CloudPhone Blog

If preparing and delivering delicious food is how you make your living, you probably don’t spend a lot of time just sitting around during the day. Either you are in your kitchen, on the road making a delivery or setting up, and managing food servers at an event.

Photo Courtesy of Flikr User Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung

Even though you love what you do, you may still be trying to solve some problems you seem to encounter frequently while running your business. For instance, you may find you miss phone calls that could potentially lead to jobs because you have your mobile phone number on your website but can’t answer while you are cooking or working at a function. Some of these potential clients may be turned off by getting your personal voicemail when they call, but you don’t have the resources to rent office space and install a traditional phone system. Or perhaps you receive a large volume of calls and messages about scheduling, inquiries that should be directed to your assistant.

If you’ve been looking for a solution to these kinds of problems, your search is over. Cloud Phone is a cloud-based phone service designed for small businesses. Cloud Phone can give you many of the same features you’d get from a traditional enterprise phone system. And the best news? It costs considerably less.

With this kind of service you get a business-specific phone number that greets callers professionally with an automated phone attendant that helps to route your callers. Because the system is Internet-based, you can change your message easily just by accessing your settings in the cloud. A small business phone system also allows you to route callers to other members of your team so calls and messages are directed to the correct employee. 

As busy are you are, you probably don’t have time to spend an entire day installing a new phone solution, which is fortunate, with Cloud Phone you can be up and running in less than a minute.

Are you hungry for a better way to communicate? Well then, let’s eat!

This summer, will your small business explode like a Roman candle on July 4, or fizzle out like a dud? Here are a few ways to light up your small business with a robust suite of cloud communications solutions:

Increase productivity:  You may be busy, but business continues even when you leave the office. Contacts need to be able to reach you wherever you go. The cloud will give you the ability to carry around your enterprise communications solutions at all times, so you never miss a crucial call or voicemail.  

Cut costs: The costs of maintenance and installation prices for on-premises phone equipment is staggering. It’s much easier—and cheaper—to pay a small monthly fee and gain access to fully baked feature set than to pay for new equipment and make upgrades. You will also avoid the hefty costs of network downtime, which is difficult for a business of any size to recover from.

Leverage big business features: When a customer tries to reach you, they should not be able to tell you are a small business with six employees or a Fortune 500 company. Features such as an auto attendant, voicemail to email transcription and the ability to route calls to other members of your team will add a processional touch to your operation that will let you look like a much bigger business. 

The stats don’t lie: In a recent study, 70 percent of respondents indicated that the cloud can deliver efficiencies and cost savings. So, are you ready to make the great migration to a cloud-based phone and watch your profits explode skyward like Independence Day fireworks?

If you are an entrepreneur who’s been itching to launch a new business, we have some news you’ll be happy to hear. Wells Fargo bank recently announced its intention to lend at least $100 billion in small business loans over the next five years.

Image Courtesy of Flickr User Steve Wilson

So now it’s time to ask yourself three simple questions:

1. Do you have a winning product or service idea?
   
   
2. Do you have a business plan?
   
   
3. Are you fully committed to launching a startup?

If you answered “yes,” to any of the three, it’s time to start researching how you can get your hands on some of the Wells Fargo funding and the tools you’ll need to get started.

The first thing every entrepreneur needs is a phone number where potential investors, business partners, clients and of course Wells Fargo can reach you to let you know you’re approved for a loan. But you don’t have the time or resources for an office or a traditional business phone system—so what can you do? Grab a small business phone number of course!  

With a feature-rich small business phone number through Cloud Phone you can get a company specific number that rings to an automated attendant, giving your callers the option to choose various departments or extensions even if every option rings straight to your mobile phone. Cloud Phone enables you to look and sound like a big business. Say goodbye to a physical office or a legacy phone system. There's no need to give out your personal contact information either. Simply leverage business-class phone features on a small business budget:

• Voicemail-to-email notification so important messages are returned quickly
• Auto attendants to greet callers professionally
• Virtual extensions that create a big business presence

In business, timing is everything and with Wells Fargo’s commitment to small business lending, your moment for startup success may be at hand. So strike while the iron is hot!