A complete guide to video calling for small businesses

Q: How to share your screen in Zoom

Press the Share button (Up arrow) Select the screen you want to share Press Share

Q: How to mute yourself in Zoom

In the bottom left corner press Mute (Microphone)

Q: Turn off / on your camera in Zoom

In the bottom left corner press Stop Video to stop or Start Video to start

Q: How to share your screen in Google Meet

Press the 3 Dots in the lower right corner Select Share Screen Select Start Sharing Confirm screen share by pressing Start Now

Q: How to mute yourself in Google Meet

Press the center Microphone button at the bottom of the screen

Q: Turn off / on your camera in Google Meet

In the bottom left corner press the Camera Icon to start and stop video

Q: How to mute yourself in WhatsApp

Press the right hand side Microphone button at the bottom of the screen

Q: Turn off / on your camera in WhatsApp

In the center left press the Camera Icon to start and stop video

Q: How to share your screen in Skype

Press the 3 Dots in the lower right corner Select Share Screen Confirm screen share by pressing Start Now

Q: How to mute yourself in Skype

Press the left hand side Microphone button at the bottom of the screen

Since coronavirus changed the lives of an entire planet, remote working and meetings have quickly become the new normal. Even now living in the UK with no restrictions we regularly have Zoom meetings with clients. Our complete guide to video calling will teach you the basics.

What software to use for these meetings is key, and as a small business you may find you have to use several depending on your client. Why? Because your team may only comprise 3 people, maybe less. If you’re talking to an established business and you’re meeting a director of a business and 8 others who might pay you several thousand pounds, do you really want to demand they install and use software X? The answer is no.

Because of this over the last 2 months we have had meetings with clients over WhatsApp, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. You don’t need to be an expert in any of these software’s but it’s good to know their limits and how to share your screen.

What is Video Calling and How Does it Work?

The simple answer to this is: It’s a telephone call but you can see people not just hear them.

A more complex answer is: Video calling, Video telephony, videoconferencing, video teleconferencing, or VOIP (Voice over IP) utilises video and voice to transmit real time pictures of people over the internet. Using web-cams, phones or purpose-built video suites and some specialised software users can see and chat over the world wide web from any location in the world. The only issue being internet connection issues and time zones.

Nothing free lasts forever, so we have compiled a list of the most popular video calling apps, their limitations, how to share your screen for that important presentation and how to mute yourself so our dog doesn’t bark half way through this month’s sales report.

Video Call Limitations

Name	Cost	Call Length Limit	Max Participants
Zoom	Free Paid packages are available	40 minutes	100
Skype	Free Paid packages are available	4 hours	100
Cisco WebEx	Free Paid packages are available	40 minutes	100
Google Meet	Free Paid packages are available		250
Microsoft Teams	Paid only	Unlimited	300
GoToMeeting	No free package Starts at £9.50 per month	Unlimited	150 to 3000 depending on package
WhatsApp	Free	Unlimited	32
Facebook Rooms	Free	Unlimited	50
Zoho Meetings	Free Paid packages available	60 minutes	100

Table of Video Calling Applications and their limitations

All free video call applications come with limitations but these limitations only apply if our free account is the account that created the meeting. If our client has a paid account then the limitations applied to our call are those set by their account. This means if our client has a paid account and they start the group call we will not have as many call limitations applied to our call.