CloudPhone Blog

The one constant in a global marketplace is change. But business owners need not be afraid of it. 

Maybe no area is more subject to innovation and fluctuation than the communications space. Exponential improvements in technology and connectivity challenge even the most motivated business owners to keep pace. If you hesitate to adopt new business tools, you start to fall behind.

Say you have successful, long-standing delivery business. You are known around town and have worked hard to establish your reputation. But the advent of the internet and the onset of competition have increased your need for on-the-go capabilities and better tracking mechanisms to keep up with customer demand. Your legacy phone system simply won’t cut it. But with a cloud-based virtual phone service, you can put the answer to your problems in the palm of your hand.

Small business virtual phone technology gives you all the perks of legacy phone systems with none of the hassle. Consider some of the benefits:

• Auto Attendant: Never miss a message and have your calls and messages routed to the appropriate department automatically. This feature offers the highest levels of personalization and cuts out human error.
• Voicemail-to-Email Notification: If you’re on the road or in a meeting, you’ll never miss that important call. Monitor your voicemails anywhere at any time.
• Instant Conference Calling: Lets you connect with multiple colleagues or customers from anywhere at any time.

For all these perks, the best feature of small business virtual phones may be their price. Instead of expensive maintenance or replacement issues associated with legacy phone systems, the service is supported entirely by a third-party host and delivered wirelessly.

So even if changing your communications system seems like a frightening proposition, chances are it won’t be long before you’re smiling ear-to-ear.

Imagine you are a New York-based tax attorney with a sterling reputation in all five boroughs. Recently, some of your longtime clients have retired to Florida and have been referring friends to you. Because of the years of good work you’ve done for your customers you are being presented with a tremendous opportunity to expand your client base. Some of these new prospects, however, may be a little thrown off having to call long distance to reach you. 

Fortunately, with today’s technological solutions you can get a business-specific local phone number from a cloud-based phone service to put new customers at ease. Best-in-class solutions make it easy by requiring just a mobile number and 60 seconds of your time to set up your new number. Now, when your loyal customers from up north recommend you to their new friends in the Sunshine State, the new prospects don’t have to worry about dialing to an unfamiliar area code and you don’t have to worry about losing out to a competitor solely based on geography.

As an added bonus, local small business virtual phone numbers powered by cloud-base phone services offer features that give you big business presence, including:

• Auto attendants that greet callers professionally
• Multiple extensions for different departments, even if each department is really just you
• Business-class voicemail to email to ensure no client messages are ever missed

So don’t lose out on new business over something as small as a few digits in a phone number. After all, you don’t need to be in the same city or state to provide great service to your clients—all you need is the talent and expertise you bring wherever you go.

Launching a startup business requires a significant amount of planning and could sometimes feel like no matter how much you get done, another task looms. Starting a business takes meticulous planning and extraordinary determination—so we thought we’d help out a bit. Here are a few items to make absolutely certain that are checked off your list as you get ready to launch:

Figure out finances for at least a year

Sure, your company could explode immediately, but chances are it is going to take a little while to gain momentum. Prepare for your first year as if you’ll have almost no revenue. Make sure you have enough capital for business expenses and enough money saved to live on.

Get Social Now, Not Later

You should have your company up on social media on the day of your launch. These channels help give you credibility and give people a quick, fun, easy way to check out your product. If you wait until your product is launched, setting up these pages is likely to take a back seat to other tasks and may be rushed or not done at all.

Have your small business phone system ready to go

Once your product launches you are going to be making and receiving a lot of phone calls. Giving out your personal mobile number projects an unprofessional image you don’t want. A cloud-based phone system, however, can provide many of the same features as an enterprise system at a fraction of the cost.

Network, network, network

As a startup, the greatest assets you have are the people you know. That includes friends, family, former co-workers, college professors—anyone who might be able to make an introduction to a potential contact or customer. Don’t push the people in your social circle to buy anything, simply ask about possible connections that could make your first few months a little easier. 

Want to add something to our checklist? Tell us about it in the comment section! 

For those small business owners not already familiar with the term, a small business virtual phone might seem like a daunting concept. Is it some kind of Sci-Fi device that allows you to make a call simply by thinking about it? Maybe it’s a holographic design that lets you dial from thin air. The truth, on many levels, is far simpler.

A virtual phone system simply delivers all the features and functionality of a traditional PBX without the hardware and wiring. In other words, you get a business-specific number and can set up extensions, greetings and customized away messages using only your mobile phone. The entire system is preconfigured and maintained in the cloud, delivered entirely over the Internet.

At this point maybe you are thinking the idea of a virtual phone isn’t so complicated after all. Still, actually getting this kind of technology up and running must be a job for only the most tech savvy individuals. But in fact, you can get your own business-specific number in less than a minute just by typing in your existing cell number. From there, customizing your settings is quick and easy. In almost no time at all you make your small or microbusiness look like a Fortune 500 juggernaut.

Now that the issues of fully comprehending and implementing a virtual phone system are understood, you may still be left with the sneaking suspicion that it is way out of your price range. Conversely,  in many cases these products are designed specifically with small businesses in mind, meaning prices are quite reasonable

Now that you have all the facts, switching to a virtual phone system like Cloud Phone probably seems far more doable. Good! Because you’ll find that as soon as you decide to take action you can make virtualization a reality.

Do you operate your business from the comfort of a home office? Well, you are certainly far from alone. According to Forbes 52 percent of all small businesses are home-based, which makes sense given the economic advantages. As you know, working at home saves money on office space and travel while simultaneously providing great work/life balance. 

But even if your home-based business is thriving, you may still be encountering some age-old problems associated with home offices. For instance, what phone number do you give out to customers? If it’s your landline, you risk one of your kids pick up the phone—presenting a slightly less than professional image—or worse, somebody in your family answering a call while you’re out and forgetting to give you the message. Giving out your mobile number might be a better option, but giving customer a personal can also leave you looking small-time.

Fortunately, there is another option—a small business phone service. Leveraging this technology, you can use your mobile number to get a business-specific line that rings to your existing mobile device so worrying about projecting the wrong image or missing important messages from customers becomes a thing of the past.

These systems also provide auto attendants and extensions so that even when you can’t answer a call your home office presents the customer with the feeling that they’ve reached a corporate headquarters in midtown Manhattan. Last but not least, best-in-class virtual phone systems are not merely designed for small businesses—they are priced for them as well.

 So whether you are considering switching your business to a home office or looking to improve operations for an existing one know that there are technological solutions out there designed to make your life easier. After all, there’s still no place like home.