For new companies and growing businesses, being lean is the name of the game. Established companies can easily make business decisions and alter strategies without letting cost being an inhibiting factor. However, startups need to be efficient as possible with the limited resources. Strategy is shaped by scarcity and a smart entrepreneur knows how to get the most done with the limited resources, money, and time. At times, you can get by with free programs and services but things like customer communication tools are worth investing in.
Here is how you can add a business line to your smartphone:
1. Make use of your existing phone and phone number
When you are first starting your business, initially you can use your phone to contact your clients and customers. However, as the business grows, it becomes more and more important to have a separate phone line. The main benefit of using your smartphone is that it provides you with a cheap business phone line. If you consider the impact that this has on your business image and a healthy work-life balance, the benefit of low cost is not worth the negative effect.
Creating a professional image and building trust among the clients get much more difficult when you are managing communication through the same phone line as your personal life. Whenever you receive a call, there is no way by which you know if it’s a work or personal call. You are then left guessing how you should answer the call. Making use of the personal phone for business purposes also makes it difficult to separate yourself from work. Moreover, your customers will have access to your phone line, so you may be pulled into work even on vacations.
2. Add an extra phone line through your service provider
The easiest solution to have stable business communication is simply getting a separate phone and phone line. This will not only allow you to separate your personal and business calls but also helps you to build a very professional image for your business. However, the benefits are outweighed by the high cost.
More than 40% of the small businesses struggle to get away from work and get pulled back into business-related tasks when they are trying to relax. With a completely separate phone line, getting away from work becomes a lot easier as you can simply shut off your work phone whenever you need a break.
With a separate phone line, you can also relax knowing that any business-related call that you choose to ignore will get stored directly in your business-specific voice mailbox.
The major downside is that an additional phone line is not a cheap business phone line. A new cell phone costs about 400 dollars and using an additional phone line will cost extra 30 dollars a month. You will also be required to carry two phones with you everywhere.
3. Make use of a VoIP system
A lot of entrepreneurs make use of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems to manage their business communications. VoIP is a cheap business line that lets you manage customer communications in a separate channel from personal communications. However, you don’t get that flexibility or reliability that a separate phone would provide with.
Apart from being affordable, several VoIP systems enable you to make and receive calls from a separate business line cell phone. However, VoIP relies on an internet connection to make and receive calls. So, at times of network problems, working becomes a lot more difficult.
4. Make use of an app-based phone service
The best solution for small business owners who need flexible and quality business communication at an affordable price is to make use of a second phone line app. The right business phone line apps give entrepreneurs the flexibility to manage their work from anywhere without making any compromises on their company’s professional image and also maintains a healthy work-life balance.
Unlike VoIP systems, the smart line all makes use of your existing cell service connection to make and receive calls and send texts from your business line. Thus, wherever your phone works, you will be able to contact your clients via text and calls without any problem.
Using a business phone line app also helps to manage your customer interactions In a more professional way. You can easily differentiate work calls from personal calls and answer the phone appropriately. All the missed calls will go directly into your business voicemails and not your voicemail. Such phone line apps also transcribe voicemails, so you don’t need to spend additional time rewinding and transcribing messages.
These phone line apps help you to create a healthy work-life balance. You can also set the business hours as per your choice. Thus, any calls from virtual mobile number app which come outside of those hours will get routed to your business voicemail. All of these benefits don’t have to cost your business an arm and a leg! Such phone line apps help to provide that flexible business communication system for under 10 dollars a month.
