Tools for business startups in the new normal must meet the demands of the times. There is a greater need for connectivity, collaboration, and productivity on a wider scale, especially among distributed teams. In the midst of changing and challenging times, new businesses can emerge and take the market confidently. First, however, you need the best tools and resources to ensure your business startup’s success.
In this digital economy, there is a level playing field for all kinds of businesses. With the right tools for business startups, even if you do not have as many funds as bigger companies, you can operate on an international standard with the right tools. With the right digital marketing strategies, you can promote your brand alongside the big wigs of your market. Anything is possible as long as you have the determination, creativity, resourcefulness, and resilience that mark the entrepreneurs of the new millennium.
And Microsoft understands this perfectly. It caters to a wide variety of users, whether individuals, businesses, industries, and communities. It aims to provide the productivity tools they need to stay connected, collaborating, and contributing to the greater whole.
What is Microsoft 365 Personal?
For instance, Microsoft Office 365 Personal is one of Microsoft’s tools for business startups that provides a more affordable micro to small businesses, often run by a sole proprietor or entrepreneur. In addition, it offers an individualized subscription to Microsoft Office 365 that is a boon to micro and small business owners. The features they avail of include access to various extras and a choice between yearly or monthly subscriptions. Microsoft Office 365 also offers personalized options that help to improve overall productivity and so much more.
A customized subscription to Microsoft Office 365 may be a suitable option for small company owners. Microsoft’s Office 365 Personal is a more affordable way for individual users to access the cloud productivity suite.
Subscribers can install and use Microsoft Office 365 on one desktop computer and one tablet for $70 per year or $7 per month. In addition, an Office 365 Home Premium subscription, which was previously the lowest option, will still allow you to install the suite on up to five computers and one smartphone or tablet for $100 per year or $10 per month.
Microsoft Office 365 is an excellent method for small businesses to increase productivity and make a huge impact. Rather than attempting to discover free products that may or may not work, your company may be better off employing a reputable office suite to help it develop and expand.
A Microsoft Office 365 Personal subscription includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher, and other applications, as well as the ability to backup and sync your information across all web-connected devices.
In addition, a subscription gets you 20GB of space on Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage platform, plus 60 minutes of Skype calling each month. So it’s a good option for individual consumers needing an affordable, cloud-connected Office suite.
What is Microsoft 365 Business?
Small business owners can also acquire additional premium membership plans for their offices. For a minimal monthly fee per user, you get business-class email, online conferencing, file storage and sharing, and desktop versions of the full Microsoft Office suite. These are tools for business startups that are significantly lower operating costs without lowering the quality of service.
Another option is Microsoft 365 Business Premium. This subscription is comparable to Microsoft Office 365 Personal, except it contains several business-specific capabilities. In addition to the programs included in Microsoft Office 365, Personal – like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Publisher – offer some security features specific to the business.
For example, Microsoft 365 Business offers Advanced Threat Protection designed to protect attachments and links. In addition, you can secure your personal data with PIN access and set who can access, copy, and save content. You can also restrict access to certain devices, limit copy and paste, and wipe data from selected devices.
You also get Azure Information Protection, Intune, and Exchange Online Archiving, all of which are designed to protect your business information.
How does Microsoft Office Help Small Businesses?
Office 365 is a subscription-based cloud version of Microsoft Office that also offers access to cloud tools such as OneDrive, Skype for Business, and Microsoft Teams. These are fantastic tools for business startups that can help you organize and run the day-to-day aspects of your business and increase your productivity.
You may, for instance, use Microsoft Word to generate material, PowerPoint to instruct personnel, and OneDrive to store and collaborate on the material.
Because it is subscription-based, Microsoft 365 allows you to run your organization in the cloud while Microsoft manages the IT and associated devices. Microsoft also protects you against potential cyber threats and provides you with all updates and the latest business software.
Furthermore, when you sign up for Microsoft 365 Business, you obtain access to the same features as when you subscribe to Office 365 Business Premium. This enables you to work from nearly any location while still reaping the benefits and premium features for which Microsoft has become recognized.
It also makes it possible for you to collaborate with members of your team and other business affiliates.
So what is included in Microsoft 365 for Business?
Microsoft 365 for Business features:
Subscription-based payments: Rather than paying large costs upfront, you will pay a small monthly fee for this service.
Around-the-clock support: You will be able to contact web support 24/7.
Monthly updates: You will get immediate access to new features and updates every month.
Desktop versions of Office apps: By purchasing Microsoft 365 for Business, you will gain access to the full versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
Cloud storage: You will receive up to 1TB of convenient OneDrive cloud storage space.
One license for Office apps: You can use the apps on up to five mobile devices, as well as up to five PCs or Macs.
Professional digital storytelling: With the help of Sway, you will also create engaging newsletters, presentations, web-based newsletters, training materials, and more.
In addition, small business owners like Office 365 because it’s affordable and comes with lots of extras. For example, Microsoft rolls out updates regularly, and the Office 365 admin portal makes it easy to manage user permissions and enforce updates. This is what you need to look for when choosing tools for your business startup.
All of Microsoft 365 Personal and Business subscriptions elements are useful for launching, growing, and maintaining your business. In addition, Microsoft offers a few subscription and payment options, so you can try out the suite of programs to see if the monthly or yearly cost is worth it for you. For small businesses with only one or two computers being used daily, the basic Microsoft 365 Personal is a great option.
Office 365 subscription tiers
Office 365 Business Essentials
One of the cheapest tools for business startups that Microsoft has to offer is the Office 365 Essentials version. It’s just $5 a month per user and includes access to Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint, Skype for Business, and Microsoft Teams. This package also includes access to web versions of Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
However, it does not include applications. It means you don’t get offline access. Another restriction with this subscription tier is that you can only install Office programs on up to five phones and five tablets at a time; with the other subscription tiers, you can install them on up to five Macs or PCs at a time.
Office 365 Business
The Office 365 Business is affordable and includes all Office applications (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Access for PCs) access to OneDrive. However, it does not include the other Microsoft services (Exchange, SharePoint, Skype for Business, and Microsoft Teams). This may or may not be relevant depending on the size of your team and your cooperation requirements.
The other potential issue with this subscription level is that it doesn’t include business email. It means you cannot create a custom email address. You won’t have as much email storage as you get with the other subscription levels. Both levels offer 50GB of mailbox space and custom email domains.
Office 365 Business Premium
Like the other versions, the top tier of Office 365 supports up to 300 users. This membership includes everything from the previous two tiers, plus Microsoft Connections, Microsoft Listings, Outlook Customer Manager, Microsoft Invoicing, Microsoft Bookings, MileIQ, and Microsoft Business Center.
We recommend avoiding this level of service. Unless you have a concrete plan for utilizing all of these additional Microsoft products. Most of these products are not necessary for smaller operations. Additionally, many third-party apps can do what these add-ons do, with more accessible interfaces.
Recent Office 365 updates
Microsoft is continually improving the look and functionality of cloud products such as Office 365. Recent additions include the following:
Upgrades to Skype: If Skype is included in the Office 365 package you have, you can upgrade for free. The latest version of Skype includes faster load times. It also has free HD video calling for groups, direct file sharing (up to 300MB, with a drag-and-drop interface). Moreover, it has a chat gallery that looks like other business-use chats with @ mentions, notifications, themes, and bot add-ons.
Simplified ribbon: Microsoft promises that the current ribbon (the toolbar at the top of the screen) will still be accessible to those who want it. However, there will also be a new version that’s “designed to help users focus on their work and collaborate naturally with others.” The new ribbon will include smarter search options powered by AI, new color themes, new icons, and more.
Microsoft translator support: This feature was added to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Under the Review tab, you can now translate entire documents or select portions of text.
PowerPoint improvements: Zoom is a new dynamic navigation option for presenting slides. You will have thumbnails you can click on to add an animation. In addition, Morph has been added to PowerPoint. It allows you to add smooth movement between slides.
New functions in Excel: Excel adds six new functions: CONCAT, IFS, MAXIFS, MINIFS, SWITCH, and TEXTJOIN. CONCAT is similar to CONCATENATE, but it adds support for a range of references. MAXIFS can get you the largest number in a range, and MINIFS will return the smallest. SWITCH evaluates one value against a list of values to find the result corresponding to the first matching value. Finally, TEXTJOIN can combine text from multiple ranges.
3 Reasons for Small Businesses to Choose Office 365
1. Low Upfront Spending
Small businesses can sign up for an Office 365 plan for a set monthly fee. It saves your business a hefty, upfront investment. This is in comparison with funds to purchase new hardware servers, software licenses, and CALs for the server operating system and Exchange Server.
Office 365 subscription plans offer monthly fees for businesses interested only in hosted email. In addition, small businesses can buy subscription-based access to the desktop version of Office 2013. The productivity suite comes under the Office 365 Business Premium plan.
2. Multiple Licenses
Another reason to go with Office 365 is that the desktop apps can be installed on up to five PCs or Macs per user. This is perfect for businesses that embrace BYOD. In addition, it allows employees to install the Office productivity suite on a second laptop or Windows 8 tablet.
3. Exchange Online
Hosted Exchange cost about $20-$25 per user/month when Microsoft first made it available. However, the increasing demand for cloud services and popularity forced Microsoft to redesign Exchange for the cloud. This market pressure has resulted in a robust, Microsoft-hosted Exchange Online service. It also comes at a highly competitive price per person per month.
Exchange Online offers a far more appealing cost-of-ownership proposition than an on-site Exchange deployment. M unless your company has compelling legal or compliance concerns. Moreover, Exchange Online also includes spam and malware protection, which costs extra if you buy an on-premises solution. It also and a robust suite of potential add-ons such as email encryption, archiving, and data loss prevention (DLP).
Conclusion: Reimagine the Way you Work with Microsoft 365
When most businesses are moving online, we need to have the best tools to cope with the changes. For instance, workers and students are staying at home to do their activities remotely. Therefore, you need software that can meet the demands of school, work, and businesses, wherever and whenever.
Thankfully, Microsoft knows your needs. It provides the best productivity tools that fit every kind of family or business. These tools are able to tackle different scenarios and demands. It also provides the best tools for business startups that can help micro and small businesses operate on a global scale, providing competitive products and services to their target market.
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