Should I Use My Personal Number For My Business?

By Emma Lewis, bOnline

You’ve finally started a business, committing to a scary but exciting dream that’s probably been a long time in the planning. But amongst setting your prices, sorting out stock and marketing and chasing after those first clients, it’s easy to just use your personal mobile for everything. After all, it’s pretty much always in your hand so it seems like the obvious solution.

However, using your personal number for your business can bring several problems. Here’s why it’s not the best idea and what you can do instead to keep your business and personal life a little more separate.

More Personal and Less Professional

 

One of the main pitfalls of using your personal mobile number for business is that it blurs the lines between your work and personal life. It doesn’t take much to imagine getting calls on weekends or during holidays, or even at night while you’re asleep. This lack of separation can mean a poor work/life balance, leading to burnout and disrupting your time with friends and family.

 

A Professional Look

 

When you’re running a business you need to look professional. With this in mind, using your personal number could make your business seem less established. It may be unfair, but some customers and clients might view it as a sign of a small or informal setup. Having a dedicated business number adds extra professionalism and shows that you’re taking your business seriously.

Privacy Concerns

 

Your personal number really is personal; giving it out to customers and clients can lead to privacy issues. If your phone number becomes widely known, it’s hard to control who gets in touch and when. This can result in spam or unwanted calls, or even harassment. With a separate business number, you can better manage who has access to your contact details.

Efficiency and Organisation

 

It’s easy to get in a muddle when you’re managing all your business communications through just one number. Mixing personal calls with business calls means you have to sort through them all to find what’s important. This can mean missed messages or calls, which could cost you opportunities. A dedicated business line helps keep your communications organised so it’s easier to track and respond to business-related enquiries promptly.

Fewer Features

 

Personal phone plans generally don’t come with the advanced features that business plans do. For example, business numbers can come with voicemail, hold music, call forwarding, and other features designed to help manage high numbers of messages and calls. These can all work to improve your overall customer service.

Scalability Issues

 

Once your business really starts to grow your need for effective communication tools will too. If you’re just using your personal phone number, transitioning to a business number later on can be a hassle and even confuse your customers. This is especially the case if you need to rebrand or change your marketing materials.

What is The Alternative To Using My Personal Number For Business?

 

With the landline shutdown coming fast, many small businesses are looking to VoIP digital phone systems as the main alternative.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP for short) is a technology that lets you make phone calls using the internet instead of traditional telephone lines. It’s not a particularly new technology but it is something that’s moved on a lot in recent years. The beauty too is that you can choose a number yourself, including the area code – even if your business isn’t actually located in that area. For example, you could decide on an 020 London number for your business, even though you’re nowhere near London!

With VoIP, you can make and receive calls through a variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets, and dedicated VoIP phones. This makes it great for complete flexibility and as well as potential cost savings.

For small businesses, VoIP offers several advantages. First, it’s typically much more affordable than traditional phone systems. Because VoIP allows you to make calls over the internet, you can often avoid the hefty fees associated with landlines, particularly if you call abroad a lot.

Furthermore, VoIP systems come packed with features, like call menus, voicemail, setting your working hours, hold music and access to call analytics data. These features can make a huge difference to the way your business operates while improving customer service without breaking the bank.

Don’t Let Your Business Be Left Behind

 

Using your personal mobile number for business might seem like the path of least resistance, but it’s likely to bring you problems as your business grows. By investing in something like a VoIP digital phone system, you’ll not only protect your privacy (whilst avoiding concerns about the landline shutdown) but also enhance your business’s professionalism and organisation.