Quote:
Originally Posted by NewChief
Mrs. NewChief, of the famous brother, is somewhat resistant to change. She is currently objecting to having to change her phone number, so she wants to keep the existing phone number (which is the land line) as she says, "Our vendors have it, our customers have it, our planners have it, it's on all our signage, business cards, etc... what do you mean you want me to change to a 1-800 number? Are you stupid?!?!" or something along those lines.
I tried to explain that it wasn't that big of a deal, but I"m stonewalled (and probably done trying to help her until she gets in the kitchen and cooks me up some food by way of apology for her rudeness).
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Almost all businesses around here have both. And a couple of them have 800-XXX-XXXX instead of (area code)-XXX-XXXX. Not sure what all it takes to integrate all that, but I think there are options to keep your number.
On the other hand, there are growing pains with all this. I'd imagine the scope of her business in the future will not be limited to just Mrs. NewChief. If you add a merchandiser or shipping/receiving department or something, they will have to have a new phone number that will have to be distributed to vendors, suppliers, customers, etc. Growing pains happen with business, particularly successful ones. Grand scheme, this probably isn't a big deal. Think about Cabela's. It started in Dick Cabela's garage. People aren't calling Dick Cabela's house to place an order.
If I were you, I'd suggest that if she's in this for the long term, that she finds the optimal way she could do it, and get as close as she can within the confines of cost. At that point, any change should be advertised as an "easier to contact us" or something similar. Stuff like this can be offset pretty easily by facebook/webpages, so long as she is diligent about contacting her suppliers and stakeholder businesses.