Hopefully I can give you guys some tools to help you in your small businesses:
I am going to show you were you can get all of the above for free for your business. Not to mention a Database drive website or Online Store for free!!
Ok, Now I know some of you are only savvy enough to post on here but these resources will help you regardless.
In my endeavors to save money here is how I have overcome a lot of costs in building my business.
I own
PBXInfo.com and a ton of other sites. As a small business owner I have been looking for shortcuts to help with my business. This includes anything Free. But with Free, There are always drawbacks so I will try to explain what those would be.
Free Website: I use the term Website loosely, I use what is called a content management system, basically it is a very flexible framework for building a website.
Traditionally websites have been created in HTML and have pretty much been online brochures with little customer interaction. Problems occur like difficulty to update or add new information. Well along comes php and mysql. These 2 technologies let you build a dynamic site where you can easily add news, links, forums, categories, etc.. to your websites, and there is a GUI backend that will let you do this, you really don't need to know coding or programming (you don't need to know php or mysql)
The best free software I believe is
http://www.postnuke.com.
There is an opensource community that supports their software.
You need 3 things to get started.
1. A domain name
2. A hosting account (that supports PHP and Mysql,most do nowadays)
3. A FTP Program (Free program is Filezilla)
Basically you download their software, unpack it to your computer, then upload it to your root directory in your hosting account. You then go to your website address and hit install...i.e..
http://www.youwebsitename.com/install.php Then a nice gui screen walks you through installing the software.
In a few minutes (about 10) you can have a database driven website and lots of fun customizing it to do what you want. From an information site to a directory, you really can do anything with it because it is a frame work.
As you can see:
Information Site:
http://www.sippbx.info Online Directory:
http://www.postnukedirectory.com Both sites built with Postnuke but they do very different functions.
There are a ton of features(modules) you can add to your website from forums, to personals, to classifieds, to shopping carts, to Amazon affiliate programs, the list is exhaustive...
Pros: Thousands of free and paid add ons
Thousands of free and paid Themes/templates
Active community willing to help you when something is broken
Excellent documentation
FREE!
Downside: May be difficult for the average Joe to install
Customizing it to make it look unique is very difficult.
Can have bugs in the software .
Sometimes when newer versions come out and you upgrade your site can break...(sometimes its painless and nothing happens)
Feature are dependant on developer- meaning if you want something done and the person who created it gave it away for free you have to wait for them to update it or pay for someone to have it do what you want.
So if you need a free website, you can install this and check it off your list.
Free Shopping Cart/Online Store As most of you are starting out, some of you may sell actual items or even software and you may want to convert that to some online store where people can download or purchase and you ship it out to them...You can purchase a web store package that are pretty professional and relatively bug free but if you don't have money what do you do?
Couple of options, some hosting companies provide a plug in for a free web store but I have found those are very difficult to set up and manage.
I recommend
http://www.oscommerce.com - This is a free online store built on php and MySQL (my favorites). And the install instructions are very similar to installing Postnuke. You download the file, unpack it then upload it back to your website, then follow the link and install it.
The reason I say oscommerce is because it is has gone through lots of revisions and for the most part is very stable and reliable. I have built a few stores on it and it works great. Like Postnuke, there are thousands of modules(add ons) to help you customize the store for your needs. Maybe you want an affiliates program so other people can sell your products, that is an addon, maybe you want to have gift certificates or special volume pricing, you just download it and add it on... The pros and cons are identical to the website:
Pros: Thousands of free and paid add ons
Lots free and paid Themes/templates
Active community willing to help you when something is broken
Excellent documentation
FREE!
Downside: May be difficult for the average Joe to install
Customizing it to make it look unique is very difficult.
Can have bugs in the software .
Sometimes when newer versions come out and you upgrade your site can break...(sometimes its painless and nothing happens)
Feature are dependant on developer- meaning if you want something done and the person who created it gave it away for free you have to wait for them to release it or pay for someone to have it do what you want.
Free Phone System Now Free Phone systems are great, I know I am a small shop but I want to appear as a big shop and professional. Having a phone system where I don't have to shell out $10,000-$20,000 is a big savings for me.
I recommend
http://www.trixbox.org - This is one of the most simplest phone systems to set up and use. All you need is an old PC.
Trixbox turns your old pc into a working phone system with many advanced features.
If you use a phone line at home, you would plug your phone line into Trixbox and a special FXO card(more about that later) and off you go, create extensions, create auto attendant, create your voicemail boxes.
Now Trixbox answers the call then gives them an auto-attendant greeting, press 1 for this, 2 for that...(you don't have to set it up this way but it works for me) Then press 1 for sales and then the calls are transferred to my free Web phone (
Xlight) on my computer..
I take and receive calls from my headset on my laptop. I also have voicemail and I have other extensions. I wont go into all the features but basically you can have a full featured telephone system in your house with Trixbox. You can even buy business phone sets to go with it. I use free so I stick with a free softphone that does the same thing.
So all in all I have a free phone system, free phones and a professional sounding auto-attendant to answer my calls with voicemail and a ton other features like: Ring Groups -rings multiple extensions at once, Queues- Puts a caller in a queue and plays music until you can answer, Music on hold,etc...
Trunks, One last thing, You can have either IP Trunks or physical trunks, basically if you have 1 business line at your house that would be your physical trunk, you would need a special $15-$30 card off of eBay to turn your home office line into a trunk that Trixbox can use. OR you can use a virtual SIP trunk, it basically the same thing but you use an online service for your phone line. Trixbox can make and receive calls allover the world on that line too but you don't need that $30 card, just a monthly fee for the line and Trixbox uses that online phone line for all your incoming and external calls.
Pros"
Free Phone System
Lots of great Features
Very Easy to Install
Free!
Con's
Can be difficult to configure special features
May have problems getting FXO cards to be seen
Possible bugs
Free Phones XTen creates a great free phone
http://www.xten.com/ Free Audio Conferencing Ok, Audio Conferencing, I talk with clients all the time and have to set up web demos and conference calls with 5-10 people in one call. I have found a great free service online where I can do that.
http://www.freeconference.com You can dial into any of these numbers and create your own conference, Anytime!
Dial-in Number Conference Bridge Location
1-712-432-2424 Iowa
1-605-725-4800 Midwest
1-218-862-6100 Minnesota
1-641-297-5333 Iowa
1-218-936-6666 Minnesota
1-712-580-7700 Iowa
1-218-936-1200 Minnesota
1-641-297-5700 Iowa
Basically you call in then you can create a conference, but really if you have a 4-8 digit pin that you create you can just use that.
example: If you dial
1-712-432-2424 and enter in password 556677 -That can be your permanent conference number, as long as no one else uses it. You can use Any Password you want and its permanent!
Pro's: Free!
Up to 50 people in a call (or more can't remember)
Can use anytime
Easy to use
Con's Can't select local conference numbers to you
Have to listen to "Hi and welcome to Free Conference.com"
No Security
No Participant Tools
But hey for free what do you expect!
Free Faxing Well I have a fax machine at home but I don't want to purchase a 3rd line just for faxing so I looked online and found
http://www.jfax.com . You have to do some searching on there, but they do offer a free Faxing service. You get your own fax number you download their software and then when someone fax's you, you get an email with the fax in the attachment you open it with their software then you can print it.
They have a paid version where you can pick your number and a send faxes from your desktop but again, I don't need that so its free to me.
Pros: Free Fax Number
Fast and Easy
Don't have to purchase another line at home
Con's Can't select local number unless you pay for it.
A few restrictions for the free version, can't edit fax’s etc...
Fax Spam - You do start to get it.
I hope this is valuable for you, I started PBXInfo as valuable information resource for others and I thought I would share this as well.