Whether you are across the world on a business trip or on your way to the office, the call forwarding feature from Grasshopper can keep you connected to your small business. No missed calls, no missed sales and no angry clients.

With that in mind, we have prepared a few quick tips to make sure you stay connected on those days you aren’t simply traveling to the office.

Going Abroad

With Grasshopper and your cell phone, you can be reached just about anywhere you go. But what happens when you’re abroad? Many cell phones don’t work out of the country, or they are just too expensive. Renting a phone or buying a SIM card could mean you’d have to give everyone your new number and hope for the best.

Make it easy. Even if you do get a different number, simply update the call forwarding number in your account and have calls forwarded to the number you will be accessible at. Callers will dial the same toll free or local number they always do and you are reached on whatever phone number you’re using while traveling.

Once a month we will be bringing you Grasshopper news from around the web. Here are the latest stories:

• Grasshopper vs. Google Voice – Livecrunch

  Joe Hobot at Livecrunch discusses the differences between Google Voice and the Grasshopper virtual phone system.

• How Being Scrappy Made Grasshopper Profitable Within 2 Months – Mixergy

  Andrew Warner at Mixergy talks with Grasshopper co-founder Siamak Taghaddos about the creation and success of Grasshopper.

• #60 The Halloween Show: What Really Terrifies You In Your Small Business – Blog Talk Radio

  Barry J. Moltz at Blog Talk Radio finds out what keeps entrepreneurs up at night in his Halloween edition. Find out what Grasshopper co-founder Siamak Taghaddos had to say.

Hi Customers & Friends,

I wanted to share with you a new initiative we are trying here at Grasshopper. It is called “Grasshopper Customers & Friends Dinner” (pretty straight forward right?). If you haven’t realized it yet we here at Grasshopper love interacting with our customers. Not only do we enjoy meeting new entrepreneurs, but some of our best business ideas have come directly from our customers.

If you have seen our “Friday Flix” you also know Grasshopper employees love good food and the occasional beer (coming soon – view of the office from Beer-Scooter Cam). So we thought, “What could we do to combine all of these things?” Hence, we arrived at “Grasshopper Sponsored Dinner”…because oh ya, everyone loves free things!

As we travel across America going to various conferences/business meetings, we are going to make an effort to have “Grasshopper Customers & Friends Dinners” along the way. Having said that, I leave you with 2 action items:

1. If you live in the Greater Boston Area we have our first dinner this Thursday (Nov. 12th), 7:30 pm at Skipjacks Seafood in Newton, MA (on 55 Needham St.)
2. RSVP here: http://ghdinner.eventbrite.com
3. If you are not in the Boston Area but are interested in this sort of thing please note in the comments section what city you are near and we will try and reach out next time we are there!

Thanks so much, and hope to see you as SkipJack’s on Thursday.

Jonathan

** jkay@grasshopper.com with any questions comments, or concerns **

In an effort to engage our customers and help them get the most use of our service, we at Grasshopper make sure that every new customer gets a personal phone call within the first week or so, asking them if they need any help, have any questions, etc.

As a manager, I make a handful of these calls each week and I always end up learning something new from talking to customers – seeing how they use our service to run their business and the types of questions that they have.

I really enjoy making these calls but one of the challenges I face each week is finding the time to make them.

Let’s start with two quick matters of house-keeping: One, I am part of the 10-12% of Americans who call themselves an “Entrepreneur”. Two, I am part of the 63.5 % of internet users who will Google any question, event, person, problem, word, or topic that might potentially interest or be useful to them.

Having said that, a trend I’ve recognized lately is that podcasts are slowly becoming the most popular and convenient source of information. Unlike blogs, you can take them anywhere and listen to them anytime.  So, being the insanely curious person I am (and going back to my opening statement), can you guess what I did? I Googled “Top Entrepreneur Podcasts”.