Make money by answering the phone

Fancy making some extra money on the side? Whether you're already working full-time, or stuck at home struggling to make ends meet, it's possible to increase your income.

Simple, but lucrative - answering calls could earn you money.

If you’ve got experience working in a call centre or reception then setting up a home answering service might be an easy and interesting way to earn a living.

What's involved?

Essentially, an answering service is a business which takes down messages for its clients. Clients could be any small business you could possibly think of – restaurants, hotels, telesales companies, estate agents, modelling agencies… The list could go on. Although the main idea of an answering service is to simply take down messages, there are plenty of services a business like this could offer, such as appointment setting, telesales or an order taking service.

Ideally, you should have sufficient experience working over the phone; and your telephone manner should be impeccable. The main selling point of your business will be your voice so it’s essential that your grammar is perfect and your dictation is clear and easy to understand.

The amount you make from this can really vary. You can’t expect to make any real money from this until you have an established client base, and to make a serious income, it’s probably essential that you hire staff to take on the extra work. Companies that run professional call centres dedicated to answering services can charge anything from a one off 99p charge per call to a £100 monthly subscription and a charge per minute. When first starting out, it’s doubtful you’ll be able to charge this much and by offering your services cheaper you have an edge on your competitors.

If you’re normally in the house all day then it’s a nice little earner, but if you have to be out and about a lot of the time it’s not going to work for you. You need to be able to answer every call so you can’t just nip out to the shop for a pint of milk, and toilet breaks might get a bit tricky sometimes! If you have small children or a dog this might also be a bit of a pain, because you’ll need absolute silence when answering all calls. It’s important to not rely on this as your main source of income for the first few months as customers can be difficult to find and it might not bring in enough money on its own.

Step by step guide

Step 1 – setting up your office

Once you’ve decided to take the plunge and start your own answering service – you need to start thinking about setting up your office. You will need a computer with a broadband connection BT Broadband Talk 2 with Broadband so you can forward messages via email. Technically, when starting out, you’ll only need one phone line. However, if you’re planning on making an income from this business venture then you will need to install an extra two or three phone lines to ensure you can answer every call. The best idea is to speak to your current call supplier and explain to them what your plan is – you might be offered special business rates for calls or deals on getting extra lines installed. You’ll also need a good supply of office stationery to keep you going – you don’t want to be caught without a pen while you’re taking down a message! Take a look at our article about buying office stationery to find the cheapest suppliers. A comfy chair might be a valuable asset also!

Other than your stationery, computer and phone lines – there’s not much else you need to worry about in regards to setting up your office. A fax machine is a really handy thing to have, but it’s possible to work without one. If you ever decide to expand the business it’s something you’ll definitely need.

Step 2 – deciding on your services

Because there are so many answering services offering so many different services, you need to carefully think about what you’re going to provide for your clients. Here’s a list of services you could provide:

An incoming message service for both business hours, and out of business hours.
A complete answering service where customers believe they are calling the client’s office.
An order taking service where people call in to buy the client’s products.
A call forwarding service where the business forwards calls to you only when their staff leave the office
A message delivery service where you not only take messages, but you also call people for your client
A voice mailbox service where you have phone lines that record messages, but also you call people for your client
An appointment setting service, where you call a list of individuals given to you by the client to set up appointments for whatever purpose the company needs.

Think about which of these services you’re experienced enough to offer – the more the better. If you don’t feel you’re confident enough to provide more than one or two of these then market yourself as specialising in the services you can provide.

Step 3 – researching the market

After deciding which service your company is going to offer – you need to decide on the kind of businesses to offer your service. If you’ve had years of experience in a particular sector then it’s probably the best idea to go for companies that deal in that area of work. If you’ve not got any specialist knowledge then think about something you’d enjoy listening about day after day. If you’re not dealing with something that’s even mildly interesting then the job could become really tedious after a very short amount of time.

Next you need to think about whether or not these companies would need an answering service. If you’re in any doubt then do a quick ring around and ask them if they’d consider using one, or if they already do.

Find out what other companies doing the same thing charge for their services. The more competitive your rates are – the more likely people are to choose your company. It’s essential that you work out your costings before you work out your rates. You need to think about phone bills, stationery and equipment costs, increased utility bills etc. and work out how much you will have to make per hour to make a reasonable profit.

Step four – insurance, tax and registering the business

As far as insurance is concerned, if you don’t have employees you’re pretty safe; although it may be worth checking with your broker to see if your home is still insured while you’re working from it. If you do need to upgrade your insurance then use our price comparison table to get the best deal. Registering your business is pretty simple, and free – but if you don’t get it done within three months then can be fined. Simply print out a form from the HMRC website, fill it in and print it off. You’ll be required to fill in a self-assessment tax form every year but until you start earning over £64,000 a year you won’t have to pay VAT. Once you’ve registered your business with the HMRC – they’ll keep you updated on any legal info you need.

Step five – getting clients

Finding clients will be the hardest part of the business. There are hundreds of ways you can advertise yourself and some will be much more effective than others. There’s no proven method of developing your client base, but once you’ve got going then word of mouth will probably carry you along. Initially, you could try calling up a list of businesses in the phone book to see if they require your service. Have your sales pitch ready with your rates, be sure to tell them why they should choose your service over anyone else – and let them know of all the benefits relating to having an answering service; this is where al your research will come in real handy!

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