What you need to know about buying a phone system 

Choosing a phone system for your small business is no doubt a big decision, but with so many other tasks at hand to build your company, you need to get your phones up and running quickly and inexpensively. 

Consider your options carefully when selecting your starter phone system.

Perhaps QuickPhones is your best option, but perhaps it’s not.  Here’s a quick, non-techie-talk rundown of your phone system options so you can choose for yourself which one is best for you.

Major Considerations

Unless your business is completely focused around your phone system, like a big call center taking credit card orders 24/7, you need two things from your phone system: You need to be able to install it quickly and easily without becoming a telecom expert, and you need it to be inexpensive initially with no monthly expenses to worry about.

1st Decision: Rent or Buy

Renting by using a Hosted Phone Service

You can call on a hosted phone service company to come and install your phone system and basically rent your phone equipment and service to you on a monthly basis.  If plugging in a regular telephone or even a toaster is a little scary, then this option might be right for you.  Be prepared to pay for it though.  While it might seem like the easier route initially, hosted phone service companies will charge you about $50 per month, or more, per phone.  So if you have a 5-phone system, expect to pay $3000 per year in addition to your phone service bill from the phone company.  Recurring costs like these can cost your business much more over the long term, but then again, if you’re too nervous to even touch a phone wire, hosted phone service might be for you.  Chances are though, if you’re capable of running a business, you probably won’t fear plugging in a few cables.

Renting by Signing Everyone up for a Mobile Phone

What a novel idea!  You can get a cell phone for every member of your staff and have a phone “system” live in an hour with one trip to your local wireless provider.  Believe it or not, some small businesses really are going with this option.  You may have to sign your life away with a massive service contract that will last the next 3 years, but some small business owners are just fine with that.  The advantage to this option is that you can reach your employees whether they’re in the office or not.  The disadvantage to this option is that anyone can reach you whether you’re in the office or not.  There are other disadvantages too:  the cost of airtime, the cost of airtime, and the cost of airtime.  If money is no object though, you may be better off giving everyone in your company a cell phone.  Enough said. 

Buying a PBX or Key System (WHAT?!)

Sound a little scary?  It certainly can be.  If you have your sights on having a traditional business phone system that large companies have in their offices, then you will be looking at a PBX (which is an acronym for Private Branch Exchange) or a “key” system.  Those are just fancy terms for “sophisticated-phone-system” that are always accompanied by a sophisticated price tag.  You can have an infinite number of call options with these systems, but most small business owners will rarely have the need for most of them.  These types of phone systems are so complicated that they will need to be installed by your phone company for about $2,000 (or more) depending on the size of your system, and then there’s the cost of your equipment, which will start at about $7,000.  Ouch.  You’ll have a phone system that does everything you’ll never need it to do if you’re running a small business, but if you truly need a large-scale, Cadillac of phone systems with all the bells and whistles, then you ought to just bite the bullet and call your phone company to order one of these babies.  If you ever need to expand your phone system though, expect to pay $200 - $750 per phone for the system upgrade.  And don’t forget yet another service call to install them (shocker, eh?). 

Buying a Do-it-yourself Phone System

For all you do-it-yourselfers out there, there are phone systems available that are slightly less complex than the PBX systems from your phone company.  The equipment is indeed cheaper than equipment from a well-known phone equipment manufacturer, but there will be some leg work in getting your phones up and running.  If you know a lot about phone systems and don’t mind killing a weekend or two stretched out with a relaxing 75-page manual that’s printed in microscopic-type, then you can put together a phone system that’s almost as sophisticated as a system from your phone company at a lower price.  If you’re not a telecom expert, just be ready to figure out which configuration is best for your company and be prepared to Google some terms like “trunk interfaces”  - are yours loop-start or ground-start?  Not to mention the acronyms, like FXS, FXO, ACD, MADN, and many more.  If that’s your thing, then knock yourself out.  You can get an almost-top-of-the-line phone system for about half the price of a system from your phone company if you’re willing to put in the effort, but who do you call when it doesn’t work?  And how much will they charge?

Get a Ready-to-use Phone System

In case you haven’t read this whole article, there’s a big difference between a do-it-yourself phone system and ready-to-use phone system.  Do-it-yourself systems have a few more bells and whistles (if you’re into that sort of thing) that come at a reasonable price, but be ready to put in some time figuring out which cable connects where.  A ready-to-use system won’t have cool-sounding features like automated call distribution, but if you don’t want all of those over-priced options that you’re sure you’ll never use, then you’re better off going with a ready-to-use.  If you’re one of those people with a my-system-is-cooler-than-yours complex, then go with a PBX or do-it-yourself system.  Spend a little extra for them too and then brag to all of your friends that you’ve got features like unified messaging.

So guess which category the QuickPhones system fits into?  Of course, it’s a ready-to-use system.  Actually, it’s the world’s only ready-to-use system. 

Assuming your office has the wires in the walls, setup for a small system will take you 20 minutes—tops!  The price is also absolutely unbeatable.  Not sure?  Call your phone company or search online.  You won’t find a complete system for less than double the QuickPhones price. 

A Few Final Words

If you’re still not sure which option is right for your company, then call your local phone company and have a few high-limit company credit cards ready.

If you are looking to save some money and are willing to plug things in though, get a quote on your ready-to-use QuickPhones system now.