The current global COVID-19 outbreak has pushed the labor force to welcome and embrace the idea of WFH or work from home, since the consequential quarantine protocol has implored everyone who isn’t in the frontline services to stay home.
While we are contributing exponentially to safety by staying inside, it is worthwhile to know that there are other ways to spend our free time aside from binge-watching movies on Netflix or posting perky videos on TikTok. In fact, we can still maximize our productivity (and come out of this situation with stronger business acumen!) by learning new things, especially since some digital companies have decided to make their apps and tools free for everyone.
Nurture the bookworm in you
While at home, we are assured of comfort and peace that we don’t usually get if we’re out and about. After finishing that business project or during break time, reading a book is one of the best ways to spend your hours wisely. While stimulating your brain through reading, you’re also increasing your knowledge as well as your opportunity to share that new knowledge with business partners and franchisees.
Lots of business, strategy, and management books are available at Scribd: Audiobooks & ebooks. It’s a digital library providing access to unlimited books, audiobooks, sheet music, magazine articles, etc. As an Editor’s Choice app with over 10 million downloads on Google Play Store, Scribd has earned praise from Entrepreneur: “Put an entire library in your pocket with a subscription to Scribd.” Even better is that access to Scribd’s over one million books is free for 30 days.
If ebooks and audiobooks are not your cup of tea, then grabbing a physical book for some old-fashioned reading is also a great option to use during your quiet time.
Try your hand at digital marketing
Moving your business to the next level takes more training and hard work. And now is the best time to do it by taking the opportunity to enroll in online digital marketing classes and get certifications. Since we now have tons of time working at home with nothing but our trusty PC, learning about digital marketing is both a necessity and a strategy.
Facebook Blueprint is an e-learning platform that offers free, self-paced lessons on digital marketing. Since its launch in 2015, millions of people have enrolled in at least one of the 90 online courses available including essential guide to Facebook ads, how to create a Facebook Page to grow your business, how to advertise on Instagram, among others.
If you want to maximize your know-how in online advertisements, learning how to use Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) is your way to go. WordStream says it is “Google’s advertising system in which advertisers bid on certain keywords in order for their clickable ads to appear in Google’s search results.” Google Ads helps you increase brand awareness, reconnect with website visitors, reach more customers through GMail, and many more.
Effective knowledge sharing with videocon
When Skype came out, people became huge fanatics. Videoconferencing has solved the issues of distance and waiting time for people who want to talk real-time and face-to-face while apart. Whether for business or for personal reasons, this technology has enabled people to reach out, communicate, share, decide, and solve together even if they are miles apart.
More recent times have brought life to newer premium tools. If you want to learn how to efficiently share information through screen sharing while videoconferencing, ZOOM Cloud Meetings by zoom.us is here to help you. It can hold a meeting for up to 100 persons with image, voice, and instant messaging capabilities. With over 50 million downloads, on Google Play Store alone, ZOOM is a top free app with an average rating of 4.0 stars.
If you want real-time captions to make videoconferencing more meaningful and educational, Hangouts Meet by Google has enabled this through speech-to-text technology. With the G Suite Enterprise Edition, this app can convene a virtual meeting for 250 persons with easy link access and international dial-in capabilities.
Communicating, sharing, working, and learning with your business partners and franchisees remotely have never been this easy. And the good news? These premium apps are available for free and can be downloaded on your PC or smartphone.
These are not normal times, but there are plenty of useful ways to make these times extraordinary by being wise and productive. Our businesses, after all, are living entities that need constant nourishment and now is the best time to tap our resourcefulness in spending our time in isolation wisely.
Francorp is the Philippines’s largest franchise consulting company conducting regular seminars and events. For more information, contact (+632) 8638-3142 / 0917-835-5530 / info@francorp.com.ph / www.francorp.com.ph.
As published in Esquire.com