When you start your own business, keeping expenses low is critical. Still, you need good services and tools to run your business effectively; there's just no way around it. The good news is that there are actually a lot of exceptional services available that won't cost you a penny. That's right, they're free! And better yet, they're great! While there are a lot of options out there if you look for them, the three I want to talk about today, are three that I actually use for fax service, conference calls and virtual meetings.
When I installed the business phone line for my VA practice I looked into the costs for an additional line for fax service. While I can receive faxes on my land line, my fax machine doesn't automatically pick up because of my voice mail service and it needs to be switched manually. I don't know about you but I have better things to do than wait for faxes to come in. I wasn't sure if the cost for a dedicated fax line was warranted since I don't do a lot of faxing; most of my correspondence is through email. Still, there are times when a faxed copy of a document (such as to obtain a signature) is needed. Enter eFax. At the no-cost level, I'm able to have a dedicated phone number for faxes (they even tried to give me one similar to my business number). I receive my faxes as email attachments; I just print them out. Sure there are higher levels of eFax with lots of bells and whistles, but for basic fax service with NO added expense, the free service is perfect for me.
The next great service I use is FreeConferenceCall.com. I actually use this service almost daily with my clients. For no cost, I registered for an account with a dedicated conference call number that can be used at any time of day. It's always available - callers just call in and enter the pass code I provide. Plus, invitations to the calls with the call-in information are easy to email through the service to the call participants. There's no limit to the number of calls you can hold and each can have up to 96 callers. Like eFax, they also have upgraded levels, but the basic plan is very effective (my clients love it!). It even includes a recording feature where calls can be recorded for review at a later date. The only catch is that you have to renew your account every 120 days and get a new call-in number (this helps them make sure they only reserve lines for those people actually using them.
Finally, what about online meetings? When I was studying at AssistU, we researched a lot of online collaboration and virtual meeting tools. There are some excellent services out there, but since virtual meetings aren't something I usually conduct, the monthly fees for these services are a bit out of my reach at this point. Then a fellow VA turned me on to Vyew. It's a free, anytime, collaboration and live conferencing service that features many of the same functions as expensive services. It's completely web-based and cross-platform (which is important to me as a Mac user who works primarily with PC users). This comprehensive service provides a call-in number for the teleconference portion of the meetings, and includes a URL for your own private workspace where you can view and edit presentations and documents in real time, simultaneously with numerous people in numerous locations. The sessions can even be saved for review at a later date. The downside of the free version is that participants in the virtual meetings may be subjected to advertisements while in the sessions, but I think it's a small price to pay for occasional on-line meetings at no cost.
So you see, you can run your small business like a pro without killing your budget. All of the services mentioned above do offer upgraded, paid options in addition to their free services, so you just need to review the features of each package and pick the one that best fits your requirements. For me, right now I'm loving the free stuff!
Isn't efax paid service? Do we have other free service of same nature? Thanks
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Yes, Shirley, efax is a paid service at the higher level. For basic fax service, however, they offer a free option which works very well. I'm not sure of others with this same type of service at no charge. Thanks for asking.
:-) Cheryl
Posted by: Shirley | December 12, 2007 at 02:48 AM