Professionalism

[drsound]

An 0845 number is always charged at a local rate and is free from BT now. Although what they giveth with one hand they will no doubt taketh tenfold with the other.

 

The professional aspect comes about becuase a small company (as most of them are when they start up) will more than likely be run from a residential address or maybe shared premises unless it's well-finded enough to move stright into proper premises. With the package we use for our 0845 number we can schedule to what number it will be forwarded at any time of the day, week or month including a mobile phone out of hours. We can also tell it to redirect to any number of alternatives if the main number is unavailable. We don't use this much since we have premises with business landlines but consider the choice between displaying a mobile number on a website and displaying a landline (non-geographical or otherwise) that will always be answered. It is also totally portable even if you move between dialling codes. We have moved premises twice since our inception and are on a different exchenge now but our telephone number has remained the same throughout. See the thinking now? It's a minor thing but I think it adds to the image of a professional company rather than someone operating out of their bedroom.

 

We operate all over the country. Well from the Edinburgh festival south anyway but anyone finding our number on the internet or phone directory will also have an address or short blurb about the company listed. Any company not listing a postal address on their website would be highly suspect in my book. I would expect the registered office address, company number, VAT number if applicable, a landline phone number and a corporate email address as a minimum.

 

This may be drivel, I'm tired. Mixing in deepest Somerset tomorrow so three hours' sleep beckon. joy.

[gareth]

08x and 09x numbers are the work of some sort of telephonic devil, simply because, unlike geographic numbers, they don't count towards inclusive minutes on a mobile phone contract.

 

I use this site quite a lot, and will go to some length to find a geographic number (or at least a mobile one, so that I can call on my inclusive contract minutes) for whoever I'm ringing.

[musht]

Voip can give you a geographical number, independent of where you actually are, just need access to a broadband network even via wi-fi.

 

Its convenient for saving on call forwarding , some of the business orientated services can have all sorts of PABX features bolted on , or to have a number that sounds local to a possible customer pool...

 

http://www.vonage.co.uk is the big player, inclusive UK and US calls if thats useful

 

http://www.sipgate.co.uk offers a free service, just be aware you get what you pay for

 

http://www.voipfone.co.uk is aiming at the small business user

 

Cheapest non contract mobile to mobile calls is Asda Mobile at 8p per minute any network anytime, 4p per text, sim 49p, uses Vodafone network and appears to work in Voda locked handsets

 

http://www.asda-mobile.com/

[peternewman]

I'll second what musht said, VOIP is definitely the way to go. I've been playing with it at home, with Sipgate numbers using the PBX in a Flash distribution of Asterisk and its pretty cool, we've already got more functionality than many small businesses, also given Sipgate is free, you can have multiple incoming numbers if you operate in a few areas for example. Coupled with the ability to grow as your business does, for example multiple offices. All you need is a broadband connection, a number from one of the providers musht links to above (you can use an existing landline via an adaptor if you want), a PC and a bit of time.