This post offers 3 simple, but powerfully effective ways that even first time
entrepreneurs can do to achieve higher profits, attract new clients,
and build your brand.

1) Will I need more than one extension?

Offering toll free numbers for sales and local numbers for support are small, but critically important aspects of your brand marketing that should not be ignored. In fact, because the rise of Google Local Business listings and other local business directories have grown in everyday use by customers, it’s critical to choose your business numbers in the initial phases of starting your business or new division.

Even if you’re a micro business, you will need to wear many hats taking on sales and support roles. Having more than one phone number offers a professional appearance to your prospective customers and you can place them on your business card as well as your website. It provides a sense of security to your customer base that there is depth to your organization. As your business grows, having unique numbers for sales and support means that you can easily forward the toll free number to your new employee. Best of all, online phone services like RingCentral allow you to track the phone activity of that number, so you can keep track of your contractors and employees productivity as well as get clear metrics.

Even a very small business should be asking:

• How many different phone numbers would one expect at a larger company if they were selling a product similar to me?

  I know many entrepreneurs would say, “I don’t have any competitors.” but for the sake of this exercise, let’s pretend

• Could the 3 to 5 extensions I think I need grow to 5 to 10 extensions in 6 months?

  A good gauge is to have 1.5 extensions per employee. This takes into account the different fax numbers, roll-over extensions, and different numbers one would use for various marketing campaigns.

RingCentral offers a ground-floor start-up business a service called RingCentral Online. There are several packages that are well suited for those companies that may grow from 1 to 5 employees within 12 months and quickly need extensions for various departments.

If you anticipate that your growth will go from 5 to 10 employees in 12 months, I would suggest a higher-platform service such as RingCentral’s 4-Line Office Phone System.

2) How heavily am I going to fax?

Believe it or not, faxing costs for ink & paper as well as the human labor costs of organizing faxed sales contracts can be one of the most costly line items for a small business!

Also, as a rule of thumb, integrating your fax + toll free number + support number is not just ideal, but smart. It will give you an edge over your competitors who do not follow this ideology. The following are verticals or organization types that we’ve seen gain significant time savings and better sales-flow with electronic fax services that are tied to their business phone systems:

• Legal (Attorneys save time and money by having all faxes automatically saved as electronic records that can be easily forwarded, sent in emails, or printed).
• Sales (Faxed contracts and repeats of “did you get my fax?” are things of the past).
• Support Services (Being able to send forms and letters with a mouse-click instead of a physical fax not only saves time & money, it’s better for the environment ).
• Start-Ups (You are going to sign a lot of contracts whether they be NDAs, Sales Agreements, financial statements, fund-raising documents, or general marketing documents. Keeping track of all of them not only makes organizational sense for a business striving for ultimate efficiency – if the company undergoes due diligence for venture capital dollars or a potential acquisition, having everything recorded electronically makes life way, way easier in what is usually a time of stress & anxiety for founders).

Check out RingCentral’s easy integration to a small business phone system plan.

3) How many minutes am I going to need?

There is a phenomenon for people on vacation which gives credence to the old adage: “plan to spend more than you plan to spend.”

It’s tempting to sign in for a plan that doesn’t give you enough options but offers cheap, flat rate long distance. Or sign up for a feature-rich plan that locks you into a paradigm where upgrades and add-ons are cumbersome and expensive.

If you anticipate more than 300 minutes of phone time per employee (that’s only 1.25 hour per week) than a RingCentral Online plan is OK for up to 10 extensions. But if your organization does a considerable amount of time on sales & support, you’ll want a service like RingCentral Office. The flat rates savings are heard to beat, and there won’t be any nasty long distance bills on your monthly statements.

Photos by cirofono and ToniVC

These great iPhone apps will help you survive the daily grind.

The introduction of the iPhone into everyday life has done more than make it easier to contact your friends and make you an amateur photojournalist. It has also helped immensely in the business world. We wanted to tell you about some iPhone apps that you might not know about that will help your business run more smoothly and boost productivity at or away from the office.

1. Business Productivity Booster & Tracker ($4.99)

This app is similar to TimeLogger, but goes one step further. If you need to track several employees and check on their productivity, then Business Productivity Booster & Tracker is the tool for you. You can create productivity groups and factors for each group. Add resources into the groups. Track by day, week or monthly. View a progress chart. Lastly, you can export a .csv file for easy printing. This app is a must for any Project Coordinator.

2. Evernote (Free)

Imagine that you are at a meeting across the continent. Your are taking notes while someone writes on a whiteboard and another person hands you 20 business cards. Not to mention that you have met 15 people who you need to know for the company dinner the next evening. Have no fear… Evernote is here! This app will let you take photos of the whiteboard, business cards and your notes and render them text searchable. This feature is also available if you want to leave some vocal notes. It also lets you organize the files to find it easily in the future. And the company dinner? Take a picture of everyone and put in their name so you can study it for later. Great for Partners in a firm that are constantly out of town and meeting potential clients.

3. iXpenseIt Lite (Free)

Do you have problems keeping track of all of those receipts and charges either on the road or off? The iXpenseIt Lite is a great way to help you manage your expenses. A bonus is that you can add a budget beforehand to make sure you don’t exceed your means. This is a must have if you are constantly flying across the country for meetings and sales opportunities. Any CFO or Money Manager would love having this app for their employees.

4. Mocha Remote Desktop Lite (Free)

There are times when I am sitting in Starbucks and the person sitting next to me realizes that I am a computer engineer. We strike up a conversation and ultimately, they ask me for some samples of my work. If I don’t have my laptop with me, then I can easily login to my home PC and show examples of what I do. That’s what Mocha Remote Desktop Lite is for; it gives you a way to access your home PC for whatever reason. I have frequently wanted to send someone an e-mail, but worried that I wouldn’t remember when I got home later. With Mocha, I can send the e-mail right then and there. One less thing to worry about. This is perfect for those Salesmen who are always on-the-go.

5. RingCentral Mobile (Free for RingCentral Customers)

This application creates a Virtual PBX Business Phone System on your cell phone. RingCentral Mobile gives you an auto attendant, on-hold music, customized greetings, call screening and a dial-by-name directory to give you call answering that professional polish. You can also use a toll free number to call from your cell phone. Need to send a virtual fax? No problem. Need to forward a call? Easy as pie. It really is like having an office in your pocket and helps you to organize everything. This app is perfect for executives who need to handle all of the calls and messages they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Make your iPhone your new office assistant and see your productivity soar.