Skype Review: An Incredible Phone Service for A Small Business/Home Office
RATING: 
Pros:
- Very inexpensive (a basic membership is FREE)
- Many mobile/telephone plans don’t have Skype’s multitude of features
- Great for: high-volume domestic and/or international callers; very small office/home office professionals, independent consultants, real estate agents, etc
- Excellent if you need multiple “local” numbers around the U.S./World
- With new high-tech phones available, Skype no longer needs a PC to work.
Cons:
- Using some of Skype’s collaborative tools and features with other parties is impossible if they don’t also have Skype
- Skype’s reliability is only as good as your internet connection/PC stability.
- Skype is not a full phone system but can be used with one. But if you just need a main phone number, auto attendant, multiple extensions, etc., we recommend a low-cost, ‘hosted’ phone system solution, like RingCentral.
If you make a lot of business calls and you’re not using Skype yet, drop everything you’re doing and sign up for a free account. See, when Skype was first being widely used, analysts and critics dismissed the service as an unreliable alternative to POTS (plain old telephone lines) and cell phones.
But I’ve been a Skype user for over a year, and I have yet to experience an outage. Very occasionally, I get a middling quality connection. But overall, using Skype saves my business hundreds of dollars a year in telephone charges. And (the best part), Skype lets my business do things I can’t do with any other service.
Before you read on, read this quote 2x:
“There’s more to Skype than being able to reach someone thousands of miles away. It has created a technology or almost an infrastructure to facilitate virtual collaboration and connection. That’s where Skype really shines” — Loren Abdulezer, co-Author, Skype For Dummies
Many small business owners don’t know about the cool built-in features of Skype. This article covers some under-utilized, standard features of Skype that can tremendously improve your business’ performance – and its bottom line.
Skype Has Call Forwarding
One cool feature is Skype’s call forwarding. For instance, if I know I am going to be away from my computer for a while, I simply go to “Tools > Call Forwarding & Voicemail” section of my Skype account, and set all my incoming calls to forward automatically to my cell phone. If I’m waiting for an important incoming call on my Skype account, I can ring my cell phone AND (say) my office phone – so I know I’ll get the call wherever I am.
Skype Blocks Unwanted Callers
Skype is an awesome tool for for both business and personal use, but spammers have also taken a liking to it. Scammers from across the world will (albeit rarely) call you and attempt to scam you into revealing your Skype or eBay password. However, unlike a regular telephone line, you can block unwanted callers by selecting “Tools> Options> Privacy” and then selecting a level of security for you. If you’re getting the same repeat harassing calls, you can block an individual by selecting “Tools> Options> Manage Blocked Users”.
Skype Beefs Up Your Customer Support
If your company is an online retail shop, or if you’re a real estate agent, you probably take phone calls from customers. Don’t use up those cell phone minutes – use Skype instead! In addition to giving customers your SkypeIn number, you can also easily insert a Skype graphical “click-to-call” SkypeMe button. (You can even do this if you don’t have a SkypeIn number.) Whenever you have your Skype account turned ‘on’ the button on your site will indicate you are, and thus another Skype user can simply click the SkypeMe button and be connected to you instantly.
How much is it?
Skype user to user (PC to PC) calls, conference calls, IM-ing, and etc. are all free, provided you’ve downloaded the diminutive and harmless Skype software to your PC.
- UNLIMITED calls to anyone , using “SkypeOut”, is $29.95 a year (or just under $2.50/mo). it’s an excellent value compared with PSTN long-distance plans. Overseas calls are currently 2.1 cents/minute and up.
- If you want your own Skype phone number (so non-Skype users can call you), you have to subscribe to SkypeIn. Buying SkypeIn gives you a local phone number AND free voicemail. When you combine this with SkypeOut, it looks like a “bait and switch” (how many other ‘phone companies’ require you to buyer a service for outgoing calls and another for incoming calls, right?). That is until you do the math:
[SkypeOut: $2.50/month*] + [SkypeIn + Voicemail: $5.00/month] = Total Skype Costs: $7.50/month.
*purchased in 12 mo. increments / **purchased in 3 mo. increments
SkypeIn = Your Own Phone Number
Note that, with SkypeIn, the fact that you’re a Skype user becomes transparent to people outside your company - they dial a regular PSTN number to reach you, and they don’t know you’re a Skype user (unless, of course, they’re using Skype to connect with you).
Skype Does Audioconferencing Too!
Skype makes audioconferencing easy, so that up to 10 people can start in an Instant-message (IM) chat, move to an audioconference, and exchange files during the same session. Your Skype-using conference participants are “dropped and dragged” by you into a conference call, and get this: NON-Skype Users (POTS subscribers) can dial in and be part of the conference call (if you don’t subscribe to unlimited SkypeIn calls, then per-minute charges, per non-Skype conference caller, may apply).
(Optional) Equipment To Boost Skype 
If you’re like me, you still have a PC that’s outdated with no built-in microphone. Anticipate your annual cost savings using Skype (see above), and then splurge on a snazzy new business phone or headset.
Skype sells a phone manufactured by NetGear. The beauty of this cordless phone is that you’ll never need to use a PC to make calls (A router is required - you simply plug the Skype phone into the router). It also doubles as a cordless phone for your regular telephone line (if you have one).
The Bottom Line
If you’re a one- or two- person business is making or getting lots of phone calls; and/or if your current phone plan cost is sky-high, consider signing up for SkypeIn and SkypeOut and giving it a whirl. You’ll be glad you did!