3 reasons Google’s NotebookLM is a killer app for small businesses and startups

3 days ago 2

Most small businesses and startups often struggle to efficiently manage information, streamline workflows, and unlock creative potential. While there is no shortage of traditional productivity tools, most of them fall short and lead to wasted time and missed opportunities. Here is where Google’s NotebookLM comes into play. This innovative AI-powered research and note-taking assistant is proving to be more than just a simple note app.

Let me share the reasons why NotebookLM is offering a competitive edge for small businesses and startups looking to boost productivity, enhance decision-making, and accelerate growth.

Skip extensive manual research

Time is always a precious commodity for small businesses and startups. Conducting extensive market research, complex government and industry regulations, and analyzing customer reviews can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. NotebookLM acts as an AI-powered research assistant to accelerate this process.

Suppose a tech startup is developing a new project management software. They have identified three main competitors and want to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and market positioning before finalizing their own feature set and marketing strategy.

The startup’s team can collect various publicly available information such as competitors’ websites, recent press releases, new articles, publicly available analyst reports (if any), reviews from reputed sites, and more.

The person can create a new notebook in NotebookLM and upload all these diverse documents (PDFs of reports, web links, and copied text from reviews). Now, the team can start asking strategic questions like below.

What are the core differentiations of Competitor A compared to Competitor B?
Identify any recurring pain points mentioned in user reviews for all competitors.
What new features have competitors launched in the last 12 months?
Summarize the pricing models for each competitor and highlight any premium features.

The team can use the built-in notes function to start jotting down new notes based on answers. The possibilities are endless here. It’s entirely up to you how you want to leverage NotebookLM.

reasons to use NotebookLM with your note-taking app

Enjoy seamless internal communication

With NotebookLM, you can create a centralized intelligent knowledge base that not only stores company and client information but also makes it searchable, understandable, and actionable.

Suppose you run a design agency and are working on a large project with five designers. You can create a new notebook in NotebookLM and upload meeting notes, design mood boards and initial concepts (presentations or images), feedback documents from clients, asset lists, and more.

Now, any designer on your team can ask the following questions directly into a notebook.

What is QWERTYBYTE’s brand color from the initial brief?
If a new designer is assigned, they simply get access to the NotebookLM notebook and ask, ‘Who is the contact person for design approvals at QWERTYBYTE corporation?

You can even use NotebookLM for intelligent onboarding and a policy hub where you create a ‘New Hire’ notebook and consolidate knowledge with employee handbook, benefits summary, IT setup guide, expense policy, and more. It’s like offering an AI-powered custom search engine to your new employees.

1 Fly through thousands of customer reviews

Understand customer pain points

Here is where NotebookLM truly shines. When you are in an e-commerce business and deal with customer reviews from different sources, you can upload everything on a NotebookLM notebook and get insights in no time.

Suppose you run a small business that sells innovative electric deep fryers online. You have been selling products for a while and have accumulated hundreds of customer reviews from various platforms like Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, and more.

Now, before launching an upgraded model, you may want to learn about the positives and negatives of the current model. You can import these reviews in Google Sheets and create a table with customer name, date, rating, platform, and review. Since NotebookLM doesn’t directly import Google Sheets, head to File > Download > PDF document and save it on your device.

Create a new notebook in NotebookLM and upload all the PDF documents that you exported from Google Sheets. You can now ask questions like ‘What are common customer complaints?’, ‘How many customers rated the product 5?’, and see its AI magic in action.

You can also ask specific queries like ‘Are there any issues with wiring or voltage with the product?’, ‘Are there any common suggestions for new features or improvements?’, and more.

You can always use Gemini in Google Sheets for such information but it’s a paid add-on at $20 per month and Google’s AI works on a single spreadsheet a time.

The X-factor your business needs

When used effectively, NotebookLM can be a strategic asset for any small business or startup aiming for efficiency. You can transform how you manage information, crunch numbers, and generate new ideas. What are you waiting for? Start integrating NotebookLM into your workflow and unlock new possibilities in no time. If you are new to NotebookLM, check out these tips and tricks to get the best out of it.