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Yellow pages business phone

How many of you guys/gals have a dedicated "listed in the yellow pages" business phone line.

I am thinking of going this way to get the biz going. Now I know I will get more price shoppers then anything but ya never know.

And doing a job for $50.00 per job is better then not doing a job at all, correct?

What the heck, for now that would be more then what I make now per day for eight hours on my sore feet cleaning up pee, poop and vomit and that's just from the teachers you should see the mess the kids make.

When you are just starting out again for the 3rd time(LOL) you want to do it the correct way.

Re: Yellow pages business phone

That's the route I'm going in. You need to have a business phone number. Mine is my cell phone, and the voicemail is a friendly business greeting. However, if at all possible you need to answer the phone. Most yellow page callers that I've gotten jobs from have used me in part because I answered the phone. Most won't leave messages, they'll just call the next guy. In fact a couple people have told me that the only reason they used me was that I was the first one they called who answered. It's a simple way to get extra business.

I don't answer when I'm driving or with another customer, but I answer if at all possible.

Re: Yellow pages business phone

Joe, if you are working in a school, why don't you get your fliers/business cards into the hands of teachers & staff.
With regard to a dedicated business line, it's much better than trying to do double-duty with your home phone. I have 2 such numbers: one with a Boston prefix (where I formerly lived) and the other in Peabody (where I have lived in more recent years.) Both ring through to a live-answered answering service, which I pay for via my membership in a barter exchange (I pay for this service in what are called trade dollars rather than in real dollars.)
I then return all my calls that evening.

Re: Yellow pages business phone

I do plan on that Mark, just waiting for the things to calm down. School just started 9/7. I will start to hit them the 1st week of Oct.

Re: Yellow pages business phone

For a real good home/buisness phone I use Packet 8 (8*8) it is a voice over IP phone (internet phone) It comes with every thing caller ID Voicemail You can even have your cell phone ring when you not home, It is only 19.99 a month and you can buy virtual numbers for only 5 dollars more. This is if you, like me live in between two cities and want to service both cities you can have your original number in one city and for five dollars have your second number in the other city, and the same phone rings for both numbers, plus if you pay a year in advance 1 month is free plus you get a really nice phone for free and that phone is wirebased but comes with a cordless attachment that can be used as a monitor 2 way radio (good if you have employees, I do not yet) or just a cordless phone, it is a really good company just not much advertizement similar to vontage but better because they service more rural areas, and are cheaper. I bought stock in there company because right now all international calls are free (no longdistance, but they are working on making international calls free, I think if they do that their stalks will rise.

Re: Yellow pages business phone

I work for a company that does emergency water damange type stuff along with HWE carpet cleaning. because of the need to know about those middle of the night emergency water damages we use a company called appletree http://www.appletreenet.com/ instead of an answering machine they get a real live person... and if the job calls for it they in turn call us so we can get to work preventing more damage thanks to the water.

I was fairly supprised when i called in one night (about 4am) I was running my 1.5 y/o boy to the ER with another astmah attack and was answered by a real live person... something to think about. It's def something I'll look into if and when I start up my own carpet cleaning gig.

Mark