Orange County’s Virtual Receptionist Service

Here in Orange County, California, when people have trouble finding employment, that doesn’t hold them down for long, they just start their own companies. The most expensive part of that proposition is people. While the people are usually also the most valuable component of a new company.

How do companies get the people they need right away, without the overhead, while the company is still in the growing stages? They hire South Coast Answering Service as their virtual receptionist. And they hire us to help with the interview process, and to take their on-line orders as well.

We are the local arm of the award-winning Answering Service, Central Communications, and we have seen our business evolve over the years. In the early days, we probably spent most of our time answering calls for certain professions, and acting as a night receptionist for large corporations.

 Virtual Receptionist, At your service!!!

And these days, we do so much more than just sit at a switchboard and take a message. We already know most of our customers dislike having to leave messages on a voice mail account, they want to talk to someone, and when businesses don’t provide that service, customers will take their business to someone who will. Because of this, our Virtual Receptionist operation is booming. We answer phones for all types of businesses, and the customer on the other end of the phone line has NO idea that we aren’t sitting in the lobby answering the phone and directing calls.

Online businesses are springing up daily. In many cases, the business can be a small startup company without a large number of employees. We can have your operation up and running with Award Winning Service, and a 30 day free trial…consider your receptionist hired and well trained!!!

Here are just some of all the services we offer you at Central Communications:

• 24 Hour Answering Service
• Customer Service & Virtual Receptionist
• Order Taking
• Lead Qualification
• Appointment Scheduling

Don’t forget, whether you are here in Orange County,CA, or in another Orange County, USA…we are here to help…

Pearl Answers.

www.centralcomm.com

www.southcoastanswering.com

Employ America !!

What is good for the country is good for South Coast Answering Service and Central Communications.

South Coast is based in San Clemente, Ca, which is located in South Orange County. Central Communications is located in Riverside, CA, two parts of California where the unemployment rate is high.

During this downturn in the economy, we at South Coast Answering Service have fared better than some. While we have had to keep an eye on things, sometimes an downturn for certain  companies can actually increase the volume of our business. We are nonetheless encouraged by this latest news out of Washington D.C.

Congress will vote this week on “Startup America,” a legislation supported by President Obama that will give small businesses tax breaks and incentives for hiring.  In particular, it is meant to  encourage small businesses to increase employee earnings, and eliminates some capital gains taxes for investments.

The legislation also includes a  to provision for  a 10% income tax credit on new payroll additions for small businesses which  create jobs or to raise wages in 2012.  It includes a proposal to permanently double the start-up expenses that can be deducted from taxes–up to $10,000.

We found a report in which small business owners had the chance to comment on the new legislation. The journalism is provided by Fox Business. You can read the full article here.

bittle-D, New York City

Co-founder of the organic t-shirt company, Danielle Cascerceri, said the burdens of small business owners are not usually given as much attention as the hardships of large companies. Any help from the government would be a positive for the small business community.

“To see the government offer a few concessions to small businesses is a step in the right direction,” Danielle said. “It’s not easy to start a business in this economic climate and every little bit helps.”

Dorothy Cascerceri, sister and fellow co-founder, said that while the company will likely not bring on any additional staff members due to these incentives, it’s nice to know there is a bonus out there for those who are hiring.

“Costs are such a huge part of starting your own company, so the higher the allowable tax deductions are, the more helpful this legislative agenda will be to people who want to follow their own dreams into the entrepreneur arena,” Dorothy said.

Getaround, San Francisco

Tech-savvy business co-founder Sam Zaid said the peer-to-peer car sharing company is particularly interested in Obama’s proposal for crowd funding.

“This could potentially open up whole new opportunities for raising growth capital for innovative new businesses like ours. It’s something we’ll be keenly watching,” Zaid said.

MBA Business Software, Atlanta, Ga.

Founder Phil Martin said much of Obama’s proposal would operate on the microeconomic level, which should increase gross national wages and reduce unemployment. However, there is some immediate burden for small businesses underlying, he said.

“It puts an immediate cash flow burden on the small business to fund the payroll and pay their capital goods vendors which is only partially offset by the tax credits and even then, that doesn’t occur until later in the business cycle. Borrowing the cash, even at reduced rates, weakens the company’s balance sheet and increases expenses to service the debt,” Martin said. “So the immediate effect is to increase the company’s operating expenses and liabilities plus over-expand the business’ productive capacity in the short run while betting on the cumulative macroeconomic effects to increase the demand for their goods and services.”

Making this leap of faith before necessary isn’t something small business owners will likely be willing to do, he said. In order for Obama’s proposal to work, the risk needs to be removed for the small business owner.

“For example, instead of paying unemployment benefits to workers looking for a job, pay the benefits to the employers for giving that worker a job. What’s missing at the macroeconomic level is the national sense of wellbeing that sustains economic growth,” Martin said. “A small business can have a business plan for good times or for bad times. What it can’t prepare for is uncertainty.”

Featured iPhone App of the Month

Can I Park Here – Few things in life are more confusing than  parking signs around New York City. This new iPhone app allows users to photograph the parking sign for the area in question, then find out if they can park there and for how long. The app even has a timer that starts when the user parks and lets them know how much time they have left in that spot.  This app is available for only $1.99.  That is a downright bargain compared to the cost of one parking ticket in New York City.

Another great iPhone app  we can recommend is the While You Were Out app from Central Communications Answering Service.

The While You Were Out (WYWO) iPhone App service gives you a personal assistant in your pocket. A Live Assistant will answer your private line, take a message and deliver it to your iPhone, alpha numeric pager, or e-mail address. The pricing for Central Communication’s WYWO service includes a private phone number. Toll free numbers (US only) are typically provided unless we have a local phone number available. You may give this number to your clients, business associates, friends and family or forward an existing phone number to the number we provide.

For more information about the While You Were Out app please call Central Communications any time day or night, at (800)786 9079 or visit their website.  Ask them about a free 30 day trial of their award winning answering services.

Google, Keeping Us Safe?

Google, keeping us safe? My guess is this premise would prompt a great debate. Since we have clients who may or may not agree with our opinion, we will keep it to ourselves.

The only thing that is beyond debate is the fact that Google is very powerful.  Google has access to all types of information about us, how we search for things, where we live, and what we buy. Some people are getting worried about Google having so much personal information, and there are those who wish to make certain that Google is careful in how much access they give to others with regards to our private information. To that end, Google has been working on streamlining some of their privacy policies, of which they seem to have many. Here is an excerpt from an article on CNN:

“At the end of a miserable 2010 filled with privacy blunders including the disastrous Google Buzz fiasco, Google appointed Whitten to the position of privacy director. Since then, Whitten has instituted what she calls a “culture of privacy” at the company. So far it has been paying off. Over the course of the past year, Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) has released new privacy tools, put in place a multifaceted structure to ensure users’ privacy, and built-in fail-safes to make sure nothing falls between the cracks.

“We’ve made incredible progress on this over the past year,” said Alma Whitten in an interview with CNN Money that took place last month. “We’ve built the car, and now we’re just doing the tune-up.”  As part of that tune-up, Google on Tuesday made the major announcement that it has streamlined its privacy policy. Instead of 70 policies across each of its products — search, maps, Gmail, etc. — Google will consolidate most of them into a single, shorter, privacy agreement. Whitten wrote in a blog post Tuesday that the move is designed to add clarity to Google’s privacy stance.

Google has begun notifying its users of the changes. The company also began a massive publicity campaign this month, putting advertisements about privacy in major cities throughout the country.

The company is ramping up its privacy initiative as the Federal Trade Commission is keeping a watchful eye on the search giant. Last March, Google agreed to submit an independent privacy review to the government for the next 20 years after the company inadvertently revealed some users’ e-mail contact lists to the public in its February 2010 release of the Buzz social network.”

At South Coast Answering service, located here in South Orange County,  we have long understood the need for confidentiality when it comes to our customers. They trust us with information that only they know, in order for us to function as a reputable and knowledgable call center for their business.

Pearl Answers

www.southcoastanswering.com

Is Your Business Blogging?

“You do not control the direction of your company, your customers do.”

Peter Shankman

Who is Peter Shankman?  Shankman’s own Web site describes him as a CEO, an angel investor, an entrepreneur, and an adventurist.  He is also a noted expert on social media marketing.  While addressing 3000 gathered at BlogWorld L.A. recently, Shankman told the audience that “No one cares if you tell them how good you are.  They care when others do your PR for you.”

Current marketing theory holds that consumers, armed with the Internet, now ignore most of the marketing information that is pushed at them, and instead seek out impartial information from friends and people they trust.  This concept–known as “inbound marketing’–is gaining prominence because it is becoming easier for consumers to find out what their friends think about this product or that service. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and various blogs are the venues where this exchange of information is happening.

The advertising industry is scrambling to adjust to this change in the fundamental way companies attempt to get their message out where potential customers might look. Rather than pushing a marketing message out via television or newspaper advertising, they are seeking to leave their message with “bloggers” and others who might share it with a trusted following.

If Peter Shankman is correct, we will all be blogging soon!

Answering Service – Orange County, CA

The End of Internet Piracy?

*** Update Jan. 17, 2012 – South Coast Answering Service has  learned that President Obama has effectively ended the effort to pass SOPA by announcing that he would not support the bill if it were to pass.  Proponents of the legislation are expected to regroup and continue the fight against piracy of their content.

 

Could Internet piracy soon be a thing of the past? A good number of companies are fed up with their products being distributed for free on media sharing websites. They have been battling for years to ensure they are paid their due when we obtain their songs, movies, and other on-line media. Now our elected representatives in Washington have entered the fray.

Media industry’s claims about how much digital piracy costs both itself, and the economy as a whole, are hilariously outsized say critics of the campaign. Billions and billions in lost revenues, and millions and millions of jobs are at risk according to figures from affected  industries.

The industry’s proposed solution to this is contained in a pair of laws under consideration in Congress (SOPA in the House, PIPA in the Senate). The laws would allow courts to order U.S. Internet companies, advertising networks and payment facilitators to block access to foreign sites that are merely suspected of enabling trade in pirated goods such as movies, music, and knockoff clothing.

The tech industry, which opposes the measures, claim that beyond the enormous legal and technological problems with the proposals, the economic drawbacks of enacting such regulation could be severe.

The opposition  has put out data of its own showing how much it, and the economy, would be hurt if such a law were enacted. All such numbers are squishy by their nature, but in this case, the tech industry (mainly meaning Internet companies) at least bases its estimates on facts and logical assumptions, while the media industry pretty much concocts whatever stories and numbers it thinks will sound the scariest.

We at South Coast Answering Service can see both sides of the argument.  We certainly believe that companies should benefit from legitimate intellectual property rights, we are also aware that sweeping regulation, put in place by legislators with limited knowledge of matters at issue,  advised by “experts” who may have a vested interest in the outcome, tend to produce unintended consequences which can easily make matters worse.

We hope our representatives in Washington will tread carefully.

South Coast Answering Service -  Answering Services for the E-Commerce Industry

Hardwork Still Pays off

ProDryers have managed to triple their sales in the past 12 months despite a bad economy for businesses . . .

ProDryers has managed to climbed to the top of the hand-dryer industry, even though they have only been in business for 6 years. They utilized advertisements such as buzz marketing, branding strategies, viral market, education shopping, paid search, and social media to staggeringly increase their sales over the last 12 months. It turns out you can still be successful by having a hardworking, family-owned small business!

Going that extra mile for shoppers is their only secret for getting large amounts of repeat customers. They started off making hand dryers, but now they are a leader in several sanitation services such as commercial restroom accessories and even drinking fountains. This has launched profits allowing for expansion in warehouse/office space and opened up the need for them to hire more employees.