If you’re in the early stages of starting a business, you’re probably considering using your personal cell phone number for business. This is normal—it’s affordable and convenient, and most people prefer it out of habit. Switching to something new seems like a hassle.
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- Conduct Real Business From Your Mobile Devices
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However, “personal” and “business” are very different fields, and they require mutually exclusive approaches. Using your personal number for business is inviting conflict and inefficiency into your life.
There are 3 widely accepted ways to combat this:
- carry two phones with different numbers;
- expand your plan with a service provider like Verizon or Sprint;
- or get a virtual phone number for your business.
If you do nothing else with mobile technology this year, you need to make sure that your online presence, including your business website, is mobile friendly. Increasing numbers of people are surfing and searching with their phones—even when they’re at home. But there are two other trends that could benefit your small business. It is imperative that any mobile device that is used to conduct WCCCD business be utilized appropriately, responsibly, and ethically. Failure to do so will result in immediate suspension of that user’s account. Based on this, the following rules must be observed.
You know the first two options, but if you don’t know much about virtual phone numbers, here’s a crash course. Regardless, all 3 options are safer and just plain better (to varying degrees) than using your personal number.
Top problems of using a personal personal phone for work and feasible solutions to them
1. You are exposed and vulnerable to numerous threats
We live in a world that’s connected to the internet in almost every facet, and in that world, information is king. Your personal information is under constant threat from hackers, scammers, and pranksters, and everything you put out into the world risks being used the wrong way by the wrong kind of people.
It’s not just you either, it’s even big companies that help make life what it is—Android and Apple have both dealt with serious bugs in the past and some compromised security measures. More recently, the giant credit rating company Equifax revealed they had been hacked, exposing nearly 150 million people’s personal information.
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With so much risk out there, why would you want to expose yourself to more by advertising your personal number? If you’ve ever used your smartphone to pay for something online, a skilled hacker could get your credit card info simply from having your phone number and going from there.
All of those autosaved passwords to your social media accounts? Those can be easily accessed too. Have any compromising or private photos on your phone? Not safe either.
It’s not even hackers that pose a danger: every day people fall for phishing scams, willingly giving away their information precisely because an email has been created to trick them into believing it’s personal.
Simply having a second number and keeping your personal number out of the spotlight will significantly decrease the chances hackers target you. This will preserve the safety of your personal data without affecting mobility and convenience.
If you choose a virtual number, any calls to that number will be forwarded to your chosen devices, meaning you only need to have 1 phone on you. A potential cybercriminal cannot target you directly (only the business number is publicly available). Therefore, any threat will be directed at the servers of your virtual service provider, and these providers are much more equipped to deal with such attacks than either the average citizen or company.
Outgoing phone calls will display your brand name. This lets people know that a trusted company is calling, not some random person or call center.Any inbound business call will display your company name instead of the caller’s number. This instantly shows you if it’s a business or personal call.2. You can’t avoid robocalls
If you use your personal number a lot or are using a personal phone for work, chances are you’ve had the infuriating experience of dealing with automated calls.
This isn’t unusual. According to Consumer Reports, 3 out of 10 phone calls in the U.S. are pre-recorded marketing messages. Each month the FTC and FCC receive more than 150,000 complaints attributed to robocalls. Live marketing calls are a point of lesser concern, but they also do exist.
Aside from affecting your quality of life, robocalls can serve as a tool for telemarketing frauds, totaling losses in the U.S. alone at an estimated $350 million per year. These scams can look quite authentic, and once you answer a call your line is marked as “hot” and can be ― and will be ― exploited later, even if you try to remove your name from the call list.
For small business owners, the impact of spam calls can severely drag revenue down. Automated calls will clog your line and nullify your accessibility to customers.
Although the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has designed a National Do Not Call Registry to prevent unwanted telemarketing calls and more than 220 million Americans have used this option, this service doesn’t always work as intended.
If your number has been compromised, there might be no choice other than to change it. While this method is the simplest and the most effective one, entrepreneurs are naturally reluctant to do so, especially if the number is already on promotional materials.
Deploy an auto-attendant. Instead of ringing you directly, a robocall will reach a voice menu and get stuck until it times out. Virtual phone systems use cloud technology that allows you to tailor every parameter specifically to your business. This allows you to set up black lists to automatically drop certain calls and to use multiple inbound lines for your virtual number, so if one is blocked, customers can still get through.
3. You are effectively bound to your number
Your phone number is a big part of your life, and most hesitate to change it unless they have to.
Many services ask for your phone number during the registration process, so you may even need it to have access to some things. Mobile numbers are used for two-factor authentication by online banking and digital currency services too, making it even more inconvenient to change your number.
This connection from using your personal phone number for work is even worse for entrepreneurs. Once your number is widely distributed in marketing, changing it renders previous campaigns useless.
Imagine a customer calling an old and inactive number and getting nothing – don’t you think they’d be ticked off, or at least confused? If you tried to call a business and discovered the number had been disconnected, how hard would you hunt for the new one? Probably not very.
If you’re using your personal number for business and decide to change it for any reason, you’re opening up Pandora’s Box.
The best way to prevent this problem is to use different numbers for business and private affairs. Opting for a virtual business number will save you a lot of trouble if you‘re forced to switch mobile carriers/numbers. Once you have a virtual phone number, it stays with you, so the inconvenience of switching mobile carriers or numbers is limited to your private affairs.
And if you want to go to another virtual phone service provider, porting an existing number is a common practice.
Allow incoming calls to show your business number instead of the caller’s number to know it’s a business callChoose a toll-free and local number for freeSet separate call routing rules for your business numbersPort in your business number for freeEnable text messages and read texts on web & mobileEnable call recordings for inbound & outbound calls4. Your communication capabilities are severely limited
If you’re thinking, “Any mobile number will do for now. I’ll come up with something more professional later if the budget allows,” then you’re falling into a trap.
If the time comes to increase your call-processing capability (like adding features designed for business use), you may find it difficult to do if you’re using your personal phone for work.
It may also be too late to switch to a professional solution—if your business is on the rise, the worst thing you can do is change your contact info.
Cloud phone services are praised for their flexibility and scalability. You can start with a cheap plan with basic features and adjust appropriately. With an advanced virtual phone system you should only pay for what you want.
5. It’s impossible to control employee-customer interaction
If your employees use their personal numbers to deal with customers, you are willingly giving up control over that part of your business. It’s important to keep track of all of your company’s business activities: logistics, sales, customer service, etc. When clients interact with your company through employees’ personal numbers, you don’t know how often and when your employees speak to your customers, how they handle conversations, and what they fail to do.
Even if you wholeheartedly trust your employees, giving them free reign curbs your ability to help and opens up possibilities for your employees to lose customers through ineffectiveness or deceit.
Any decent virtual phone system solves this problem with ease. All your company’s business interactions are conducted within a consistent communication environment, which gives you full awareness of what’s going on.
You can record calls, monitor detailed call statistics per employee, and much more. With the ability to add extensions to your virtual phone number, customers can even still reach particular employees directly.
User status shows if a user is currently available for calls, out of reach or on the call.Add users to your team for free so every user gets an extension.Create user groups to direct calls to the right specialists.6. It compromises privacy and disrupts work-life balance
Being too accessible to your clients is a real thing. It’s perfectly fine to be able to answer calls promptly during business hours, but customers shouldn’t be able to reach you whenever they want. Entrepreneurs work hard, but you’re entitled to having some sort of a work-life balance.
One of the core ideas behind a business phone number is preserving privacy without compromising accessibility. This idea is mainly embodied through intelligent call routing. You can easily configure the system to forward calls to you and your employees depending on the time, day of the week, and the caller’s number.
You can set the system to forward calls to your cellphone during business hours and to direct calls to voicemail after hours. You can also include a VIP list, allowing for certain people to call you anytime.
Set separate call routing rules for all your business numbersChoose how to handle regular callsAdd numbers to VIP list and set call routing rulesAdd numbers to Block list to disconnect them/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19909277/1214635621.jpg.jpg "Device")
Add business hoursCustomize your voice greetingsSelect how to deal with incoming calls• Call to user
• Call to group
• Call to queue
• Call to non MightyCall number
• Voicemail
• Voice menu
• Dial by name
• Disconnect
In a nutshell
Personal numbers aren’t meant for business; they’re inconvenient, inefficient, and even dangerous.
You can carry two separate mobile phones, try your mobile carrier’s “business” options, or use a virtual phone system to combat this. Regardless, you’ll need to choose one to avoid the many negatives of using a personal phone for work.
Each option has its pluses and minuses, but a virtual phone system is the most balanced solution in terms of affordability, convenience, and security. It will effectively protect your personal data from scammers, preserve your work-life balance, and improve your accessibility. What’s more, it will make your company sound professional to potential customers.
MightyCall has been providing virtual phone services for small/medium business owners for decades. It is one of the most flexible, powerful, and easy-to-use call-processing solutions on the market. With affordable packages and a wide range of advanced features, MightyCall is designed to make your business communication efficient, professional, and transparent.
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With the increasing power of mobile devices and the number of employees working remotely on the rise, your company must also recognize the importance of protecting sensitive company information on these devices. Your small business wants to enjoy the benefits of remote working, including happier and more efficient workers and lower infrastructure costs, but you also need to take the necessary actions to avoid the potential security hazards of using mobile devices.
In this blog post, we will summarize how your company can continue to enjoy the benefits of remote work while effectively protecting your sensitive information on mobile devices.
Physically Secure Your Mobile Devices
A recent study by the Ponemon Institute reported the sobering statistic that 46% of organizations experienced a data breach because of a lost or stolen mobile device. With the increased usage of mobile devices for work, there must also be a stronger emphasis of the importance of physically securing each device. This means that employees must maintain their devices on their person and always store them in physically secure locations safe from both criminals as well as curious children.
Each mobile device should be locked with a password or a secure PIN that is time sensitive. This feature should automatically protect a device after a short period of inactivity. Most cell phone providers also offer a feature to remotely lock down or even erase information on a device if it is lost or stolen. Many also offer a feature that orders a phone to erase any stored data after a certain number of failed login attempts.
In addition, all employees should note each device’s identifying information such as serial numbers and the date and place of purchase. This information will be useful for tracking down or identifying any device that has been lost or stolen.
Ensure Adequate Protection Against Cyberattack
Although mobile devices are just as vulnerable to cyberattack as traditional networked computers, far too many of them do not have adequate antivirus protection. One recent study found that less than 20% of mobile devices have adequate antivirus software installed, which makes them an inviting target for skilled hackers. Your company should make certain that all devices are properly protected with the most updated antivirus programs.
It is also recommended that users not install third-party applications on their mobile devices, as this can allow malware to be introduced to the device and the company’s network. Only authorized apps should ever be downloaded onto mobile devices.
In addition, most experts recommend that users carefully control their devices’ abilities to accept open Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals. Cybercriminals in public places often take advantage of these features to eavesdrop on mobile devices and access sensitive data. Some experts recommend completely disabling these features as well as GPS capability to prevent hackers from obtaining useful information for a potential cyberattack.
Prepare and Implement a Strong Mobile Device Use Policy
A mobile device use policy is a set of guidelines that explain how employees are allowed to use mobile devices concerning company data. Within these guidelines, the company should describe the type of mobile devices that are permitted, the required security protocols to use to prevent data breaches and the loss of the devices, necessary password policies and encryption methods, and any additional information specific to the company’s type of business or clients.
Every employee should be trained and tested in the use of this policy before being authorized to conduct company business on mobile devices.
Prepare and Implement a Comprehensive BYOD Policy
An option contained within a company’s mobile device use policy is the possibility of employees using their own personal mobile devices for company business; this arrangement is known as “Bring Your Own Device” or BYOD. Some companies and organizations have determined that their data is too sensitive or complex to allow an employee to use their own devices to perform company work, so they do not permit BYOD.
If your company does decide to allow BYOD, we recommend you take the time, in cooperation with your trusted IT Support partner like Network Depot, to prepare a reasonable BYOD policy that allows your business to take advantage of remote work but also ensures the proper level of protection. All employees should be well trained on how to properly and safely use their own devices for company work and should know the proper procedures to follow if their device is breached, lost, or stolen.
One important aspect of the BYOD policy is to have steps in place to ensure that all company data is wiped or returned to the business when the employee no longer works for the company. The company should also retain the ability to remotely wipe or lock sensitive data on an employee’s mobile device in order to protect against any malicious actions as a result of termination or other events.
Take Advantage of Security Features and Data Encryption
Most mobile devices have advanced security features and encryption capabilities in place that should be properly utilized in personal and professional use. Some of these features we have already mentioned such as auto-wipe, device lockout, passwords, and PINs. Experts also recommend the use of unlock patterns with at least five points for additional security. They caution that users should keep their mobile device screens free of smudges in order to prevent criminals from determining passwords, PINs, and unlock patterns.
Have Robust Backups in Place
As discussed in our previous blogs on cybersecurity, the final protective measure for company data is provided by the use of data backups. With an automated program that comprehensively backs up your sensitive data on a regular basis, your company can rest easy whether using traditional workstations or mobile devices. In the event that there is a data breach or the mobile device is lost or stolen, the data contained on it can immediately be recovered and operations can be quickly restored. It is particularly important to have this backup ability when your company employs the auto-wipe option, as sensitive data can be quickly erased or locked out for a variety of reasons.
In summary, we recommend that your small business follow these suggestions and consult with a trusted IT Support partner like Network Depot to prepare a comprehensive mobile use policy, which incorporates all the requirements of your unique business. If you take the time to prepare your company and employees to safely and effectively use mobile devices, your business should be able to reap the many benefits of remote work with the confidence that your sensitive data is secure.