Keep your business options open with virtual phone numbers

Once again we are faced with increasingly depressing headlines in the news when it comes to the economy. Greece has long been in deep financial trouble, and over the last few weeks we have seen its Prime Minister accept a bailout package from the European Central Bank which had as its conditions tough austerity measures, only to then turn around and say that accepting this would be subject to a Greek referendum, then to say the referendum was cancelled, and then to finally resign, leading to days of wrangling trying to put in place a new Prime Minister and new coalition cabinet. This alone would have been pretty scary, but is nothing compared to what is going on in Italy, with their cost of borrowing soaring dramatically in the last few days, finally bringing down long serving Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and leaving the third largest economy in the Euro teetering on the verge of default. As has been said many times in the last few weeks, Italy is too big to fail, but also too big to bailout. Europe cannot afford to bail Italy out, but if it goes down, it will probably take the Eurozone down with it. A new recession looks increasingly likely as Europe yesterday dramatically cut its growth forecasts, and we are all collectively holding our breath.
 
Of course, it isn’t all bad news. Yesterday there was the fantastic announcement that Jaguar Land Rover are to hire 1000 new staff in Solihull in the West Midlands, which is great news for the local economy there. But for many businesses, this is a time for caution. However, what we really need is the economy to grow, and by taking an increasingly cautious approach, it is hard to see how that is going to happen to the level that is needed. One small way that can help businesses that want to expand their trade but don’t want to make any major investments or changes at this uncertain time is to get a virtual local phone number. 
 
“If a company wants to expand the area it does business in, but understandably doesn’t want to buy or rent new property in that area at the moment, then a great way to do it is by getting a virtual phone number with the area code for that area pointing to your existing landline or mobile phone” says David Clarke, Director of DBS, a leading provider of virtual phone numbers. “For example, getting virtual 020 numbers for London pointing to your mobile or pointing to your property outside of London. Then, you can advertise your number in that area without the commitment of having property there, and in the future if you do decide to get property there, you can take the number with you. You can transfer the numbers to wherever you like, so you get to keep the same numbers so that your customers don’t lose how to contact you”. 
 
DBS Telecoms also provide freephone 0800 numbers, 0845 numbers and international toll free numbers to cater for businesses varied needs.