Starting as a consultant or starting a small business can be a daunting task.  As with any business the most important item is communicating with your customers.  Staying in touch while your managing several tasks at once can be tough, especially when you're in and out of your home office all day - back and forth to client and vendor appointments.  You can handle more clients and business by staying well connected with a virtual PBX.

Benefits of a Virtual PBX for a start-up business

• 1. The number one benefit of a virtual PBX for a start up is the low start-up cost and low controllable monthly fees. You pick the plan that fits your needs and you know what your bill will be each month. Sign-up and activation is almost immediate!
• 2. Customers and vendors will get the impression your company is much bigger by projecting that "big company" image with no missed calls, routed messaging and quick responses.
• 3. You can work with a single number and grow as you add employees with no hardware or technical costs.
• 4. Blend all your communications into one convenient online control panel.

Common problems for new consultants and start-up businesses.

• 1. Missing important calls
• 2. Unprofessional phone messaging system
• 3. Loosing contact information

These problems and more can be solved with a Virtual PBX offering

• Call management
• Call forwarding with FindMe / FollowMe
• Time-of-day routing and answering rules
• Call screening and blocking
• Click-to-call out
• RingMe (click-to-call from the Web)
• Call logs

Comparison of a PBX system to a Virtual PBX system PBX systems are phone systems used by most businesses.

They allow incoming calls to be routed to the correct person or department & mange voicemail. Since they usually do this without having to talk to an operator they can save businesses some money. There are two options when considering a small business phone system; a Hardware/Software solution or a Virtual/Hosted solution.

Trying RingCentral is truly an incredibly easy experience and one you'll find amazing. You can try the basics of the service without even giving them a credit card.

First I went to their web site (Try it Free ) and picked a toll free number, typed in my company name and my mobile phone and office phone numbers.  Additionally you can enter your email id if you’d like to receive faxes.  Fill in the easy to read anti spam code and hit start now. 

The next page lets you call your new number. This is where the fun begins.  The instructions ask you to call your new number.  A fairly nice sounding “text to speech” software welcomes the caller and reads the name of your company.  Very nice. It then gives you three options of getting sales, operator or sending a fax.

Virtual PBX is just another name for an Internet Phone System.  A PBX being the hardware and software used to set up a business phone system. By using a virtual PBX or Internet phone system you have the benefits of a big company phone system without the hassle of the hardware, software or personnel to maintain them.