VOIP phone service for a small business in the USA selling electronics online
This is a hypothetical example of how VOIP phone service may work for small business or office in the USA.
See my recommended VOIP providers to the right. Click on a provider's name to learn more and sign up securely online. Both providers offer trial periods with money back guarantees.
Summary
A small business owner selling wireless MP3 players out of a shop in Berkeley creates a website. To his surprise, people all over the USA start calling in with orders. Some even want to be distributors. He needs to keep in touch with customers, retailers, and potential partners across the country; and he places frequent calls to a partner in China. He signs up with a VOIP phone service. He really appreciates the super cheap calls and the extra features that will help him stay on top of communication and keep his business keep growing.
Meeting a need
The store owner found himself calling retailers and potential distrubuters across the USA. Calls flooded in via his toll free number, and he started having long talks with a factory owner in China. That's when he realized that he needed a new long distance provider.
Fortunately, he read this article and discovered that a VOIP phone service was the best choice to handle all his local and long distance phone calls. Now he is calling long distance with the cheapest rates possible. He also switched his toll free number to the VOIP provider with a very substantial savings.
Choosing a provider
He signed up for Packet8 after reading this review. He chose the "unlimited" calling plan for $19.99 per month, which included all the features he would ever need. He also used Packet8 to create a toll free number with extremely low rates for the incoming calls.
He dropped his local phone company and got a DSL connection for the store. Surprisingly, despite the cost of adding DSL, he ended up with a net savings.
VOIP for business calling
As his business expands, the "wireless MP3 king" (as he's now known) keeps in touch with distributors and retailers across the USA. All of his calls within the USA are free with his "unlimited" calling plan. If the call volume gets too high Packet8 may require him to switch to a more expensive business plan. He's willing to live with that if it happens, because he will still enjoy a great savings.
When the "wireless MP3 king" goes to his favorite coffee shop in Berkely, as he often does, he forwards the incoming calls for both his local and toll free numbers to a cell phone. When he needs privacy, he sends the calls to voicemail. Either way, it's easy to manage both phone numbers online.
In the past, this businessman saw both the Internet and phone as obstacles. Now he sees them as tools that give even a small business in Berkeley a chance to take on the world.
Getting started
If you are thinking about trying VOIP, see my VOIP comparison (here). Check the details and rates, then click on a service to sign up securely online.