As a final expense or preneed insurance agent, there are a lot of tools that you use daily to run your business. Today I’m here to talk about useful technology you may or may not be using to increase your productivity and help your workflow.

Google Suite

Google Drive and its affiliated programs are astonishingly easy to use, convenient, and free. Create documents using Google’s word processor (Google Docs), which saves files automatically as you create and edit them. These documents can be “shared” with other users who can edit, comment, suggest, and copy the files from any computer with internet access. Because Google works from a “cloud,” you’ll never lose an unsaved document again, and they can be accessed, printed, and edited anywhere with a wifi connection.

Google Slides is a presentation processor with unlimited possibilities. It’s easy to use if you’re familiar with PowerPoint, but Slides lend themselves to collaboration from multiple parties, as the sharing feature allows multiple people to be working on a presentation at once. They’re easy to print, easy to edit, and easy to access from the Google Drive cloud.

The other Google Programs are useful and effective as well. Google Sites is an easy website-building software, Google Survey can be used for customer feedback, and Google Drawing is a design program that can be used for flyers, timelines, even business cards. Don’t underestimate the convenience of these online processors with their collaboration capabilities and storage-free saving methods.

Digital Calendars (The Right Way)

Digital calendars seem like an obvious choice, considering how much time we spend on our devices. However, are you using them as effectively as you can to maximize your working hours? It takes some discipline to get into good calendar habits, but the organization it brings will be worth the effort. Your digital calendar options are wide and varied, but some of my personal favorites include Google Calendar, Outlook, and Calendly.

Google Calendars are great if you are becoming more familiar with the other Google products. For those who love Google Drive, it’s easy to add planning and scheduling to your docket. Outlook can be great to use if your workplace uses Outlook regularly. The email/appointment software helps you schedule meetings, organize contacts, send reminders and alerts, etc. The last one I wanted to mention, Calendly, has several features that will make scheduling and confirming your many appointments seamless and simple. You can send a link to your calendar and have potential appointments select the time slot that best fits their schedule. They can add multiple people to the appointment as well so everyone is invited. See the demo below:

The trick with digital calendars is syncing up all your devices to one calendar system so your personal, work, and other responsibilities are all in one place. Do you have a calendar system that works for you? Share in the comments below!