Business is often conducted away from a desk or office. A virtual phone system like PicuP keeps you connected and enables you to do your best work.

“Hey, you’ve reached my cell. Leave a message and I’ll call you back.”

Imagine a customer or potential customer calls your phone. Like any small-business owner, though, you’re hard at work and can’t get the call at that moment. Your customer hears the phone ring, and ring, and then it goes to voicemail. But instead of hearing a professional-sounding, branded message, they hear something like the above.

When a customer calls you, it should sound like they’re calling an established business. They should feel confident they’ve called the right number and that you’ll respond—no matter if they’re calling you or any one of your employees. Having the wrong type of phone system could cost you a contract or, even worse, customers leaving for the competition.

If your business is just getting off the ground, if you’re a solopreneur, or managing a small team, a cloud-based phone service like PicuP is something you need and probably don’t even realize it. PicuP provides you with a full set of features similar to a corporate phone service—all delivered on your cell, no matter what cell service you carry.

“The way new business is conducted means you don’t always want to be in your office, at your desk,” says Jonah Fink, president of VoIP solutions provider Net2Phone. “PicuP gives you absolutely everything entrepreneurs need when setting up a phone service for their business.”

With PicuP, Net2Phone has created a virtual phone service that is tailored specifically to small-business owners and entrepreneurs. PicuP’s features include a personalized welcome greeting, call routing, a mobile app and an online dashboard for simple customization, just to name a few.

Here, Fink outlines three ways a cloud phone service like PicuP can help your business get off the ground:

1. Stay connected no matter where you are.

Let’s face it, small businesses don’t operate during the standard 9-to-5 paradigm anymore, and customers want access to you regardless of your family or social plans. When you’re out of the office, cloud-based phone systems like PicuP allow you to receive and make business calls as if you’re in the office.

“Simply forward your calls to your cell phone or make outgoing calls from your business phone number just by using the free PicuP mobile app,” Fink explains. “PicuP allows calls to be ‘screened’ by using a specific PicuP ringtone. Now, when you receive a call on your mobile phone you can instantly be aware whether it’s a personal or a business call and respond accordingly whether you’re at home, in the car, or running errands.”

2. Sound professional.

When a customer calls, it’s critical that you sound like an established business. This is true for solopreneurs as well as owners managing employees who are fielding calls from customers.

“While most businesses recognize the importance of having a slick website, many overlook the importance of an effective business-phone service,” Fink says. PicuP features, like having a dedicated business number, routing calls to employees and a welcome greeting, all help to make your business seem established and legit.

3. Keep it simple.

Managing things like accounts payable, payroll, equipment maintenance and telecom needs takes you away from the reason you started the business. Using a cloud-based phone service helps simplify some of those necessary distractions.

“We allow you to use your existing phone number, choose a new one, or even have a toll-free number,” Fink says. “It is also highly customizable, so as your team begins to expand, PicuP enables you to instantly add more extensions, allowing calls to be effortlessly transferred to the right departments and person.

“PicuP requires no commitment, equipment or contract,” Fink adds. “It really doesn’t get much simpler than that.”

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