Organizing phone numbers pre incorperation?

[PowerPython]

Hi, I am going to set a company soon (once I raise some cash!) and I am kind of confused as to how I am going to organize my phone numbers. I am going to have a business mobile...but I won't get that until the company is formed...so, what number do I give out until then??? I will be giving out a phone number to suppliers, potential clients etc, before the company is formed. I am planning on getting either a Nokia E61, Blackberry (not sure which) or a Sony Ericsson M600i. Should I get a cheap phone for now, and then get which ever phone I want unlocked? Would this work? I am very confused as you can probably tell!!! Any help on how I should organize things??

[Young Spark]

My Best Method:

I would recommend getting a virtual PBX system, one of the cheap kinds (or so I was told.) Not really sure if there are such PBX systems that you can use that are cheap but my best response would be to hire a "virtual office" company, they charge monthly and they have remote receptionists. What these remote receptionists do is that when one of these people call's the 800 number you provide (or that the virtual office company provides) the remote receptionist answers the call and greets the caller including saying your company name. (These virtual office businesses have software that has your number in their server so when your number rings through, it shows up on the remote receptionists PC so they know what your company name is. I believe this is how it is perceived.)

Once they pick the call up, they usually ask the person to hold, then the remote receptionist calls YOU... you tell them whether you want the call or not, if you do, they'll tell you to hold on, the RR (remote receptionist) flips the call back over and tells the caller that they'll forward the caller to YOU. If you don't want the call, they'll apologize for the inconvenience to the caller and ask to take a note. Not sure how the note gets to you (if they call you back or write it down and send it to you via mail or email it to you.)

This is my best method in my opinion and one place I know charges $300 a month for a professional physical address and RR services. I am going with them once my business is up so I'll let you know if that goes well in a couple months if you haven't decided yet.

Maybe somebody else has a better idea.

P.S. You can also give the company (through their web control panel) the numbers to call and what the number handles (Accounting, Maintenance, etc) and they'll keep these on hand to forward to the correct number or whatever. This is great/good for multi-located staff.

P.P.S. Some of these companies allow order taking too... you may need to search for them as the one I am going to use I don't think does it, I'll find out and let you know.