How to make your small business look like a big business

You have probably heard a lot about VoIP and maybe think its just something to make cheap phone calls with or really don't understand anything about it, you are not alone. VoIP is voice over Internet protocol and can give a small business all the tools available to a fortune 500 company.

One of the biggest issues facing small business owners and solo entrepreneurs is not being able to afford large staffs to answer calls and insure the valuable sales leads are being followed up on. With VoIP one or two people can give the appearance of a company much larger. How so, you may ask?

The first key is the auto attendant. This can give a prospective client a very polished feel for your business. And it goes something like this. Thank you for calling ABC widgets and for sales please press 1., for more information on our fabulous product line press 2., to reach Tom the Widget master press 3 and shipping press 4. The client doesn't need to know Tom is sales, widget master and shipping. VoIP will insure Tom gets the call.

Find me follow me. The system can be set to ring Tom's desk phone, home phone and cell phone either simultaneously or in sequence to get the call.

Unified messaging. If the client leaves Tom a voice mail it will be converted to a Wav. voice file and sent as a e-mail retrievable on any Internet connection.

Soft phones. This is telephone software that can be loaded on to a laptop and connected via a headset and you can make and receive calls anywhere and to clients you are busy at your desk and not enjoying that much needed Bahamas vacation.

Just about all businesses I speak with are very concerned about how much this type of technology costs. Most people have had the local business phone person over and are still recovering from sticker shock after finding out all these features are $2,000 software add-ons or not an option on what still can be a $6,000 system for a small office.

Hosted or Hardware based VoIP presents great solutions than biting the bullet on a traditional phone system. Hosted VoIP comes from a phone carrier and for a monthly recurring charge you get the phones, unlimited calling and a high bandwidth Internet connection. The downside to some is you never own the system, but you are also not stuck with it either.

Hardware VoIP is very affordable, it is based in a computer such as a Dell and the machine and the software typically is around $2,000 plus the IP phones are about $150 a piece. The cool thing about it is you can plug your current telephone lines into the back of the computer along with your Internet connection and take advantage of all the VoIP features.

Reliability: I am sure you have heard or experienced some of the issues surrounding VoIP. Whether it is a hosted or hardware based solution, the key is the network and how the technology handles echos, latency and most importantly how it completes the call to the public switched telephone networks otherwise known affectionately as "Ma Bell."

Don't let companies fool you by saying you can avoid the telephone company all together. Quite simply you can't because in order to do that everyone you talk to would have to their own telephone switch.

Do you want to learn more? Post your question, I am sure you are not alone in wanting to know more about this stuff and I will be happy to answer.

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Hi Everyone, welcome to my blog. It is here where At Your Service Consulting will comment on trends in business and post your comments. I look forward to a lively forum.