This may be a very basic question, but hey, at least I know I'll get various opinions :D

For a business card, I want to throw the following:

name
company
address

ph (office)
email

- Should I throw in my personal cell phone # as well?

I personally hate mixing personal stuff with business.
But, I don't know how else to work around it.

Cheerio
imwired

I just received a call. ;)

I'd suggest that you put whatever number on the card you want people to be able to call. If you want people to be able to call you on your cell so they can reach you more often than at the landline number, that's fine, but I wouldn't make a fuss about it being your cell, because I don't think that will impress customers one way or another. Certainly don't tell them, if they do call, that it's really something they shouldn't do. Instead, you can tell them that you're in a meeting or whatever and will call them back.

Yikes, I'd never give out my direct cell phone number. Get a dedicated phone number for your business, and have it forward to your cell phone. Once your company grows, you can then have that number go somewhere else instead of your cell phone.

The good thing about the forwarding method is that you can set it up so that if you're on vacation, it forwards to someone else. Or you could set certain hours where the call is going to go to voicemail instead of ringing you.

I'm in the middle of getting a new blackberry just for my business. Right now I have clients that need me to call me on my cell phone. That's just me but I don't mind being bothered if a client needs me, I actually feel quite the opposite and I'm glad they call so I know in the back of my head that I'm providing top notch support and they can't be disappointed with that.

I guess you're getting a bit of a biased opinion here since I don't get a lot of calls since my network hasn't gone down for ages, only when a customer shuts him/herself out every now and then.

- Should I throw in my personal cell phone # as well?

I personally hate mixing personal stuff with business.
But, I don't know how else to work around it.


Why not stick your home phone-number on there as well then ;)

The obvious solution is to have a business mobile # ;)

Toll free forwards to business phone
Business phone takes messages if I'm not around. If user leaves a message and marks it as urgent, voicemail is forwarded to personal cell and email.

This system works for me

I'd suggest that you put whatever number on the card you want people to be able to call. If you want people to be able to call you on your cell so they can reach you more often than at the landline number, that's fine, but I wouldn't make a fuss about it being your cell, because I don't think that will impress customers one way or another. Certainly don't tell them, if they do call, that it's really something they shouldn't do. Instead, you can tell them that you're in a meeting or whatever and will call them back.
Ditto. I agree with that 100%

If you don't want your customers calling you on a specific telephone, simply don't advertise that specific number as an option for them to contact you. It's as simple as that. Should a customer find an alternative way other than instructed to contact you, simply take the call in a professional manner and remind the caller that it's your personal line and business matters are to be discussed from the office telephone.

Ditto. I agree with that 100%

If you don't want your customers calling you on a specific telephone, simply don't advertise that specific number as an option for them to contact you. It's as simple as that. Should a customer find an alternative way other than instructed to contact you, simply take the call in a professional manner and remind the caller that it's your personal line and business matters are to be discussed from the office telephone.

I agree, i do normally answer calls regarding business on whatever line in comes in on. I dont advertise certain numbers if i dont want to be contacted on that line. But sometimes clients get their hands on it anyway, so just proceed as business as usual :)

I welcome my customers to call me on my personal cell phone.. Why? It is more about giving them a 'since' of feeling of being able to contact me when they need me the most.

Besides, its a company paid phone ;)

Hello:

My sales reps & myself both carry around business mobiles. The way I see it is we can send everything to the office phone and a potiential client could call asking about our service and have to waituntil the next morning for a response. And, there is the chance someone else picked up the phone. Or, we can carry our phones around and make money.

And, being a business owner I love when my sales reps are making money. :) Do you want to go the extra mile for a customer, that is thequestion you need to answer.

You can't be connected 24/7 and have a family at the same time. Separating business from personal time is crucial. Can't satisfy and answer all calls if you're a one man operation!

You can't be connected 24/7 and have a family at the same time. Separating business from personal time is crucial. Can't satisfy and answer all calls if you're a one man operation!

That's why I sold my family, the ROI was horrible.
They're now working in a sweatshop somewhere in Asia and I've doubled my revenue since ridding of them.

Money is not everything in life.

Money is not everything in life.

Though, when trying to run a business, money is a big part of that business.... you don't want to be losing money each year running a business now do you?! I think that's more what the thread is about.

Seriously, for some of us, money is everything :(

I think that when the client feel that he need you he is going to be happy when he get you at the mobile at any time. the client must feel that when i face a problem you are the one who fix it for you from that loyal clients come from

Yikes, I'd never give out my direct cell phone number. Get a dedicated phone number for your business, and have it forward to your cell phone. Once your company grows, you can then have that number go somewhere else instead of your cell phone.

The good thing about the forwarding method is that you can set it up so that if you're on vacation, it forwards to someone else. Or you could set certain hours where the call is going to go to voicemail instead of ringing you.
Yes

* I have no affiliation besides being a custome with the following link**

Ringcentral is a good company we use them for our 1800 number. Some of the support staff have the calls foreward to there cell and some just pick it up via the web. It;s a realy nice system you probably to would like it.

I'm a one man operation as well, have been for many years. I have my toll free number forward to my biz line, if it isnt answered in timely manner it gets forwarded to my cell. I am married with 1 kid. I manage to balance everything alright. Granted I dont host 10,000 domains, but I do host a few thousand. If I'm not available, I have trained my wife to take calls and support as much as she can as well, if its something she cant handle then I will have to take care of it. Up till now has worked great, and its great having my family involved, doesnt seem as much like work.

-Tim

I target local customers and the ones which I host all pay over $100/month each (for the most part,there are a couple exceptions) for managed sites (generally ecommerce, but all contained on a single server with a redundant backup server). 24/7 emergency access via cell is expected. However, you'll find that the more they pay (once you get past the 'high end' of low cost), the less they will call unless it's an absolute emergency. All of the clients are also web design clients as well for a company I own part of, so it helps to have relationships already with all of them.

In the end, the answer depends entirely on the demographic you're targeting.