The outbreak of COVID 19 has put the entire world out of track. It has significantly changed the lives of several people. Small business owners are the ones among all that are drastically suffering from the adverse effects of this life-threatening disease. Due to the uncertainty caused by the situation, they are bound to introduce a lot of changes to their businesses for the sake of surviving. Looking at the situation, it has become vital for them to find out the ways to grow their business and at the same time keeping themselves in a safer zone.

This article is aimed at highlighting the tools, tutorials, and WordPress resources that aid you to adjust the new changes, continue the workflow, and develop your business while fighting with COVID 19.

Best Tools to Help Small Businesses with Remote Work

This section covers a list of tools that are utilized by several companies to continue their workflows, processes, and advance their business online. You can choose any of the given tools based on your industry and business to enjoy the benefits.

WordPress – the best website builder for small businesses

Looking at the situation, many business owners might be looking to develop their online presence for which they need a stunning and efficient website capable of defining their business operations properly and generating clients for them. This is where WordPress comes into existence. WordPress is a powerful and popular website builder that can be used to create any type of website ranging from simple business sites to eCommerce sites, restaurant websites, gym websites, and so on. WordPress comes with a tremendous amount of free templates that can be utilized well in creating a website. 

After creating a website successfully using WordPress, the WordPress SEO guide can also be utilized to drive more traffic towards the website and generate more leads.

Business phone service that works anywhere

Business phone services enable the team members to take the client calls without the need to reveal their cell phone numbers. One of the most popular Business VoIP service providers is Nextiva that allows businesses to operate from everywhere with the help of text messaging, voice, video conferencing, CRM, online surveys, and live chat all combined in one platform. Fundamentally it’s a centralized communication platform that allows you to operate from anywhere. Nextiva has been adopted by thousands of business owners till date and it is rated as the best business phone service by U.S. News & World Report in 2020.

Reliable business group/team chat

Communication is like oxygen for any team to work effectively. Hence, it is essential to have a strong team chat software to facilitate proper communication among the team members. One of the most commonly used team chat software today is Slack which comes as a free tool with restricted storage. 

Slack gathers the whole team communication in one place which in turn aids you to get higher output produced no matter you are associated with a big enterprise or a small scale business. Slack can be used on almost every device, hence locating and accessing the team as well as the work becomes easier with slack whether you are at your desk or working remotely. 

Online conference calls (group meetings)

Online conference calling is yet another important requirement for running a business successfully from a remote location. Several tools like Nextiva, Zoom, and RingCentral are available to fulfill the purpose. However, call quality is an important aspect to focus on when we talk about the online conference calls. Nextiva is ideal for conducting audio conferencing whereas, for video conferencing, Zoom and RingCentral are the perfect ones.

One another option available for conducting online conference calls is Skype however call quality is not good with a larger number of people in the group. 

Bulk email service to get in touch with the customers

In the situation where you need to maintain social distancing with the people, the easiest way to do constant communication with the customers to keep them informed about how you can help them and the offers you have for them is through sending bulk emails. The email marketing services like Constant Contact or Sendinblue are the two capable of fulfilling the purpose. These services enable you to personalize the emails as well as preserve your valuable time. 

Setup online order forms to accept online orders

As businesses are bound to maintain social distancing, they are concentrating more on taking the orders over the phone or going for the online alternatives to operate their businesses. WPForm can be proved to be a great help in such situations which is an uncomplicated order form that enables you to build an order form and receive the payments via digital mediums. 

If you are looking to sell several products, then you can utilize WooCommerce which is a free WordPress plugin that links e-commerce functionality with a WordPress website and enables you to convert your website into an online shop. Running an online store is the best way to generate business while residing in the comfort of your homes. 

Create a membership site for training/tutoring /e-learning

The spread of COVID 19 has put a lock on gyms, schools, yoga classes, tuition classes, and whatnot. Hence, people are adopting the concept of virtual classes to keep things running and WordPress can be a great help to create virtual classes. Its membership plugin can be utilized to create member-specific areas, share content, and receive payments. 

If your e-learning includes quizzes, gradings, etc. then you can make use of LearnDash which is a strong WordPress Learning Management Solution. 

Several school districts are utilizing Google Classrooms which is available for free. Although it is a little bit difficult to utilize, it is capable to get the purpose fulfilled.

Appointments and booking tools

Handling appointments and bookings and keeping track of available time slots is a bit difficult with remote working. Calendly is a tool that eases the task. It enables you to simply choose the free time slots and forward the Calendly link to the clients and your clients can pick a time slot that is convenient for them. Calendly records the booked time slots in your calendar so that no one else can block it.  

Final Words

The adverse impacts of COVID 19 are not expected to vanish too soon. However, whatever the situation is, running the business operations is mandatory for survival. Hence, the utilization of the above-mentioned tools can be proved to be a great help to run the businesses while fighting with situations like the outbreak of COVID 19 – a disastrous virus.

If you are looking to develop a website in WordPress to continue running your business operations effectively in such a bad situation or need any kind of assistance, contact us immediately. We are always available to help!