Online Meetings | David Chan

How Online Meetings Help Small Businesses

Online meetings for any size business are smart, productive and downright cost-effective. But they are especially beneficial for small businesses, because they not only save your company money, they allow you to “be there”, without really “being there.”

One of the keys to success for any business is constant communications with your client. If you’re in sales you know all too well the importance of picking up the phone and calling your client on a regular basis. Of course, it’s also useful to drive or fly to meet your clients in person, as well. But, with the high cost of travel these days and the amount of time out of the office, sometimes you can accomplish an “in person” meeting by going online.

Online meetings are so easy and cost-effective these days, that it should be part of every small business’ toolkit. Here’s an illustration of how they work. Essentially both you and the client meet at a designated web “space.” This web space is a private area that only you, the client and other designated parties have permission to enter. Any of the parties can display their screens, collaboratively navigate web sites, share documents and even draw on the screen. In fact, you can also give control of your computer to the other party(ies) in order for them to point to something on your screen and vice versa.

Online meetings can also be useful for working with your team members or employees. Let’s say that you are working on spreadsheet budget and one of your employees lives an hour from the office or perhaps even in another state. With online meeting software, you can both be looking at and modifying your budget in real time just as if that person were sitting right next to you.

Online meetings can also be useful for training purposes. In my small business, I have team members in northern and southern California, as well as a few abroad. Every week, we all get online to train each other on new research techniques, marketing tools and even technical support.

Speaking of technical support, one of the side benefits of some of these tools is the ability to support someone remotely. On occasion one of our colleagues has a problem with email access or similar problems. We are able to join a meeting, have that person give the keyboard and mouse control to one of our technical staff and voila … problem solved. This is remote access feature is extremely valuable.

The cost of one online meeting will literally pay for itself by saving you the cost of travel. This is easily illustrated by how much it cost just to go from northern California to southern California, not even including hotel and meals. If you were to drive from San Francisco to LA for example, you could easily spend $200 in gas alone. Alternatively, flying might cost you about $300 and then add another $150 or so for hotel and then meals.

If you are a small business and you work with others; whether clients, employees, partners, etc., you cannot afford NOT to investigate using online meetings, especially if you can try them for free!

Read more articles from David Chan

The Changing Landscape of Business Development

February 15th, 2009 By DavidChan

Business is done today at warp speed. People are connected not only through the telephone, but also via the Internet, fax machines, cell phones, and, for some, even over satellite transmission. In fact, I was at an event hosted by Leigh Steinberg, where the troops in Iraq had an opportunity to speak live via satellite with a number of celebrities here in the United States. Talk about expediency!

These technologies have dramatically changed the way in which business development is conducted. I remember in the not too distant past that I would pick up the phone, call a business colleague, drive or fly to their office to meet with him / her, sign a contract, return to train and then do the cycle over again to start driving sales. Of course, there are a number steps left out for the sake of brevity.

The business development cycle today remains the same as before, but the tools have changed and the “time to market” significantly compressed. For example, let’s take tools such as Facebook, Plaxo or LinkedIn. The old, physical business card rolodex has been replaced by a number of sleek, interactive web applications. These applications, of course, allow you to instantly find your business associates and their contact details. No more need to search around for their latest information … instant gratification here.

The fax machine as we know it has been replaced with direct fax to and from your email, including the signature page(s). No longer do you need to print out the contract, sign it, find a fax machine, and then send it. A convenient feature of faxing to and from your email is the ability to be anywhere in the world … not tethered to your fax machine.

Let’s talk about training and meetings. In the past, it was almost a certainty that as part of your business development efforts, training and meetings happened in-person. It was hard to imagine having a meeting or training, for example, without a whiteboard or sharing PowerPoint slides. Today, on demand software, such as Yugma, GoToMeeting, or Webex have changed this landscape forever. Not only can your colleagues participate in an online meeting, but one can share PowerPoint slides, collaborate on a whiteboard, switch presenters and even record the meeting for documentation and download at a later date.

While we’re on the topic of online meetings and training, what about hosting a conference call? Not only is this aspect of business development easier, it’s even free. Companies like InstantConference.com or FreeConference.com allow you to set up and record conference calls for nothing, nada. You can even host as many as 150 participants at one time.

And … what about mobile / cell phones? I remember the old days of the “brick” phones. At that time few people could have imagined that a “brick” could ever be a useful device for every day phone calls, let alone business development. Yet, now the mobile device is one of the most productive business development tools of all. It’s especially true given how the device has evolved into the new “computer”. For some, these devices have replaced their need for a regular phone line.

There are plenty more examples of how these advances in technology have changed the business development landscape. The net result has been more productivity for a lot less money.