I just work via pretty much word of mouth from home right now. I was planning to get licensed but then got pg with #4 and so I won't have time to pursue that right now....but anyway....
I have this guy calling about a cake at like 8:30, 9:30 at night. I wasn't available last night....so my dh asked him to call back, and I think he plans to call back again tonight. Should I ask him to try to call a little earlier next time, or just ignore it? I just think its kind of rude to call about cake at 9:30 at night but I suppose maybe he works late...
But at the same time, just because I bake at home, does that mean I'm on call 24/7? We've already emailed a little bit but it seems he'd rather talk than email...must be a guy thing haha.
What do you think?
I work from home too, but on my website I state very clearly the times that people may call me - 9-6 Mon - Sat. They can email or send me an automated enquiry form from my website 24/7, no problem, but I need some down time too!!! So far, this hasn't been a problem for me or my customers.
I don't give my home number out as a business contact number, so any calls that come in after a certain time, go to my voicemail and I get them the next day. I cannot imagine someone actually expecting you to answer the phone for a cake order at 9:30 p.m.! (Although I'm sure there are hundreds of stories out there that prove that theory wrong! 
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A few years ago, I had a client with a bad habit of calling to place last-minute orders. One night she was faxing me a cake design diagram at 10PM for an order she wanted the next day....my husband lost it and unplugged the fax and phone. Shortly after that I instituted a minimum 2-day's notice policy on all baking orders, and put that particular client on my "No Cake" list...especially after she had the nerve to complain that my prices had gone up!
I would rarely call a friend, let alone someone for business purposes after about 9pm. Like Rhondie suggested, mention to him that you do work from home and, as such, if he needs to call you he should do so before 7pm (or whatever time you decide).
You might consider a second line for your business... i know where i live, there's this service that uses your same phone line, but gives a second number which makes the phone ring differently... that's always an option as it allows you to screen your calls 
No I rarely call anyone that late either, unless its my sister, and she is 2 hours behind me!
I have caller ID and if I don't recognize the number, I'll let it ring. However when dh is home, he can't stand that. haha. So he will pick it up. During the day if I am busy with the kids I'll just let voicemail pick it up.
Its ok, they did call me and they were nice and ordered a cake so I guess its okay. If it becomes a regular habit I would probably say something. It just seems odd that people would call to order something that late!
You're totally overreacting. *sarcasm*
You're not a 24 hour hotline. . .let alone a hotline!
You are a business and so you set your hours. You can either tell him to call you earlier because of the fact that you don't want him waking your kids or because you are the boss and that's that! 
I did have one customer call me after 11pm once, and another customer called me at 6am. I do think in general that is inappropriate. In my personal case, 6am is great, I work nights 7pm-7am and on my off days I'm up at 3am so early is good. 11pm on the other hand... no one should be calling anyone that late unless it's an emergency, and cake isn't usually an emergency.
I am a Night Owl. But I would never call anyone after 9pm unless they told me to. In another business where I was an assistant working from my home. I had a lady that would call at 6am all the time. And I would tell her over and over my DH work evenings not to call before 10 am and she still would 
I tell people if they nedd to get ahold of me in the morning hours please Email me a time I can call them back in the afternoon. I am thinking about a seperate phone line that I can turn off the ringer and use for messages only. Because my house phone rings off the hook during the day. And that is when DH and I sleep GOOD LUCK with your situtation.
I'm glad you asked this question....I'm encountering the same problem, however, the calls I'm rec'g aren't quite that late. I've thought about adding a seperate phone line (but that can be expensive) so I know if it's a business call etc, and I could have it roll to vmail after I'm officially "closed"....
I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks it is rude to call after 9pm unless it's an emergency...my husband doesn't think it is rude at all.
Also, who thinks should answer the phone while eating dinner?
<raising hand> I know I try not to.
We got a call a few days ago while eating dinner and we have cell phones, no land lines, hubby was boxed in at the table and went to get up and I told him no, let it go, we're eating dinner as family. He kinda gotta a look on his face but said that I was right and let the call go to voicemail.
My thoughts are if it is important they will leave a message.
We used to have an odd situation. This was right after my youngest was born, so I wasn't getting much sleep anyway. Our phone number was one digit different from some girl in town who had lots (LOTS!) of boyfriends, who continued to call after 10:00 p.m. (and as late as 2 or 3 in the morning!!!!!), dialing our number instead of hers. After many frustrating nights of trying to convince them to look up the number (!), the calls started turning almost dangerous, with one guy telling us, "I KNOW she's there and you're just not letting me talk to her!" He threatened to come to the house ".....and I'm packing!" (meaning he was armed). Too bad for him he didn't know where WE lived!
Anyway .... it got so bad that we alerted all of our family that we would be unplugging our phone at 10:00 p.m. If they had to get a hold of us SO bad that it wouldn't wait until morning, they could call the city police dept to send a car to our house to get us. THAT'S how bad the emergency had to be!!
It never became a problem. No one ever complained that they couldn't get a hold of us and I guess that poor girl's boyfriends finally figured out the right number. And me and the newborn baby FINALLY got some sleep at night!
I think ringing after 9 is rude, unless it is an emergency - which a cake isn't. My partner's Mum always calls at about 10.30pm and it really winds me up - it's the time we're normally chatting in bed at the end of the day and she completely spoils that time for us - her calls last in excess of one hour. He doesn't have the heart to tell her not to ring as she's old blah blah blah. It really irritates me! Thanks for letting me get it off my chest!
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