VOXOX Blog

The world has officially ushered in 2015! Now that 2014 is in the books, and everyone is back to the grind, many small business owners are beginning to wonder what business trends to expect in the New Year. Identifying the changing trends is crucial for businesses looking for an edge over their competition. Here is a forecast of what small business trends to keep an eye out for...

Welcome to 2015! It’s time to wipe the proverbial slate clean and start anew. Blow the dust off your workout gear, reacquaint yourself with vegetables, volunteer at the local shelter and go for that new job. But hurry! You’ve only got two weeks until the New Year’s resolution zeal begins to wear off!

In recent years, working from home has grown in popularity as more businesses are offering employees the option to telecommute.  Telecommuting allows workers to connect and collaborate from anywhere in the world while enabling businesses to draw on a larger pool of talented and skilled workers without geographic restrictions. This is made possible by advancements in communication technology trends such as VoIP and BYOD. These trends give employees the flexibility to be productive regardless of their location.

When it comes to selecting a small business phone system, many business owners are already pretty familiar with VoIP. VoIP (or voice over internet protocol) might be the next big thing in terms of an affordable and accessible phone service, but there are still many who are skeptical of the advantages. Much of the skepticism stems from misconceptions about VoIP.

Hipster trends

A couple of years ago, I bought a record player for a hundred dollars. In the ensuing months I went on a vinyl binge that got me thinking I was pretty hip. I hit every record store in town, carefully examining each record for scratches, even making the shopkeeper play them in the store before I made a buying decision. A few months later, the record player started malfunctioning, with the turntable slowing intermittently, and my brief hipster fantasy came to an end.

In order to keep up with competing businesses, it’s crucial to small business owners to constantly look for advantages and ways to decrease spending costs without sacrificing quality. VoIP is a popular option for many small businesses because it costs significantly less than traditional phone services without sacrificing features. Reliable, strong, and with a plethora of features, VoIP has gone from a relatively unknown method of communication to being one of the standard options that businesses have available to them.

I’d like to leave a message

Remember secretaries? They were the people who worked in an office and were dedicated to assisting their boss. Secretaries answered the phone, took messages, kept the boss’ schedule, remembered important birthdays and a myriad of other tasks, some perhaps quite loosely associated with the actual transactions of the business.

It’s starting. The “buy-polar” craziness of the holidays. One minute we run up against an Ebenezer Scrooge, the next minute a Bob Cratchit crosses our path.

The culmination of an entire year gets stuffed into a single month, punctuated with decorating, shopping, visiting and stressing, and each year we get through it somehow. During all of this merry upheaval, we need to remember what the season does best — it fosters human contact.

As a small business owner, making clients feel valued and special is paramount to your success. Even without the big budget of a large company your business can still leave a tremendous impression on customers. By providing excellent customer service, you can separate your company from the competition. It can also help you to develop word of mouth advertising which is always the best type of free marketing.  Fostering rapport with your clients is also an effective way to get people talking about your business.

Owning and operating a franchise business comes with a number of challenges. When implementing systems and structure they must be reliable, cost efficient, and scalable. A VoIP business phone system addresses these potential obstacles while giving you customizable features that will scale, as your business grows. It can also boost productivity, and minimize IT costs, all while saving time across multiple locations.

Here’s how…