What is a virtual PBX? First of all, I’m not really fond of the term virtual PBX or Private Branch Exchange, even though it very accurately describes what a Virtual Phone System is. The reason I don’t like that term is because, even though I just spelled out what PBX stands for, if you are a typical small business owner much like myself, you still have no idea what it really is.

So a term that I prefer to use is, “virtual phone system”. It just makes much more sense, and I’ll break down why I think so:

virtual – an adjective that applies to things that really exist, however may not exist explicitly at a given location or site, but in reality are created or carried on by means of computers. Get all that? Ok, in other words, something that exists, but maybe isn’t really located right in the same location where you are sitting. phone system – basically a system that has all the functions and features requested/required by most small businesses today.

So in reality a virtual phone system is simply a business phone system that doesn’t physically exist in a closet somewhere in your home office, office building, or office suite, but rather it’s “hosted” at the service provider’s physical location. This means that all the hardware and software (except a web interface you use to mange your account) sits at the physical location(s) of whatever service provider you select. This benefit should not be underestimated, as the cost of that hardware and software can be extremely expensive, and in most cases cost prohibitive for very small and small businesses. Those systems also normally require someone on staff who knows what they are doing, to make changes whenever you add or change something in the system, or fix things when you have the occasional bump in the night. With virtual phone systems, you neither have the hardware and software investment or the staffing overhead.

Basically a caller places a call to your toll free number or local business phone number. When that happens the call is actually sent to, and received by, whatever service provider you select. At that point an auto-attendant answers with a greeting you’ve selected or recorded, and then routes the call based on how you have configured the system. Most systems now have integrated fax abilities as well, which means that the system automatically detects if the call coming in is from a human or a fax and routes the call correctly.

In a normal land based phone system, each extension would be assigned to a desk phone somewhere in the office where the phone system is installed. However with these virtual phone systems, you can assign that extension to any phone number anywhere in the world. As you can see from the diagram, these phone numbers can be associated to individual employees, branch offices, etc. Actually, you can even assign an extension to a set of numbers that it will cascade through until answered, and then if unanswered, ultimately to a voice mail box. Many systems also allow voice mails to be converted to emails so that you can easily manage all of your communications from one location.

This allows small businesses to have employees or offices located all over the country or even the world, that are all easily reachable by your customers and clients through a single phone system that’s easy to setup and now are very affordable. With these virtual phone systems, you can even easily transfer calls between extensions, even when those extensions are half way across the world from each other. Try that with a traditional PBX (phone) system.

The ability to enable distributed employees, distributed support centers, or distributed offices that are still seamlessly connected via phone, is one of the top differentiating factors between virtual phone systems and traditional phone systems.
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Internet marketing can seem mystifying not only for beginners, but for moderately skilled internet marketers. With all the courses, forums, blogs, reports, seminars and teleconferences available to help people learn how to get traffic to their sites, it is one of the most overwhelmingly dense subjects on the internet.

Unfortunately, and this is perfectly true, most of the advice or “expert” tips are outdated or completely false. Since anyone can publish on the internet, you have a mixed bag of good information followed with much more bad information.

The mysticism of internet marketing is created largely by this glut of some good and mostly bad information. It makes the whole topic SEEM like rocket science when, in fact, much of what was true about internet marketing years ago is true today.

Most people think that since search engine marketing changes every five minutes, that ALL internet marketing tactics must have changed as much in the same amount of time. Not true.

The basics, like trading links, article syndication, testimonials, forum signatures, joint ventures, affiliate programs – most work as well today as they did years ago. That is, if you know how to value the work above for what it will truly do for your website traffic.

Funny thing is, no one places much value on the above tactics anymore because there is always some “new” tactic around the corner that claims the death of everything that came before it. And most people blindly follow that advice as if it were true.

Most of the time, this is to the detriment of their internet marketing efforts. The basics are what work all the time and what have always worked on the internet.

You can always experiment with new things, as long as you have not forgotten to do the basics. The basics proven to drive traffic, page rank, link popularity, and branding to your business.

Conservative, relevant reciprocal linking

Article syndication

Participation in your field and among your market (forums)

Blogging

Offline advertising

Non-reciprocal linking tactics

Press releases

…and many other proven methods.

Everything else is just a big experiment until proven to work over time. “Over time” being the operative words. Lots of flash in the pan crack pot schemes work for awhile. But most never stand the test of time.

Links from a widely syndicated article will never fade away, yet I see people chasing down fly-by-night linking pyramid schemes as if they truly believe something like that is a smart thing to base their internet business on!

Tens of thousands have walked away from their dreams, gone back to their depressing, predictable, slave-labor jobs never knowing how close they were to actually succeeding.

Good people have left this business proclaiming it an utter lie that any average person can make it with an internet business and an internet marketing plan.

I guess there is truth in that statement. Average people do in fact quit this business before they ever get started because average people fall for tricks and schemes that above average people avoid on their way to success.


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If you dream of starting your own business, you’re surely looking into the costs of opening up that first office. And the one thing that might give you pause is the cost involved. Most start-up businesses fail within their first three years (out of those that get beyond that point the vast majority of them succeed), and this failure has to do with not being able to cover expenses for one reason or another.

This is the age of the Internet, and the Internet has made possible the virtual office. The vast majority of start-up businesses today don’t need the traditional bricks-and-mortar office(s). You just need all of your employees to have two things: 1) a computer with high-speed Internet access, and 2) a cell phone. Forget about a land line.

So, the first thing you can do to save yourself substantial amounts of money is to forget about opening an office at all. Just set aside one private room in your home, and you’re in business. All of your employees can work from home (or the local coffee shop), too. You just saved a big fat pile of money on office overhead and commute costs. You can use a good webinar service company to hold meetings. All you need to pay for here is outfitting any of your employees with the software they’ll need, a webcam and microphone if they don’t have them, etc. You’ll find that the majority of your employees already have most of the stuff they need, anyway. Only provide it to those who don’t have it.

And what more can you do? Plenty:

Consider using MacIntosh computers instead of Windows-based. They have fewer IT problems. If you still want to use PCs, check into the less-expensive-than-Windows Linux OS.

Re-think the usual compensation plans for your employees. Even for people like your secretary, consider paying a small base salary but offer a very generous performance bonus. If you want to offer health benefits, instead give them money to open their own MSA account if they choose as a “hiring bonus”. Instead of offering retirement plans, throw in a free meeting with a financial planner to everyone when they get their bonus checks, so they can allocate their own retirement savings, and maybe offer profit sharing in the company.

For your top performers you could even offer to pay for their car for them. This method of compensation means you are paying mostly for performance but you retain employees at the same time, as their best interests align with yours and they grow a sense of loyalty. This will enable you to easily ferret out those who don’t love their jobs, and when you do be quick to fire them.

If you live in an expensive area like the Northeast or California, try to hire people who live in the South or the Midwest, like people from Iowa, Wisconsin, the Carolinas, etc. They won’t care about a bigger base pay because they don’t have the huge living expenses.

Don’t sign up for a toll-free number. People today have so many cheap/unlimited long distance phone plans that they won’t care if they call you on a regular long distance call.

Outsource your mundane tasks like book-keeping (other than your personal secretary) to foreigners who can work very cheaply. You will not be ripping them off with cheap wages, either: $100 a month goes a long, long way in a nation with a rather low standard of living. You can find outsourcing companies online after doing a Google search. Email or call them for more information. They will look forward to working with you and your business.

Use cheap/free Internet methods of marketing and advertising as much as possible: articles, YouTube videos, Article Video Robot, podcasts, opt-in e-newsletters, PPC advertising, and the like. Find a couple of people who are good at this and make them part of your staff–forget the PR firms or multimedia marketing companies.

Every two or three business quarters, meet with your vendors and try to work a discount deal. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Always–anything that you can possibly do online, do online. The savings benefits of the virtual office are staggering. It’s the way to go if you’re a new start-up business.
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