Work and business
A second phone number for freelancers and side hustles
When you are the business, your phone is the office. A second number gives clients a professional line, keeps your personal number private, and shows you exactly what the work costs.
A side hustle starts with a friend of a friend and your mobile number. Two years later, half your contacts are clients, your evenings are interrupted, and you cannot change your number without losing the business. Freelancers hit the same wall from the other direction: a new client wants "a number to call", and the only one you have is the one your family uses.
A second number costs less than the second phone you were considering, and it does the job better.
Publish a number you can control
Put the second number on your website, your invoices, your marketplace profile and your email signature. It rings and texts on the phone in your pocket, but it is a separate line:
- Its own name. Rename it with your trading name so you know it is business when it rings.
- Its own hours. Business hours with voicemail outside them. Clients get a greeting; you get your evening.
- Its own history. The number's calls, texts, voicemails and recordings sit under that number on the Recents and Messages tabs, separate from your personal life.
- Its own contacts. Keep clients in the app's private contacts list rather than your phone's address book.
Set up a work line walks through all of it.
Sound bigger than one person
A typed voicemail greeting with your hours and a promise to call back does more for first impressions than any logo. Call recording, switched on for the number, lets you record a client brief and check the details later instead of typing while they talk. Forwarding covers the days you cannot answer: send the line to a partner or an answering service and switch it back when you return.
Know what the work costs
Every call and outgoing text from an extra number is paid with coins, and every one appears under Settings → Expenses with the time, the duration and the amount. That gives you a clean record of the line's cost, separate from your personal usage, for tax and for pricing your work. Before a long international call, the Pricing calculator shows the per-minute rate between the two countries. See Check prices and track your spending.
Grow or wind down without friction
Taking on a second trade, or a second market? Add another number; Second Phone allows up to ten on one account, each with its own settings. Winding a side hustle down? Deactivate the number so it stops ringing, and reactivate it if work picks up. Closing for good? Delete it. Your personal number was never part of the business, so nothing else changes.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a business account or company to get a second number?
No. A second number is a personal purchase in the app; you can use it for whatever you like, including a business.
Can clients text the business number?
Yes, if the number has SMS capability, which most do. Messages arrive under that number on the Messages tab, and you reply from it. Photos and files can go back and forth as MMS.
Can I have a local number where my clients are rather than where I live?
Yes. Choose the country when you buy the number. A local number in the client's country is cheaper for them and looks like a local business.