With COVID-19 causing ongoing disruption to our day to day lives, we must continue to work and build our businesses as best as we can. With that in mind, we have gathered for you a list of useful tools and services that can help you support you & your business during these uncertain times.
Make working from home fun & efficient
With COVID-19 forcing half of the world’s population to stay at home, businesses have had to make a major shift to a ‘digital first’ approach. Working fully digitally is not only about using technology but also thinking about new behaviours and making sure all your employees can work seamlessly.
Encourage your employees to maintain their standard routine – just like on a normal day – get up, get ready and start work at your usual time. Designate yourself a working space just so it feels just like your desk at the office. Maintain a schedule and use productivity apps to help you manage your workload. Here at Capital on Tap, we love Zoho Remotely – it’s a complete suite of web and mobile apps that will help you communicate, collaborate and be productive and is now free until July!
Maintain team communication
It’s extremely important to maintain communication and team spirit. There are lots of great apps that make team chats and video calls easy. Our favourite include Slack (also used here, at Capital on Tap) and TeamViewer.
For those of us who try to juggle professional and baby-sitting duties under one roof now, Krisp may be a great solution. It mutes all background noise so no more screaming kids or howling dogs whilst you’re on a call.
Managing your business online
If you are looking for some support with cash flow, Float may be a great addition. It’s a tool that integrates with accounting platforms to provide personalised cash flow management and forecasting for businesses. They’re offering free trials until May 31st for new customers or free plan upgrades for existing customers.
Our top pick goes to Chaser, the credit-control software provider, who are providing a free cash flow recover initiative for UK businesses to help chase customers to pay as swiftly as possible.
For those fortunate enough to still be hiring during this period, Breezy HR has made its video assessment and live video interviewing capabilities free of charge to businesses.
If you are running a restaurant business
With COVID-19 reducing restaurant operations to delivery only, it’s worth exploring this option so you can maintain some revenue flow.
If you want to avoid fees & commissions of Deliveroo and the like, a new tool Biteback, developed by Paymentsense may be a great solution for you. Biteback helps restaurateurs’ transition into takeaway businesses by offering an easy webpage creation tool and taking care of payment processing. As soon as your webpage is ready, you can start taking your online orders!
The transition from an offline to an online business
If you have been forced to close your retail location, now may be the best time to set up your business online. Shopify, the leading e-commerce platform, is offering 90-day (instead of their typical 14-day) trials for new customers so you can build your website and start selling your products. Shopify also uses their payment processing, so all transactions are easily managed within the platform.
Get marketing support for SMEs
In the times of uncertainty, marketing is probably the last thing SMEs want to invest money in. Luckily, the two online advertising giants have come round to help. Google has launched advertising grants for SMEs offering free advertising budget to be used by the end of 2020. The only caveat – you must have had Google Ads active in the last 12 months and if you do, a credit notification should appear in your Google Ads account. Facebook has taken a similar approach – the exact details of their grants are not known yet, but you can sign up for updates here.
Look after your & your employees’ well-being
We may not be moving far from homes but staying fit is the key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. There are plenty of online exercising sites that offer free trials or access to free classes. Our top picks include DownDog offering free access until 1st May to all their yoga classes at all levels and centr with a 6 week free trial of their fitness classes & diet programs.
It’s worth encouraging your employees to look after their mental health during those unprecedented times. Apps like Headspace or Calm may come in handy here. Headspace is offering a variety of mindfulness exercises for free to all businesses and their employees, whereas Calm gives free access to their anxiety-reducing content.
Finally, ever wondered how studying at Harvard may be like? Now you have a chance to find out – join edX and access over 2500 online courses from top institutions across the world. After all, a healthy mind is as important as a healthy body!
