God forbid that you should be thinking about adding someone to your staff in these tough economic times, right? However, there are some businesses that thrive in a ‘downside' economy. For example, auction businesses that sell assets of failed companies is just one of these that are beneficiaries and are expanding right now.

If you find yourself in the position of having to add personnel, stop for a minute and ask yourself about the position for which you are attempting to hire. If it has to do with customer service, administration or sales, there might be a better way. In fact, there is a better way that can help you increase your business while keeping overhead low.

Consider adding an 800 number and virtual PBX system to your business organization. The reason is that it is less expensive than adding an employee and it works for you 24x7.

The costs of adding an employee are more than just the wage that you pay. There are the benefits, also. These add anywhere from 30 to 40 percent to the cost of that employee. If you factor that into the benefits of providing for vacation days, sick days and other non-productive times, the cost becomes astronomical for a business to absorb and remain profitable.

That is a huge reason that adding an 800 number and associated PBX system makes sense. Not only do you provide a voice actuated auto-attendant to your phone system, but you empower your callers to make the choices on your system to help direct their calls or obtain information. All with no human interaction.

However, the PBX system, when programmed correctly, allows callers to be directed to a ‘live' person when needed. The beauty of this system is that callers can choose from a menu of items that can help them in the form of recorded instructions and/or directions. This means that they are able to listen to choices that can help solve problems, or deliver pre-sales information. An on-demand system like this can help cut down on the most basic of calls.

But it also affords the user to be able to reach a specific party or department, too. And the ‘follow-me' feature rolls through extensions, cell phones and home phones before sending a caller to a voicemail box.

The ability to do business with anyone, anytime of the day is mandatory given the global nature of most businesses. Why would you penalize customers or prospects who live many time zones away from you just because your business hours do not coincide with theirs? Having this PBX system allows you to continue to take phone calls while you are away from the physical confines of your business. But to the callers it appears that you are ‘in.'

There is more, but suffice it to say that running a business is a more complicated process than it used to be in the past. Having the right tools and methods for handling incoming calls to your business is a must. An 800 number and virtual PBX system holds the answers to help your business grow, no matter in what economic climate we find ourselves.