As a freelance writer, you own your own small business. So that begs a question about phone lines – should you own a business number? Here are the pros and cons:
Pros to having a Business Number:

You’ll never tie up your phone line wen other members of the family want to use it, or worry about tying up the line with personal calls when a client is trying to call.
/li>
It helps to legitimize your business.
You don’t have to worry about accidentally dialing a client when you meant to call a friend at 2 in the morning.
You can turn off the phone …read more

Fairpoint Communications has mentioned the dreaded “b” word in its latest filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which could make it the next company of many to file for bankruptcy in these harsh times. According to the filing, Fairpoint will go forward with bankruptcy if cannot negotiate an extension on its interest payments with its debt holders.
 
Based in North Carolina, Fairpoint recently took over Verizon’s landline phone network in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Despite its recent acquisition, Fairpoint has struggled with a variety of problems, not the least of them being the interest payments on its $530 million …read more

Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis became billionaires when the sold the Internet phone company to eBay in 2005 for over $3 billion. Since selling their baby, the duo hasn’t slowed down – they’ve founded a venture capital firm and supported video service Joost.

Now, however, it seems that the two have another business move in mind – buying back Skype. When eBay bought the service, it had around 53 million users, but today, there are more than 405 million people using Skype to make free calls between one another and very cheap international calls to non-Skype users. In the …read more

I happen to love talking with clients, both old and new, on the phone. But I was reminded that’s not true for every freelance writer when I read CalalystBlogger Jennifer’s post called: The Freelancer’s Guide to Giving Good Phone
Jennifer doesn’t really like the phone, but she’s figured out what she needs to do to use it effectively. It’s a great list and it’s all easy to do. The only thing I’d add is, when you’re going to make an important call, stand up to do it. Just standing up while you talk will infuse you with more energy. Oh heck, …read more

Over in our forum we got into a brief discussion about telephones and how we use them. My stance has always been that since I pay for my phone, I can decide when to answer it. Way back when, not answering a phone meant just ignoring the ring, but today, with answering machines, caller ID and the ability to turn a ringer off, we really have choice.
I turn off my phone’s ring a lot. Since I work at home, I don’t want to deal with clients early in the morning or over dinner or later. Then there are times during …read more