How A Small Business Answering Service Could Be Your Own, Work-from-home Business
If you are looking to start your own business consider a telephone answering service as your choice. A small business answering service can earn you thousands of dollars a year from the comfort of your own home. It is not very difficult or expensive to set up and start. Many small businesses don't have the volume to hire a large service to answer their calls but still require phone answering services on a smaller scale. Here are a few tips to get you started.
First you will need to establish which hours you are willing to operate. Some companies offer this type of service from 8 am till 8 pm., while others have enough employees that they are able to offer 24 hour services. Take into consideration the number of clients you are willing to take on and if you will need help.
Once you have your schedule it is time to gather the necessary equipment. You will need the proper and comfortable headset, phones and additional phone lines to help take your calls. Assigning a different number for each client will make it easier to identify who the call is for before you answer. If taking on more than 10 clients consider leasing a switch board from your local telephone company. Your telephone provider can give you more information on switch board leasing and the phone anwering system that will work best for your business.
After you have established your hours of operation and have set up the necessary equipment you will need to find clients. It is probably easiest to contact local businesses first and offer your services. Preparing a one sheet brochure/flyer outlining your services and business cards to leave with contacts will give you a professional image. Check out what other services are charging and and what services they include and keep your rates competitive. Draw up a contract that outlines both services being provided as well as term of contract. You'll want to have 6 or 12 months contracts to help keep your budget planned. Also you may want to consider an early termination fee in case your client wants to get out of the contract. You do not want to take a loss.
Finally work out a system that will help you keep all of your clients messages in order. Keep a clock nearby to record the time and date of calls as well as the information from the person calling. Create a system that will allow you to have easy access to all pending and sent messages. You can use index cards for this. Keep all of your clients information handy in case the caller has questions.
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