Drop "business" phone line?

[Colin]

My sign business is home-based; always had it that way for ~24 years. I’ve always had a proper “business line” for the phone, as that was required to have a yellow page ad. But now that the phone book is becoming a museum piece, and rarely used by most people, I’m starting to wonder why I’m paying so much for a business line. Sure, the online yellowpages has replaced the paper book, and has some value, but I’m still wondering if it’s worth it, especially given that I’ll probably only be doing this for another 5-10 years.

So what’s your opinion on running a business on a regular residential land-line, or maybe a cell for that matter?

*Answers on this may be different for US vs Canadian locations (I'm in Canada)


Thanks

 

[CanuckSigns]

When we were home based many moons ago, one of the biggest issues was having people call at all hours to either place an order or check the status, we had to get a seperate number that we could forward to an answering machine after 5:00.

As far as a business line, I don't see any value in the yellow pages at all, in fact we dropped our ad about 5 years ago with absolutely no impact on business, if anything we are busier than ever! We actually just dropped Bell Canada for our business line in favour of cogeco (local cable company we get our internet through), our bill went from $170 / month to $39.95, no issues at all in the last 4 months.

 

[Gino]

We have 3 phone lines. We are not home-based. Many people have our various cell phone numbers, too.

I just like having a traditional landline phone number for all those old fuddy-duddies like me who still use things the old fashioned way. Our phone rings many times a day and many times, I'll simply ask, how did you hear of us ?? Oh, a friend, so and so business, or on the internet, but the one place they seem to say the most is the phone book. So, I won't be getting rid of ours.

Do yourself a favor and over the next few weeks or so.... anyone new calling in, ask them where they got your phone number and decide from those results, instead of a buncha wannabee sign shops like here.

 

[bannertime]

It's best not to get rid of the number you've been using. That just doesn't make sense. We only publish two of our 4 lines and yet we still get people calling the other two after all these years. If you feel like you're paying too much, then maybe look into getting VOIP. We were at nearly $800 a month at various times using old copper lines, not including internet. Now we're at less than $200 including internet.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I use Google Voice for the business number... You could port your landline to Google Voice and then from there have it ring one for 5 cell phones or go to voicemail. It also allows you to text and record calls. Heck, you can make and receive calls from your computer too

 

[particleman]

I use a cisco SIP phone and an account on Anveo.com which is a virtual PBX phone system. It costs <$10/m on average. Pay for what you use type of model and literally does anything you'd ever want. Phone numbers are anywhere from $1-3/month. Auto attendant, call menu, voicemail, etc. Makes your business look much more professional. I've used them for years now and am very happy with it. Of course you need good internet as well. You can also forward to both SIP and cell phones. There are many other virtual PBX providers as well, using the traditional phone company these days is much more expensive.

More to the thread question I absolutely keep the business line (it is cheap to keep), when 4:30p rolls around my phone system turns off (goes straight to after hours VM). I don't want customers bothering me after hours (and they will if you allow it).

 

[visual800]

Ive been doing it for 28-29 years on a residential line, damn sure cheaper than a business line. I also used to have a dedicated fax line. Thats been cut off now. no one calls my residential line anymore but telemarketers and last week I removed my sign company message off the answering part. i would cut it off but my security alarm needs a phone line

 

[Johnny Best]

If someone calls me and said they got my number from the YellowPages I would worry they would pay me with beaver pelts or barter with corn for a sign. Have not been in those pages in 25 years or so. I just use a cell phone or people can reach me by the pay phone (yes, they still exist) in front of the Curry Market.

 

[boxerbay]

dang and i had all those beaver pelts saved up. lol.

 

[Reveal1]

My sign business is home-based; always had it that way for ~24 years. I’ve always had a proper “business line” for the phone, as that was required to have a yellow page ad. But now that the phone book is becoming a museum piece, and rarely used by most people, I’m starting to wonder why I’m paying so much for a business line. Sure, the online yellowpages has replaced the paper book, and has some value, but I’m still wondering if it’s worth it, especially given that I’ll probably only be doing this for another 5-10 years.

So what’s your opinion on running a business on a regular residential land-line, or maybe a cell for that matter?

*Answers on this may be different for US vs Canadian locations (I'm in Canada)


Thanks

We are a busy four person small-town shop with two who regularly use the phone. After 5 years of spotty VOIP service (8X8 blames Charter and Charter blamed 8x8) I ported my business number to an AT&T cellular-based home phone for $26/month. Before you start laughing, let me explain. We ordered a $100 Panasonic wireless phone system (4 extensions) with Bluetooth connectivity for our second line company cell phone (that I carry). That way if either line rings, it can be answered by any of the cordless extensions. Programmed the At&T to rollover to my personal cell line when busy/no answer. Use the voice mail on my cell phone. So in effect we have a two line system, much more reliable and way less costly. Haven't bothered to check how I'm listed in the book (I suspect to my personal address) I keep a basic listing which is free in the local yellow pages but no one uses that any more. (at least my target audience which is business). I know because for several months we consistently asked people how they found us and just one or two used book and they were individuals looking for small $ items, most used online search.

 

[Trickstar]

Been using magicjack for ten years for dedicated bus line. It's $35 a year, no better way to save money.
It''s VOIP, so if you don't have internet access, retire.

 

[2B]

as the others have stated, port your number to another service.
Ideally VOIP, we use ringcentral and it is bundled with our digital fax

a VOIP allows you to set up office hours, 1 clicking forwarding and many more features over a dedicated line

 

[Colin]

Thanks for the replies so far. As indicated in my OP, I suspect that available solutions are going to be different in the US than Canada, but I will continue to look into this. It would be nice if I could somehow keep my present phone number, but I don't think that's going to be possible.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

There are laws regarding keeping you number is USA...you may check Canada and see if they are the same

 

[fresh]

does anyone have one of those nifty systems that email you a transcript of any voicemails? Or one that requires you to push a button in order to connect to a person? We get anywhere from 15%-75% robocalls a day, and the only solution I can think of is to have a digital receptionist. I recently called somewhere where they just say "Hi, you've reached so and so, press 1 to talk to someone." This would filter out the majority of the spam calls.

I'm overwhelmed with options, and don't really understand how they all work. Last year we got rid of our dedicated fax line and ported it to HelloFax (for a savings of about $28 a month.) I'm ready to port our office phone line now, too.

 

[CanuckSigns]

does anyone have one of those nifty systems that email you a transcript of any voicemails? Or one that requires you to push a button in order to connect to a person? We get anywhere from 15%-75% robocalls a day, and the only solution I can think of is to have a digital receptionist. I recently called somewhere where they just say "Hi, you've reached so and so, press 1 to talk to someone." This would filter out the majority of the spam calls.

I'm overwhelmed with options, and don't really understand how they all work. Last year we got rid of our dedicated fax line and ported it to HelloFax (for a savings of about $28 a month.) I'm ready to port our office phone line now, too.

We use a company called voip.ms, they have a digital receptionist that can do exactly what you are looking for, it's a bit tech-y to set up, but they are pretty helpful.

 

[fresh]

We use a company called voip.ms, they have a digital receptionist that can do exactly what you are looking for, it's a bit tech-y to set up, but they are pretty helpful.

Awesome. Do you know if i can use traditional phones, too? I literally just got two new cordless handsets today because we were down to one phone and it wasn't working 100% of the time. Its not a deal breaker, but I would prefer not to use my cell phone while I'm in the shop.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Awesome. Do you know if i can use traditional phones, too? I literally just got two new cordless handsets today because we were down to one phone and it wasn't working 100% of the time. Its not a deal breaker, but I would prefer not to use my cell phone while I'm in the shop.

Yes you can, you need to buy an ATA or analogue telephone adaptor, it's like $50