VIDEO: Should Startups Get VoIP?

Transcript:

Hey everyone! Welcome to the Telonium Thursdays Whiteboard Web Series. I’m your host for this week, Alice. Last week, we discussed the reliability of VoIP, and this week we’ll be discussing whether or not VoIP is a good option for startups, so let’s get started.

Startups, especially unfunded ones, are careful with their money and know that they don’t need big bulky phone systems that won’t give them much benefit in their early stages. If you have a young business and are wondering what your best options are, we have some advice for you.

Remember, your goal isn’t just to be cheap; it’s to be effective at an affordable price. So you have to consider what you can get out of a phone and if it’s worth how much it costs. Let’s go over some of your options.

Alright, let’s begin with your first option: cell phones. Cell phones can be great for the earliest stages of a startup due to the fact that you probably already own one. If you’re looking for the simplest of features, so being able to make inbound and outbound calls, and don’t expect to have any real customers or revenue for a while, cell phones are certainly satisfactory.

The next three options are all Voice over IP, starting with #2, which is Google Voice. If you’ve started thinking about branding your company or are expecting to have customers soon, you should think about getting a number for your business. A Google Voice account is probably the least expensive way to do this. You can get a number for free and use it on your computer and even your cell phone. If you’re doing the latter, you’ll be paying with your regular cell phone minutes.

As you start gaining customers and revenue, and need to start hiring sales people or customer support, it’s time to start thinking about getting an actual phone system for your business. VoIP phone systems give you unlimited lines, allowing you to be more effective at managing your inbound and outbound calls as you grow. If you already have a Google Voice number, you can also port that number to a VoIP provider, allowing your business to have a consistent brand. You probably still want to save as much money as possible though , right? Let’s look at some of your options and see what can affect the cost.

Now onto VoIP soft phones: VoIP uses IP phones and there is a distinction between software AKA soft phones and hardware also known as hard phones, which is option #4. Soft phones are downloadable applications on your computer with all the features of a desk phone that connects to your phone system. A relatable example of a soft phone would be Skype, although that’s an example for consumer use and lacks business features. Business soft phones typically are less expensive than hardware phones, and are sometimes even free. So, in this situation you pay little to nothing for the actual phones.

Alright, onto option #3: VoIP hard phones. Hard phones refer to regular phones you would have at your desk in your office, except in the case of IP phones, they have an ethernet jack instead of an analog one. Hard phones are more expensive (usually starting around $100.00) but offer quality comparable to and sometimes better than analog business phones.

Within a VoIP phone system, we want to discuss another distinction that’s relevant if you’re looking to save some money. There are two types of extensions with Telonium, virtual and regular.

Alright, let’s start with regular extensions: regular extensions give you all the functionality of a business phone system, including unlimited local and long distance, unlimited concurrent calls, and a fully-featured phone system, all at an affordable price.

Next, we have virtual extensions: virtual extensions rely on an external phone, a non-ip phone such as a cell phone or a home phone, and are usually less expensive than regular extensions. This is because virtual extensions allow you to receive unlimited inbound calls, but not make outbound calls. So, why would you want a virtual extension? Think of someone that is always on the go, like a real estate agent or an outside sales rep. They’re often out of the office but don’t want to miss any important calls, so with virtual extensions, calls that are coming in to their work number can be easily transferred to a cell phone and they won’t miss a beat

Alright, let’s quickly go over land lines. Recently we spent an entire video comparing analog to VoIP, so we’ll stay pretty simple here. If you want a more detailed analysis, check out this video.

In order to use an analog system, you’ll have to have an analog network coming into your building along with an analog PBX in your office. Because hosted VoIP systems allow you to use an already existing internet connection to use your phone system, VoIP tends to be cheaper and just as effective, if not more. If you’re a large business, it’s possible some of the advantages of analog outweigh those of VoIP, but if you’re a small to medium sized business, you’ll want to stick with VoIP.

Let’s return to the question we asked in the beginning. Should startups use VoIP? Absolutely. At the earliest of stages, you can use a cell phone, but there are a wide variety of options in VoIP, from the cheapest at a simple Google Voice number to a more expensive, but still affordable, regular extension with a hardware IP phone. If you are a small or medium sized business that’s growing, hosted VoIP is cheaper and more effective than analog phone systems.

Thanks for watching and make sure to tune in to next week’s video. Until then, you can stop by our website at www.telonium.com, or tweet us @telonium. You can also check out our pinterest and instagram or stop by our facebook page. Thanks for watching.