Integrate
Skype into your business plan to save on phone bills,
add international numbers and let customers click to
call.
Communications expenses have increased monumentally
over the past decade. When I started my home based business,
communications was easy. I only needed one business
line and one home line, and I could use the home line
for my dial-up during my workday. But no more. Now we
have the expense of high-speed internet and mobile phones--necessities
for our eBay businesses. However, this can really ratchet
up your communications expenses.
Lucky for us, eBay smartly purchased Skype. Skype is
software that you download to your computer that allows
you to communicate with anyone else who has Skype at
no additional cost beyond the expense of your high-speed
internet connection.
At a minimum, Skype will allow you to use your computer,
along with a microphone and your regular computer speakers,
as a telephone. You can contact any member of Skype,
anywhere in the world, at no charge. That's right: All
Skype-to-Skpye calls are free. As wonderful and simple
as that is, Skype has other revolutionary features that
can really expand your business:
* SkypeIn: I love this feature. With SkpyeIn, you
can buy a special phone number for your Skype account
so people without Skype can contact you on your Skype
account. The best part is, if you do a lot of business
in, say, London, you can get a local London number so
your customers won't incur long-distance charges when
reaching you. This can also make your business look
pretty big-time--clients will think you have a remote
office across the Atlantic! You can get up to ten different
SkypeIn numbers. A SkypeIn number costs about $39 a
year.
* Skype Voicemail: If you're not at your computer when
another user attempts to call you, your account can
receive and store voice-mail messages. You can check
the voice mail and get your messages when you return
to your office and are clear of work. This feature is
free when you purchase a SkypeIn phone number. If you
purchase it separately, the annual cost is about $19.
* SkypeOut: You can call any number in the U.S. and
Canada (mobile or landline) for free. And Skype has
very reasonable charges for calls made to non-Skype
phones in foreign countries through SkypeOut. International
per-minute charges vary by country, but they start at
about 2 cents. Look here for a complete listing of international
per-minute rates.
To increase my communications convenience, I recently
got a Skype DualPhone. The DualPhone is a cordless phone
that carries my office landline as well as my Skype
line. It plugs into my computer with a USB connection
to pick up my Skype calls, and a phone wire plugs into
the wall jack to access the landline. The best part
about this phone is that it uses a new technology that
expands the strength and range of the wireless phone.
Since my home was built after the Northridge earthquake
hit California in 1994, it has a good deal of steel
in the structure to prevent it from collapsing in the
next "big one." Unfortunately, this had precluded
my using a wireless phone too far from its base--until
I got the DualPhone. Now I can access Skype and get
free long distance from anywhere in my home or office.
(For more information, check out their website at www.dualphone.net.)
Skype is adding more features all the time. The PC
version of the software, for instance, even allows for
free video calls on your computer (assuming you have
a webcam or other camera PC setup). You can also add
a Skype button to your e-mails, allowing your contacts
to just click to call you. You can Skpye conference
with a group of people, put on a Skypecast (similar
to a podcast with no iPod involved), and you can already
integrate Skype into some of your eBay listings. To
download the software for PC, MAC or Linux, just go
to www.skype.com, and click the "Download Skype"
link.
