This post is brought to you by my amazing friend Kim at KimGaleta.com, who blogs about personal finance and ways to achieve even the highest of goals. She’s so inspiring and helpful, so I’m thankful she’s here today to share 3 collaboration tools for your side hustle!

Whether you’re brand new to the side hustle game or a seasoned player, it might be time to take a closer look at collaboration tools. The obvious benefits of saving time and money come to mind but using collab tools will also help you to appear more professional and “together” when you’re dealing with potential clients and your team members.

 

Really quickly, here’s how I began side hustling: I once read that the average American spent 5 hours a day watching TV…and I was one of them. I realized that I could be a lot more productive with my time and earn some extra income to pay down debt by finding a side hustle or two. So, I started out freelancing via Upwork.com two years ago, first as a transcriptionist and then transitioned into ghostwriting and copywriting. More recently, I launched my own blog to share my debt free journey with others, as wells as tips on getting organized and staying motivated.

This post contains some of the most helpful tools I’ve discovered during my journey! I’ll cover calendar management, video conferencing and document sharing tools for your side hustle. We’ll touch on the features, benefits, costs and my takeaways on each. And this is not a sponsored post.

1- CALENDAR MANAGEMENT AND SCHEDULING TOOLS

Managing your calendar can be difficult, especially if you’ve got several side hustles going on at the same time.

There are a ton of options out there but YouCanBook.Me is my go-to scheduling tool. I’ve been using it for about 18 months and could not be happier with the user-friendliness and features.

 

How it Works:

With YCB, you can create and share a customizable calendar URL with everyone you need to connect with. The calendar also syncs with your email calendar (like Gmail) and your phone.

 

Benefits:

• You’ll no longer need to email back and forth trying to pin down a mutually convenient time for an upcoming meeting.
• You can add your logo and a personalized message at the top of the page. This is a perfect branding opportunity.
• YCB allows automatic time zone updates based on the user’s location — I love this feature because  I’m often meeting with people on the other side of the country or even the globe. It eliminates any confusion as to the meeting start time.
• Whenever a client or team member books a meeting on your YCB calendar, you’ll both receive an email notification and the appointment will sync directly with your email calendar.
• If you need to change the date of the meeting, there’s a handy reschedule feature.

Cost:

YCB offers both a free and a paid version . The paid version may be ideal if you’ve got several calendars to manage.

Here’s an example of how the platform looks:

 

PRO TIP: My favorite part about using this tool is that it shows how organized and efficient I am as an entrepreneur – #winning!

 

Example 1: Put your calendar URL in your email signature.

Dear Leah,

I’m really looking forward to connecting with you to collaborate on XYZ project.

As far as finding a convenient date and time, please use the link in my email signature to book a meeting.

I look forward to connecting further.

Best,
Kim
Make an appointment with me on My Calendar (link here)

 

Example 2: Include your calendar URL in the body of your email.

Dear Leah,

I’m really looking forward to connecting with you to collaborate on XYZ project.

As far as finding a mutually convenient date and time, please use this link to book some time on my calendar (link here).

I look forward to connecting further.

Best,
Kim

 

2- VIDEO CONFERENCING NEEDS

I’m not quite sure what I did before finding Zoom because I use video conferencing quite a bit. It was difficult to find a free or affordable service that met my needs.

How it Works:

Zoom allows you to host online meetings, training sessions, and even webinars seamlessly.

 

Benefits:

• The signup process is very easy and the software downloads within seconds.
• You’ll get a personal PIN that you can share with your meeting attendees.
• Another thing I love is that it’s super easy for the other person to use. There’s no tough to follow instructions. All your participant needs to do is visit zoom.us/join input the PIN and they’ll be all set.
• With Zoom, screen sharing is simple and you can easily manage your participants if you don’t wish to have them unmuted etc.

Cost:

Zoom’s free version does have a big limitation. If you’re meeting with more than one person after your first 30 minutes, a clock pops up for all participants to see that says “you’ve got only 10 minutes remaining. Please upgrade your account.” This is pretty unprofessional and distracting.

Here’s an example of how the screen share feature looks:

 

PRO TIP: The paid version is only $9 a month so not a huge investment if you’ll be doing a couple of video conference meetings and/or webinars that might run long.

 

3- DOCUMENT SHARING APPS

Google’s collab tools are a staple of my everyday life. In my day job, I use this platform to connect with dozens of remote team members across the globe. For my side hustle, I’ve completely moved away from archaic spreadsheets and documents. This has been a game changer for me when it comes to sharing articles with my freelance writing clients

You may also be at a stage in your side hustle that you’ve been able to outsource assignments. If that’s the case, then you need Google Docs to stay on top of assignments.

How it Works:

Google allows multiple people to collaborate in live documents that are easily shareable and stored to your Google Drive.

 

Benefits:

• The Google Docs and Google Sheets apps are pretty sweet. The interface looks just like it would if you were on the desktop version.
• You can access your Google Docs on the cloud or Google Drive.
• Google is such an easy to use project management tool as well.

Cost:

The price is just right because it’s completely free.

Here’s an example of how to use Google Sheets for project management:

PRO TIP: Do pay attention to your sharing settings when it comes to confidential info for your business and using Google Docs or Google Drive.

Depending on the nature of the information you’re sharing in the document you may or may not want to allow editing credentials for everyone who has access.

These three tools have helped me to simplify and streamline my side hustle collab needs as I expand my blog and freelance business. I hope you found these tips useful.

What are some of your favorite collab tools that you’ve used for your side hustle? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

 

Kim Galeta is a freelance writer and blogger at KimGaleta.com.

Thanks, Kim, for writing this!

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