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Doculife as a small business tool

Table of contents

Introduction

What if there was one single secure app that enabled you to have real time communication with your clients, organize and plan anything related to that client, and you could take it all with you on the go? You’d be interested right? Maybe you even moved forward a bit in your seat just now, in a “is this too good to be true?” moment.

It’s not too good to be true, it’s here, it’s free to get started and it’s called Doculife. Doculife is your personal all-in-one private network that lets you plan, organize and share only with the people you choose, your clients.

In this article we’ll show you exactly why Doculife is the perfect fit for your small business. From enhancing communication with clients, saving you time from looking for documents and files, to keeping you organized like you’ve always dreamed.

Security and Privacy

One of the main features of any app that contains sensitive information is and should be security and privacy of your data. Doculife uses 256bit AES encryption, the same security as your banking app. Everything you put in Doculife is securely transmitted and stored.

If you have something that needs a bit more security, Doculife offers Digital Private Vaults. Whatever is stored in a DPV is encrypted with 4096bit encryption and can only be unlocked and viewed by you and no one else. Not even Doculife.

Doculife is super private too. When you invite a client to a binder, that is the only thing they can see. Nothing else. You can also give them a specific contributor role, so they can only read/download, or, as an editor, contribute their own documents and files if necessary. It’s entirely up to you.

COVID-19 Safety

The pandemic hasn’t slowed, but the ways in which we stay safe have evolved. With Doculife, you can collaborate with your clients without needing to be together in person. This may make some people feel even safer, by limiting in person contact when possible.

Any binder, section and object, like a file, image or document, can have its own dedicated conversation. This enables you to have focused conversations, input and feedback about any one specific thing in the binder. Maybe it’s a paint swatch or an entertainment venue idea. Your clients can reply right from the Doculife app, in real time, without needing to be together.

Communication

Even if we weren’t in a pandemic, communication with your clients is essential to maintaining healthy relationships. Doculife’s conversations are key to keeping everyone updated and staying proactive with updates and feedback.

As mentioned, every binder, section and object, like an image, file or document, can have its own dedicated and focused conversation. All of these conversations are summarized in the Conversations nav item. Newest replies are at the top so you can quickly respond, saving you time.

Use a quick thumbs up or down to reply, add your own emojis to keep things light and fun. You can also tag a person, section or object by using the following:

  • Use the “@” symbol before a name to tag another contributor within the binder
  • Use the “!” symbol to tag a specific section and draw attention to it
  • Use the “&” symbol to tag a specific document in the binder

Each time you tag something, it will stand out in the conversation, drawing attention to that specific thing, enabling you to be an even better communicator and making it super easy for your clients to provide feedback or simply respond to a question.

Quickly communicate end-of-day summaries of work, milestone status report, options for yoru client to select from and so many more use cases.

Communicating with your clients using Doculife will make you quickly stand out from your competition. Everyone appreciates being kept up to date at every step of the way. This results in 5-star reviews for you, something that is essential for success in today’s small business world.

User Roles

As part of Doculife’s security and privacy, we’ve integrated contributor roles. When you invite a client to Doculife, you can apply one of the following roles:

  • Read/Download – These clients will only be able to participate in conversations, read and download what you’ve added to the binder. They cannot edit, delete or change anything you’ve added, nor can they add or create their own things
  • Editor – These clients can participate in conversations, add, create or delete their own things in the binder, as well as edit and delete your things. This role cannot invite anyone else
  • Admin – These are clients you should trust (perhaps they are employees) With this role clients can participate in conversations, add, create or delete their own things in the binder, as well as edit and delete your things. They can also invite whomever they like into the binder

For most cases, the Read/Download role should work, however if you need your client to be able to add their own content such as uploading photos or adding documents, Editor will work. You can change these roles at any time in Binder Settings, and even remove clients for whatever reason.

User roles are important to preserve your own content (Read/Download) or to enhance communication and interactivity with Editor. It’s all up to you and your own personal business needs. Doculife is flexible to allow for multiple types of user roles and interaction.

Import email

Every house and building on a street has its own address so the post office knows where to deliver mail. Similarly in Doculife, every binder, section and album has its own unique email address. You simply need to ask Doculife to give it to you.

Import email is only available through Doculife. You can’t get this amazing feature with Dropbox, Box.net, Pinterest or others. Read on to see why we think this feature is so awesome and a time saver.

With these import email addresses, you or your clients or vendors can email an attachment or send an invoice directly into any specific binder, section or album. How cool is that. So clients with read/download contributor role can still add things to a binder, simply by emailing it using the proper import email address.

Doculife converts the attachment to a PDF automagically. If it is a plain text or HTML email without an attachment, Doculife will turn the email itself into a PDF. This is handy for keeping track of HTML email receipts. If there is a URL in the email, Doculife will automagically create a bookmark widget.

With a paid account, Unlimited Yearly or Lifetime, you can select your own email subdomain, allowing you to then customize the “to” part of the email before the “@” symbol to be anything you’d like:

PRO TIP: Replace the subject line of an email to be imported with “Tags: tag1, tag2…” where tag1 and tag2 are tags you would like to apply to the thing being imported so you can find it easily later. For example if you had some plans in an email from an architect that you wanted to import to a binder in Doculife, you might use the subject line: “Tags: plans, project4578”. The tags of “plans” and “project4578” would then be applied to whatever the email attachment is when it is imported into Doculife. Super handy.

Widgets

We’ve mentioned the word “widget” a few times in this article and you may be wondering what those are. Widgets are Doculife’s suite of productivity apps. Write a note, create a checklist, set a reminder, create milestones and more. These little app widgets take Doculife to the next level, beyond simply storing things, to enable you to plan any project or event, big or small. They compliment Doculife’s strong communication and organization features by adding additional context, timing, and information pertinent to any project you are working on with a client. Here is a brief overview of available widgets:

  • Note – Create feature-rich notes with tables, text highlighting, add images and more
  • Pros & Cons – Help analyze and make decisions by listing and weighting the pro’s and con’s of the subject matter
  • Diagrams – Create diagrams to help you think and plan visually
  • Org Charts – Visually depict your organization’s structure, hierarchy, roles, and responsibilities and workflows
  • Contact Map – Map out your contacts to clearly see how they relate to one another
  • Mind Map – Brainstorm ideas or solve problems using the Mind Map widget
  • Spreadsheet – Organize, categorize, manage and view your data
  • Reminder – set a reminder in the future for an important date
  • Milestones – plan out major goals for an extended project
  • Checklists – cross things off your list as they are accomplished so you and your client can see progress in real time
  • Album – Add images, documents and files to any album and view it full screen in presentation mode
  • Maps – add a dynamic map or route
  • Conversation – Add a conversation panel anywhere within a binder
  • Website bookmark – paste any webpage URL to create a website bookmark for later access
  • Video – paste a URL from sites like YouTube or Vimeo to create a video bookmark. Watch the content right in Doculife without leaving the platform

Free and paid users have access to all widgets without restriction. They are super helpful and only add value to any binder.

Mobile App

Take Doculife with you on the go and in the field. If you are at a job site and need to respond to another client, you can easily do so without needing to be back at the office in front of your laptop or desktop computer.

Available for both iOS and Android, the Doculfie mobile app enables you to collaborate while apart, no matter where you or your client may be. Take and upload photos, add content from your camera roll or file browser, or create checklists and notes on the go.

All conversations are also accessible via the mobile app allowing you to always be up to date and keep your clients up to date. Super handy, super useful, keeping you super productive and communicating with clients. They will wonder how you get it all done and make you look like a super star service professional.

Web Clipper

When you are back in the office at your laptop or desktop computer, be sure to install the Doculife Web Clipper browser extension for Chrome or Firefox. The web clipper enables you to save content directly into any binder as you browser the web.

Save things like:

  • Bookmarks – bookmark and save any website URL into any binder in seconds.
  • Links – save a link’s destination bookmark into any binder
  • Images – grab and save inspiration as you browse, into any binder
  • Vides – save the URL of YouTube and Vimeo videos as you browse. Watch them later within Doculife, without needing to leave the app
  • Notes – highlight any text on a webpage and save it as a note into any binder. Very handy for doing research

The web clipper saves time from copying/pasting, by enabling you to save the above typoes of content with one click and only a second or two of time. The web clipper is 100% free and works with both Mac and PC versions of Chrome and Firefox. If you’ve ever pinned anything to Pinterest, you’re already a pro at using the web clipper.

Doculife is very Affordable

If you look at all the things you can do with Doculife besides simply organizing content, you can see its value is much higher than other services such as Dropbox or Box.net. Unlike those services, get import email, productivity widgets, conversations and more at an unbeatable price.

Unlimited Yearly

With Doculife’s Unlimited Yearly plan, you’ll pay only $36 A YEAR, saving you 67% over Dropbox’ Professional Plan, priced at $120. What’s even better is that we don’t believe in tiers. Once you go paid, you’ll break free of any limitations. Doculife’s paid plans are Unlimted… unlimited space, uploads, binders, contacts, widgets…. Truly unlimited.

Unlimited Lifetime

We also understand that as a small business owner, you may be suffering death by a thousand subscriptions. If that’s the case, choose our Unlmited Lifetime plan. Pay once, and never again. No nags to upgrade, no nags to renew. Pay once and then focus on your business, where ytour focus should be.

Doculife Free

If you simply want to try us out, you can do so for free, no credit card required. Get 1gb of space free, to try out Doculife and see how amazing it is. Effortlessly upgrade at any time to take full advantage of Doculife and unlock Unlimited.

Who It’s For

Doculife can be used for any small business that has clients. Here’s just a handful of usecases below to get you thinking:

  • Accountants – Have your clients add their receipts and any other pertinent tax information. Ask questions, provide finished forms and more.
  • Interior Design or General Contractors – Any service where you are providing examples of new materials, swatches, appliances, furniture options, fabric options and in-progress work for review or status update. Read more about how to collaborate while apart here.
  • Wedding or Event Planning – Centrally organize contracts, entertainment options, venue options, seating plans, dress and ring options, flowers or other event props, anything you need to organize
  • Short Term Holiday Rental Owners – Use Doculife to provide a guest information hub about the property they will be renting for the weekend, week or month. Provide all the information they need to have a successful and enjoyable stay. Read more about how to use Doculife as your Guest Information Hub and improving your host ratings here.
  • Photographers – Doculife is perfect for showcasing shots from a sitting or portrait session, enabling your client to select photos or provide feedback from wherever they are. Showcase photos with presentation mode for a truly immersive experience.

Conclusion

Small busines owners everywhere can truly reap the benefits of integrating Doculife with their daily routine. Invite clients to the platform, allowing them to sign up in seconds for free. Once they are signed up and integrated into your binder, then you can start communicating from afar without spending hours on the phone. Doculife lets you focus on your clients’ needs and your own work. Save time and be more efficient, communicative, and productive with Doculife, your all-in-one private network to plan, organize and share anything.