Calling All Business Owners: Tips on Your Phone Service that Will Save You Money

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.

Hemorrhoid Treatment

It isn’t something that many people talk about or are comfortable talking about, but it happens. Considering the amount of women who are pregnant or who have experienced hemorrhoids while pregnant or those who have office jobs or who work at home on their computers for several hours a day, people frequently get hemorrhoids but not many people know the specific causes or ways to go about making sure that their bodies are in good health and treating it effectively.

While pregnant women and people who hold jobs that involve a lot of sitting do make up a great amount of people who get hemorrhoids, the number one cause is constipation and the number one cause of constipation is your diet. When it comes to your health, one thing directly affects another and so on and because of that, we really must start at the root of a problem. In this case, your diet is extremely important. It is best to eat foods that contain a good amount of fiber and if that isn’t possible, there are a great deal of different fiber supplements that are available and make it easier to have regular bowel movements. It is also very important to drink at least 6 glasses of water per day to keep you regular and in good health.

It is important not to wait to get this condition treated since they can become more and more painful over time and ultimately, if not treated, could result in surgery. There are several ways to go about treatment; because everyone’s body is a little different, it is important to do a little research and see what type and brand of hemorrhoids treatment is right for you.

Rated by hemorrhoid sufferers and professionals, the number one rated treatment for hemorrhoids is Venapro. Venapro is safe to use, works the fastest with a 97% success rate, is highly recommended by doctors and has no side-effects. Best of all, with Venapro you have the security of a money-back guarantee if it doesn’t work for you. To find out more about the number one rated hemorrhoid treatment, just check out the Venapro reviews.

Take On Your New Business with Updated Computer Software

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?

Emerita Knows Women’s Skin Care

I have spent the last few years of my life fighting with my fickle skin. The slightest things can make my skin turn from the pure complexion I had all through my adolescence into a horrifying Halloween mask-like state that leaves me adopting an “Oh well, I’m just not leaving the house–Ever, if need be!” philosophy. I have tried a downright impressive amount of over-the-counter skin care products and even some infomercial “miracle” collections that left my face incredibly dry and did not help clear acne, but aided in the process of making more! Sadly, me and my complexion had given up, especially since most of the skin care products I had tried made my complexion far worse than it was when I had started using them.

After giving up on skin care products that seemed to work for whoever this company was testing to prove their product worked, as well as for the models and actresses who already had perfect complexions to begin with, my skin was in an absolutely horrific state. My acne stayed, my skin was incredibly dry and it felt as if my face itself just was not fitting into my skin and I had also developed a problem with blackheads that never wanted to go away, no matter what face scrub I massaged into my face. Then it hit me; these companies were interested in one thing–Money. Most companies will say and do anything to pull one over on consumers and as long as they are making their millions, they really don’t care about women at all or if their product had even helped someone.

I recently had the opportunity to give skin care another go–With Emerita. Emerita is a woman-owned business, which of course gets a thumbs up in my book. I am all about supporting any business owned and run by women, especially since most products made for women are made by men, and obviously, men know very little about how women work. Emerita started as a family business and has been helping women over 40 with their extensive line of personal health and beauty products since the 1970s. While Emerita may target women over 40, they are not only for women of that age group since they helped the complexion of a 21 year old woman and most likely many other younger women who refused to accept that there were no skin care products that would work for them.

The Emerita microdermabrasion face scrub is made with all organic and botanical ingredients. It exfoliates your skin, leaving it the smoothest my face has ever been. It is a smooth exfoliate unlike any other I had tried before; it doesn’t hurt when massaged into your skin and it leaves your skin feeling warm and refreshed. The scrub is unscented and contains no artificial colorings, which is great because what most companies don’t realize is that it doesn’t take a fruity smell and a pretty color to make women continue to buy their products, it takes the product to actually work–And Emerita does!

If you are interested in Emerita, but don’t want to spend your money on products that you don’t know for sure will work for you, they also offer two different sample packages of five different skin care products for just $2.00 and they also ship for free!

I have personally found that the balancing toner used after the microdermabrasion scrub and combined with the night cream works famously. It works so great, in fact, that I saw results with using their skin care products in just a 24-hour period, which if you’ve used most other products, you know is astounding!

I would most definitely tell any women looking to clear their complexion and be left with a warm, glowing and refreshed face to check out the products that Emerita offers; they are great quality and above all else, they work.

Bank Account Belly Somersaults

Working as a freelance anything definitely has its ups and downs.

On one hand, you have the luxury of working when you want, not having to ask your boss if you can duck out for a smoke or have to plan your meals around a business schedule. On the other hand, you always tend to not work as much as you had planned, get distracted a lot more easier especially if you do work that puts you in front of a computer and of course there is the case of the impatient freelancer who checks their PayPal and bank account and the client who suddenly disappears right in time–Just as soon as you send out your invoice.

As I have already blogged about, Victoria’s Secret is currently in the midst of having their semi-annual sale; that combined with a wedding reception I attended recently that I desperately needed a dress for as well as thinking I could afford a little frivolous spending did not help the current situation that I am in.

So, as any normal person who knows they’re broke but isn’t aware of just how broke they are, I avoided my bank account. I have not looked at my bank account all month and I was really loving that arrangement; however, I noticed this morning that I am half way through my last pack of cigarettes and oh no, I need to buy more! And so, with many belly somersaults and the feeling of nausea creeping in, I checked my bank account balance.

Luckily, I have enough money for the carton of cigarettes that will save my life as well as my ability to work and earn the money that will replenish my bank account because I got nothin’!

Makes you wonder where the money I did have went. Oh yeah, shoes, undies, tank tops, pretty pretty dress. Sigh…

Cozy Blankets Wrapped in Inspiration

I work from home and one of the things that I never really paid much attention to before, such as motivational and inspirational quotes, have become a very big part of my life. I find a quote I like and I will make a desktop background with the quote on it or write it down on a piece of paper and keep it on my desk. It is very little things such as this that give me my little jolt for the day–Oh yeah, and coffee. They are what take me from “Ugh, I don’t want to do anything today.” to “I need to work, I need to make money to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. This is what is going to turn my life around. This is what I do and I am damn good at it!”

One of the best finds I have come across lately, as well as something that has completely transformed my work ethic are the Affirmagy wraps. The blankets come from an all-woman business, which of course makes them top notch in my book, being a woman entrepreneur as well as a soon-to-be woman business owner and they also have a poster of Rosie the Riveter in the office, which just makes my love for this company grow and grow. They have been featured on Family.com, Entrepreneur.com, as well as in publications of Pink magazine, Fit Yoga and The Boston Globe.

The affirmawraps are incredibly soft blankets that come in a variety of colors that have inspirational quotes covering them. They have helped my work ethic due to me being snuggled up in my computer chair in mine since I received it.

Affirmawraps come with several different quotes on them, including abundance, courage, gratitude, love, motherhood, serenity, strength and wholeness. They also have a limited edition series which come with quotes for compassion, peace, inspiration and joy.

Being a freelance writer, website designer and web administrator, I obviously needed the inspiration wrap, needing all the inspiration I can get on a daily basis. It reads:

I live an inspired life. As I follow my dreams, I inspire others to do the same. Inspiration radiates around me. I love finding inspiration in the little things. The compassion of others inspires me. I attract extraordinary people. I am inspired every day. Each day I awaken my intuition. I follow my inspired heart.

Affirmagy wraps are absolutely amazing, in my opinion. They are ultra soft, cozy as well as the pick me up that so many people could use in their lives; they also make incredible gifts for anyone in your family, circle of friends, coworkers and they even come for babies and pets, which I think are great; I just wish I got one for my cat–Yes, she is incredibly spoiled.

Head on over to their website and fall in love with Affirmagy wraps, there is one there for absolutely everyone; and also be sure to check out Affirmawords, the Affirmagy blog by Kristen, maker of the Affirmawraps.