A successful small business may not remain small for long. To prepare for small business growth, it pays to invest in a communication solution that can scale with you. Sales, customer support, logistics and internal collaboration all depend on a communications infrastructure to easily connect with each other.
Because it's impossible to predict the communication needs of your business months or years from now, you might also prize flexibility. By building a communications infrastructure with agility in mind, you'll be able to support your small business growth by keeping your entire business connected as you add new employees and open new locations.
The benefits of VoIP for small business
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is one way to deliver the scalability and flexibility required for small business growth. VoIP is the future of communications, enabling your business to make calls using the internet instead of phone lines. The benefits of VoIP for small business include:
- Lower costs: Because VoIP doesn't require complex communication hardware or hardwired phone lines, you can add as many new phone numbers as your small business growth requires without additional installation costs.
- More responsiveness: One of the greatest benefits of VoIP for small businesses is the time it can save. New lines can be set up with a click, as opposed to waiting for the phone company to enable a new line or install new wiring. For a fast-growing business, this allows new employees to start communicating immediately instead of waiting days or longer.
- Greater flexibility: Because you can easily use the same phone number from anywhere, the portability of VoIP gives you confidence that you can easily move numbers from one place to another as you outgrow locations.
- Varied features: VoIP can also deliver business communication necessities, such as call forwarding, call routing, call recording, conference calling and even text messaging.
- Increased productivity: An increasingly important benefit of VoIP for small business growth is the ability for a phone number to be tied to a person instead of a handset. This allows employees to have a number reach them wherever they are—whether in the office or working remotely—without having to worry that calls are going to a desk phone that is unattended.
Making the switch to a flexible, scalable solution
If your small business already has a traditional communications infrastructure in place, there are two things you'll want to consider when making the switch to VoIP.
First, you'll want to ensure that you're maximizing the ROI of your current investments. If you've already invested money into handsets and other equipment, work with your VoIP provider to see if these existing items will work with your new system. A gateway device may be required to make your current phones work with your new system.
Second, keep in mind that with VoIP, your bandwidth is about to take on a significant increase in traffic. With bandwidth-hungry voice now running over the internet, it’s important to work with your VoIP provider to review your options to ensure that your internet connection can not only handle the additional traffic but also continue to meet your needs as your business scales. VoIP phones are now available with One Talk which use wireless and will not clog broadband. Make sure to leverage the many benefits of VoIP for small businesses.
Verizon One Talk provides a mobile-first business phone system that's designed to scale with your small business growth while providing everything employees need to communicate in the office and on the go. One Talk assigns one number that rings multiple compatible mobile devices, desk phones and PCs, which means fewer missed calls and more opportunities to connect. Learn more about business digital voice.
The author of this content is a paid contributor for Verizon.