The ingredients of a successful business

Before I decided to set up my own business, I assessed my capabilities and readiness. I identified problems that I might encounter, and came up with a concrete plan. I decided not to take a very big risk, so I started by getting orders from customers and having them pick up at my house. My first customers were those who knew me from the restaurant where I worked in. My basic communication tool then was my home phone.

After a while, I saw that my customer base was already growing. I gained more confidence from the volume of orders I was getting, so I thought that it was time to expand. I took off from there and decided to open my shop.

There was a lot of work involved. Running a shop involved a lot more than baking. The demands of the business changed, and I needed to adapt. Among the most crucial items I saw was communication. Once communication fails, a lot is placed at risk. I had to stay connected, and a simple phone line was not enough.

I looked for a communications solution that would provide me with my needs, but at the same time would fit my budget. Among all the available phone service, I found RingCentral to be the perfect one for a small business like mine. I saw it as the ideal solution for my communication problems, from the start of my business, up until now.

There was a sharp increase in the number of calls.

Along with a sharp rise in the things I had to do, the number of customers also increased as expected. I had to keep up with the growth of the business. Even with the pastry shop phone already set up, a lot of my loyal customers would still call in to place their orders. Although I aimed at selling directly from the shop, I realized that I had to keep my phone line open for ordering. But since managing the shop got me busier, I needed a solution so I would not end up missing a lot of calls.

RingCentral Online has been helping me answer my calls. Through its call forwarding and answering rules, no caller gets neglected, no matter what time of the day it is. Customers are immediately greeted by the auto-attendant and are directed to a specific phone number or to voicemail, based on my preset options. So whenever I was not available to answer calls, I would set my number send calls directly to voicemail. And by logging into my RingCentral online account, I can select any voicemail and listen to it right through my computer.

This feature has helped me maintain communications with my customers, as well as with business contacts. I can easily call them back after I listen to their voicemail messages. Also, this feature gave me peace of mind, knowing that I would not miss any calls.

I would get business calls in multiple phone lines.

Most of my first customers knew my home phone number, since I used to take orders straight from home. Because of this, even with the new shop and the new phone number, I still got customer calls on my home phone. Not only that. I also got calls from business contacts both on my home phone and my cell phone. It seemed that there were just a lot of numbers to handle. I would miss calls, and I would get confused with my phone bills. It was also difficult to manage my contacts list because of the multiple numbers.

I was able to gradually eliminate business calls from my personal numbers. I informed customers and business contacts to dial my RingCentral number when they need to talk to me, and not to call me in my other phone numbers anymore.

With the intelligent call forwarding features from RingCentral, I was not worried about missing important calls. I would just simply change the call forwarding to route the call to whatever phone I was using. RingCentral has two call forwarding options. FollowMe works by ringing a series of preselected numbers until the call is answered. Meanwhile, FindMe overrides FollowMe by automatically routing calls to a single number.

The advanced call forwarding features from RingCentral has definitely helped me streamline all my business communications and manage my calls better.

I needed a very affordable communications solution.

Every business needs a jumpstart. This includes the need to roll out funds to purchase new equipment and facilities, to rent or buy a place, and to pay for necessary investments. This is a risk that every business needs to take before it can expect success.

When I set up the first pastry shop, I had to pay for construction, new equipment, and new employees who would help me run the shop. Most importantly, I knew I had to invest in the best communications for my business, since I knew that this was very crucial for a startup like mine.

Deciding on an office communications system greatly depended on the cost. I needed an affordable one, since I was already maintaining other phone lines, which were my home phone number and my cell phone. However, I also knew that I needed a highly functional system that would do more than just call forwarding. In both of those factors, I found RingCentral Online to be the best solution for my communications, among all other phone services.

RingCentral Online is very ideal for small businesses. I found it very functional and at the same time very affordable. Its features are very easy-to-use and custom-built for startups, with a price that is just right for my limited budget. It has advanced telephone and fax features that even expensive phone systems do not have.

Also, I am able to consolidate all my communications into one central control center, letting me use all my phone lines without the expensive costs. I can easily forward calls made to my RingCentral number to any number I choose. I can also send and faxes online, and get voicemail and fax alerts through text messages. Moreover, I can do everything online! I am highly satisfied with the service RingCentral provides me. It is the perfect solution for a busy person like me.

My contacts list was growing.

Another concern I had when I was starting up was my growing contacts lists. As an achieved goal, I saw that I was gaining more and more customers. In addition to this, I was attracting more and more business contacts such as suppliers. While managing my newly-opened shop, I also had to maintain communications with all my contacts. I needed a way to organize my contacts list.

Without RingCentral, I would not have been able manage my contacts the right way. Doing it on my own would just be too difficult and would take a lot of time. But with RingCentral Online, I can manage my contacts list with just a few clicks of a mouse. What’s better is that the list is automatically integrated to all my communications through RingCentral, so I do not have to look up every number that called or sent a fax or message. Every time there is an incoming call, the caller ID, the name of the contact and the group in which they belong to are displayed. Also, I can easily find a number I need to dial out. With the easy-to-use interface of the RingCentral Online interface, I can find contacts without much hassle. And lastly, RingCentral is automatically integrated with Microsoft Outlook, letting me communicate easily with my Outlook contacts through RingCentral.