When making calls for professional purposes, many small enterprises utilize their personal smartphones. Some people can even be making calls utilizing outdated landlines. Although it makes sense to use your cellphone and making a shift might be intimidating, running a business in the twenty-first century can necessitate an upgrade.
VoIP, or voice over IP, is an alternative to landlines and personal telephones that will offer your business a professional feel and a competitive edge.
If you’re considering keeping your personal phone separate from your business phone but are unsure if it’s the right move, look no further. We’ll go through a few of the factors that support your decision.
The conventional approach: Obtain a separate line
The conventional method to acquire a new number if you’ve chosen to cease using your personal phone for work purposes was to just get a separate line. This entails getting in touch with the phone company, asking them to install a new line at your home (which typically comes with a setup fee), and then paying an additional fee each month for the line. On the low end, you’ll pay $20 to $30 per month for a residential line, and $60 or more per month for a business line.
This is still a possibility, but the drawback is that your company’s phone number is now associated with your home or workplace and may only be answered if you are there.Even if you can find a cheap landline, this is a less convenient alternative. The alternative is to just get a second phone and take it with you in 2021 when more people use cell phones without even owning a landline. Many small company entrepreneurs carry around two iPhones and alternate between them all the time.
Although you may use this method to answer your company’s phone line from anywhere and it works, it is not particularly affordable. The price of an expensive phone plus the cost of an additional line quickly mounts up; for example, a $699 iPhone plus $30 a month for an additional line costs more than $1000 in a year. The worst course of action.
Voice over IP, or VoIP, is the better method
You no longer need to use the conventional phone networks because we now have always-on internet connectivity on every device. We can make affordable, limitless phone calls through the internet that sound clearer than traditional phones, allowing you to hear what your clients are saying more clearly.
VoIP can be used to run apps on your current phone that let you make and receive calls from any other phone, all for a fraction of the price of using a traditional phone that sits on your desk.
For your company, do you need more than one phone line? VoIP solves the issue; all you need to do is increase your plan, add more phones to your network, or configure the apps on your computer or phone. Additionally, you may typically migrate your current number to the VoIP system if you’re upgrading your business from a landline or mobile phone number so that your contacts can reach you.
VoIP has a lot of benefits over regular phones
The cost is the main factor influencing people’s decision to switch to VoIP, but there are other important factors to take into account as well. For example, VoIP offers great features that will help you save time and money but are inaccessible with the conventional phone line options available to small businesses.
A complicated PBX system with a receptionist and extensions for each desk may be set up and maintained by large organizations thanks to their large budgets. However, adopting VoIP, which already includes a host of capabilities for a little monthly charge, eliminates the need for all of that.
-Call forwarding allows you to specify restrictions to only forward calls during specific hours, as well as to have several phones ring simultaneously on all of your devices.
-Your company sounds more professional when you use auto-receptionists.
-All incoming and outgoing calls can be recorded with automatic call recording.
-Extensions let you reach everyone with only one primary number (there are still direct lines for each person).
-Giving your clients a conference call number enables you to effortlessly get everyone on the same conference line.
-Your voicemail will be sent to you through email, and Powerful Voicemail has the ability to convert it to text.
-Internet faxing in case you need to communicate with the government or another organization that isn’t technologically advanced.
-With hundreds more other features and integrations with the rest of your organization, to name a few.
A guide to business phone plans
Since there are so many options available and none of them are always the best for everyone, choosing a business phone plan might be challenging now that you are fully aware of all the benefits of VoIP. But fortunately, we have company management expertise, so here are our suggestions based on what we know.
If you work for a really large firm, you’ll likely choose a solution from a big company like Cisco or Avaya, but those systems don’t always function and aren’t typically a suitable option for a small business.
How important is a company phone number?
Having a business phone number is essential regardless of the kind of business you run. It is one of the main methods that both existing and future clients will get in touch with you. It is also one of the first things someone will find online when searching for your business.