Set Up Office / Work Area
You have to consider where you will run your business. In the beginning, you may want to start the business from home, unless your business requires a physical office location for customers to enter.
If you do need a physical office to meet with customers but it does not have to be in your own building, you can consider virtual office arrangements through such companies as DaVinci Virtual. They provide you with the ability to use their conference rooms for meetings, and with a “leased office” for the days you need it. There are tons of virtual office companies around the U.S., and many offer a mailing service where you can use their address for a professional company image. Some also provide a receptionist to greet your clients and/or answer your calls.
If you must have your own separate space due to the nature of your business, consider leasing space first. Leasing is better for new companies because it gives you flexibility to change more easily in the future if you need more space that it has, or if you do not have the revenue long-term to stay in business.
Set Up Virtual Phone System
You will also need a phone system. The best option to consider is using a virtual phone system such as Ring Central which will provide callers with a greeting such as this “Thank you for calling [Company A]. If you know your party’s extension, you may dial it at any time. For sales, press 1…”
These virtual phone systems then ring you at whatever number you desire. This can be your home number, cell phone, or any number. When you receive an incoming call from the virtual phone system, you are provided with a prompt to confirm whether or not you want to accept the call. This also lets you know how to answer the call. For example, if you are working at home, and get a call from the virtual phone system, you know to answer the call, “Hello this is [name], how can I help you?” (or whatever your company greeting may be).
What is even better about virtual phone systems is that all of your voice mails go into your virtual mailbox that you can access by phone or electronically. This keeps your customers from ever being dumped into the voice mail system of your home, of your cell phone, etc. Truly amazing. You can buy plans for as low as $5.00 per month. Check it out. There are various virtual phone system providers on the market, and insider is using a virtual phone system such as Ring Central is just one of them. That is who we use for Innoventum.
Other than a virtual phone system, how you handle your landline or cell phone options is totally up to you.
If you want to make telephone calls for free over the internet, consider a voice-over-IP provider such as Skype.
Set Up A Company Web Site
Before you set up a web site, you will need to have a domain for your company. You can purchase domains from various internet registrars. Some examples include GoDaddy and Network Solutions. Many web hosting companies include a free domain with a web site hosting package.
There are various companies that provide FREE and inexpensive web site hosting, such as Microsoft, 1and1, and GoDaddy. These providers have templates you can choose from to easily customer your web page without needing to hire a computer programmer.
If you want a more customized web site beyond the templates that your web host offers, you can purchase web site templates from sources such as Dream Templates and Template Monster. They have hundreds of web site styles you can choose from, and then you can download them and customize them for your company. Be fore-warned, though. It will require some web programming skills to customize these templates (or a lot of time for you to learn how to do it if you do not have such skills).
If you want a dedicated server, use a company such as Server Intellect.
Set Up Email and Personal Information Management
Once you have your web site operating, you also need to set up an email account on your new company domain. Do not skip this step. Many small businesses still use a yahoo, gmail, or other email addresses on their business cards and for operating the business. This sends the message that you are a small company that is not very savvy (which may not be the case, but that is how you will be perceived).
Your web host can help you set this up really fast. In most cases, it is simply a matter of logging in to your web site control panel and adding a new email account, and then retrieving the settings to access that email. They will help you set it over the phone for free.
Set Up A Network
If you have a physical office location with multiple computers, you will need to consider setting up a physical network.
To connect multiple computers together and to the Internet, you can use a wireless router. The router connects to the Internet, and then a network cable from each of the computers connects to the routers. This allows the computers to all share the same Internet connection, and access other servers that you may choose to make available.
he company that installs your high speed Internet can usually help you set up the router if you ask in advance.
Organize Your Electronic Files
If your business is like most, during the course of business, your company will create a lot of electronic files.
It is important that you develop a system for organizing your electronic files so that you can find them easily. One approach is to utilize a master folder that then contains various sub-folders of data.
There are various ways you can organize your files, but the point is to have a system for knowing where the key files are being stored so you can find them when you need them, and so you move them to other computers when needed.
Backup Your Data On A Regularly Scheduled Basis
Small business owners often overlook the importance of backing up the files on each computer in the company.
Let’s do a little test. Stop right now, and pretend that your computer has just crashed (yes, the one you may be using to read this eBook right now or the one you printed it from).
What would happen to your business if you totally lost every single piece of data that is contained on that computer? The answer could be disastrous to your business. Imagine the valuable data you would lose.
To mitigate this problem, you should perform periodic backups of all key files for all computers in your company. You can do this in multiple ways. For example, you can perform a weekly backup to a backup device of the complete system, such as Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm (when you are likely not using the computer). You can backup your critical data to one or more DVDs on a periodic basis. The key point is to backup your data frequently enough so that if you lost an entire computer due to a failure, theft, or natural disaster, you could recover with a minimal amount of loss.
The easiest approach to follow is to purchase a backup device and to use the software that comes with it to automatically back up your computer on a schedule. You should also consider backing up to portable media such as DVD periodically, and then take those DVDs to a separate physical location in case the office location suffers from a total loss due to theft or natural disaster.
Use MultiMedia Conferencing
You can use telephone and multi-media conferencing to cut down on travel. Free telephone conferencing is available from providers such as FreeConference. If you need multi-media, such as phone and computer sharing, use WebEx, Microsoft LiveMeeting, GoToMeeting, or Glance.NET.
Some of these allow one-way sharing of computer screens, while others allow two-way sharing. All of them offer a free trial, so you can try them out first.
a
Ring Central which will provide callers with a greeting such as this “Thank you for calling [Company A]. If you know your party’s extension, you may dial it at any time. For sales, press 1…”
These virtual phone systems then ring you at whatever number you desire. This can be your home number, cell phone, or any number.
When you receive an incoming call from the virtual phone system, you are provided with a prompt to confirm whether or not you want to accept the call. This also lets you know how to answer the call. For example, if you are working at home, and get a call from the virtual phone system, you know to answer the call, “Hello this is [name], how can I help you?” (or whatever your company greeting may be).
If you want to make telephone calls for free over the internet, consider a voice-over-IP provider such as Skype.
Author: Denise Gosnell
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital TV, HDTV, Satellite TV
Related posts:
