It is a rough time for business right now. The economy is still down and people are pinching pennies. The money that they do spend, they spend carefully which means that companies have to try even harder to earn the business of consumers. One way to earn the business of more customers is to be a local business. But how can you appear to be a local business if you are located overseas or out of the city? You can get a virtual phone number? You might be asking yourself at this point, what is a virtual phone number? A virtual phone number is a number provided to you by a service that transfers to your existing phone line. You can have a number in just about any city that you like and to the consumer you will appear like a local business. This is important because people are far more likely to buy a product from a company that they think is in their own city than a foreign company. Virtual phone numbers also make it easy for consumers to reach you. Many people find that dialing internationally is difficult and expensive so they will not do it. With a virtual phone number, they can call you as easily as they call a friend down the street. Another reason that you should get a virtual number is so you can appear larger than you are. You can appear to have branches in several different cities and you can even use a virtual phone system to set up a virtual receptionist. This can make your small company have the feel of a large corporation and gain yo a lot of consumer trust. So you see, there are many advantages to a virtual office phone system. No small business should be without one if they want to compete overseas, out of their city or with large corporations.