Mainly because of these uncertain economic times, more and more
individuals are starting their own small companies or operating a
business from home. In most cases, their place of work has
shifted from a large crowded office building to the comfort of
their own home. And that as they say, has made all the difference
in the world.
However, along with this freedom comes some major problems of how
to stay in contact with the outside world on a limited budget. If
you have your own business you will know operating expenses have
a nasty habit of increasing quickly and subtracting from your
profit margin. A small business owner or anyone working from
their home must be able to keep all their operating expenses in
check.
As mentioned before, one of the ongoing expenses will be your
communication costs. Phone bills, fax costs, Internet fees... if
you're not careful all these can add up to a hefty monthly
charge or expense. You must find a solution that is
cost-effective while still giving you the freedom or the
convenience of operating a small business can produce.
One solution many small business owners are turning to is online
fax. Instead of operating the traditional fax machine, they are
opting for a virtual fax machine or service, where all your
faxing chores are outsourced to an online fax service provider.
Online or Internet faxing is simply using your email program and
your web connection to send and receive all your faxes. Your
chosen fax service provider acts as your intermediary to handle
all your faxes for you and your faxes are sent as email
attachments (Tiff or Pdf format).
Now, there are many benefits for the small business owner by
going this route. First, online fax is truly mobile, you can do
your faxing anywhere, anytime. You can fax from any mobile device
such as a cell phone, netbook, laptop, smart phone or PDA. This
mobility can give any home business or small company extra
freedom and reach.
Next, online fax is much cheaper than using a regular fax machine
mainly because it is web based so you don't need an extra fax
phone line and because it's paperless faxing, you don't have
the ongoing expenses or costs of inks, paper and toners.
Depending on the amount of faxing your company or home business
requires... costs can run as low as $4 or $5 a month, although
the average monthly charge is around $8-$10.
To get online fax you have to sign-up to one of the many Internet
fax service providers, where you're given a Local or Toll-Free
fax number to use. You are also given an online interface or site
where your faxes are stored. You can also logon to check and/or
send your faxes from here. Keep in mind, each of these different
fax providers have different prices and rates; plus, they also
vary in the numbers of faxes you can send each month. The average
is around 300, but shop around and you will find better deals.
If you're on a strict budget and watching your pennies, you
should make sure you check the overage fee which is charged to
your faxes once you go over the monthly limit. The average here
is around 10 cents but shop around and you will find much better
rates. This factor is very important if you send a lot of faxes
each month. Actually, if you will be sending a lot of faxes, you
should look into an unlimited fax plan, these will cost more but
you could save money over the long-run. Likewise, another option
which many home business go for is a complete PBX service where
fax is just one component, you get all your phone services, call
forwarding, voice mail... handled through one convenient system.
One of the best reasons for any small business or home office to
use online fax concerns scalability. Because everything is
computer and web based you can quickly scale up or down the
number of fax lines you have since there is no extra hardware to
install. For a small business this is ideal because it gives you
great flexibility and growth potential. You can quickly tailor
your fax services to meet your company's needs.
One last point to mention about operating a small business and
online fax is competitiveness. Having your business totally
reachable 24/7, simply means your office or store is open around
the clock. This can make your business more competitive in these
uncertain economic times and it something you should consider.
Overall, online fax is the perfect solution for the small
business owner. It is cost-effective, convenient, portable and
available anywhere you have Internet access. It can truly make
any business or company more competitive in this dog eat dog
business world. It is one solution you should definitely consider
for your business.
