Telecommunication cost is always an obstacle for small business owners,
especially if you need to call domestic or international long distance. The long distance cost factor alone, depending on the type of business you’re in, can make the difference in the success of any small business.
The telecommunication market today is one of the most competitive. Rates for
both local, domestic long distance or DLL (long distance in the same country) and
international long distance (ILD) are going down every day. The new player in small
business phone systems, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), adds a whole new
dimension when it comes to choosing a phone system for your small business or
home based business.
There’s so much hype today about VoIP, or Voice over IP, or Voice over
Broadband, whatever you want to call it. Everyone’s saying that VoIP is the “future of
communication” and that VoIP will replace regular analog phone calls. Is all this
true? If it is, how do you, as an entrepreneur, decide how to choose and invest in
what’s best for you?
There are two things you need to consider:
1) Level of investment
2) Cost vs. Quality
To go full out into using VoIP, you’ll need to invest in IP phones, and possibly
even in IP PBX. Otherwise, you should go for IP phone adapters, which allow you to
maintain whatever system you already have, but also gives you the option of
converting some of those phone lines to VoIP. Most entrepreneurs are reluctant to
go 100% into VoIP, and yet they still want the benefits that come from it. That’s why
IP phone adapters are so popular today.
When is comes to quality vs. cost, the direction is pretty clear. Before choosing
the proper VoIP phone system for your business, you need to figure out exactly
what your business needs. If your business relies heavily on the phone for
prospecting customers, providing customer support, or giving out important
information through the phone, then you should definitely opt for better quality.
If you use the phone for short communication with your business partners or
agents, or any other reason which is NOT your main business function, it would be
better to save a little and go with the low cost option. The difference in quality is not
very apparent in most cases.
If you are just starting your small business, VoIP phone cards also provide
some sort of temporary solution until you can get enough financing to develop a
better system. Phone cards usually let you dial international and national long
distance at a lower cost because they use either VoIP as the back end provider or
through a special promotion or arrangement between telecommunications
companies.
Today, you can even get “virtual phone cards” which allow you to make phone
calls by dialing a toll-free number in a long list of countries. This is especially useful
if you spend more time travelling and doing business overseas than you are at
home.
Regardless of which VoIP phone system you choose for your small business,
make sure you are getting the most out of the money you spend for these long
distance or international plans. Forget the bells and whistles. The purpose of having
a good phone system is, and always should be, to communicate and express
yourself.
Copyright © 2006 Gobala Krishnan
Gobala Krishnan is a small business entrepreneur, author of the revolutionary
“Internet Telephony Secrets” book at http://www.InternetTelephonySecrets.com/2/
and publisher of the “VoIP and Me” newsletter at
http://www.MyBusinessVoIP.com Visit his sites to learn insider tips and tricks on using
VoIP for your business.
