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Mainly because of these uncertain economic times, more and more individuals are starting their own small companies or operating a business from home. In most cases, their place of work has shifted from a large crowded office building to the comfort of their own home. And that as they say, has made all the difference in the world.

However, along with this freedom comes some major problems of how to stay in contact with the outside world on a limited budget. If you have your own business you will know operating expenses have a nasty habit of increasing quickly and subtracting from your profit margin. A small business owner or anyone working from their home must be able to keep all their operating expenses in check.

As mentioned before, one of the ongoing expenses will be your communication costs. Phone bills, fax costs, Internet fees… if you’re not careful all these can add up to a hefty monthly charge or expense. You must find a solution that is cost-effective while still giving you the freedom or the convenience of operating a small business can produce.

One solution many small business owners are turning to is online fax. Instead of operating the traditional fax machine, they are opting for a virtual fax machine or service, where all your faxing chores are outsourced to a online fax service provider.

Online or Internet faxing is simply using your email program and your web connection to send and receive all your faxes. Your chosen fax service provider acts as your intermediary to handle all your faxes for you and your faxes are sent as email attachments (Tiff or Pdf format).

Now, there are many benefits for the small business owner by going this route. First, online fax is truly mobile, you can do your faxing anywhere, anytime. You can fax from any mobile device such as a cell phone, netbook, laptop, smart phone or PDA. This mobility can give any home business or small company extra freedom and reach.

Next, online fax is much cheaper than using a regular fax machine mainly because it is web based so you don’t need an extra fax phone line and because it’s paperless faxing, you don’t have the ongoing expenses or costs of inks, paper and toners. Depending on the amount of faxing your company or home business requires… costs can run as low as $4 or $5 a month, although the average monthly charge is around $8-$10.

To get online fax you have to sign-up to one of the many Internet fax service providers, where you’re given a Local or Toll-Free fax number to use. You are also given an online interface or site where your faxes are stored. You can also logon to check and/or send your faxes from here. Keep in mind, each of these different fax providers have different prices and rates; plus, they also vary in the numbers of faxes you can send each month. The average is around 300, but shop around and you will find better deals.

If you’re on a strict budget and watching your pennies, you should make sure you check the overage fee which is charged to your faxes once you go over the monthly limit. The average here is around 10 cents but shop around and you will find much better rates. This factor is very important if you send a lot of faxes each month. Actually, if you will be sending a lot of faxes, you should look into an unlimited fax plan, these will cost more but you could save money over the long-run. Likewise, another option which many home business go for is a complete PBX service where fax is just one component, you get all your phone services, call forwarding, voice mail… handled through one convenient system.

One of the best reasons for any small business or home office to use online fax concerns scalability. Because everything is computer and web based you can quickly scale up or down the number of fax lines you have since there is no extra hardware to install. For a small business this is ideal because it gives you great flexibility and growth potential. You can quickly tailor your fax services to meet your company’s needs.

One last point to mention about operating a small business and online fax is competitiveness. Having your business totally reachable 24/7, simply means your office or store is open around the clock. This can make your business more competitive in these uncertain economic times and it something you should consider.

Overall, online fax is the perfect solution for the small business owner. It is cost-effective, convenient, portable and available anywhere you have Internet access. It can truly make any business or company more competitive in this dog eat dog business world. It is one solution you should definitely consider for your business.

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