The Biggest Obstacles for Small Businesses

Starting up your very own business can be one of the most difficult jobs a person can do. Since half of small businesses close down within the first five years, it’s important to understand the biggest obstacles you will face. Once you understand them, you can make a plan to overcome them.

Need More Customers

Marketing your business to all customers is good, but to be efficient and successful you will need to target a specific type of customer. Do your research and find out which demographic will resonate with your product or service most. Start your research by analyzing your existing best customers, seeing what they have in common, and then targeting others like them. This will give you the best chance of finding the most profitable, repeat customers.

Too Much Overhead

Some businesses will offer their products or services with upgraded add-ons, or they’ll tailor them to customer needs. Oftentimes, these extra options will cause you to have too much supply on hand, costing you a lot of money up front. Instead, survey your existing customers to find out what they like and what they really want. Get rid of anything that isn’t necessary to the product or service that the customers want.

High Monthly Bills

All businesses have to pay their bills, and lowering how much they cost isn’t an option. However, you can cut your costs by being smarter with how you communicate. Having a regular phone system can cost you more than twice the amount of money as a VoIP system does. Not only will you be paying less each month, you will also be receiving more features that will benefit how you communicate while you do business.

Owning and managing a small business is a difficult job, but it can be a lot easier if you are aware of the challenges that lie ahead. When you’re ready to save money on your phone system by switching to VoIP, contact Reliable Voice & Data Systems. To learn more, or to schedule a free estimate, give us a call at (877) 385-6657.

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Tips to Better Manage Remote Workers

In order for certain businesses to be successful, some employees will need to work from locations other than the main headquarters. Having remote workers, or even an entire team, will allow your company to expand the business in other areas of the country. Once in awhile there will be communication mishaps, but there are some ways you can make communication with remote workers a walk in the park.

Small Talk is Good

Quick phone calls are an efficient way to communicate basic information to your workers. However, taking the time to engage in a little chit chat will actually help improve work relationships. Being able to comfortably talk with fellow employees will help break down communication barriers and improve the ability to work through various problems. Knowing them on a personal level (to a degree) will also help you understand what drives them.

Video Calls

Calling someone on the phone and communicating via email is certainly efficient, but they also have their own limitations. Since half of communication is through body language, seeing a person and how they react is key to a successful conversation. Luckily, VoIP services offer video calling to make meetings more personable.

Drop By Annually

Working remotely can provide a business with many different benefits when it comes to expanding or just having the best talent possible. While emails, phone calls, and video calls will suffice, nothing will ever beat a face-to-face interaction. All remote employees should stop by at the main headquarters at least once per year. This will allow the remote employees to interact and get to know other employees that they might not have gotten the chance to know on a more personal level.

Remote workers do come with their own set of challenges, but they are an important part of expanding a business passed its local city. In order to make communication with remote employees a breeze, switch to a VoIP telephone system with Reliable Voice & Data Systems. To learn more, or to schedule a free estimate, give us a call at (877) 385-6657.

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VoIP 101: Common Terms Explained

Whether you own a large business, small business, or are sick of your home telephone, everyone should know about VoIP telephone systems. Not only can they save you money on your monthly expenses, but they can provide you with benefits that no other phone system can. To help you understand VoIP, here are some common terms and what they mean.

1. VoIP - The term VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. In the simplest of terms, this means that the phone calls you make are done so over an internet connection, rather than the traditional copper wire. Using this type of phone system offers a wide array of benefits at a low price.
2. Bandwidth - An internet connection can transfer a certain amount of data at one time, this amount is known as bandwidth. When the limit has been reached, the connection will slow down any other data trying to be transmitted. Luckily, internet providers will allow users to increase their bandwidth for more money.
3. Kbps - The speed at which data can be transferred is measured by kilobits per second. While your bandwidth will show you the maximum amount of data you can transfer, your kbps is the speed at which it can be transmitted.
4. Softphone - When utilizing a VoIP phone system, you can plug in a specific phone to your computer to make calls. However, you can also use computer software that will act as a phone while you place calls via your computer. This softphone software can help you save on costs by not purchasing stand alone phones, or if you’re using your laptop away from the office.
5. Cloud - Rather than having a massive amount of server equipment in your business or home, you can opt to have a cloud-based VoIP system. A VoIP service provider will wirelessly grant you access to their servers and software so you don’t have to purchase either.

Once you understand the basics of VoIP, your business or home phone system can become more advanced and less expensive. When it’s time to make the switch from your old copper wire to VoIP, contact Reliable Voice & Data Systems. To learn more, or to schedule a free estimate, give us a call at (877) 385-6657.

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The Advantages of Fiber Optics

Businesses all over the country have a wide variety of goals they would like to accomplish. However, there is one goal that every business would like to see: for profits to go up and for costs to go down. By upgrading your business’s cabling to fiber optics, you can see both of the goals realized almost instantly.

• Increased Capacity - Compared to copper wires, optical fibers are notably thinner. Therefore, more fibers can be bundled together in a single cable. This will allow more signal to be channeled through the cable than your average copper wires.
• No Interference - Electrical signals tend to interfere with each other, creating a poor connection in copper wiring. Fiber optics utilize light signals that do not interfere with each other. As a result, reception is clearer when you utilize the internet, phone, and television.
• Less Power- Since the light signals in fiber optics do not interfere with each other and degrade less, a business can utilize lower-power transmitters instead of their high voltage counterparts.
• Light & Flexible - Even though more optical fibers can fit in a single cable, the average weight is still less than that of copper wire cables. The cables themselves are also more flexible so they can be used in many pieces of technology such as flexible digital cameras.
• Low Cost - Optical fibers are much cheaper than ordinary copper wires. These less expensive wires will save you and your service providers money.

Fiber optics are the future of cabling and every business should look to replace their current copper wires with it. When you need your current cabling replaced and restructured, contact Reliable Voice & Data Systems. To learn more, or to schedule a free estimate, give us a call at (877) 385-6657.

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