Google Workspace opens up a world of collaboration and productivity tools designed to streamline your workflow. This is why knowing how to set up a Google Workspace account is essential whether you're a small business owner or a team manager.
Thankfully, setting it up is a straightforward process, but there are a few key steps to ensure you configure it correctly. In this blog post, we’ll go over those steps.
However, if you’re still on the fence about whether or not you should sign up for a Google Workspace account, let’s start with why you absolutely must.
Why use Google Workspace?
If you’re a small business owner, a team manager, or a solopreneur, here’s why you should consider signing up for a Google Workspace account:
- Professionalism: A custom email address with your domain instantly elevates your brand image, making you appear more credible to clients and partners.
- Collaboration: With tools like Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, Google Workspace allows for real-time collaboration between your team members.
- Organization: Managing tasks, appointments, and meetings is a breeze with Google Calendar, which also integrates smoothly with other Workspace tools.
- Security and control: Workspace offers solid security features, such as 2-step verification and the ability to manage data access and devices for multiple users.
- Scalability: Google Workspace scales with you. You can start small and add more users or storage as needed.
Ultimately, Google Workspace helps you work smarter, not harder, by enabling better communication and collaboration. Learn how to create a Gmail business account.
How to set up Google Workspace for your business
Once you’ve signed up for a Google Workspace account, here are the steps to setting it up.
Step 1: Access your Admin console
The first thing you want to do is access your Admin console. Navigate to admin.google.com and sign in using your credentials.
Step 2: Set up business email
If you’ve not already activated your business Gmail when signing up for the Google Workspace account, you’ll need to do so now. It’s also recommended that you set up SPF for your Workspace account.
To activate your business email, sign in to your domain registrar. Next, open the Google Workspace setup tool and change the MX records in the tool. Finally, click the ‘Activate’ button to activate your business email.
Step 3: Migrate team data
Now, you need to migrate your team’s data into your Google Workspace account, which should include emails, contacts, and calendars. This is done through the Google Admin console.
Click the menu in the top left corner. Click ‘Data migration’ under ‘Data.’
Click ‘Set up data migration’ in the next window. Follow the steps to select the migration source, date, and other migration options.
Next, enter the source and target email addresses and click "Start" to initiate the data migration.
Step 4: Manage your team
Managing your team includes adding new users to your accounts and managing their identities. To add a new user, simply click ‘Add a user’ under the ‘Users’ tab on the homepage of your Google Workspace account.
You can then add their first name, surname, and primary and secondary emails and click ‘Add a user’ to set up their account. On the user’s page, you can assign them different roles and also manage their privileges.
Step 5: Finish setting up account
You can finish setting up your Google Workspace account by setting up a two-factor authentication for your account and uploading your business or company logo for personal branding.
To upload your logo on your Google Workspace home page, click ‘Menu’ and then select ‘Account Settings’ under ‘Account.’ Then click ‘personalization.’ Select your file and upload it to make it appear as your logo. Sometimes, it can take up to four days for the image to appear on all pages of your Workspace account.
FAQs about setting up Google Workspace
Now that your Google Workspace account is set up let’s address some commonly asked questions:
What’s the difference between Google Workspace and a regular Account?
The main difference between the two is that a Google Workspace account is a paid service by Google that offers you a custom domain, more storage, and access to other collaborative tools and features. It’s primarily meant for business or work purposes.
A regular Google Account is a free service. It gives you access to Gmail, Drive, and other services, but with limited storage, no custom email, and fewer collaboration tools, making it more suitable for personal use.
Who needs Google Workspace?
Google Workspace is suitable for anyone who needs professional communication, tighter collaboration between team members, and secure data management.
So small business owners, freelancers, solopreneurs, and team managers can all benefit from its integrated tools like Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Docs, which smoothen out day-to-day operations.
Even slightly bigger teams prioritizing data security and management over user access can find Google Workspace a very suitable platform for their operations.
Is Google Workspace better than Zoho?
While Zoho stands out for its strong emphasis on privacy and affordable pricing options, Google Workspace stands out for its broader range of apps and better technical support. This means that with Google Workspace, you get a higher payoff for the money you spend.
What are some disadvantages of a Google Workspace Account?
Google is known for its user-friendly interface, and Google Workspace is designed specifically for business needs. The only disadvantage, if any, of having a Google Workspace account could be that it involves a slight learning curve to manage your users, privileges, access, and other aspects.
However, Google has provided extensive support to tackle this. Also, we have something else that can help…
Setting up Google Workspace? Try out YAMM!
You can always rely on the YAMM blog to work more efficiently with Google Workspace. YAMM blog is your dedicated resource for everything from Gmail to Google Workspace.
We cover everything from how to sign up, set up, and use a Google Workspace account for marketing to much more! Try the YAMM blog!