HOME BASED ANSWERING SERVICE Business Part 1
HOME BASED ANSWERING SERVICE Business Part 1 Business needs for
an answering service can vary considerably. A company may need a
phone to be answered all day, part of the day, after hours only,
or 24 hours a day. You can enter this profession at any level
you choose. The amount of equipment you'll need to get going
will also fluctuate depending on how much time you want to
devote to your home-based answering business. Most often,
businesses need their phones covered during an "extended" work
day, say 8:00 A.M.- 8:00 P.M., with an answering machine taking
over the other, less likely, 12 hour call period. Twelve hours
can be a long day if you're going it alone, so you may wish to
solicit businesses that generally are looking for the phones to
be answered from 9 AM to 5 or 6 PM. This makes it more likely
for you to do the job yourself and work it easily into your
family's schedule, too. Once you identify your work hours, you
can begin the task of soliciting businesses to contract with
you. Before embarking on this important effort, you should
establish a goal of how many companies you want to represent.
You can certainly take on more than one company if all you're
doing is answering the phone. How many businesses you take on
will dictate how you set up your service. The easiest and most
inexpensive way to begin is to have a separate phone line and
phone for each business you contract with. You would then mark
each individual phone with the company name as an identifier for
you when the phones begin to ring. This is the best
route if
you're going to work with ten or fewer businesses. If you intend
to take on more than ten firms, then it would be more cost and
space effective to lease a switchboard from your local telephone
company. A switchboard can accommodate a substantial amount of
business activity for you. Installing separate phone lines
should run less than $100 each (possibly higher in some parts of
the country). You will also pay basic monthly charges for each
phone. This should average about $20-25 per month (again,
possibly higher in some parts of the country). If you are buying
actual telephones, these can be acquired inexpensively at local
stores. Before buying all these phones and contracting with
businesses, check with the phone company to see how many extra
lines you can obtain. There may be a limit in your residential
neighborhood. How many clients you can take on will depend on
the number of lines you can install You might consider opening
up an office in a nearby commercial area, where the number of
lines you need can be accommodated. However, this is beyond the
scope of your home-based answering service. The amount and type
of equipment you obtain will be dictated by your ambition and
your budget. It can be as simple as individual phone lines or as
complex as computer screens that flash messages or record
instructions for you to convey.
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Written By: Jamie Snodgrass
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