A strange new phenomenon seems to be taking place. A recent survey from Hushed, which polled 32,450 small business owners throughout North America, discovered that there's something of a sea change afoot in the way these small business owners do business. Indeed, it seems an increasing number of small businesses are being run from smartphones, backed up by disposable phone number apps.

The Hushed survey discovered that the old practice of hooking up phone lines at a new company to declare it officially in business is falling, at least somewhat, by the wayside, and a new practice of picking up an app like Hushed to take care of business via a disposable phone number is gaining traction. Hushed is finding such apps being used in finance departments, customer support centers, and business affairs positions in general at ever-increasing rates. The number of business owners turning to Hushed went up 64.7 percent between 2012 and when this survey was posed. Moreover, Hushed now boasts a combined global total of 405,000 mobile users, with over 500,000 total downloads so far.

The United States was the biggest user of Hushed, followed by Canada, China, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom, as measured by those who purchased phones with country codes outside their country of origin for business. Each business account, in turn, boasts an average of six different phone lines that stay active for a longer period, and the average Hushed user will have two or three different phone numbers in a 30-day cycle.

Justin Shimoon, founder and CEO of Hushed, explained the motivation behind using a service like Hushed: “Many people are uncomfortable with the word ‘illusion’, but in the business world you have to keep up appearance. Having a separate line for each department shows legitimacy and organization. Our services have the added benefit of allowing any business with any size budget to achieve credibility.”

Some may consider it unethical to use a service like Hushed to project the appearance of credibility where it may not actually exist. Some on the other hand may consider it the valid use of a new tool to provide an edge in the all-too-important arena of perception. It's unfair, such people might say, to judge a small business on the strength of its total number of phone lines, so apps like Hushed merely even the playing field. 

There's even a stronger case for this thanks to the growth of the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon. Since employees are bringing their own devices in, why not use a disposable phone number app to augment those devices and connect them to the business as a whole? While a decent case can be made on either side, a still-fragile overall economy makes it quite clear that, really, an edge is an edge.

Still, for an increasing number of small businesses out there, it's not only possible to look larger, but it's also much easier to look bigger. Whether or not that advantage is taken up depends on the user involved, but it's still present, and Hushed looks to be leading the way in terms of providing it.