Business Tools Can Make Your Small Business Appear Mighty

business, this is no longer the case, but there are certainly benefits to seeming “big.” Giving customers the impression of size tends to indirectly reassure them that the business is well established, has plenty of support, and can be trusted with big projects and clients. In a sense, it comes down to reputation, and offering customers a sense of credibility.

With so many office technologies readily available today, it has never been easier for people to start their own companies. Business tools are increasingly affordable (sometimes even free) and can be used on a diverse range of devices, meaning that emerging business owners can take advantage of these tools using the devices they already have. By cutting out the need for heavy initial investments in equipment and hardware, as well as physical office space, small businesses can start on the right foot cheaply and effectively.

But then there is the problem of size. How do businesses that can count their employees on one hand go about making themselves seem like a reputable establishment to new customers? Business VoIP provider Nextiva has some suggestions for tools that can help.

The first technology small businesses should consider is VoIP-based call forwarding. “As a small business owner, your cell phone is your lifeline,” Nextiva’s Ramon Ray points out. “Today’s cloud-enabled VoIP phone systems offer a wide variety of features to facilitate communication as you grow. Using an online interface or a desk phone, a business can forward calls as needed throughout the day.”

As a business grows and expands its workforce, new employees can be added to the online interface so that calls can be routed to new employees wherever they are. An added bonus of these VoIP call forwarding systems is that they can ring multiple devices at once when a call is received, such as an employee’s desk phone, cell phone, and home phone. By having calls ring on several devices simultaneously, a worker is far less likely to miss the call.

Cloud services allow business owners to host any number of solutions offsite, while also offering them access to the same tools used by larger enterprises. Hosted services also come with their own IT departments and can offer support included with whatever monthly fees are required for subscription. Billing and payment solutions are also becoming increasingly available through third-party services and tools. “Newer solutions also offer the opportunity of setting up a portal through which clients and vendors can view and pay invoices, as well as view the status of pending payments,” Ray wrote. “These tools cut down on the number of phone calls for information and give a business an even more professional, big business appearance.”

At the end of the day, it’s the quality of service that matters most for any business. While bigger may not always be better, now small businesses can take advantage of the same powerful tools as the big players.

Edited by Maurice Nagle