4 Reasons Why Google Sheets Is the Best Software You Can Use as an Entrepreneur
Getting your business off the ground can cost you thousands of dollars. That’s before you even think about adding stock, paying your staff, finding an office space, and all the rest.
In the Modern era, you need the right software, and there are literally thousands of SAAS companies vying for your startup dollars. But did you know that Google Sheets can do most (if not all) of the tasks these expensive programs can do? It’s also free.
Read on to find out how Google Sheets may be the best software to breathe life into your new business.
1. Google Sheets Is the King of Collaboration
Other spreadsheet tools like Microsoft Excel may have more functions and features than Google Sheets, but they don’t come close to the native collaborative features in Sheets.
Even if you are a solo startup, there will come a time when you will have to share data with investors, freelancers, tax agents, or lawyers. So, doesn’t it make sense to have easily sharable spreadsheets ready to go?
Some of the best collaborative features in Google Sheets include:
- Quickly adding comments and replies
- In program chat
- Real-time multi editing from separate computers
- Integration with Gmail Chatspace
- Integration with Google Drive
Protect Data While Collaborating on Team Sheets
To illustrate Google Sheets’ powerful collaboration features let’s look at the potential downside of collaboration: unwanted changes of data by team members. You can avoid this happening by protecting ranges or sheets from edits. To do this, all you have to do is:
- Highlight the data you want to protect and right-click to open a menu
- Navigate to More cell actions > Protect range
- In the menu that pops up, make sure the range you want to protect is in the box, then click Set permissions (you can also select Sheet to protect the whole sheet)
- Choose who you would like to be able to make changes to the range
Google Meet and Gmail Chat
It’s not just the sheets themselves that are great to collaborate with. Seamless integration with other Google Apps makes it perfect for giving online presentations.
Say you have an important meeting with a client or potential investor, and you need to show them data to back up your statements. You can do so by loading your spreadsheet directly into a Google Meet call.
Just make sure you use all the features Google Sheets has to make your data digestible first. Good practice would be to use charts, pivot tables, and conditional formatting to make your raw data interpretable at a glance.
2. Templates Save Time and Money
If you’re a little inexperienced working with spreadsheets, it’s easy to look at all the features and functions in Google Sheets and be overwhelmed. But, most of the time, there’s an existing template online you can use. You don’t even have to understand exactly how each formula works and just punch in your numbers.
The best part is that you can find Google Sheets templates for free most of the time. There are even some on the Google Sheets home screen.
Here are just a few examples of aspects of your startup you can keep track of with Google Sheets templates:
- Project management
- Invoicing
- Timesheets
- Surveys
- Tax tracking
- Logistics management
- Budgeting
- Scheduling
Once you’re a little more familiar with the program, you can even make your own templates so they fit your exact needs.
3. You Can Build Easy to Read Dashboards
As discussed earlier, making raw data digestible is vital for collaborative work. It also makes it easier to perform accurate forecasts for the future of your business.
SAAS companies are aware of this, and many of them charge thousands of dollars for specialized software that can take care of this. Yet, Google Sheets can do it for free.
To make a simple dashboard yourself, you would have to pull data from Sheet 2 into tables and graphs on Sheet 1. Of course, if that sounds a little difficult, you can always opt for templates instead.
There are a few templates available in the Google Sheets template library.
Alternatively, a simple Google search should yield a match for the exact type of template you need.
Some great dashboard ideas include:
- Tracking website metrics
- Sales data
- Employee efficiency
You could even build a dashboard that deals with every data source saved in spreadsheets on your Google Drive. Then, just import data into your new sheet and format it accordingly.
4. You Can Access Your Data Anywhere and Anytime
Many of us start our own businesses to escape the 9-5 rat race. Only to find that we have to work more hours. This is especially true when the company is in its infancy.
While getting your business off the ground, you’ll find you’ll have to track data when you weren’t expecting to. That’s why having all your spreadsheets on the cloud can be a blessing.
Here’s a simple example of how this could help.
Let’s say one of your employees calls and says they need to make changes to a protected range on a spreadsheet you created. You think about it and realize they’re right.
The only problem is you’re out with your family and can’t get to a computer. Now, the employee loses time not working on the data entry. You can jump on your phone for a few seconds and change the permissions from anywhere.
A similar scenario could arise when you need to make quick changes before a meeting. Whatever the case, cloud computing is the future, especially for growing businesses.
Maximize Your Company’s Potential With Google Sheets
Utilizing these four features of Google Sheets will help your business get off to a flying start. But, they’re just a tiny taste of what the program can do for you. Make sure you check out our other Google Sheets tutorials to expand on what you’ve learned already and keep learning as your business grows.
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