When a person is starting a home business, they often must take into consideration the need for an extra phone line for their business. Adding an additional phone number/line in a home office can be very expensive. Some people try to use their home phone for business calls by just putting a wireless phone in their office, however, this rarely works out.
It is important that you remember that phone system will be used more than any other equipment in your office so it is important that you have a separate line that is not used for general calls. By doing a little pre-planning, you can easily and effectively have a home office phone system that will rival a land-based office system at an affordable price.
Many people find that it is cost effective and easy to create an office phone system through an instant messenger provider. When you set up a phone number through an instant messenger, there is a monthly charge for the number, but you can select the phone number that you want and get all of the features that you get on a regular phone line.
A great feature of these phone numbers is that you can forward your calls from the computer to a regular telephone, mobile phone, or laptop. By using this type of phone number for your business, you are effectively getting rid of one more piece of clutter from your desk since all you need is headphones with a speaker for your computer.
An advantage of using the computer phone system is that some features of this phone are not available through a standard system. You can easily conduct conference calls, as well as tele-conferences. Files can be transferred to your computer easily by callers since the phone system has built in integration with your hard drive.
By setting up a phone system that is easy to use, accessible and separate from your home system, you will be able to conduct business effectively. Instead of a fax machine on your desk, you can fax documents through the phone and save a copy of what has been sent. The system also has tracking that allows you to do research on your callers and categorize them based on their interests or needs.
Starting your home business will be much easier when you take the time to address the issues that are often co-mingled in a home. A separate phone and phone number for your business will give you the professionalism that is required to provide your customers the level of service that you want. The ability to "leave" work and not worry about business calls coming in on your home phone line will give you the separation between work and home that is very important to establish when you are combining your living and work space.