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When I first started freelancing, my Skype and my home number were sufficient. But over time, I realized that I needed to step up the professionalism if I wanted to charge more money.

Not only that, I needed to start separating my business and my personal life (a reality that was highlighted for me when a client called my home number late at night on, my birthday, and demanded that I work on his new project immediately).

My needs were:

  • Affordable
  • Professional
  • Offering voicemail and call-forwarding services.

PhonePeople fit the bill.

Not only that, they offered a vanity number that I could choose and their rates are reasonable. So I signed up. I’ve since been with them for two years and have always been extremely happy with the service.

Their pricing plan is divided into 5 tiers – costing between $10 per month and $100 per month – based on your average monthly minutes you might use. I actually use less than I thought I don’t mind paying a little more because I’m expecting my business to grow and my phone usage to increase.

There is no new equipment to set up, all you do is go into your secure admin section on the PhonePeople site and set up which phone number you want your toll-free number to ring to. So, I have it set up to ring to my home phone, but I could set it to ring to my cell phone or to some other number.

In addition to the tiers, you also get extensions, which is something I haven’t used yet but plan to shortly. Extensions let you have your one number ring to different phones, depending on the extension that callers choose, which gives small businesses a lot of control to offer one number but still work with a virtual team.

You might also use extensions for each service you offer or have one extension reach you and another extension for callers to hear a message from you (along the lines of a call-in podcast). There are plenty of options!

I currently use their “North America” plan, since most of my clients live in North America. So, as long as you call from Canada, the US, or Mexico, you can use my one number to reach me. International clients are out of luck but most of those clients prefer Skype, in my experience. However, in reviewing PhonePeople’s offerings for this article, I learned that they do have international toll free call forwarding, so that might be more relevant for freelancers who want to reach a broader market.