Anybody gone all cellular with business phone?

[tpirobert]

Here's my current phone set-up:
$85/month for phone and fax.
$65/month for 2 cell phones.
$22/month for aol/email
( also have residential phone line )

I'm thinking of going to just cell phone, and fax hooked up to personal line. This would eliminate $85/month($1020/year) expense of business line. The cell phone has voice mail and other goodies and is always with me. I get zero calls from phone book listing. Word of mouth and mailings bring in new customers. When working in my home office I can use my personal line to make calls. I'll be putting new signage on my truck and enclosed trailer....so that could be my "yellow page ad". I know other landscape contractors in my area doing $350k plus a year with no business phone/ad or truck signage! All thoughts,comments are welcome and appreciated.

[Ssouth]

All I use is the cell phone. When I sign up a new customer I give them my home number for emergencies. Although my business card does have my home number which goes through a answering machine with options ( press 1 for etc. and press 2 for etc.) May not be the most professional way but business is great.

[JimLewis]

I would caution against that for now for a few reasons. For one, you may find that later on you will REALLY want to change your number. Case in point, last year I had a cell phone with Qwest. They give me a great deal (unlimited minutes for $79 per month, no kidding, unlimited minutes. I can talk all day every day if I want.) So I almost went to cell phones exclusively.

Good thing I didn't. Because after about 6 months with that phone I was running into problems with circuits being busy all the time. Mostly when people were trying to reach me. But it also happened when I would dial out. I called Qwest. It took me going through several brainless CSRs before I finally found someone who actually knew what was causing this. She informed me that my prefix, 891, was getting full of numbers. All the people on that prefix use the same "switch" or something like that. So when there are a lot of people on one prefix, sometimes the lines get tied up. Just as our land lines get tied up once in a while, "All circuits are busy now. Please try your call again later...."

I REALLY wanted to keep the deal I had with this company. I didn't want to switch to another provider. So she told me that if I just got a new number (in another prefix)that I should not have any more problems for a while. I did that. And it's been a good 6-8 months since then and no problems. But if I had put that number on business cards, fliers, gave it to clients, etc. I would have had to stick with that number or potentially lose business.

Second reason is that technology is changing so rapidly. Heck, I've gone through 4 different cell phone companies in the last 11 years or so. Are you sure you want to be tied in to the same provider indefinitely?

Look, if you want to get rid of your land line, fine. But get a permenant number some how. That is, a number that you can forward to anywhere you want. I have a few of those. The best is with Easytel. ( http://www.easytel.net ). It's like a permenant number for life. If you ever move to another city, you can still keep the same number. If you change cell phone companies, you can change the forwarding to go to your new cell phone. Or you can program it to call you at home from 5:00 pm to 7:00 am and at your cell during the day. Whatever.

Of course, this adds another cost. But it also has some benefits.

Personally I wouldn't give up my business number for anything. And if I ever move out of this area I plan on buying this number as a stand alone number and having it forwarded to my new number. There are hundreds, if not thousands of people out there with this number because of a flier, business card, Advertisement, etc. they have of mine. I still get calls every once in a while from an old yellow pages ad or from someone we did work for years ago.

[Groundcover Solutions]

We use Nextel for every thing they are a greate service but are very expensive. I love the two-way radio thing on it. have not had a problem with them yet. On my personal phone i have two lines one for business and one for personal calls. That is what i use and could not live with out it!

Matt

[tpirobert]

Hmmmm. I knew I would get something to think about here.

I have had same cell phone number since '92 with same provider(us cellular). My exchange is the first for this area, so most users have different exchange and it's rare that I have signal or busy problems. If I'm on the cell phone, callers get my voice mail and I get alerted of message.
Yes, I have flyers and postcards out there in desk drawers and on kitchen counters that still generate the occasional call. But, the life span seems to be about a year on these items. I currently need new vehicle/trailer signage as well as business cards, so I want to make decision on phone # before spending money. I know I can cut out seperate fax # which is about a third of my bill. I hope to add a web site sometime this Spring, so this too will help with advertising. I just want every dollar spent to be generating income in some way and not be wasted. I'm evauluating all aspects of my business for waste and lost income potential.

Anyway, these decisions take carefull consideration and your help is greatly appreciated.

[kutnkru]

Nextel Communications. Quite expensive but worth every .01

Kris

[Charles]

Ya know that people with nothing better to do have radio scanners that pick up cell phone conversations. Someone out there (maybe your neighbor) can be listening to you at any time. The US government has sattelites that listen for certain keywords in cell phone conversations and they may monitor you at any time. Doesn't anyone beside me watch 60 minutes? LOL. If you want a private conversation sometime you need a land line or go to a pay phone etc.
I might add that this goes for Babe Monitors and wireless phones. Anything that sends out a signal can and is probably being listened to

[Edited by Charles on 01-10-2001 at 08:46 AM]

[Barkleymut]

OK Charles now your sounding like my brother in law. He thinks the govt has cameras everywhere watching us. Now I am a big Republican because I want the govt to stay out of our lives. But can you imagine the man power needed to listen to 1/10th of the cel phone conversations? Anyways I'm not too scared of what I say on the phone. I'm not setting up drug deals or hiring hitmen.

Now on to another topic: I too have considered dropping the business # simply because my cel phone # is soooo easy to remember. Its 274-1000. Can't get much easier than that huh?

[thelawnguy]

Unlike a landline, a cell phone number can (and will) be changed on you with almost no prior notice so if having a number with some permanence is high on the list, keep the wired line.

[Charles]

Lawnguy, I said these sattellites listen for keywords. How you think they here this Bin ladin guy make plans around the world? The pick him out of the zillions through a super high speed computer. That can sort through zillions or words per second. The US government doesnt hide the fact that it does this. England recently complained that we were learning trade secrets and spying on them through this technique and they thought it was not good for an ally to be spying on them. The government looks for terrorist and crimminal. You could call a girl on the cell phone "da bomb" and the computer will red flag your call. These super computers log all cell phone calls. They looking for a name used they just go back and scan. They looking for a name before hand and the puters will red flag it. He whole system is set up out west with the receiver and 60 minutes took pictures of the set up. Anyway they have many words that they listen for to flag and pick up the coversation. This is a fact.
And there are thousand of scanner in you city that can scan 100s a channels per second listening to cell phones and other private info. You may have nothing to hide. But if all you had is a cell phone I am sure there are some personal conversations you would not want people to hear

[Toroguy]

If you move the cell number always stays the same (within your area). It might be a good idea to have a cell as you establish business, then when comfortable turn to a land line.

I have the latest scanner. I cannot pick up "cell" calls. Most are now digital and require a more advanced mesures to intercept. New home cordless telephones broadcast in Ghz vs. Mhz. Again scanner technology is behind this trend. The scanners are great for local P.D. broadcasts. But...law enforcement has also gone to digital phones.

[Runner]

Barkley, That number again, is ARG! 1000!!!:) Seriously though guys, the only drawback to just using a cell phone would be like trying to enjoy a nice restaurant dinner with your family or something, and having to answer the phone to hear something like, "How much do you charge to mow an average lawn?" or "Are you gonna be by this week?" if you happen to be a day behind. I mean, you DEFINITELY want to answer it because it JUST might be a good account, but at the same time, you're taking it everywhere you go! Now this may not bother myself and some too bad, but I know there are those of you with families and other lives out there too.

[Edited by Runner on 01-10-2001 at 02:06 PM]

[Mark]

Im a solo, but i do carry a cell-phone with me just for my own comfort,as breakdowns, to contact some of my clients, but i always carry mine on my side, Im 51yr old and one never knows when something might go wrong. It really just makes me feel safer out there in the field, and i only paid 4 dollars for it and i only use prepaid 30 dollars usually last me a season.===Marks Mowing Service '

[Premo Services]

I had a business line the first 2 years that I started this business, and only received a few calls. Then I purchased a pager, cell phone and put pager number on bus. cards and on a message at bottom of the invoices in bold letters.I have never had a customer or a referral from a customer that said they had problems contacting me.
:( Runner, I agree that a cell phone would be a problem if you were trying to enjoy time off :(. I carry my pager with me and put it on viabrate and I always know that someone is trying to contact me and when I am finished with dinner or whatever I call pager voicemail and check message, and for about 10.00 more I can have text messages,which would probaly eliminate calling voice mail. This works a whole lot better and is cheaper than having a business line with extra $ for a local number so they won`t have to call you long distance+ the yellow pages add.
I guess if you wanted a business # and yellow pages add then you could have calls forwarded to the pager.

[KirbysLawn]

I do not have a fax line, I use efax.com. I have a number, they fax to it, the program converts it and emails it to me. The cost? FREE! http://www.efax.com

[Bill K]

I started with just a cell phone, putting the number on bus. cards, mag. signs, fliers, etc. When advertising response was poor, I started trying different things, and I found out that people in my local area responded at a much higher rate to a number they recognized as a local prefix than to an unknown prefix, like my cell phone has. The phone started ringing when I began using my home number, so this year I've switched to a land line with local prefix. I'll simply call forward to my cell phone, as I HATE to miss calls. If I don't hear it ring, the cell voice mail will get the message. Besides, this way I was able to run an ad in the local telephone directory, which Homer swears will get me mucho business!

[rixtag]

Jim, I look at it like this... the difference between having a landline and a cell phone only becomes an issue when there is an emergency( broken sprinkler line, complaint etc) If you want to be available when your customer needs you, by all means cell phone. I deal strictly with commercial properties so I don't get late night calls from price shoppers and I don't get many customer calls after business hours. I am able to give my # out as needed for businesses that I serve because I want to convey one of the important differences between me( one man show) and the bigger companies. ACCESSABILITY. As I said it works for commercial properties well, don't know about residential. Voicemail is a good tool for weeding (no pun) out the players from the payers. As I say it works good for me but that is the way I work. two cents worth

Rick

[rixtag]

Sorry about that Jim thing, Robert. Do you forgive me?

Rick

[dmk395]

Cellphone + Truck+ Laptop= Virtual Office


cant beat that

[Strawbridge Lawn]

I am all celular now. Will see how it goes with expanded voice mail and the minute thing. For 80 bucks you can get 2 phones, 1,000 minutes and free long distance that you can use vice the home Long distance company. Can save about 20-30 p/mo there depending on LD usage rates.

[tpirobert]

You can call me Ray or you can call me Jay or ....just don't call me late for dinner.

On this business line thing. I have had a seperate business line for 8 years or so and prior to that used personal line. I have begun to think a business line is a waste of money if you are not running a big ad with it. I am not in a growth stage at this time and am looking for ways to wisely save money and get biggest bang for buck spent. I used to think that having a yellow page listing made you "legit" to homowner or property manager. Again, without the big ad (and expense) I think my listing is lost. Perhaps flyers and mailings would be more important without a business listing. I don't know, but one thing I do know is I'm tired of bending over for all the taxes, insurance, license fees, utilities, fuel....well, I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir.