VoIP and Phone Systems for Small Businesses

How can your small business improve its connectivity? What should you look for in a small business phone system? If you’ve never asked yourself these questions, now is the time to consider your small business needs and learn about VoIP phone systems. These innovative systems save you time and money by using the internet to keep your employees connected and your customers, instead of relying on outdated landlines.

The best small business phone system is one that you can count on day in and day out. You want a system that won’t drop calls or leave you disconnected with broken hardware. Complicated features that you can’t figure out will be frustrating for you and your employees and cut down productivity. Video calls, conference calls, and call forwarding could all come in handy during a time when more and more people are working virtually. Affordability is a plus, too. But can you have it all? With VoIP systems, the answer is yes.

What is VoIP?

VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, a technology that turns a phone call into a digital signal so that you can send phone calls through a telephone or any device with data or internet. Although this may sound like a simple concept, VoIP systems can have a significant impact on the cost and effectiveness of your small business’s phone system.

VoIP systems started as an affordable alternative to expensive on-site phone systems. Now, it’s become the preferred way to keep your employees and your clients connected reliably.

While traditional landlines use hardware that’s expensive and often frustrating to install, with a VoIP system, every phone call is placed through the internet. This simple difference opens the door for lots of savings and versatility. You can use a VoIP system to hold video and audio conference calls, place high definition calls both locally and long distance, and update your extensions as needed.

Why Small Businesses Need a VoIP System

Small businesses need to be strategic about how they spend their budget without cutting corners on necessary tools. For phone and communications systems, VoIP is a perfect solution for this. You can count on a cloud-based phone system to keep your workspace up and running efficiently and can quickly adapt it to fit the ever-changing needs of your company.

A VoIP phone system is a powerful asset to your small business and maybe just what you need to give your company an edge over competitors.

Advantages of VoIP for Small Businesses

There are a lot of reasons why VoIP systems have become the go-to option over landlines. Don’t wait to upgrade your phone system for better performance and customer satisfaction. Your small business can start benefiting from these advantages as soon as you make the switch.

Affordable - A VoIP system is an affordable option that doesn’t compromise on reliability and convenience. As you will soon learn, VoIP systems have a lot of advantages to traditional landlines beyond their lower costs.

VoIP phone systems save your small business money by using the internet instead of traditional telephone technology. For small businesses that will make long-distance calls, this is a particularly lovely benefit. Just as sending an email to a friend in China doesn’t add anything to your internet bill, placing a call internationally is no additional charge in a VoIP system.

No need for on-site hardware - When you install a traditional landline phone system for your company’s office, you will need to invest a bundle of money upfront just for the on-site hardware. This will take time to set up and will require the expertise of an experienced IT person.

With a VoIP system, since everything is done through the internet, there’s no need for any on-site equipment. Not only is this convenient and space-saving, but it also saves you a lot of money upfront.

Simple setup and maintenance - Paying for and figuring out the hardware for a traditional landline is only half the hassle. This equipment can also be a pain to maintain and would require a dedicated specialist to manage it.

VoIP systems get rid of all this confusion and inconvenience. Instead of relying on an IT person, small business owners can manage their phone system themselves through a simple web interface that can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. From there, you can easily make changes and updates to your business’s phone system, like setting the operating hours or editing an extension.

Mobile connectivity - Telecommuting is now a common alternative to working from an office, so the chances are that your small business will have one or more employees working remotely at some point. It’s so essential for companies to be prepared for telecommuters so that the workflow can go uninterrupted no matter what comes up.

One of the significant benefits of VoIP is its mobile connectivity. As mentioned earlier, VoIP lets you send phone calls through any data-driven device, whether it’s a smartphone or a laptop, while also working with standard desktop telephones hardware. This is a huge advantage for small businesses that want to let their employees work outside of the office or that have employees who are often on the road for work.

You can also use your VoIP system to set up call forwarding to send calls to multiple numbers at once, so that you’ll have a quick and convenient way to start conference calls.

Makes keeping up with business growth easy - When you’re running a small business, you should let nothing stand in the way of your potential growth — especially not a lousy phone system. A VoIP system is perfect for small businesses that anticipate growth, because it’s easy to adjust to new communication needs. Instead of adding new wiring and phones when you bring in new employees, you only need to add new virtual extensions. And, when you’re ready to open a new location, your same VoIP provider can connect all of your offices under one system.