Small Business Phone Systems

By J.B. Malik, Editor-In-Chief

You’re a small business owner, consultant, or real estate agent, and your business has grown to the point where your mobile phone is not enough — you need a real phone system — capable of taking multiple incoming calls and forwarding them them to you (and/or any of your employees), taking a message if you’re busy, etc.

(Skip this review and sign up for a FREE 30-Day Trial of RingCentral).

Companies like RingCentral can provide small business owners and entrepreneurs with a Virtual PBX.

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Still deciding which Virtual Small Business Phone System (or ‘Virtual PBX’) to purchase? The ever-trustworthy PC World magazine reviews them here.

I am VERY excited about this…

I have been using regular old Skype for a long time now, and have saved literally hundreds of dollars - perhaps thousands - on local and international phone calls made from me, at home, for my home-based business. (You can read my Skype review here). I have found Skype to be reliable and cheap as a standalone phone service.

Now Skype has introduced PrettyMay Call Center for Skype (PMCCS) (goofy name!) . It’s a Virtual PBX that you set-up on your PC in just 10 minutes! (But it will still work with your PC turned off). You and your employees have to have Skype installed to use it (in other words, it’s a PBX that works in conjunction with SkypeIn, SkypeOut, etc You Pay $150 for the PBX - That’s ALL (other than your regular low, low Skype Charges). PMCCS’ Benefits to you:

• With Skype, you employees will be able to receive calls transferred by PMCCS for free at any time, anywhere.
• With SkypeIn service, you customers will be able to dial into the Phone System from any cell phone, landline phone or mobile phone.
• With SkypeOut service, your employees will be able to make cheap international calls through PrettyMay outbound call center.
• With SkypePro service, your employees will pay nothing per minute for calls to landlines within the same country.

Check it out. You’ve got nothing to lose with Skype’s 15-Day Free Trial.

By J.B. Malik, Editor-In-Chief

(If you haven’t yet, first read my full review of RingCentral here.)

Internet companies and online retailers are steadily adopting small business phone systems (Virtual PBXs in geek-speak) like RingCentral.  You can read these companies’ impression of RingCentral’s service (and of other Virtual PBX vendors) here.

Their fast adherence is no surprise, as Virtual PBXs’ cost/benefit ratio (from $9.95/mo for virtually everything you need in a phone system) mirrors that of other services those Internet companies likely also purchase. Think: (more…)

I have been a RingCentral customer for 1 year, and I have not experienced a single service problem (though my RingCentral number gets a few calls a day). Plus, I have connected instantly with a rep the few times I have chatted online w/ RingCentral. NOTE: I also use other similar services for other lines of business/personal use - GrandCentral (recently acquired by Google) and Callwave - and they’re free. I’ll get to reviews of them in the coming days.

To sign up for RingCentral’s FREE trial, click here.