Starting up your own answering service from the comfort and convenience of your home can be an ideal business to start, especially if you are working on your own with limited funds to get started.
You would only need to secure a few small businesses or sole traders to enable you to make a decent income from home. You will also be supplying a very valuable service to your customers that will allow them to operate their businesses without being constantly tied to their business phone, or risk missing an important call from an existing client while they are busy with another one.
The staff at www.theanswercentre.co.uk know all about how good it feels to help sole traders and small business owner succeed, especially when they are having to operate on a tight budget. Here are some top tips to help you set up your own answering service from home.
- Get your business plan together
Writing up a detailed business plan is good idea. You can use this as your blueprint or step by step guide to follow while setting up and running your business. Your business plan simply outlines exactly what you want to do and how you are going to do it.
- Set up your business structure
To begin with, you may be happy to work solo as a sole trader from home. Should you decide to expand your business, take on a partner or employ staff in the future, you can always change your business type to a partnership or a limited liability company. You will also need to open up a separate business bank account in your business name. This will help to keep your business income separate from your personal money. Register yourself as self-employed with HMRC (if you intend to start off as a sole trader). Register with Companies House if you intend to start off as a limited company.
Work out how much you are going to charge for your services by looking at what other call answering services charge. You want to set a realistic price that allows you to cover your expenses and pays for your time. You will also need to set strict working hours for yourself and stick to them – this will prevent you from being tied to your telephone for 12 hours every day and give you some much needed family time.
- Get your equipment in place
To work from home as an answering service, you will need to separate your home phone from your work phone. You can pay to have a separate telephone line coming in that is solely for business use only. You can also make good use of the internet by purchasing software that interprets your incoming calls and can indicate which of your client telephone numbers the caller has dialed. This way you will be able to know how to answer the call with a single glance.
- Gain new clients
You can start off small here by spreading the word about your answering service among family and friends. They may well know of a few local businesses that could use your help. You could also attend local business networking meetings to introduce yourself and offer your services among local entrepreneurs and small business owners.
If you find your business starts to take off, then you could look at expanding your answering service further by hiring office space and employing staff. You could even enlist the help of www.theanswercentre.co.uk should you find your workbooks overflowing, or while you are busy expanding your business.
