hello, hello – internet phoning for small business

Two new, free phone services announced recently hold heaps of promise (and cost-savings) for small businesses.

Yellow (the Yellow Pages people) has announced free Skype calls to any of its listed businesses.

(If you haven’t tried Skype, it is really dead simple to use and includes inbuilt video calling. Download the free Skype software and then all you need is a web cam and a mic, plus headphones if you don’t want anyone else to hear the person you are talking to. Visit Skype here.)

And, in the U.S (though not yet in N.Z), Google has announced a service that offers dirt cheap calls but best of all its sweet range of fancy high-tech features — such as a single number to ring your home, work, and mobile phones; a central voicemail inbox that accessible on the web; text transcriptions of voice messages; and the ability to screen calls by listening in live as callers leave a voicemail.

A video explaining Google Voice is here:

turn your cellphone into an internet connection

If you’re on the road a lot and need access to your e-business, you can easily turn your cellphone into a router that picks up your broadband account and sends it to your laptop to allow you to use the internet wherever you are.

Here are two software products that do this:  JoikuSpot and wmwifirouter.

(I have not tried either product and was simply interested to know of their existence. You will need to check if they work with your phone.)

teleworking – work better, be happier

The traditional office “remains a black hole of interruptions, procrastination, and soul-crushing politics”, says Wired magazine, while “time and again, studies have shown that telecommuters are every bit as engaged as their cubicle-bound brethren — and happier and more productive to boot”.

And with technology such as free internet phones, web cams and live computer displays across the internet becoming more common, it has never been easier to telework and to run an e-business.

Find out why ditching the office might just be the answer.

wow! display your computer screen to anyone, anywhere

Some great technology here: a product called Glance that lets you show what is on your computer screen to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection (and up to 100 different computers can join in).

Imagine the possibilities for showing products or documents or reviewing work-in-progress with customers overseas or around New Zealand. Everything you see or do on your computer, they see. As easy to use as logging on to the internet, they say.  Simply click a button to let them join in on working on your computer, too.

Talk to people via Skype for free and have them watch the screen as you talk and show them stuff. The potential of teleworking really gets boosted with this technology.

we like this: super-cheap international mobile calls

Customers overseas you need to speak to? How can you keep the costs down? There’s always calls over the internet using a servce such as Skype (though in NZ the Skype service has several limitations).

But what about this … the V8 card … five cents per minutes on your Vodafone mobile phone to call landlines overseas! The opportunities for customer service look pretty good with this: cheap calling and you can be anywhere you need to be to make the call.