#TalkBiz: Why you should consider a separate business line

A staggering 99% of all businesses in the UK are now micro or small businesses – and many of these are home-based.

A separate business line for your home business is vitally important for efficiency, growing your client base and meeting the needs of your existing customers.

This sponsored post by Vonage looks at the benefits of having a second line:

If you’re one of the growing army of freelancers or small business owners who are working from home, here are some of the benefits a separate business line could offer you:

– It projects a professional image
– It keeps your home and business life separate
– Customers can always contact you
– Use of a mobile office number
– The ability to control your spend
– Cost-savings on call plans and line rental
– Access to premium features such as voicemail messages received as text emails

A separate business line need not involve complicated rewiring or costly installation and set-up charges. It will, however, help you to start making your phone work for you.

Are you in control of your business phone?
Using your home phone as a business line is a dangerous game. Do you really want your angst-ridden adolescent to be at the frontline of your business? Can your clients reach you if your housemate is hogging the line?

You like to be in control of other aspects of your business, so why not your phone?

Show you really mean business
The option of using a mobile phone as a business line is a tempting one for many. However, unless you’re willing to carry two cell phones around with you, it leaves you never really knowing if it’s a personal or business call. It also means your business phone is tied up as you arrange your Friday night drinks.

Having a mobile as your main business number can also send the wrong messages – and not just when you text a client called Paul a joke meant for a friend called Paul. A mobile number suggests a temporary, on-the-fly business rather than a long-standing, trustworthy one.

There is something reassuring about a business that has a landline. It’s the telephonic equivalent of seeing an email address like sam@businessname.com rather than sam@yahoo.com. It shows you really mean business.

How easy is it for your customers to speak to someone?
In the age of email and social media, the importance of real conversation can be forgotten by businesses, but not by their customers. How often have you felt the frustration of not being able to speak to someone when you need to? Nothing is more frustrating than an engaged tone, no reply or a recorded message rather than a person.

With just one phone line for your business, you’ll often be leaving customers waiting. And it’s a thin line that separates waiting from walking. You may also find yourself or your colleagues unproductively drumming on the table or doodling on a pad as they wait to make a call whilst the phone is in use.

With a separate business line the likelihood of this is diminished. What’s more, a second Vonage line offers you a host of premium features – without any extra premiums to pay – that help reduce the damaging effects of no reply on your business. These include the ability to:

– Switch back and forth between calls so a human voice always greets waiting calls
– See that calls are waiting and identify exactly who is calling
– Seamlessly transfer calls to another phone rather than letting them go through to voicemail or receive no answer

Isn’t it time you started to ring the changes and take advantage of the benefits of a separate business line?