Is Google Workspace Worth it for Your Small Business?

Take advantage of one of the most powerful free tools available for small businesses. Did I mention it’s free?

If you are starting a small business and haven’t discovered Google Workspace yet, you are missing one of the most powerful tools available to you. Starting a business can often have several associated startup costs, so it’s great to have access to a free program that does so, so much. While the free version is amazing and gives you access to some hefty apps, there are a couple incredibly important advantages to getting onto one of their membership levels that makes Google Workspace so very worth it for your small business.

The Apps

Google Workspace consists of a collection of useful apps for a variety of functions. I could fill a book on all they offer, but we’ll just touch on a couple of the key ones. 

Gmail

First off, as a business owner, you’re going to need an email address. Likely you already have one. Or two or three. Chances are also good you have a Gmail account, considering that they have 1.8 BILLION users as of 2020. The free version will only get you an email that ends in gmail.com, which doesn’t look terribly professional, but in a pinch it’ll do. I cannot more highly recommend that you get (at least) the first level “Business Starter” plan for the simple reason that your gmail email address can end in your business domain name (i.e. ma*****@ma*****************.com). You can get 10% off the Business Starter plan with our long and ugly coupon code: P97EAX9T39VRVCQ.

Drive

At its most basic level, Google Drive is cloud storage. But the real advantage is how you can share and collaborate with other users, giving permissions to others to edit or just to view documents, videos, pictures or whatever.

Google Workspace offers you free cloud storage to the tune of 15 gigabytes. It seems like a ton at first, since emails take up so little space, but this is the total storage of all Google Workspace apps combined. Upload a handful of space-hogging videos and a few photos and watch your storage get gobbled up in a hurry. This is one other place where having a paid membership comes in super handy–you double your storage for only $6/month.

Docs

Another great app is Google Docs, which I am using right now to write this. Microsoft Word was the king of writing apps for a long time, but Google Docs has eclipsed its popularity in the last few years. It has all of the features you would expect like formatting and auto grammar and spell check, and is simple to use.

Calendar

As the name suggests, this is a calendar app. It’s easily syncable to your other calendars and already tied into all other Google Workspace apps. Type a date in a Gmail email and it suggests you add it to the calendar; click a button and it’s there. Set alerts and reminders that will shoot you an email at whatever appointed time. I live and die by this feature. Google Calendar also integrates with all of the big names in CRM and project management apps.

So many more…

There’s a spreadsheet app called sheets that’s every bit as powerful as Excel and a video conferencing app called Meet. You can write an email in Gmail asking to set up a video conference, Calendar will recognize it and book it for both parties, all in one fell swoop. It’s so simple and so thorough I don’t know how I’d function without it.

So…Is Google Workspace Worth It for Your Small Business?

100% YES. And while the free version is a great place to start and familiarize yourself with the apps and functions, the “Business Starter” plan should be one of the first things on your list to get for the added storage, and even more importantly for the customized business email address. When I see a business email that ends in @gmail.com, I immediately get suspicious. It reeks of amateurism. We at Virtualcopia strongly recommend Google Workspace as an affordable suite of software to implement and manage your business.