This is a guest post by Nicole Hayward, Marketing Director at Junction Networks.
If you are a start up or small business owner, odds are you’re going to need a business phone service. (You’re not going to tell prospective clients to call your cell phone much longer…) Here’s a tip that’s going to make your business look bigger, better, and smarter: Use a Hosted VoIP service.
What is Hosted VoIP?
Voice over IP (VoIP) is the growing technology that allows you to make phone calls over your internet connection. You may associate Skype with VoIP, which is an app that allows you to call another Skype user. However, there are phone services that integrate with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), allowing you to make and receive phone calls like you would on a traditional phone.
Because of its relatively new emergence to the market, a VoIP service may seen intimidating. But, I’m here to assure you it’s actually cost efficient, reliable, AND easy to set up!
Why is VoIP Great for Small Businesses?
First and foremost, VoIP is great for small businesses because of its cost efficiency and ease in setting up. Frankly, if you choose a hosted VoIP service, you won’t need to pay a phone company to wire a business phone at your office or home. Instead, you’ll sign up for the service, purchase an IP phone to plug into your internet connection, and you’re set. Also, the actual phone service is cheaper because long distance calls are essentially local calls; voice data travels over the internet until it reaches a local PSTN to transfer to the recipient.
Secondly, VoIP has great features and scalability. You will find, using a hosted VoIP service, that you can choose a package that fits your business needs and budget. “This technology allows for businesses to take advantage of services like auto attendants, conference bridges, voicemail servers, video conferencing, click-to-call website integration, business hours routing, and voicemail-to-email notifications…” says TechCrunch. In addition to these features, you will be able to:
- Add users (extensions) in a matter of a few clicks as your business grows
- Answer your phone from the road using a smart phone app or your laptop in your hotel room
- Transfer calls to your remote employees with extension dialing (available with some services like OnSIP)
- Take your phone system with you when you move to a new office.
How Do You Get Hosted VoIP?
Well, of course I am biased, since I work for a great Business VoIP Service, OnSIP. You can easily sign up and try our service. But, feel free to weigh your options by Googling “Business VoIP”. Remember if you choose Hosted VoIP, all you will need are IP phones (e.g. Cisco or Polycom) and a broadband connection. Or, you can always email me with questions. Good luck in growing your business and communications!
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Nicole Hayward is the Marketing Director at Junction Networks, the creators of OnSIP Business Phone Service. Joining the software development industry after a traditional engineering education, she became passionate about discovering new software tolls for business efficiency and success. Follow Nicole and the rest of her team on Twitter @OnSIP and on the OnSIP blog. Or, you can email her at Nicole [AT] JunctionNetworks [DOT] Com.
When you start a small business or become a home-based entrepreneur with a limited budget, start-up costs can often run you into bankruptcy before you even have the chance to rock the business world. Sure, you have to spend money to make money, but the resources available to get the materials you absolutely need in order to run an effective business are also businesses themselves and they do not always produce the best value for your hard-earned dollar. One of the biggest and most influential necessities you need for your business (and for your business-like image) are printed goods–things like business cards, stationary, flyers and brochures and businesses like Kinkos can really rob you blind as they up-sell you on pretty much everything. What businesses of this sort do is try to squeeze every last cent out of you and you invest the money knowing that there’s no way around it, you need these items and these places are so well-marketed that you really believe that they are the end-all and be-all of businesses who can effectively help you brand your business and and yourself as a professional business contact.
There are an abundance of resources online to help you with your business branding and printing needs; if you are a start-up company or just a blogger in need of some professional and aesthetically-pleasing business cards for an upcoming bloggers conference where you will undoubtedly encounter other bloggers-turned potential loyal readers and influential companies, it is always wise to do your research and search online for a company that can really produce the product you need at the quality you pay for. Online printing can save you a bundle because regardless of the time of year, there is usually a sale (or multiple sales) going on. Online businesses have a tendency to really appreciate their customers and even create professional relationships with people who do business with them frequently and online printing services tend to have even more products, services, templates and samples to choose from because of the versatility of the internet and the diversity of their clients.
An excellent online printing resource for small, start-up and home-based businesses is PsPrint. They are a leading printing company and have an extensive list of products and services ranging from the practical, like business cards, flyers, booklets and brochures, to the really cool, like greeting cards (the holidays are coming up and now is the perfect time to start planning sending out holiday cards to your customers, clients and partners with your business logo on them!), pocket folders and door hangers. They can also handle bigger business printing needs like full catalogs, menus and sticker printing (something fun to hand out during blogging conferences or when pitching your business to prospective clients.) Their prices are also great for small businesses, their stickers starting at just $40. They also have a slew of great promotions going on to help you save even more money when you do business with them. Their brochures and greeting cards are currently 50% off, business cards and postcards are 40% off and posters are an astounding 60% off! That is some major savings to be had there!
Online printing is most definitely the way to go when you’re looking for high quality printed items for your business at the right price.
The US unemployment rate, as of September 2009, has hit a 26-year low. Since the recession was officially referred to as a recession in December 2007, 14.9 million people are out of work; not since The Great Depression have so many American families been without work and struggling to make ends meet. When finances get eerily low, many families opt to change careers or pick up a supplemental part-time job, yet as we have seen throughout the country, this is not an option for most families due to the lack of work in their areas.
Because of the employment drop off, many people are frantically searching for employment opportunities wherever they can. Many people are going back to school, either opting to take classes at vocational trainings and community colleges. But no matter how bad this recession gets, or if it eventually drops off into a depression, there is one field that is always in great demand for committed employees. Healthcare professionals will always be employed because people never stop getting hurt. Emergency rooms are always packed, regardless of the area you live in because kids fall down and gash their heads and break bones, as well as a myriad of other accidents that happen involving children. People are consistently being diagnosed with diseases and cancers and doctors and nurses are there to help aid patients in any way they can.
While healthcare professionals of all varieties are in demand, one healthcare profession that won’t lodge you in the ER for days at a time and will also give you the opportunity to travel and see the world; that profession is travel nursing.
A travel nurse gets a ton of perks all while performing a job that they are passionate about. The perks they receive are unlike any I have seen in any other professional out there, especially now. Along with excellent pay, from the first day you become a travel nurse, you receive health, deal and life insurance benefits immediately, as well as a 401k plan. You also receive free continuing education units, a prestigious loyalty program and regardless of where you choose to work, you receive free, private, furnished housing with utilities.
Travel Nurse Across America is a company for travel nurses that believe in long-term relationships and treat their nurses with the respect and courtesy they deserve. Nurses are never harassed by a myriad of phone calls and mailers. They offer the very best compensation for travel nurses; they compensation package and support has even been praised as the best in the business.
Travel nursing is by far one of the best employment opportunities I have seen rise up above the rest, especially during a recession, and because so many millions of Americans have lost their jobs and have nowhere to turn, this is the perfect profession for RN’s and other healthcare professionals looking for a great career.
A great education that leads directly into a rewarding and exciting career is hard to find. It’s even harder to find in a crumbling economy and an unforgiving job market. With such widespread layoffs affecting many families across the entire country, it’s proven that with an education directly related to your field of work and excellent work ethic, you are even more likely to keep a job in a time of layoffs and company corner-cutting.
While it may be difficult to find the right fit for you as far as schools go, if you are interested and serious about event and wedding planning, there is no other choice for excellent schooling than Sheffield.
In 1985 Sheffield began as an interior design school and has since expanded. Located in Manhattan between Grand Central Station and the United Nations, Sheffield is in the design capital of the world and is home to the top professionals in the world to offer you an excellent, top notch education in event planning, feng shui, interior design, wedding planning, and much more.
The wedding planning course offered at Sheffield is a comprehensive curriculum that will set you apart in the work force and includes twenty complete lessons with additional supplements, a study guide to lead you step-by-step through your lessons and a personal student advisor, internship projects, and everything you will need to perform your career seamlessly as a wedding planner and bridal consultanti.
Really, with an education from Sheffield you will turn your passion into a career and will undoubtedly have your pick of professional careers in any location you wish to live your life.
This is a guest post by Ksenija of Unusual Business Ideas.
American scientists have finally proved a widespread opinion that nothing effects the productivity of our work more than mood. Nancy Rothbard from Warton University of Pennsylvania and Stephanie Wilk from Fischer College of Business in Ohio investigated the work of call-center employees from different US states. During 3 weeks, Rothbard and Wilk were studying their behavior and changes in mood depending on the situation at workplace. The experiment clearly showed that nothing effects quality of work more then a mood. Employees who were starting their day on an optimistic note were much more attentive to clients and needed less coffee breaks during the working day. On the other hand, employees who come to work in an upset mood have less contacts with clients and are less responsive.
I never even doubted that personal and team mindset had a strong effect: goal-oriented and optimistic people inspire colleagues and show great results. At the same time if you “wake up on the wrong side of the desk,” it’s really hard to set yourself up to work. In this case it’s extremely important to brace up, set right priorities and reach your targets. Otherwise, any deficiency in work, any little problem will let you down and thus form a vicious circle. An employee who gets bored with routine is much more likely to notice each and every drawback in his work and to be completely disappointed in it.
Quite often employees’ mood is in tight connection to manager’s personality, charisma and ability to inspire the team. Mood and will to work do not always depend on material things. If a manager doesn’t use non-material factors to motivate subordinates, then he shouldn’t expect them to work properly even having decent salaries. Success is guaranteed if the manager sets clear, attainable goals and shows sincere gratitude to employees for their positive achievements.
The other side of this question is an inspiration. When you apply for new job you feel simply elated and during first few months this inspiration helps you to overcome all the difficulties that may arise. If you have chosen the right job then this initial inspiration should slowly transform in a much deeper feeling – passion for work. Psychologists say that one has to be honest with himself and start searching for new work as soon as this passion disappears. Unfortunately it’s not always possible due to multiple reasons and sometimes you just have to switch your attention to other positive moments that can be found in any job.
To sum up I would like to repeat that experiments clearly proved that start-of-day mood is a determinant of employee performance. Every manager has to consider it his duty to take special care about team’s mindset that assures good work results.
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Ksenija has a small travel agency in a nice little country in the suburbs of Europe who is interested in receiving high profit with minimal expenses. It is for that reason that she runs her blog, Unusual Business Ideas, where she discovers and shares stories from all over the web.
If you run a small business, there is no reason why you shouldn’t have checked out Microsoft Office Live Small Business. Small businesses thrive on the internet; you have a larger target market and the ability to reach more people, faster than ever. As more and more small businesses continue to thrive online, companies are making it easier to become an internet entrepreneur even if you aren’t very “tech-savvy” and one of those companies making the internet less of a mystery and more of a tool that can be easily used by everyone is Microsoft.
Microsoft Office Live Small Business has rolled out some big changes to make customizing your Small Business website even easier.
There is a new custom color selector, giving you more options as far as color selections go for your website, making it easier to match colors in your business logo or other branding elements you have for your business. There is a new custom page zone resizing tool letting you think outside the box when customizing your existing web page layout template. You can now resize individual zones within a template with a simple mouse click and drag and drop action. There are also new custom backgrounds for your website and finally, the ability to add a new PayPal button, making it easy for you to sell products and/or services via your website without having to bother with a full-blown ecommerce solution.
There are even more improvements in the works for Microsoft Office Live Small Business. Microsoft will continue to improve their service for all small business owners who want the ability to easily manage their businesses online.
Alright, so women are different. We are super, superb, superwomen. That is a fact of life. How do we capitalize on the fact to build a successful business? Business is about taking action and being in control of your own destiny. One thing I know about women is that we know how to take action. All too often, however, we take action for the sake of others at the expense of our own progress.
Are you in the driver’s seat of your own destiny?
Print these out and post them where you can read them often: Here are 16 steps to empower you to take action for yourself and build the prosperity you deserve.
- Have a strong passion and persistent desire to have a successful business.
- Do whatever you must to eliminate the negative self talk. Chant, pray, pretend, affirm, do whatever is necessary, and then get rid of it.
- Change those good little girl habits. It is really okay to think of yourself first.
- Look at yourself as the strong, capable, compassionate women you are.
- Stop comparing yourself to others. Your success may depend on it.
- Quit believing what others say is not possible for you. Believe in you own uniqueness.
- Do not look at where you are right now to define yourself or your business.
- Have a HUGE dream and visualize it as if it is yours already.
- Find a support system where you can all be mutually empowered.
- Cease throwing pity parties. They are USELESS. The only invitees are losers.
- Challenge yourself to do something you fear and challenge that fear every day until you overcome it.
- Recognize and realize that you deserve prosperity
- Show confidence! Fear is usually a result of a lack of confidence. If you find you do not have it yet, behave and speak as if you already do and you will develop that quality. (Honestly …it works)
- Believe that you and your time are valuable. You are entrepreneur!
- Know that what you have to say is important
- IMPORTANT! Realize that it is totally permissible for Superwomen to refuse a request to do something you do not want to do *Resources by Angela Baden
” Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” ~Henry Ford
Self-acceptance
We often set unrealistic ideas of the person we should be, and a newly-discovered weakness often causes us pain because it jarringly conflicts with this idea. The first step in overcoming weaknesses is to lose these unrealistic ideas and accept yourself for who you are. By accepting yourself, warts and all, you are not giving up.
Never give up
The process of human improvement is not like instant coffee, or a miracle pill. There are ups, there are downs, and there are times you wonder if you are any better than when you started. Yet bear in mind that anything we did that ever brought us a feeling of joy and satisfaction, only came because we committed to it and saw it through to the end.
Live passionately… what else have you got to do?
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Christine is a certified life coach for women. She is the founder of Girltime Coaching and also writes her blog, Live Passionately.
Receptionist jobs are often underrated, as many of you know! Required to undertake a whole host of different tasks, often under a good deal of pressure, he or she needs to be able to maintain focus and control while being pulled in several different directions at once. And most important of all still be able to smile and present a calm, helpful demeanor to anyone who phones or enters the building.
The receptionist is the customer’s first impression of a company, and although receptionist jobs don’t require a university degree, you must be able to multi-task, answer the telephones, deal with inquiries, work with databases and staff, and facilitate the general day-to-day running of the company.
In this age of automated phone systems and electronic communication, people genuinely appreciate being able to speak to a human being. Because of this, receptionist jobs are being valued more, as they become a rarer commodity amongst the backdrop of out-sourced admin and automated responses.
Working in receptionist jobs is not suitable for everyone. Direct person-to-person contact is a skill that needs to be honed, so that the crucial first impression potential clients have of the company is favorable and positive. The receptionist should put people at ease and inspire confidence. He or she should give the impression the business runs smoothly and visitors are welcome. A detailed knowledge of the company and employees is essential, so inquiries and telephone calls can be channeled towards the right department without delay.
The great variety of tasks involved in receptionist jobs means the job is challenging without being greatly different each day. Receptionist need to be computer literate, have a good telephone manner, and be an accomplished communicator. Patience and forbearance are handy attributes when dealing with members of the public! Not all interactions are pleasant, and some may involve delicate, awkward, or even unpleasant communications.
People applying for receptionist jobs need to be aware that sometimes things can go wrong. In which case, the ability to handle complaints with politeness, in a level-headed and fair way, is essential. However these situations are rare, and by far the biggest reward of receptionist jobs is the ability to help people achieve their aim, and enjoy the recognition you receive from having done so.
Now, more than ever, people are making the decision to leave their 9-5 jobs and starting their own, home-based businesses. Most of the home businesses people are opting for are internet businesses or primarily internet-based. The internet is a surefire way to reach the greatest amount of people in the least amount of time and not only that, but while conducting business online, your computer soon becomes your very best organizational tool.
People who conduct business from home are realizing within just the first few months that the days of home offices filled with standard office equipment such as something as simple as a filing cabinet is no longer needed. All of your important documents and files can easily be kept on your computer and since you will surely be spending a considerable amount of time on your computer to keep up with your budding business, keeping your business files on your computer is more convenient and easier to keep track of. But what do you do when your computer gets a virus or you do a virus scan and find spyware and malware on your computer that you can’t get rid of?
There are a great deal of risks that one must take as soon as they choose to keep important documents on their computer. You must be prepared for something to go wrong with your computer at the most crucial and inopportune time. Some feel a bit safer with their documents by keeping them on an external hard drive, backing up their important files and keeping them on a private server or even keeping copies of your files, printed out and kept in a filing cabinet. One of the most convenient aspects of home businesses is that all you should need is your computer, whether it be a desktop computer or a laptop that you can easily travel with and never have to miss a day of work so keeping run of the mill office furniture in your home-based business is being counterproductive and you are making your business and organization more difficult than it has to be.
Did you know that something as simple as computer software can eliminate not only these, but many other risks that people take when doing business on a computer? A computer’s operating system is the most crucial and important aspects of your computer; if your operating system is not functioning to the best of its ability then you, and your home-based business are not functioning to the best of your ability. If you are using a PC you may feel that you are limited with what operating system you can choose to run your computer on. The simple fact of the matter is that most businesses and even people are not using the one Windows operating system that has been tested and proven to work most effectively for individual users and is the absolute best operating system for home-based and small businesses to run on–Windows Vista.
Windows Vista has less than half of the security risks that Windows XP, the most common operating system PC users are using today, has; with a 60% less likely change to be infected by spyware or malware. If that doesn’t make you more comfortable, you are also guaranteed the peace of mind and know that your important files and documents will not be lost while they are on your computer since Windows Vista has also implemented a new Windows Backup and Restore Center. Vista is the most secure Windows release to date, which is comforting since the amount of people who use and have used Windows XP know the frustration that sets in when your computer gets a virus you can’t seem to get rid of or your computer freezes or applications randomly crash for no reason. People who run small or independent businesses have polled to be up to three times more favorable of Windows Vista just after using it and adjusting to its interface and superior quality.
Since its launch, Windows Vista now supports more than double the number it supported at the time of their initial launch; the PC world is moving over to Vista–Are you willing to be more productive in your business and make the smooth transition over to Windows Vista?
