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Small businesses need simple collaboration tools. Small businesses do not need a heavily featured tool, like Microsoft Teams or Discord. However, there is no alternative collaboration tool that aims to work with small teams. Until AirSend came along.

AirSend is a simple collaboration tool designed for small team collaboration. Instead of tools like Discord and Microsoft Teams, which offer many features, AirSend offers all the basic essentials in one organized space.

Further, Discord and Microsoft Teams have hard-to-find features and a confusing design layout. Additionally, most small team collaboration does not need all the features and functionality that Discord and Microsoft offer. 

This blog post will compare and contrast popular collaboration tools like Discord and Microsoft Teams to our simple collaboration tool, AirSend. Additionally, we will also discuss why AirSend is perfect for small team collaboration. This article is ideal for those looking to switch from a collaboration tool that may not suit small teams.

Big Team Collaboration vs. Small Team Collaboration Tools

Among the long list of collaboration tools, Discord and Microsft Teams are the most heavily used tools for small businesses. However, three problems present themselves in small businesses using Discord and Microsoft Teams for collaboration.

The first problem is the market. Discord’s primary market is gamers. However, small businesses use Discord because no alternative offers similar features. Microsoft Teams, though marketed for everyone, is most used by larger conglomerates.

The second problem is that small businesses are not using Discord and Microsft Teams to their full potential. In other words, businesses most likely aren’t using the tool the way it is meant to be used. Not using a collaboration tool to its full potential is fine; however, most small teams end up wasting money on features they aren’t even using or even need.

The third problem is that collaboration tools like Discord and Teams require a lot of management. Instead of prioritizing time spent collaborating and getting work done, users are stuck spending time managing the tool. For instance, with Discord, users have to moderate the plethora of channels and members in their server. 

For these reasons, there need to be collaboration tools designed for small teams. One in which a business is using the tool to its maximum potential and is cost-effective—a collaboration tool like AirSend, which is perfect for small teams. 

AirSend: The Ideal Tool for Small Team Collaboration

AirSend is a one-of-a-kind tool that makes small team collaboration effortless. When we developed AirSend, we wanted to create a simple design in which users can find everything they need within an open, organized space.

These organized spaces are called channels. In each AirSend channel, users have the option to have audio/video calls, track their tasks, manage/store their files, and track their notes. We creatively displayed all these features to make it easy-to-find. Instead of searching through many screens to find the right functionality, AirSend allows you to see everything within a channel. 

We also wanted to offer basic features that help small teams collaborate seamlessly. Additionally, we added a side-channel bar to help switch between conversations faster.  Essentially, each AirSend channel is primed for effortless collaboration. We are consistently updating our platform. That way, small teams can collaborate better and faster.

The Best Collaboration Tool for Small Businesses

Ultimately, small businesses need an ideal collaboration tool catered to simplicity. In other words, an easy-to-use tool. More extensive team collaboration tools like Discord and Microsoft Teams require an enormous amount of time to manage. Additionally, tools like Discord and Microsoft Teams are not often used to their full potential by small teams, simply because they do not need half of the platform’s features.

We sincerely believe that AirSend is the best collaboration tool for small businesses. Sign up to get AirSend Pro free for one year on us, and start collaborating effortlessly. To see a list of our features, check out our homepage.

We hope you are doing well and staying safe! We have new and exclusive AirSend updates, and we are excited to tell you about it. Please read about our previous AirSend updates or visit our release notes page. All of these improvements are made to enhance the user experience and make AirSend even more easy-to-use.  

A New Way To Create Channels

AirSend users can now create channels with a click of a button from their left sidebar. Click on the plus icon, and fill out all the information you need to create your channel. This new update makes collaborating with multiple clients easier and faster.

Upload Files and Folders Faster in AirSend

Users can easily search for files and folders using the search bar located in the top bar next to notifications. Once you found the document and are in the file preview, there will be a folder icon next to the download button. Clicking on this folder will immediately take you to the central file view in AirSend, where users can view all their documents.

Additionally, by clicking on the folder icon and being instantly taken to the central file view, you can upload the necessary files/folders faster.

New Profile Settings

Look better for your clients and colleagues with a new way to adjust your profile picture. AirSend allows you to zoom in/out on photos. Additionally, photos that you don’t like will easily be discarded and replaced with the uploaded previous image. Click “discard changes” to have the prior photo appear.

A New Way to Join Calls

If you are in channel A and Channel B starts a call, you can now click on the blue phone icon located on the left channel bar to be taken instantly to the call. No more switching between the two channels and clicking the link to join. 

Direct Message Faster

Now, with a search of a name, you can instantly start a one-on-one conversation. Located on the top of the left side panel is a “filter channels” bar. In the filter channels bar, type the name of the person you want to start a one-on-one conversation with. Once the results pop up, an arrow icon will be next to the person’s name, indicating a direct message.

What’s Next?

We’re ecstatic about the progress we’ve made, but our journey is far from over. Stay tuned for our next AirSend update, where we will reveal more improvements. We hope you enjoy these updates as much as we had fun developing them. 

Have feedback you would like to share? Let us know what you think through our public channel.

For some people, one of the hardest things to do is to stay organized. If you are one of these people, this blog post is for you. Working in an office has various positives and negatives. One of the positives is that there is more of a feeling of structure and accountability as opposed to a remote work setting. So how do you stay organized when you don’t feel like there’s someone looking over your shoulder?

Below are some tips on how to stay organized while remote working. They come from a great book on remote working you can download for free called Get Remote Work Done by Madhan Kanagavel.

Get Things Done

Your to-do list won’t become messy and overwhelming if you get things done as soon as possible.

Getting things done is about outcomes and accomplishing objectives, regardless of the hurdles and challenges encountered. It is the primary way you increase your value to your team. It is also the most visible indicator of your effectiveness to your team members and leaders. 

Be Self-Driven

It goes without saying, working remotely on a job you really like will make you happier and make you more productive. You work without being micromanaged and deliver excellence. Every single time. 

The benefit of being self-driven when it comes to organization is that you will take the necessary steps to stay on top of things without needing someone to tell you to do so.

Be Detail Oriented

When getting instructions, ask clarifying questions. Think it makes you look dumb if you ask questions? It makes you look a whole lot worse when you do the wrong thing.

It is easy to completely miss what is being communicated when people have totally different contexts. Asking questions will save you hours of rework. Say, ‘So if I understand you correctly, you mean that…’ Or say, ‘To summarize our discussion, here’s what we will do.’

Reduce Noise

Eventually, as the team grows, most communication channels used by teams become noisy and hard to use. This is true for all types of channels including text chat, email etc.

Address these problems swiftly by doing the following: break large distribution groups into smaller groups to make communication more relevant and remind people to only send high quality communication to large groups.

This is how you keep remote work communication organized no matter how large your team or organization is.

We hope that these remote work organization tips help you. They have certainly helped the AirSend team become happier and more productive working from home.

Until next time!

AirSend is a versatile digital workspace to share files, send messages, and complete tasks. Click here to see how AirSend can help you.

Most small businesses require simple collaboration tools. Simple collaboration tools ensure better and faster productivity. A simple collaboration tool requires ease of use, understandable features, and seamless integration with other apps. In the blog post, we list six of the simplest collaboration tools you will ever find to help run your small business. 

AirSend

AirSend is the simplest collaboration tool on the market. AirSend is perfect for small businesses seeking to: 

  • Collaborate with external and internal clients. 
  • Have built-in voice and video calls.
  • Track tasks. 
  • Have a secure file organization.
  • Keep clients in the loop with a built-in notebook.

We also offer a Gmail extension and 365 integration. That way, you can continue to connect and stay in the loop with clients even if you are not in AirSend. Additionally, AirSend is incredibly easy to use. Most users love AirSend for its simplistic design/functionality. 

AirSend also offers public channels, which can be great for small businesses looking to promote their business through an online community. AirSend public channels would also be an excellent source for businesses to receive customer feedback/suggestions.

We take care of all your business needs by organizing them into one space. Unlike most tools that offer a ton of hard-to-finding features, AirSend has all of its features in clearly visible locations. Finally, AirSend is consistently launching new updates to make collaboration more comfortable and better between businesses and clients.

Asana

Asana is a task management tool designed for large and small project collaboration. Asana is designed in a kanban style board view. The kanban design ensures visibly clear organization of tasks that need to be completed.

Further, in each Asana card, users can assign checklists, leave comments, tag, label, and leave multiple descriptions. The only issue with Asana is that users have to communicate through an Asana card comment section. Some people may find communicating through a comments section annoying. 

However, the seamless collaboration through task management outweighs the negative. Asana is perfect for those who are heavily task-oriented and need all the ins and outs of a task management tool.

The platform also offers integration: 

  • Microsoft Teams
  • Slack
  • Salesforce
  • Gmail
  • Outlook
  • Zapier
  • Everhour

This is a list of some of the integrations that Asana offers; however, the platform offers much more than the list above. When you first begin using the app, it can take a little time to learn, but once you figure it out, it will appear as one of the more simple collaboration tools. 

Trello

Trello is another task management tool with a kanban board layout. Much like Asana, Trello users can leave descriptions, labels, due dates, and checklists within a Trello card. However, unlike Asana, Trello is user-intuitive and friendly. 

Trello also features themed backgrounds, making collaboration more aesthetic. Most users love the themed designs of Trello. However, the negative functionality to a Trello card is that sometimes it can be difficult to find information. For instance, a Trello card with a plethora of information would require a lot of scrolling, thereby making it harder to find the information. 

Some users have commented about the lack of a “delete” button. Most users do not like the fact that they only have the ability to archive a board/card. Instead, most users would feel comfortable deleting boards that they are no longer going to use. 

Chanty

Chanty is a simple collaboration tool. With Chanty, team members can: 

  • Communicate
  • Collaborate 
  • Connect
  • Organize

With unlimited one on one audio calls and search history, users can get work done faster. Chanty also has a similar design to Slack. So, if you switch from Slack to Chanty, you do not need to worry about learning a new tool from scratch. 

Like AirSend, Chanty also features built-in task management, roles and permissions, and public and private conversations. Chanty is also great for small businesses looking for a tool that offers enough to get work done without being too complicated.

Finally, what makes Chanty so easy to use is its clear design. Everything is labeled, and the user interface is super easy to understand. The only downside is that most of the essential features to getting work done require the business plan ($3 per user/ per month). 

Flock

Flock is another simple collaboration tool that is perfect for small businesses. The platform offers:

  • Instant conversations
  • Video and audio calls
  • App integrations
  • Searchable archive 

Flock carries the same design concept as Slack and Chanty. The platform also helps users with their productivity by featuring tools like polls, note sharing, reminders, and shared to-do’s. Some of the app integrations they offer are: 

  • Asana
  • Twitter
  • Google Drive
  • Todoist

Aside from the platform being incredibly easy to use, Flock also features ten public channels for group conversations and feedback. So, if you are a small business looking to get customer feedback or want to start a community with other businesses, Flock would be a neat tool to try out. 

Monday

Monday is another highly effective, simple collaboration tool. The platform is perfect for small businesses, project management, organization, and of course, collaboration. With Monday, businesses and workers can effectively organize their workload and increase their work efficiency. 

Monday is also perfect for marketing. Specifically social media campaigning. And as a small business, marketing is EVERYTHING. The platform offers a dashboard view of analytics and metrics, forms, secure file uploads, and updates on currents tasks/projects.

Also, for businesses that like to have an online presence, Monday has amazing content planning templates. Let’s get back to why Monday is a simplistic and much-favored collaboration tool. Monday is known for its colorful design, making it easier to distinguish priority tasks.

The app also has an amazing project overview layout. Users can clearly see what is done and what needs to be done, along with a five-star rating system of the project’s priority level and timeline.

Much like AirSend, Monday is a centralized collaboration tool where all your business needs can be met with one tool. No more app switching. Best of all, the platform features integrations. Here is a list of the few integrations they offer: 

  • Outlook
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Dropbox
  • Slack
  • Zoom
  • Google Calendar

Wrapping Up

Ultimately, each collaboration tool is optimized for simplicity. It is important to have a simplistic tool that is not too hard to figure out, allows workers to get all their work done in one space, and offers integrations.  In this article, we list six of the simplest collaboration tools on the market. 

  1. AirSend
  2. Asana
  3. Trello
  4. Chanty
  5. Flock
  6. Monday

Each of these tools is guaranteed to help you thrive in your small business- whether it is coordinating with clients to marketing your business with a public channel. Do you need a simple and easy to use collaboration tool to work with clients and other businesses? Sign up for AirSend, and get AirSend Pro free for one year. 

Some tips and tricks to consider when it comes to good remote work manners.

Hello, how are you doing? It’s been almost a year since many of us were plunged into working from home. And while you’d think this would be enough time for us to get our bearings, some of us are still floundering. Below are some tips and tricks to consider when it comes to good remote work manners. They come from a book you can download for free called Get Remote Work Done by Madhan Kanagavel.

Share Accomplishments, Not Presence

Many people new to remote work are anxious to show their presence or the fact that they are busy doing things. Sharing outcomes is more impressive and shows real work is getting done. 

Be Polite

Since remote communication can completely remove the other cues you get when talking to a person face-to-face, make sure you go out of your way to be polite and respectful.

Be Responsive

Any message sent to you that needs your attention (could be a reply or an action) typically cannot go unanswered for more than 24 hours. 

Be Engaged

It is quite easy to be detached and aloof, minding your own work and not really participating in chat, banter or discussions. But do make the effort to engage with your team. This is hard work and it can be a bit distracting, but makes work way more fun. 

Develop Cultural Awareness

When working across different time zones, it is highly likely that you will be working with a diverse set of people. This requires effort from the leaders and the team to ensure that everyone is aware of such differences and to be sensitive to those needs. When cultural norms are being flouted inadvertently, the leader must make the effort to correct and explain the problem. 

Have Better Meetings

Meetings suck up time. So, to be productive, try to organize your time so that you bunch all of your meetings as much as possible in a day and if possible, keep a few days in a week relatively meeting-free. Keep meetings to the point and don’t let a few people monopolize the conversation.

We hope that these remote work tips and tricks help you. They have certainly helped the AirSend team become happier and more productive working from home.

Until next time!

AirSend is a versatile digital workspace to share files, send messages, and complete tasks. Click here to see how AirSend can help you.