Backing up your most important documents and having your files accessible online are 2 wish list items of many small business owners. Being able to easily share documents with your business partner, contractors and employees is also ideal. Dropbox’s online cloud storage allows you to create folders of documents you’d like to share with others, and grant only the people you deem necessary, access to those shared documents.

In essence, you can use Dropbox to set up your own personal file network which comes in handy when multiple people in your business need to access the same files from multiple locations.

How to Create a Shared Dropbox Folder

1. Create an account and download Dropbox to your computer.

2. Add a new folder to your Dropbox account.

3. You’ll need to verify your email address with Dropbox before you can share folders with others. Visit https://www.dropbox.com/share to prompt the verification process and begin sharing folders. Once verification is complete, click the blue “New Shared Folder” icon on the upper right corner on the Dropbox.com/share page.

You can choose to share a folder that’s already been created, or create and share a brand new folder.

4. Add the email addresses of those you’d like to share that folder with. You can also import your Facebook friends list and share with them.

It is possible to later go back and invite more people to that shared folder, and also to uninvite people. You can manage all your shared folders from https://www.dropbox.com/share screen.

To add files to your shared Dropbox folder, simply drag and drop the files you want to share.

What tips do you have for online collaboration?