Personal line vs. dedicated business line?

[jimithing]

I'm launching a home-based mobile computer repair company next month and could use a little advice concerning a phone solution for the business.

First off, I'm on the waiting list for Google Voice, so forwarding to my personal cell phone is not an option yet. Thanks to those of you that brought GV up in previous threads.

Option One: Run my business off my personal cell phone. With this option, I'd base my greeting on what shows up in caller ID (surely developing a multiple personality disorder). Website and marketing material would display this number. Eventually I'd get a new personal line for friends/family once I reach a certain growth point in my business.

Option Two: Buy a dedicated business line initially. Sign up for a pre-paid or pay as you go mobile phone plan (seems like a feasible, low-cost option for starting out). Virgin mobile is currently offering 400 minutes for $30 a month with no annual contract. Would allow me to compartmentalize my life, but is that a good thing for a budding entrepreneur? This option is also a bit cumbersome and totally fills up my pockets.

What would the community recommend? Any ideas I havn't thought of?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Techs on Deck]

Option Three: PM me for a Google Voice invite.

 

[SThompson86]

If you use Google Voice make sure that the Prefix you choose is within your city. I screwed my Google voice up by choosing a prefix that was local to a city 1.5 hours from here. When people local to my city call my Google Voice number from a land line they are asked to put in a 1 or a 0 and the area code, and to try their call again.. thats not going to work. If people call my Google number from a cell phone it does not do it.

But yea, be wise when choosing your number. When I first got Google voice I chose the first number that came up then once I realized I would really like to use GV I also realized that the goofy number I chose had an oddball area code that is new to my state. So then I paid the 10 bucks, and changed it to a number with my local area code, but I failed at taking the prefix into consideration.. I went and tried to change it again, but you only get 1 chance to change per account.

So yea.. I will be using my personal cell phone number.

 

[TrueICT]

I think Option Two is more likely to work as thats how I do it. I have a really cheap pay-go mobile which has a local area code number forwarded to it. It's more professional to have a seperate number and it'll make your life easier.

With a seperate number at the end of the day you can turn your phone off and not be bothered by potential prank calls or anything. I've forgotten to turn my business phone off over night before and received prank calls at 3 in the morning which obviously woke me up. You can also completely seperate calls, if your using one phone you'd have to answer any number you dont know with your business greeting, what if its say your bank? your doctors? or someone who might get confused by you greeting them with a business name?

I think it is obvouisly your call (no pun intended) but I started out using jus one phone and found it just didn't work very well. Now I have 2 phones I am able to use my android to take notes if I'm on the road or access my CRM while talking to the customer.

 

[callthatgirl]

True, you think you get prank calls? I get the best ones!

I have 3 phones, cell, business line and home phone.

My cell was the main number for the business for over 2 years. Then I got the business line, my cell forwards to that during the business day or I catch it if I'm not on the phone. When I open up a 2nd location, I'm going to use my home phone for that new location (different area code) and then forward all those calls to my cell...which forwards to my business, and my assistant will answer.

whew.

 

[jimithing]

RE Techs on Deck: Thank you so much. What can I say, you're awesome. Can I make outbound calls route through Google Voice so that my business # shows up on caller ID when I phone clients? Can I remove that feature on the fly if I call friends/family?

RE SThompson86: Thanks for the heads up. I'll be sure to get the proper area code AND prefix.

RE TrueICT: You're probably right, but I gotta say GV intrigues me at this point...

 

[NeutronTech]

Sign up for a pre-paid or pay as you go mobile phone plan (seems like a feasible, low-cost option for starting out). Virgin mobile is currently offering 400 minutes for $30 a month with no annual contract.
Thanks in advance!

You can go to Walmart and get a Straight Talk phone. They have by far the best deal as prepaid goes. They have 2 plans: $30/month plan gives you 1000 minutes phone, 1000 text, 1000 minutes web. The $45/month plan gives you unlimited phone, text, and web. They run off of the Verizon network so coverage is just awesome.

 

[Techs on Deck]

Thank you so much. What can I say, you're awesome. Can I make outbound calls route through Google Voice so that my business # shows up on caller ID when I phone clients? Can I remove that feature on the fly if I call friends/family?

To make outgoing calls from your Google Voice number, you need to call your GV number first to access the mailbox, then press 2 to make a call. Alternatively, you can use the GV interface to type in the number, and then google will call your cell phone and dial for you.

 

[Eddie]

No google voice here so it's Skype number plus mobile (cell).

 

[ProTech-MN]

I started my business using my cell phone as main business line, but eventually I was exceeding my minutes and running some pretty high monthly bills. I got a dedicated line for the business and now forward that to my cell phone when I'm out of the office. It works decently, but I'm interested in getting a business-class phone system with auto-attendant, day/night service, VoIP support, etc. I'm also interested in possibly adding some additional lines & am considering VoIP.

Anyway, I think starting out with your cell phone is fine, but be mindful of your usage & have a plan in place to move to some kind of dedicated solution once your call volume dictates.

Just as an FYI - some of the systems I've been looking at:

Talkswitch
Konnect (These are interesting)
Ooma (More of a residential platform, but concept is pretty cool - no more montly bills!)

I don't mean to hijack the thread - but I'd be curious to hear any experiences anyone has with these or other solutions...

-Randy

 

[Appleby]

My 2 cents.

Do not let customers have your personal number, cell, home or otherwise. Do not call them back from anything but your business number. They WILL keep the number you call back from and use it. I had it happen enough to burn me.

I use GV as a voicemail system but I do NOT use the GV number and I do NOT trust GV long term. What I mean is, anything can happen with Google and/or GV. I've had several instances where GV just quit working.....the phone calls it was supposed to be picking up just seemed to be going into a black hole. Right now, as we speak GV is no longer picking up voicemails like it should. Instead callers are getting my voicemail on my cell instead of the GV voicemail box, which worked great for months and I made no changes.

My point is, I love GV but I've been burned a couple times by it and I don't trust the service enough to run my whole business on it with the GV number.

Just my opinions.

 

[itmike]

Right now I am using GV. I just hate my phone (android) will not show caller ids and let me know that it's a Google voice call. It will only show one or the other. So if I turn on the caller id for GV to show the caller I don't know if they are calling my cell or GV line. I would like the caller id to work so I could keep up with my customer names and make the greeting a bit more personal instead of some blah blah broken record greeting that doesn't sound genuine.

 

[MTech]

It almost sounds like a dedicated second cell phone is the way to go.

An to agree with a previous poster; I honestly find customers having my home And/Or Personal cell phone a little uncomfortable.

Right now I am using my personal cell for business, and after reading this, I think I'm going to look into one of those straight-talk phones...

(Most of my current business is referral, so It's not complete strangers, but with the public canvassing I've been doing, I'm probably going to get some wierdos @ 3AM soon enough )

 

[Appleby]

I live in a small town and I have a few customers who have looked up my personal home phone number in the phone book and called me at home after hours or on the weekend.

I had it happen last Saturday at 9 am because I wasn't answering my business number. And yes this lady knows I am not open on Saturday and she did not have an emergency. It was a lady who has only been a customer for about 6 months or so. She was calling to tell me that her printer wasn't working and she couldn't figure out why....but she didn't even need to print anything and we could wait till this week to fix it, but she thought I might be able to tell her what was wrong over the phone.

My point is, if people have your personal cell, they will call it. Some people will dig to find personal numbers. Never give it to them unless they are a TOP client. I have some business customers who treat me GREAT and I love working for them. I tell them if they have ANY problem, day or night, call me at home, on my cell or where ever they want. And they are the kind of customers they won't call me after hours unless there is a true meltdown.

 

[Hamish]

This is old as!

Telstra has always sent my Voice Mail via Text Message.

It's Free, and I don't have to call VoiceMail.