Isolation Productivity
While we always work from home, we too have had more time available to us due to a lack of in-person meetings and very little time spent in the car. The lack of in-person meetings has actually shown us how little we actually need to meet face-to-face. Less time in the car for some people might be great, but for us it means staying in one place for longer and longer periods, which is starting to feel very strange!

We have used some of this time to invest in some new productivity tools and also watched webinars on how to better use the tools that we already have.

Zoom
We wish we had purchased some Zoom stock 3 months ago, you probably do too! Pretty much everyone has heard of the video communication platform these days and if not using it for work has hosted a virtual dinner party or two. We actually started using the free version of Zoom for that exact reason – Saturday Night Happy Hour with a group of close friends (aka The Magnificent 8). The free version was only available for 40 minutes but once cut off we could easily just re-join another session.

We then decided to purchase the paid version for business use. The cost was $200 CDN for a one year subscription (or $20/month) which allows meetings up to 24 hours long (which is crazy) and up to 9 hosts can organize meetings. This paid version also allows up to 100 attendees and Cloud recording. There are other plans available that allow for more hosts and up to 500 attendees.

We have been using the paid version to record our new weekly Golf Industry Conversations series and to hold client meetings. We also like the extended time for our Happy Hour group…because how can you possibly have Happy Hour for only 40 minutes?!

Canva
We have been using Canva for a couple of years. We have recently had some of our clients register their own accounts to make brand consistency in-house much easier. All staff can have access to the account that is pre-loaded with brand colors and fonts. This ensures that any in-house signage or posters that any staff members make on their own all look the same. We think that this is very important. (You can read more about that here.)

There is a free version of Canva available. However, creating a ‘brand kit’ and one click resizing are only available in the paid subscription. The paid version has also recently added millions of free stock photos for use. The annual cost of Canva is $160 CDN (or $16.99 per month). We have recently learned how to created our own GIF’s and presentations using Canva. There is an entire ‘design school’ library for learning. While we do not think that Canva should replace your professional designer for rack cards, brochures, banners and other large print media, it can be used by your team for tent cards, posters, newsletter headers, social media and more.

Affiliate Marketing
We do not get paid by any of these companies to mention their products but if you know someone who works at one, we would be happy to 😉. We are just hoping to help you and your business become more productive being sharing the tools that we use.

We, Jeff and Tara Ciecko of CK Golf write two blogs, one is our 19th Hole Blog where we share personal experiences and the other an Industry Blog where we comment on general business and internet marketing best practices, sales strategies and give golf industry related opinions. We have recently started a Zoom call video series of Golf Industry Conversations. We have owned CK Golf  for 12 years and provide business services to the golf and other industries. As of July 31, 2016 our life and our business became ‘location independent’. Our 19th Hole Blog is about the places we visit and the things we do. If you have any questions or comments, or happen to be in the same location as us please reach out and contact us anytime.

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