2020 has gotten off to a rather insane start. In just a few short months it has managed to throw everything but the kitchen sink at us…and things might only get crazier! From pandemics to trade disputes to a steadily increasingly shaky economy and who knows what else, small business owners and entrepreneurs need to be ready for anything. But what does that mean? Well, while it is not possible to prepare for literally any eventuality, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. A clever and long-term planning small business owner should build his or her house—that being his or her business—on a rock-solid foundation. And that solid rock can be a virtual phone number for their business.
Why is a virtual phone number such a great benefit, such a provider of both flexibility and stability for your business? Is this hyperbole? Absolutely not.
A virtual phone number allows you to take full advantage of the amazing flexible technologies of the twenty-first century in order to transition your business model from the stale version cooked up in the 1980s to one fully prepared to deal with modern-day challenges. A virtual phone number allows you to fundamentally restructure the way you and your employees interact.
How? Well, read on to find out!
A What’s-What of Virtual Phone Numbers
Nothing in this post is going to be too technical or difficult to understand. That said, we know that tech moves fast, and some folks have not caught up with all the lingo that we may be using throughout the piece. To avoid any chance of you not fully being able to take advantage of our tips on the best possible virtual phone number apps and types you can get, we figured we would briefly go over a couple of the most commonly used words which are least commonly used elsewhere.
Firstly, let’s hit on the obvious one: “virtual phone number.” Here are a couple of things a virtual phone number is NOT:
- It is NOT a “fake” phone number, nor is it any less than a “normal” phone number. It’s a number which works just like any other telephone number you’ve used in the past- except you can do a lot more with it.
- It is NOT something which can be taken away at a moment’s notice. When you buy a virtual phone number, it is yours to do with what you will.
- It is NOT something to be skeptical of. Just because you are not buying one from a giant phone company you’ve seen a million ads for doesn’t mean it’s something dangerous- that’s sort of what the big phone companies want you to think, after all.
So what IS a virtual phone number? It’s a phone number you can purchase from a telephony company which you can then use on different internet-connected devices, and can be used with things like a free virtual phone number app. It is not connected to one phone, like how probably most of your previous phone numbers were. Some of this all depends on the company you are buying it from and/or currently using it with, but many, like MightyCall, but a premium on flexibility.
Another term to be aware of is VOIP. VOIP is an acronym which stands for “Voice over internet protocol.” Basically, to cut a long and somewhat technical story short, it means being able to speak over the internet. Many virtual phone number companies bill themselves as VOIP companies- because they are!
Your Virtual Phone Number is YOU
So why is a virtual phone number so incredibly useful in these turbulent times?
Well, look: here’s a sad fact. You may have the most efficiently run business. You and your employees may have a big smile every time a customer walks through that door. Your service may be second to none.
But when someone is first looking you up, they’ll only know two things: your name, and your phone number. Over time, as word of mouth spreads about how awesome your business is, so too will your number. Your number over time becomes almost inseparable from your business name; it becomes your business’ identity.
What this means is that you want a telephone number which can be more than just a telephone number. You want, for starters, something that sticks out, something that is readily memorable. And in a virtual phone number, you can find that solution. Companies like MightyCall allow you to purchase what is known as a vanity phone number.
Vanity phone numbers are phone numbers which employ the use of the number pad on your phone to create words- so 1-800-4847 would become 1-800-HUGS. The benefit is, of course, instantly obvious: a driver is far more liable to remember seeing 1-800-HUGS on the side of the bus that they passed driving to the store than they are to remember seeing 1-800-4847. Plus, it immediately defines your kind of business to the reader. It’s easy to remember, gets your message across succinctly, and is something you can build your brand around easily- which means that already, your virtual phone number is working for you instead of the other way around.
But that is not the only way your telephone number can be put to work for you. With MightyCall’s CNAM feature, you can register your business in a database which will then allow your business’ name to show up as an outbound caller ID, making it far more likely your call will be picked up.
How VoIP Can Restructure Your Business Plan (and Save you Cash)
What you may not realize yet is that a virtual phone number can even restructure the entire way your small business is run. It opens up new doors and enables you to maximize your potential.
How? Well, as we mentioned above, a virtual phone number is not tied to any sort of single device- they’re accessed over the internet. Getting a virtual phone number from MightyCall enables you to use your number over virtually any internet-accessible device, so long as it has a way to input and output sound. With MightyCall’s web panel, you can control which employees can use which number and can set up call forwarding trees for each number you have. Plus, MightyCall also allows for unlimited extensions, which means that you can have as many users as you want using your numbers, from wherever they are logged in.
This has a huge benefit: it saves money on office phones, on office space, on bulky physical set-ups. If you want to run a sleek and lean business—something which might be useful in a time of economic uncertainty—a virtual phone number allows you to shed a lot of dead weight which once sagged down companies in the past.
Plus, with MightyCall’s free app, you and your employees can have a designated and easy to use spot on your phone to conduct your business with. This further cuts costs: no more needing to buy yourself or your employees a second work phone (and no more needing to carry two phones around).
This flexibility is so important. If the pandemic spreading around ends up tanking the economy, it’s the businesses which are not tied down with a bunch of extra costs that will survive and flourish once the bull economy comes back. If you think ahead, that can be you.
Why MightyCall is the Virtual Phone Number Company for You
More than anything else, however, the best thing about having a virtual phone number is that it is not just a virtual phone number. It isn’t just something someone dials. With the right company, a virtual phone number can be so much more.
MightyCall wants its clients to take full advantage of what a virtual phone number can offer. At MightyCall there are three tiers of plan pricing, and each one is packed with incredible features– features which are not just there to fill up a page, but which are actually usable by and helpful for small business owners. Some, like unlimited calling and call forwarding to any internet-connected device, will help you be able to organize your different employees more easily, without having to constantly count how many minutes you have used.
Vanity numbers we’ve already talked about, but MightyCall also offers toll-free virtual phone numbers, which can entice people to call you, safe in the knowledge that they won’t have to pay for it. To save you from any liability or to help train your employees to conduct better calls, MightyCall offers easily usable call recording. For your record-keeping, there’s visual voicemail and transcription.
And there is a whole lot more. The point is, right now you basically use your telephone number to make and receive calls. You probably haven’t thought twice about it in years. Maybe it’s time that you did.
To wrap up…
Having a virtual phone number can help you weather the storms which are already hitting all of us (and if they haven’t hit you yet, they soon will). It enables you to build your entire business around something you previously barely used for any purpose other than calling and can save you time and money.
What we’re trying to say is…why wouldn’t you get one?
