Many of us have worked for somebody else, and that’s the way it goes. People learn a skill while on the job, and many wonder, could I start my gain business? It takes determination, sweat and tears to succeed when becoming self employed.
Here’s a list of a few things you ought to know if you’re considering starting your own business:
Know your Market
Study the competition and determine your market share. It’s a good idea to scout the terrain before jumping straight into it.
Determine your Prices
Find out how much the competition charges and determine if you can compete with them.
Invest in Assets
If your trade will require tools and you don’t have them, plan on spending at least a few hundred dollars in purchasing equipment to run your business.
Open a PO Box and Phone Number
Go to your local Post Office and apply for a PO Box. This will help you keep your personal and business mail separate. Also you don’t want clients or vendors sending inquiries directly to your home. Do the same with your phone service; retain your personal home number private and fetch another line to be used strictly by your business. If you have cable internet or DSL at your home, consider getting a VoIP (Voice Over IP) service (www.vonage.com), which offers great sound quality, your beget phone number, unlimited national calling, caller ID and all the other good stuff at a fixed $25.
Find a Trade Name
Having a good business trade name is extremely important, whether you choose to file as a DBA (Doing Business As), a Corporation or a Non-Profit. Beget sure that your name is easy to remember, easy to sell and easy to write.
Design a Logo
Logos is how businesses point to themselves to the public. Our brains are wired in such a way where we can identify a service provider by simply looking at their logo. If you don’t have a flair for design, google the term “logo design” and hire somebody to design your logo (don’t worry, it’s not expensive).
File your Trade Name
Go to your local Registrar’s Office and register your name (if you’re doing a DBA) or file for a Corporation of a Non-Profit through an online service (www.legalzoom.com, www.incorporate.com, www.incfile.com, etc.).
Open a Bank Account
After your DBA or Corporation is legally recorded with the government, you’ll get a document that you’ll be able to use to initiate a business checking account with any bank. Manufacture sure you assume a bank that offers you peace of mind.
Business Cards
A important tool; customers will use them, others will pass them to their friends and relatives. Create simple to read yet concise business cards. Don’t clutter the place. Make sure to include your logo. You can find cheap business card companies on the web (google “business cards”) that offer quick turn-around and quality products; or you can purchase business card kits at your local office supplier and print them at home.
Domain and Website
Find yourself a domain (preferably a .com) and prefer a short domain that includes your entire trade name (www.yourtradename.com). If you don’t know anything about web design, you can acquire web templates (google: web templates) which are easy to occupy with your information (logo, general description of your business, contact info, pictures, etc.). You’ll need to purchase a hosting account (www.godaddy.com, webhosting.yahoo.com, www.bluehosting.com, etc.) where you’ll upload your website. If you don’t have the time or the energy to create a website, you can find really favorable web designers (www.odesk.com, www.xemion.com, www.freelancedesigners.com, etc.) to aid you with your website.
Having your maintain business is for sure a lot of work, but it can also be extremely rewarding. Imagine working for yourself, being your own boss, having more time for your family, etc.
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Filed under voip business services by on Dec 1st, 2010. Comment. 
In today’s economic environment, economizing has become the top priority for any business, whether tiny or tall. Using Skype VOIP phone systems can help your business cut its telephone bills drastically and save hundreds of dollars every year. Besides that, there are many other advantages of using Skype for your business.
Skype has become Microsoft of the VOIP phone applications. Whether you like it or not, it is used by most people and so you have to use it too. It is a free VOIP service that can be operated on any of the operating systems- Windows, Linux or Mac. Calling from a computer with Skype to another computer with Skype anywhere in the world is absolutely free. What you need is a swiftly internet connection – either broadband cable or a DSL connection.
Besides cost-reduction, there are a number of advantages that Skype offers over traditional phone services. The quality of sound is great and the service is quite reliable, provided there is no trouble in the internet connection. You can send IM, video call or do conferencing with up to 50 people (depending on the internet connection). That helps you hold business meeting with your clients over the internet and better organize your office and keep in touch with your employees. Its file sharing capacity and quality of audio and video is much superior to any other VOIP service available. It keeps the history of your previous chats and this feature is very useful when you come after a break and resume the conversation. You can use IM to send and receive files instantly instead of sending emails with attached files. Using a video chat is a great feature offered with Skype. It gives you a feeling of closeness and intimacy that just voice conversation can’t, especially when communicating with family and close friends.
Apart from computers with Skype installed on them, you can call other regular land-line phones and cell phones anywhere in the world through Skype. You have to pay a nominal fee for that but it is very low when you compare it with normal phone call rates. There is no extra charge for long distance calls. You have convenient payment options such as pay as you go by creating a Skype credit account. You pay a nominal monthly fee for 3 to 12 months and then you can make unlimited phone calls to the countries covered in your view. Unlimited calls to U.S. and Canada plan is available for as low as $2.95. If you have to form many long distance calls for your business, you can prick your phone bills by a great extent by using Skype.
You need high speed internet to avail Skype. You can do it through broadband or DSL. In case that is not available in your country, satellite internet can be used. It covers virtually the whole globe except the low polar regions.
Skype allows your business to be more competitive, productive and cost-effective. It helps you keep in touch with your clients, employees, family and friends through phone, IM and Video conferencing. If you have not got Skype already, getting Skype application on your computer should be your top priority.
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Filed under voip business services by on Nov 13th, 2010. Comment.
There was a time in a world far far away where if you lived in a rural area like I did, the only way that you could derive top-notch television reception for the three or four network channels that were available, was to go out and buy the tallest antenna that you could secure. Then you had to either go up on the roof and mount it, hoping that the wind didn’t pick up and blow you off, or put it on a pole that was sunk into the ground on the side of the house. You had to then make sure you grounded the thing with a clamp around the pole and a wire that went off into the ground. You wondered how such a thin piece of wire might handle all of that voltage from a lightening strike. Then you found out that cable had come to town. People began screwing thick wires into a special adapter on the abet of their extinct television sets and they could get 50 or 60 channels if they wanted to. The only problem was you were still far enough out of town that you still couldn’t gather it. Jealous, you went out and spent your savings on a satellite dish. It was huge and heavy and had to be mounted on a pole. You had to have a special one; you couldn’t use the same one that had held up your antenna. A enormous black box came with the satellite and you had to pay for the special codes to program it, unless you knew someone in the business that could do it for you. Then you might have 120 channels but still nothing on that you wanted to watch.
Everything has changed now, of course, cable became available almost everywhere and the prices started going up soon thereafter until a couple of satellite companies started bleeding off customers with offers of all digital service, lower prices, free satellite dishes, and a wide variety of programming choices. Now it looks like the telephone companies are about to jump into the fray. Seems like the Internet phone companies like Vonage are cutting into their business with phone service through your computer that has most all of the calling features and quality without the high brand. Unlimited long distance in the continental U.S. is also thrown in for free. When a company sees their sales numbers slipping, one of the first things that they do is try to steal somebody else’s business.
The focus of the battle lately has been the phone company’s attempt to get statewide or even possibly nationwide franchises to offer video service. Several states have bills in the works that would allow the phones companies to do just that. If allowed, the phone companies plan on offering ‘bundle” services where pretty worthy all of your communication and entertainment would come from one source and reach on one bill. Telephone, Internet, wireless, and television all provided by the same company. The thinking here is that the customers are less likely to slay any of the services if they are all tied together. Apt now though, there is a clash of technology on just how to regain all of these services to your house. The cable companies use fiber optic technology to get the signals to the cable while the telephone companies composed rely on copper wiring to a large extent. They would have to, and are planning to, invest billions to make that happen.
Right now cable is not all digital and has its own set of problems while it seems that the satellite companies are trying to raise their rates to the point there isn’t much savings over cable. There is still the reception problem with the dish whenever it rains or storms, and that can be annoying. Bell South, which was recently spot to be gobbled up by AT&T, has already started advertising bundle services in the St. Louis area where I live, which is also the headquarters of Southwestern Bell. The only spot is that according to several phone calls to AT&T, those services aren’t available here yet. Like the role out of a lot of current technology, there are sure to be problems and confusion in the beginning. You might unbiased want to wait awhile before you “bundle” up.
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Filed under voip business services by on Nov 8th, 2010. Comment.
Fring is a free VOIP program that allows users to gain calls using the internet connectivity of their internet-ready devices.
What is Fring? Fring is software for your internet-capable wireless device (most Nokias with Symbian and many Windows Mobile Phones, see website for details. Fring allows you to make PEER-TO-PEER calls over most of the VOIP networks: Skype, MSN Messenger, and Google talk. It’s a data conduit for phone calls – rather than a cellular-network conduit.
Fring utilizes both 3G and Wi-Fi to make phone calls. 15 minutes of talk time usually occupies 2 MB of data.
Many users also recommend twitter.com as a fun starting point for use of Fring. In the world of Web 2.0, it’s best to stay connected 24-7.
PROS
This techno-mumbo-jumbo sounds confusing at first, but it boils down to saving a few dollars. Why?
Instead of using the voice channel for a GSM phone, Fring uses the 3G or EDGE data network. In general, data transfers are MUCH CHEAPER than phone calls. How great cheaper?
An average phone call using 3G on Fring would cost less than 90 percent the cost of a normal phone call on a GSM network. Phone calls using the Wi-Fi would cost nothing except for the price of connectivity and battery-life.
Wi-fi is not NEEDED for Fring, but you can also use it as an alternative to native 3G capability.
With a wi-fi-ready phone (like the Nokia smartphone, or Apple’s iphone), you can make calls using the already available VOIP networks. Instead of paying for minutes, you’re paying for data.
CONS
Although I think Fring is a novel concept, it cuts out the middleman of the phone company. No longer do we need to effect phone calls over the network, we simply procure a wi-fi point, and commence talking. Phone companies will use this as a selling point against Fetch Neutrality.
Secondly, Fring only works with smartphones. Smartphones are generally more expensive than regular cell phones. With that added expense, it may not be worth it to purchase a new smartphone strictly for the purpose of using it with Fring. That limits Fring usage to people who already have smartphones. Models that will accept Fring: all Symbian 8 & 9, Windows Mobile 5 & 6 devices, including PDAs. There is a large amount of information available on the website to support the Nokia model smartphones. To Summarize: Fring is a cheap and fresh way to exhaust a data stream rather than a cellular network to make calls. In Europe, and gradually over the wired world, further advances in wireless technology will perform instantaneous connections cheap, easy and best of all – fun! If you’re looking for a good way to use your smartphone, try out Fring. It’s free!http://www.fring.com
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Filed under voip business services by on Nov 7th, 2010. Comment.
The new technology of VoIP, or Thunder Over Internet Protocol, has become the business phone system of the future. VoIP phone systems offer cheaper service rates compared to Analog or land line phone systems. However, when converting from an Analog to a VoIP phone system, you must consume a VoIP telephone. VoIP phones are relatively inexpensive and can be purchased online. These are also referred to as IP telephones, SIP phones or softphones. There are many different types of VoIP telephones including SIP/VoIP softphones, hardware SIP phones and USB VoIP phones. You may also use an analog phone with an ATA adapter.
SIP/VoIP Softphones
This is a software-based program using the microphone and speaker system of your computer, allowing you to making outgoing and receive incoming calls. Manufacturers of SIP phones include 3CX, Sjlabs and Xten.
Hardware SIP Phones
The hardware SIP phones resemble a regular phone but is directly connected with a data network and have the ability to fragment the network connection with the computer system. The advantage of this phone is that an additional network hookup for the phone is not needed. Some popular brands of hardware sip phones are Cisco, Snorm, Grandstream and Linksys.
USB VoIP Phones
A USB VoIP phone plugs directly into a USB port of your computer but is not much more than a microphone and speaker. With the appearance of a regular phone, many users score them easy to use.
Analog Phones Using an ATA Adapter
You can use a regular analog phone with your VoIP phone system if you have an ATA adapter. The Ethernet connection from your computer plugs into the ATA adapter. After plugging the ATA adapter into the Ethernet connection, saunter in your phone. The software of the VoIP phone system will recognize your phone as a VoIP phone. This could be an affordable option for those who do not wishing to purchase new telephone equipment.
Sources:
What are IP Phones / IP Telephones?
SIP phones / VOIP Phones : Different types that you can use
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Filed under voip business services by on Nov 2nd, 2010. Comment.