Google Apps is a great and affordable cloud service offering a word processing app, spreadsheets, slideshow maker, mail, calendar and more.
[Related: How to Successfully Rename Your Business]
To get the most out of Google Apps, one needs a Google Apps subscription. For a small team or business, the pricing is $5 per user, per month.
What if you are a small business or team and only need one particular app? I was recently asked by a small team how they could share Google Calendar for tracking one another’s whereabouts, without making a full commitment just yet to signing up for Google Apps.
There is a way to share Google Calendar among a small team (under 25 people, for example) without signing up for Apps.
Create the calendar:
Whomever will be responsible for managing the calendar creates it by signing into Google and clicking on the Calendar app. Within the app, clicking on the down arrow next to “My Calendar” will display “Create new calendar.”
Name the calendar and give it a description. Click “Create” at the bottom of the screen.
Share the calendar
Once the calendar is created, click the down arrow next to the calendar and then “Share this Calendar.”
Under “Share with Specific People,” enter the email address of the person with whom you wish to share the calendar. Set permissions for that individual to let them manage, add events, or only view the calendar.
This particular team, mentioned above, had a specific request. They already had a company domain and email server set up. Their team members were all using a company email address; i.e: <personsname@companyname.com>.
The team leader wanted all who accessed the shared calendar to do so only using their business email and not their personal Gmail or other email.
The team also wanted to achieve this without having to import the company’s domain name (the @companyname.com) into Google Apps—typically required to add existing business email addresses to any Google app.
The solution was having each team member create a new Gmail account using their existing business email:
For users with existing Google accounts, have them sign out of Google and then click “Sign in with a different account.” Those without existing Google accounts will see “Create account.”
Click “Add account.”
In the “Enter your email” field, the team member enters their business email account, (the <name>@companyname.com account). Click “Create account.”
In the “Create Your Google Account” screen, the team member selects “I prefer to use my current email address.”
The team member must enter their company email address (created before) and then fill out the rest of the fields. Agree to Google terms and click “Next step.”
The team member now has their business email associated with a Google account. The person managing the calendar can add the person’s business email in the sharing settings in the calendar. When that team member is added and then logs into Google, they’ll see the new team calendar in the Calendar app.