Let’s talk about startup budgets and funding.

Starting your own small business can be pretty scary, and let’s face it, working out how much money you’ll need to get going can be difficult. It takes realistic and accurate projections (we should know, our co-founders have done it enough times!).

Your startup funding or capital is the money needed to turn your great idea into a business and to get it off the ground. It includes things like hardware, software, office space, modern-day essentials like the cost of hosting and building your website and social platforms, and importantly, your phone system. Funding can come in various forms – from the use of personal funds and bank loans to government support for startups, and even crowdfunding if you’ve got an idea worthy enough to gain the attention of investors.

Nearly 70% of creative and construction businesses have a start-up budget below £5000. Whereas over 70% of recruitment and finance businesses have a start-up budget of over £10,000. These stats indicate a distinct gap in budgets between industry sectors, but it doesn’t matter where your funding comes from, or how much you’ve got to start with.

What does matter is how you spend it, and where you choose to invest it. 

It’s important to learn, early on, to be careful with your funding. Make every penny work hard, so you reap the benefits - either in terms of additional pounds generated or saved in the future, or increased productivity. It’s this early ‘scrappiness’ that every startup ought to focus on. 

One of the most critical and integral aspects of a start-up is communication, something every single business uses, whether its communication between colleagues, clients, customers, suppliers, partners - we could go on, but you get the gist.

So, finding the right phone system for your start-up is key. Times are changing, and the traditional desk phone is becoming more and more outdated, inflexible, and will one day be obsolete. BT has already announced their plans to shut their PSTN (public switched telephone network) and ISDN phone systems by 2025! 

Many modern start-ups, small businesses, and SMEs are already turning to a cloud-based telephone system, sometimes referred to as an ‘internet-based phone system’. Or an earlier, but very similar system – VoIP phone (Voice over Internet Protocol) system for their business communication. 

There is a lot to consider when starting up, so here are a few things to think about that can affect your budget when it comes to choosing a phone system that’s right for you:

Cost-efficiency and contracts - don’t get tied down!

Old-fashioned phone systems can be costly to set up and maintain - eating away at your budget from the get-go. And you’re nearly always tied into a contract. Worst still, these legacy solutions do nothing to enhance your productivity. CircleLoop is very cost-effective and commitment-free - meaning that regardless of your startup budget, you’re spending clever. Choosing a cloud-based phone system like CircleLoop gives you the equivalent of a professional landline phone number, in a powerful desktop or mobile app. It has all the professional features a startup would need, and more. Our pricing structure is simple, and starts from just £5+VAT per month, with no set-up fees and no nasty surprises. You can say goodbye if you need to, without any ties or nasty charges, whenever you want.

Learn about our simple pricing structure here.

Flexibility and adapting to new challenges - it’s 2020, and we’ve found ourselves in the middle of a worldwide pandemic.

COVID-19 has changed the working environment in the present, but may well have a lasting effect on the workplace generally, making it more important than ever to be able to access a phone system and make calls from anywhere. CircleLoop has had great success throughout 2020, helping to facilitate remote working solutions at short notice due to our self-service capabilities. Many businesses found themselves unable to communicate efficiently from home due to the legacy phone systems they had in their office environment – immovable, fixed infrastructure that just wasn’t conducive to working from home. CircleLoop provided an instant solution, keeping communication in place and operational, wherever that workplace may be. If you'd like to learn more about how we've helped others, read our case studies. 

Be efficient - time is the most precious asset at your disposal when starting up. Your time management is crucial - time is money, so don’t waste it.

Be the most productive version of yourself and invest in the tools to do so. Having a phone system that brings all aspects of communication into powerful desktop and mobile apps, with killer features like call recording and voicemail transcription, means less note-taking, and more accurate reporting and analytics within your business. You can take this further by seamlessly integrating CircleLoop with other tools you use every day, integrations like Zendesk, Zapier, Zoho Desk and Hubspot – sync contacts, log activity and increase productivity for your workforce management, however big or small it is or grows to be.

I guess the point we’re trying to make is this. It's important to invest in things that save you time, and enable you to be flexible, adaptive, and efficient in your business, especially when they’re not too expensive and are good value for money (like CircleLoop cough! cough!) Cloud-based phone systems keep those overheads down, which increases that bottom line. Be penny-wise, not pound foolish.

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