Create Business Phone Number For Free

If you’re just starting a business and you don’t want to spend extra money on phone hardware or a new phone line, here’s an easy workaround to create a business phone number for free.

With Google Voice, you can easily set up a new phone number that forwards to your cell phone. If you want it to ring multiple people, just simply add another phone number to forward to and it will ring that phone as well.

If you always answer your phone professionally you can have it display the phone number that is calling you. However, if you want to be able to separate your business calls from other calls easily, you can have it display your Google Voice number whenever a business call comes through. By setting it up that way, you simply add your new business phone number as a contact to your phone and whenever someone calls that number, your phone will show that your business is calling you. The only downside with that approach is you don’t see the actual phone number on your phone. However, you can easily find this information if you have Google Voice set up to forward your voicemails to your email. That way you’ll receive an email with the phone number and message. Otherwise you can also log into Google Voice to retrieve that information.

With Google Voice you have two options on how to display incoming calls. Choose the 2nd option if you want to be able to distinguish your business calls from your personal calls.

You can also set up a specific voicemail for your business phone number. This can be set up under Settings under ‘Voicemail & Text’. Under ‘Voicemail Greeting’, record a new greeting or choose your greeting there.

Steps to Create Business Phone Number for Free

1. To sign up for Google Voice, go to https://www.google.com/voice/
2. Create an account with the email address where you’d like voicemails forwarded to. Your settings can be adjusted easily by clicking on the Gear icon (top right).
3. Record your business voicemail and be sure to select it.
4. Choose whether or not you want incoming calls to display your business phone number or the person’s phone number (see image and paragraph above)
5. Change any other settings as you desire
6. Wait a few minutes and test. Using someone else’s phone, call your new phone number and make sure it rings to your cell. Also be sure to verify the voicemail. Then call your personal phone number to make sure that everything is still how you want it on there.

Google Voice does not substitute for a real phone system, but it can come in handy when you’re just starting off and wanting to save on money. Either way, the fact that you can easily create a business phone number for free is pretty cool.

Note: if you’re looking for an option for multiple employees and one that is more scalable, we’d recommend checking out Ring Central or Microsoft Teams Phone if you’re a 365 subscriber.