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Get A Virtual Phone Number For Your Business

November 18, 2013 by Glen Ferguson

800 & Local Numbers for $12What the heck is a virtual phone system? Well, you pick your main business phone number (or port an existing one) and then you can create extensions that forward the calls to your employee’s cell phones. There’s a lot more to it, and I’ll touch on that as you read on.

I’ve used these guys and been very impressed with both their service and with their customer service. A few months ago, I recommended them to a client who runs a decentralized, scientific consulting and engineering firm. He has an office in Tennessee and another in the Washington, D.C. area and has scientists spread around the country. I followed up with him about a month after he started using Grasshopper to make sure he was happy.

For his environment, Grasshopper works very well. Just one number to give to clients and the calls can route to any phone anywhere. He set up a local Washington, D.C. number and a toll-free number for everywhere else. He explained he used their “voice studio” to do the greeting and virtual operator recordings, and that his wife swears it’s the same voice actor used in an insurance commercial on television (unnamed because I don’t remember, and I don’t know their service so no plugs here).

So how could this help you? Well, if you’re a small business and you and your partners are working from your cellphones, this gives you one number to give to your clients. Like a conventional phone system, you can transfer calls to a coworker’s extension when needed. You also can have your “switchboard” route all calls to voicemail after 5pm if you want. There’s options to allow overrides for VIPs or emergencies if you want that flexibility. Have a sales team or a support department? Everyone can be treated fairly by having incoming calls rotate through the list so everyone gets a turn. Bringing on an intern for the semester? In just a few minutes you’ve added her to your directory and she has a voicemail box waiting for her to customize. Now if only the rest of your onboarding process could be so smooth.

Is it sneaky and deceptive to lead people to think your company is comfortably settled in one big office somewhere? No, I don’t think so. More and more, workers are becoming extremely mobile. No one blinks twice at the thought of a sales rep rarely being at his desk and using his mobile phone as his primary means of contact. Lots of huge companies have their PBX phone systems set up to forward employee calls directly to their cell phones. At the opposite end of the spectrum, small startups have been using virtual phone systems like this for years. Google Voice is a prime example. There’s a local bicycle cab company here that uses Google Voice as the sole way for customers to request a pickup. They text their address to the Google Voice number and it goes out to the drivers to let them know where to get their next fare.

Now that each end of the bell curve is using virtual phone systems, it’s finding its way into the mainstream business world. It used to be that flexibility like this needed a lot of hardware and a full-time trained technician to keep the system running. Grasshopper starts at $12 per month and all plans include unlimited extensions. Let me say that again – unlimited extensions. You’re paying for minutes used each month, not for the number of phones you forward to. They have lots of other features too – faxback document libraries so your clients can get order forms the “old fashioned” way. Voicemails that are sent to your email inbox. Smartphone apps that let your outgoing calls show your Grasshopper number. Yep, no more worrying about your family time being interrupted evenings and weekends because that “special” client got ahold of your cell number. And of course, since you can choose your Grasshopper number, you can get a ‘vanity” number – you know, like 1-800-555-TACO if you’re a Mexican restaurant. So give Grasshopper Virtual Phone System a try, you’ll like the freedom you get.

Filed Under: Featured, Make things easier

BackBlaze – Computer Backups You Can Live With

May 2, 2013 by Glen Ferguson

BackblazeBackblaze - backup your computer online is another online computer backup solution, with a really interesting bonus – finding your lost computer. It makes perfect sense. If your laptop gets lost or someone breaks into your home or office and steals your computer, Backblaze will report the location of the machine every hour when it’s online. [Read more…] about BackBlaze – Computer Backups You Can Live With

Filed Under: Keep my information safe, Protect my information from loss Tagged With: Free Trial, iPhone, Mac, Windows

CyberChimps Responsive WordPress Themes

March 29, 2013 by Glen Ferguson

CyberChimps Professional WordPress ThemesCyberChimps Responsive WordPress Themes at Cyberchimps.com

Filed Under: Promote my business online

Review of Web Hosting With Domain.com

March 27, 2013 by Glen Ferguson

domaincom_thumbnail

I’m evaluating several web hosting companies for an upcoming class I’m teaching. Look for additional reviews in the near future as I wrap up my testing of the three I’ve narrowed it down to. Here’s the first of those.

I ran into the folks from Domain.com at SXSW in March. They’re pretty big in website hosting, but tend to fly under the radar compared to firms like Bluehost, HostGator and of course, GoDaddy. So after talking to them a bit, I made a note to check out their hosting and see how it measured up as far as cost, speed, and ease of use are concerned. Here’s how that shook out.

First off, Domain.com offers a single-domain hosting for under $4 a month, and that’s a price good for 1, 2 or 3 years. Many hosts tease with a low price but then you discoer the price is only good for a 3-year contract and rates go up a dollar a a month if the term is reduced to 2 years, and another dollar if you select a 1 year term. Domain.com didn’t play that game, so I was feeling pretty good so far. [Read more…] about Review of Web Hosting With Domain.com

Filed Under: Promote my business online Tagged With: domain names, web hosting, websites

TextExpander – Shortcuts Save You Time Typing

October 4, 2011 by Glen Ferguson

text expander logoA great timesaver, this Mac and iPhone/iPad application allows you to assign shortcuts or abbreviations for commonly used phrases, signatures, email addresses, etc. If you use more than one computer, your shortcuts or snippets can sync via Dropbox. An added plus if you also use Windows, the TextExpander snippets and settings file can be used by the Windows app Breevy, allowing you to share the same shortcuts between both computers. TextExpander offers a free trial of the Mac version. TextExpander: (Mac): $34.95 (iPhone/iPad):$4.99

Filed Under: Make things easier Tagged With: Free Trial, iPhone, Mac

MailChimp – Email Newsletters Without the Pain

June 24, 2011 by Glen Ferguson

Easy and elegant emails for newsletters or email campaigns. This Atlanta-based company with a quirky sense of humor just keeps adding new features and adding value to their service. Track and perform A/B comparisons to judge the effectiveness of different content, appearance or writing style. Test how your email will look in different browsers on different operating systems including mobiles. They integrate with Google Analytics so you can also get a nice graphic of your email campaign progress. MailChimp offers tools to design the look of your mail, simple but stylish templates with the free accounts or fancier pre-designed templates with their paid accounts. Integrates with other apps including PayPal so you can offer paid subscriptions, and Highrise. Paid accounts start at $10/month. Pay as you go rates are available if you don’t mail often enough to warrant a monthly subscription. Free account for up to 1000 subscribers and up to 6000 emails/month. Seriously, you can’t beat the features or the price, there’s zero risk, just take the plunge and get your message out to your clients.

UPDATE: MailChimp has doubled the size of their free accounts. Now up to 2000 subscribers and up to 12000 emails/month.

 

Filed Under: Communication, Featured Tagged With: Communication, Contact Management, Email, Free Trial, Mac, Marketing, Pay As You Go, Subscription pricing, WebApp, Windows

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