Hi! I'm in the middle of becoming licenced and i'm trying to set up a bunch of things...among them my phone situation. Do you have a separate phone line? I'm trying to decide if it's worth the expense in the beginning since i expect maybe 1 call a month
Once you start adding the costs of insurance, permits, kitchen set up, website etc...i'm wondering what things can be done in the future and what do i need righ now.

Right now I am just doing this as a side "job". I use my cell phone for any business or email. I set up a free email account and use that. I also went to www.freewebs.com and set up a website.

Thanks for the advice! I was thinking about using my cell phone as my business phone but the problem is that i don;t get cell phone signal in the house so i'll be missing all those calls and that is not very professional.

I've read on this forum that allot of ppl dont even put there phone number on websites. They give there email address because to many ppl would call or they would have to call back so many ppl. You could try starting off with just the website and I know that with the one I mentioned above when you create your website it has a page for "contacting" you. You could put that because of high call volume you prefer that they contact you by email. Just a thought.

I think its completely UNPROFESSIONAL not to have a phone number on your Web site. yes, I love email, but if I nothing beats talking to a real person.

My sister has her cell phone and then just uses her regular house phone (she has an equipment rental business). They answering machine is not some cutey family thing, rather a professional one. And she has caller ID, so she knows to answer according when a number she doesn't recognize pops up.

I have a separate line for my cake shop.....and I keep the extra shop line phone in the house in our computer room. I found back when I started out using my home phone number.....I got so many interruptions on our phone...and my husband got tired of the later night phone calls on our regular line. When the shop line rings....I let it ring and the answering machine pick it up if it's past shop hours. I just think if you can afford to set up a phone line just for your cake business...it's more professional and helps to not tie up your home phone.

separate phone number for business is much more professional.

I have a phone in my shop. I check my messages often if I am not there. I decided early on I was not going to give customers my cell number. I am very happy I have stuck with that decision. I have a phone with a message machine and I tell customers I check it often. I also have two email addresses and a website. They can reach me if they need and want to.

I have a SKYPE phone devoted just for my business. has voicemail, call forwarding, and more. As a back up, I use my cell phone, (but cell signal here at my house is pretty rotten). I wanted something specifically for the business so the kids weren't running for the phone & answering it.

I have a separate phone line for my business even though I run it out of my house. It has actually been very helpful because in my area it costs the same amount of money for a small business line as it does for a regular line and you get your number in the yellow pages for free and also on yellowpages.com. I also played nice with the woman at the phone company and she was able to get me 773-CAKE as my phone number. People love that when they see it on my website and business cards and it's super easy to remember

thanks for all the suggestions! I know that is unprofessional to not have some kind of separate phone line, my problem is that my cell phone doesn't work inside my house, and I really don't expect much business in the beginning so i'm trying to find a really cheap (or free!) way to get that second phone number! I'll look into the digital phones thanks!

If you have a good internet connection you should look into a SKYPE phone. It cost me $90.00 for 1 year of service, a phone number that can be dialed from ANY phone, and you can call out. Only catch, it runs through my internet connection, (which finally they upgraded all the lines). It is on from the time the computer goes on at 6am until most likely 9pm. (you can shut it down any time) check it out. for $90 bucks a year, I couldn't beat it.