What is a PBX System and How Does It Work?

A PBX is one of those things that a lot of businesses are using without realizing that that’s what they’re using. When a business has at least a couple of employees, it has always been kind of a staple for offices in the past. It’s still widely used because it’s such an effective system, but there are now other options, including a PBX that is completely virtual. Let’s look at exactly what this system is, and how you can optimize it for your business. The Private Branch Exchange In basic terms, a private branch exchange (PBX) is the underlying infrastructure of a phone system that makes it possible to have multiple lines in an office or other setting, which lines are localized to that specific setting. Anyone who has worked in an office in the last 40 years or so has probably used a PBX. They have been the preferred …

2019: A Year of Promise and Advancement of Technology

  This year is looking like it’s going to be an interesting one, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. 2018, with so many cultural shifts in our country and little crises for small businesses, has been interesting enough, to say the very least. At the same time, though, it shaped up to be a year that set the stage for a technological revolution wherein innovators and entrepreneurs stepped up to put the growing power of tech advancement to good use behind their products and services. Small business owners and entrepreneurs of all kinds, for that matter, are in a position, this year, to move into a new phase with the resources that are now available.   Don’t Let the Past Year Discourage You   Many of us didn’t have the best year in 2018 for a variety of reasons. The elephant in the room is that our …

8 Ways a Cloud Hosted Phone System Can Transform Your Business

If you have never heard of a cloud-hosted phone system, or a cloud-hosted PBX, and you’re a business owner, then it’s definitely something that you should give a try. Also known as a cloud-based, or virtual phone system, it can change the way you manage calls for the better and make it far more simple. Below, you’ll find 8 ways that this type of system can make a very positive change in your small business. 1. Cut Down Your Phone Bill The big phone companies charge way more for an on-site office phone system than you will pay for a cloud-hosted system. A provider like Verizon or Comcast can definitely build a PBX for your business, possibly using the phones you currently have, but they may need to send in technicians to set it up at a not-so-modest price. Using a virtual service provider to set up a cloud-hosted PBX …

How Can You Offer a Lifetime Warranty and Stay in Business?

A lifetime warranty is something that is generally misunderstood, and you won’t find too many businesses who offer it today. Generally, that is most likely because businesses are afraid of it and assume they may end up dishing out free products to all of their customers, when that really isn’t much of a huge concern if you offer it. We’re going to briefly get into the virtue of a lifetime warranty here, to give you a bit more information about why you would want to offer it for your customers. It Doesn’t Seem to Make Good Business Sense Chances are, if you’re a fairly new small business, you’re probably not financially secure enough to offer a warranty at all, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that you would want to offer it one day. It’s something you usually only find in large companies. You might think, how can …

Clover Review: Why It Might Be The Best POS System

Point of sale technology has come a long way in the last ten to fifteen years. Before the ultra-simple and sleek, plug-and-play systems that we have available today, there were typically only a couple of big companies that provided POS systems, which were far more expensive and had to be installed by professional technicians. A new POS system like Clover, on the other hand, costs far less, has a lot more features for small businesses, and can be installed and set up by just about anyone within a couple of hours. Clover has this down to a science, and a wonderfully simple science, at that. Check out this breakdown of how it works and see how friendly their system is to small businesses. On Par with Any Leading POS Payment System There is definitely no deficiency in the payment capability of Clover POS. To ensure that there will never be …

Transfer Live Calls with the Push of a Button

For businesses who have traditional phone systems in their offices, the ability to transfer a call is something they take for granted, and for new businesses today who are running their businesses from a cell phone, they find a way to make due without that feature. The point is that live call transfer is more important than we realize. Customers expect that you have it, and it should always be available and easy to use. Don’t Underestimate the Importance of a Transfer Feature As a new business looking for the right phone system for their company, you may not think about how often you will use live transfer. Even if you only have a couple of employees, you’re going to need to be able to transfer customer calls, as well as transfer calls internally between employees. For one thing, you can’t ask customers to hang up and call back with …

Can You Really Benefit from Trade Shows?

Trade shows seem kind of antiquated, but if you haven’t considered them as a legitimate resource for growing your business, then you’ll be surprised how helpful they can be to give you ideas and make useful contacts, to start with. That’s what we’re going to go over in this post; we hope to change your mind. For your consideration, check out the following reasons that you should include trade shows in your growth strategy. Does Anybody Still Go to Trade Shows? We don’t hear about them nearly as much these days, but trade shows and expos are still very much alive and well. No matter what industry you’re working in, you can find a trade show for just about anything under the sun. It’s quite amazing how prevalent they are, but these shows are still widely produced even today. In the 2018 CEIR Index Report published recently by the Center …

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Should You Be Using Google Analytics?

  Although Google Analytics is not a new thing, there are still a lot of business owners who do not use it, and that is really unfortunate because it can give you valuable insight into who your customers are and how to reach them. Not only that, but it’s free! If you happen to be a business owner who is exploring different avenues that will help you to promote or expand your business, then it is definitely worthwhile for you to give Google Analytics a shot. Here are some points to consider about the software.   Google Analytics is a Free Tool   You’ve no doubt heard about it, and you’ve got nothing to lose in giving Google Analytics a try. Is it really free? Yes, it’s really free, with no strings attached. So, considering what you stand to gain from using it, there’s absolutely no risk to you in …

Improve Communications

How a Virtual Phone System Can Improve Communications

How easily can your team communicate with each other at work? When you take an honest assessment of the system you use for everyone to stay in touch with each other, you might very well discover that you’re wasting a lot of time and energy without realizing it. We’re going to go over a few of the most common mistakes that small businesses make in the ways that they organize their phone systems and other coms, but mainly how the phones are actually designed to complicate things instead of simplifying them. Disjointed Communication is Your Enemy Any business owner knows that all communication in your business has to be well-coordinated to be effective, and this is especially true for your phone system. Depending on how many employees you have, whether they work in a central office or remotely, and how much everyone interacts with customers over the phone. Obviously, many …

Do You Need a Human Resources Department?

  Human resources. This is the department of a business that seems more extracurricular than essential, but when certain issues arise with people on your team, HR can absolutely save you. When you’re a new business or still very small, with a limited budget, you probably consider HR to be somewhat of an extravagance. It’s more important than you might think, which we’ll show in this post, because the humans working for your business are your greatest resource.   No Business is Too Small for a Human Resources Department   The first thing to recognize is that small businesses can run into the same issues with employees as large businesses, even though they may look different in a smaller organization. Even in a business with as few as 2 or 3 employees, problems come up from time to time which could really use a third party to step in and …