Author: Lowell Heddings / Source: howtogeek.com
Lots of small businesses use their personal cellphones when making work related phone calls. Some may even be using old landlines for their calling needs. While it makes sense to use your cellphone, and it can be scary to make a change, owning a business in the 21st century may require an upgrade.
The alternative to personal cellphones and landlines is VoIP, or Voice over IP, which will give your company a more professional feel and a competitive edge. If you’re looking into separating your personal phone from work, but you aren’t sure if it’s the best decision, look no further. We’ll review some of the reasons why you’ve made the right choice.
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The Traditional Way: Get a Separate Line
If you’ve decided to stop using your personal phone for your business, the traditional way to get a new number was to simply get a separate line. That means contacting the phone company, asking them to run a new line to your house (which usually includes a setup fee), and then paying extra every month for the new line—you’ll pay $20-30 per month on the low end for a residential line, and in the $60+ range per month for a business line. This is still an option, but the problem is that now your business phone number is tied to your house or office location, and can only be answered if you’re physically there. Even if you’re able to get a cheap landline, this option lacks convenience.
Since it’s 2018 and more people have cell phones without even owning a land line, your second option is to simply get a second phone and carry that around with you. Tons of small business owners do this, carrying around two iPhones and constantly switching between them. This solution works, and allows you to answer the business phone line from anywhere, but it’s not very cheap. The cost of an expensive phone plus the money for the extra line adds up really fast—for instance, a $699 iPhone plus around $30 per month for an extra line ends up being over $1000 over a year. Not the best way to go.
The Better Way: Voice over IP, or VoIP
Now that we’re in the days of always-connected internet access from every device, you don’t need to use the traditional phone networks anymore. We can make phone calls over the internet that are not only cheaper and unlimited, but actually sound clearer than a traditional phone, so you can better understand what your customers are saying.
VoIP can not only be used to power physical phones sitting on your desk, but can also be used as an app on your current phone that allows you to place and receive calls from any existing phone, and all for a fraction of the cost.
Need more than one phone line for your business? It’s not a problem with VoIP, you just upgrade your plan and plug in extra phones into your network, or setup the apps on your computer or phone.
And if you’re upgrading…
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