Plans for Small Businesses
If you own or work in a small business, you understand the financial goals of making a profit and saving as much of it as possible to reinvest in the business rather than spend on expenses. Telephone service and calling plans can make up a large portion of any business’s expenses, and small businesses in particular stand to lose a lot of money if they don’t search carefully for a reasonable plan that suits their needs at a reasonable price. Fortunately, a wide variety of small business calling plans are available from a wide variety of service providers, and finding and comparing them is relatively simple to do with a minimal amount of time and effort.
Depending on the provider and specific plan you choose, your service may include such features as voicemail, caller identification with names, call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling, free in-network calling, area code selection, call transfer, click-to-call, call return, caller identification block, repeat dialing, international call block, ring lists, and call hunt. Most small business calling plans provide at least some, if not all of these features.
In many cases, businesses will have the option to add such features as additional lines, virtual phone numbers (secondary numbers from any available area code for your primary line), phone numbers for laptops with a certain amount of minutes, your own toll free number, fax service, enhanced 411 dialing, and others for an additional monthly fee. Depending on the service provider, benefits may include 911 dialing, the ability to keep your existing phone number, reasonable international rates, real-time billing information, real-time online account management, money-back guarantees, live customer support, a network availability number, 311 dialing, bandwidth saving functions, free phone adapters, referral programs, and more.
Many telephone companies and service providers have several different small business calling plans, so you may be able to choose from a range of programs from the very basic and inexpensive to the very advanced but still designed for small businesses. Any reliable service provider should be able to give you information to help you make a decision about which plan might be best for you, and customer service agents should always be available to help both when you are still considering a plan purchase and when you already have one and need to speak with someone about a particular issue.
Service Providers
The companies that provide small business calling plans are as numerous and varied as companies that provide all other types of telephone service. In fact, it may be easy and convenient for you to research what is offered by the phone company that you already use for your residential or cellular service. It is always a good idea, however, to search for and compare information about calling plans offered by at least a few different companies, because you may be able to find that a certain company offers a plan that fits your needs better than those of other companies, or that a certain company is generally cheaper or more expensive than others.
With a little time and effort, anyone can find and compare small business calling plans and select one that fits their needs and doesn’t break their budget.
By Kristin Cleveland