There are literally hundreds of thousands of services small business owners can use to increase business and reduce expenses. These services have exploded over the last few years primarily because of easy Internet accessibility and the fierce competition for Internet-based applications. This fierce competition essentially lowers the cost of the services to the consumer … many of them to the lowest common denominator … ZERO. In fact, if you search hard enough, you’ll even find a few services where the provider will pay you to try them out. How much more “free” can you get?
Some of the services small business firms should consider trying are those that they already use on a daily basis. For example, at a minimum, every small business needs telephone service, accounting for income and expenses, advertising and marketing and, increasingly, some type of web or social media presence. There are plenty more services small business owners can expand into as their business grows, but this a good start.
Telephone service is a basic necessity. You can’t conduct business without being able to communicate with your customers. Some business owners will opt for the “traditional” services of AT&T, Comcast or other standard telephone providers. Others might forgo a separate line and just use their mobile phone as the “business” number. While these options make sense for many, there are a number of other great alternatives which work really well and are downright cheap.
These telephone services small business firms should consider work on a concept called VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). Basically, they run using your existing Internet connection just like the old telephone companies worked using old telephone lines. In fact, in my business we use several different VOIP services from Skype to MagicJack to RingCentral.
We use different services for different reasons. Skype is great for calling people within your sphere of contacts that are already using Skype. Calls made to and from users who both use Skype are free. Calls made to a land line or mobile phone costs money but is relatively cheap on a per minute basis. MagicJack is great because you get a dedicated phone number from your choice of area codes. It has advanced features for voice mail, call forwarding and even three-way calling for $39 the first year and $19 per year thereafter. While it works by being plugged into your computer, you don’t have to have it plugged in for the features like call forwarding or voice mail to work.
Slightly more advanced telephone services small business owners should consider fall under the category of virtual PBXs. They allow you to have multiple extensions, custom greetings per extension, call transfer voice mail, “hunting”and a whole lot more. The service we use is called RingCentral. It’s great for us because we literally have a virtual team that reside all over the world. We give our customers an 800 phone number and / or a local number if they desire. The client calls in, enters an extension, and voila is then connected to one of our staff. For what this service provides the value can’t be beat.
Accounting is surely one of the basic services small business companies need to have. Some really small companies might use Excel to track their income and expenses. However, another great FREE option to Excel and other Microsoft Office products come from OpenOffice.org. Their productivity tools compete very effectively with MS Office, but don’t cost you a dime. More complex accounting needs, though, can be easily accomplished with Quicken’s online QuickBooks service. You can use this service for as little as $7.96 per month. Not exactly free, but darn near for such a sophisticated and battle-tested service.
And, what about web site services small business owners should consider? The traditional print ads from newspapers to brochures and flyers are increasingly moving online. The number of people who search for companies through the yellow pages has dropped off precipitously. Replacing this advertising / marketing model is the search and discover mode of And, what about web site services small business owners should consider? The traditional print ads from newspapers to brochures and flyers are increasingly moving online.
The number of people who search for companies through the yellow pages has dropped off precipitously. Replacing this advertising / marketing model is the search and discover mode of Google, Yahoo and Bing search. If you don’t have a website to direct people to, you’ll be a big disadvantage compared to your competition. There are a plethora of free or downright cheap services that allow you to build a simple web site, including one from Homestead, which is now owned by Intuit. I used this product for many years until we hired our own in house website developers. It’s as cheap as $5 per month.
As explained, services small business companies can use today vary from sophisticated accounting systems to telephone service to web site design and hosting. There is simply no better time to be a small business entrepreneur like today … technology is abundant and prices have never been better.
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