4 tools to keep your business going when a volcano erupts

The volcano currently dumping large amounts ash over Europe has ground traffic to a halt and left people scrambling. One of our managing partners is actually stuck in Stockholm right now. This got me to thinking about how people can keep their businesses going despite unexpected events keeping face-to-face meetings from happening. We put together a toolkit to help you out now that you won’t be flying to present your next project or having that important meeting.

Skype is the best way to communicate from long distance over the web, from daily instant messaging to making international calls to video conferencing. It also allows you to transfer files, which makes it even easier to have one-on-one meetings. The service allows you to send an SMS from Skype and has voicemail and call forwarding. It’s a must have for any business these days.

Gotomeeting.com allows you to conduct a webinar, conduct training seminars or have a simple business meeting. People can call in from a landline through the Go to Meeting software. It allows you to record the meeting, share applications and get feedback afterwards. Attendees can edit documents on screen, chat, and even view meetings through an iPad. It’s a great service that allows you to demo for 30-days or purchase a monthly or yearly subscription. I’ve attended several meetings through Gotomeeting.com and it works great. 

Prezi.com is a new site that allows you to create presentations online. If don’t have Keynote or PowerPoint, Prezi is your solution. The site is easy to use and the presentation navigation helps you move beyond a typical PowerPoint slideshow. The site isn’t for everyone, but people tired of the traditional slideshow style presentations will enjoy this unique site.

Thebox.net is your solution for file sharing from a distance. For $9.95 a month, the site gives you 10 GB of space and a 1 GB file size limit. This is a great way to save huge files you want to access while you’re traveling. If you need to send a group a large file, you can just save it to thebox.net. You can give multiple people permission to access files, which makes group projects with people from all over the world simple without having to set up a hosting server and FTP clients. 

The next time a natural disaster strikes, or life in general gets in the way, don’t worry. Just use these online tools and you’ll be able to continue your work without missing a beat. 

Stefan Halley is the Digital Project Leader for The Duffy Agency. He loves to talk about social media.