. –Video conferencing

Note about Google Voice: I’ve used it and still do but I highly recommend RingCentral or HelloSign for a complete phone and fax solution. I prefer to use RingCentral and it has an add-on for Google Apps and integrates fully. HelloSign also has an add-on in Google Apps.

There are tons of other add-ons that can expand the Google Apps platform even further but I think covers the basics.  I would love to hear what you think!  -Kurt

Disclaimer: I don't get anything from promoting Google but do own part of a company that offers IT support for businesses.  Ironically, we are more a Microsoft shop but do resell Google Apps.  For my construction company we use Google Apps.  I do not benefit by persuading someone to use Google Apps, I just love the product.