Small Businesses?

Answering services for small businesses are pretty plentiful. In fact, they are so plentiful; it's hard to decide what service to choose. There are traditional answering services, automated services, and even virtual services that you manage yourself. If you are a small business, you're not alone. There are some twenty eight million small businesses, the majority of them (22 million) with only one employee.

So, how do you choose from all of the answering services for small businesses? First, you should think about how you plan to use the service. In other words, think about the way in which you want your calls answered. For example, do you mind if the call is answered by a live person or would an automated service work just as well? Or, do you prefer to have a menu try of options or just one direct line to a voice mail for example.

Let's dissect this a bit further. The traditional answering service essentially goes to a call center, whether in the US or abroad. An operator picks up the phone, asks the caller for their information and then either takes a message and contacts the business or individual. Sometimes, these call centers provide you with a voice mail box as well. Of course, an answering service can even be one person working out of their home or office. These types of services range anywhere from about $50 to $250 / month, depending on the number of calls and other factors.

Other answering services for small businesses could be an automated solution which is basically a software service to which you subscribe. You pay a monthly amount for the service; get your own dedicated phone number, voice mail box, fax number and much more. If you don't mind that a "real person" picks up the phone, then this type of solution could be very useful. Why? Because they're inexpensive and full of features. These types of services generally start at under $10 / month.

Even some of the traditional "serviced" office companies are getting into the act. For example, one of the largest executive / serviced office companies, Regus International, is offering answering services for small businesses. But, they're quite pricey. A recent review puts their pricing at about $79 per month.

And, what about fax capability? If you're like a lot of small businesses, you're always on the go. Wouldn't it be nice to have your faxes come directly to your email address, without the need of a dedicated fax machine? Many of the automated services offer you a fax number to go along with your "fries."

Keep in mind that you can combine the automated, software answering services with a live operator. In fact, in my company, we have several operators who answer the phone and one 800 number for customers to call. It's seamless. Customers don't even know that they are not calling a physical office.

There are many more ideas to expand on answering services for small businesses. And, in fact, the virtual office concept is growing quite rapidly around the globe. Visit my site for more tips related to this topic.