The advantage of Voice over IP is the cost savings.  Even the installation and subsequent ease of moves, adds and changes still boils down to a reduction in costs.  As a small business owner you tend to look for ways to lower your expenditures while increasing your profits.  So VoIP is an attractive option for many companies.   However, that does not mean that VoIP is without its risks and that you shouldn't consider strongly your options prior to making a final decision. 

As an example, Skype can be an intriguing option for small business owners because Skype to Skype calls are free and Skype to land lines and cell phones are very inexpensive.  What isn't always realized early on is the quality of service you receive.  If you have gone this route than you know that echos, tinny sounds and general call quality are an issue.  So many people turn away from this fairly quickly.  As good as Skype is it may not be the best option for your business.  From the onset the apparent beauty is the low cost of purchasing a Skype phone or headset and setting up an account with funds to pull off of to make non-Skype calls.  But imagine the image your client or prospect has of your business after a poor call experience, it's hard to place a price on that.

Vonage provides a good solution for small businesses with a small number of users, however once you reach even a handful of employees that need a handset you will quickly find the price rising.  So you will definitely want to consider you growth potential and think whether this is a long or short term option or even if it's viable at all.

Once you reach a size of 8 to 10 employees and see growth potential and sustainability you may want to consider your options for a fully installed VoIP phone system for your business.  Whatever choice you go with consider carefully the needs of your clients and the future growth of your organization and then move forward!

As a small business owner you may have little idea what you are up against when you chose your next phone system.  You may know that when you pick up the phone you expect to hear a dial tone, and you don't want to pay too much.  Otherwise the phone system is completely foreign and you hope someone with knowledge comes around and points you in the right direction.

A lot of what you will do be based on the type of company you have, you will need to look at your companies potential growth pattern.  Is your company growing?  Is it stagnant?  Is it declining?  The answer to these questions will assist you as you look for the proper phone system.  Some services needed by your company are obvious, things you have needed since you can remember such as voice mail, call hold, transfer and conference call functionality.  The way it’s done may be another story, but having those are probably a must.  But, if you start to look at multi language, ring groups, mode scheduling and others, you may not be able to if it's needed or not. Some vendors will try to do groupings of services, which will actually cost you more money because some of the services won’t be needed.

Be sure to understand clearly the installation process and what that’s going to cost you, sometimes finding this out afterwards can be a shock to the system.  It's best to understand your telephone provider’s proposal clearly so you can gauge the overall costs.

The big benefit of a Voice over IP phone system is that it charges differently, specifically for calls out of state and country.  Small business owners will see a significant cost savings based on the much lower.  In comparing between the two VoIP will come out ahead nearly every time.   It should be clear that your profits are being eaten up through a PBX system.

VoIP systems are normally much easier to install, which means a cost reduction and savings to you.  VoIP services connect through the Internet and you probably already have a network connection which helps reduce the installation cost even more.   There is the possibility that with increased usage from the VoIP system you will have greater bandwidth needs; however that cost will still be less than a PBX phone system.

For most businesses VoIP is clearly the way to go, but don’t just assume this.  Take time and do research so you can discover the best solution for your small business.