Avoid Arguments By Using Google Docs
The first partnership in a website I entered into had quite a few problems. It didn’t end particularly badly or anything like that (in fact I am having a beer with my old partner on Monday), but there was always a bit of tension regarding the site and the business surrounding it. This is a real risk for online business collaborations where partners don’t necessarily meet face to face or talk with each other all that often (and sometimes never at all).
The main reason for the tension in that first partnership was that our communication system wasn’t all that good. Sure we had spreadsheets and email and phone, but we never really got a system settled for how we recorded business decisions, marketing decisions or design and content decisions. It was all a bit ad hoc with us emailing and saving over each other’s documents (sometimes unintentionally). It was not a great setup.
Recently, I have started another online project with a partner and it is quite the opposite. Everything is going startlingly smoothly and there have been no tensions, no fights, no disagreements or really anything like that.
The single greatest reason for this is Google Documents.
Now, I am sure you have heard of Google Spreadsheets (which was formerly iRows). It is basically a collaborative spreadsheet that saves in real time so one person or twenty can be working on the same document.
We have a single spreadsheet document that has a bunch of different worksheets. One for keeping track of finances, another for keeping track of the publishing schedule. Another for keeping track of advertising and marketing campaigns, another for keeping track of other blogs and sites that we want to be mentioned on. There’s really no limit there.
But the main point is that we are on the same page! (sorry - bad pun).
We also keep a another document that has the template of the format that we use to post content to our blog. That way we can both refer to that document for our own purposes and we can also share it with contractors who we hire to write content for us. This seems to be working quite well so far.
Once again, the central idea is open communication.
Google’s online documents allow collaborative abilities that simply weren’t widely available (let alone free) all that long ago.
The thing is that these tools are a great arrow in the quiver of good business communications for online partnerships and projects.
With the imminent release of Google Gears, which will allow users to take Google Docs offline, one can only hope that the aids to successful online collaborations will get even better.
