small business
Small Business Answering Service — What It Really Costs
AI voice $0.15 a minute. Live agents from $300 a month for 500 minutes. from $5.80 an hour for a dedicated agent. Minimum half a seat. Those are our published rates, so you can work out whether this is worth it before you talk to anyone.
This page also tells you when the answer is no. Four situations below where a small business should keep its money — we would rather lose the sale than take one that will not renew.
the real threshold
The question is not "can I afford it". It is "what is a missed call costing me".
Most small businesses evaluate an answering service by looking at the monthly price and deciding whether it feels affordable. That is the wrong direction to do the sum in.
Do it the other way. Take one job — one booking, one quote that turned into work — and write down what it was worth. Now count how many calls you did not get to last month. If even one of them would have been that job, the arithmetic is already settled, and the monthly price is not the number that matters.
And if none of them would have been — if the missed calls were all people asking your hours — then take the AI tier for a few dollars a month and stop there. That is a real answer and it is often the right one.
what it costs
Five ways to buy, and who each one is for.
Most vendors in this category quote by form, which makes it hard to work out whether you are the size of business they want. These are published packages — not a quote, since hours, language mix and volume all move the number.
| Option | Published price | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|
| AI voice | $0.15 / minute | You want every call answered but the calls are mostly routine questions |
| Web chat | $0.05 / session | Most of your enquiries arrive through your website, not your phone |
| Live shared team | from $300 / month | Some calls genuinely need a person, but not all day — nights, weekends, overflow |
| Live shared team | from $650 / month | The phone is busy most of the working day |
| Dedicated agent | from $5.80 / hour | You want one team that learns your business, your scripts and your customers |
Half a seat is the minimum, and that is the number that matters for a small business. A five-seat minimum is not a plan — it is a reason to keep answering the phone from the driver's seat. We also bill per resolved issue, from $1, where you pay nothing if it is not resolved; that model fits businesses where a customer problem actually gets solved on the call, not ones where the call is intake.
when not to buy
Four situations where you should keep your money.
The phone rings twice a week
At that volume your mobile and a decent voicemail greeting genuinely are the right answer. Look at a month of call logs before you buy anything — if the missed calls are not costing you jobs, nothing on this page will pay for itself.
Your work comes from referrals
If new customers arrive through people who already know you rather than through search, an inbound answering service is solving a problem you do not have. Put the money into the relationships that are actually producing.
You are already booked out
If you are turning work away, answering more calls does not help — it just means saying no more often. Spend it on capacity, not on coverage.
You want it to sound like you
For a very small business where customers call expecting the owner, a shared team will feel like a step back no matter how well briefed. A dedicated agent gets closer, but be honest about whether the relationship is the product.
We put this section on every page we write, and it is not modesty. A small business that buys the wrong tier cancels in three months, and neither of us is better off. Send us a month of call logs and we will tell you which of the five options above fits — including "none of them".
questions
What small business owners ask before they sign.
How much does a small business answering service cost?
AI voice is $0.15 per minute and web chat is $0.05 per session. Live agents start at $300 per month including 500 minutes — about $0.60 per minute — or from $5.80 per hour for a dedicated agent working only your account. The minimum engagement is half a seat, not a five-seat block.
What is the smallest you will take on?
Half a seat. That exists specifically so a two-person business does not have to buy capacity built for a twenty-person one. If your volume is smaller than that, the AI tier at $0.15 a minute has no floor worth worrying about — a handful of calls is a few dollars.
Is there a contract or a lock-in?
Tell us what term you want before you sign and we will put it in writing. We would rather agree the exit up front than have you discover it later — and if a month of service does not pay for itself, a long contract is not going to fix that.
When should a small business NOT buy this?
When the phone rings a couple of times a week and you are usually able to answer it. When your work comes from referrals rather than search. When you are already booked out and turning people away. In all three cases the money does more somewhere else, and we will say so.
How fast can we start?
Five days is our normal window to staff a live account — five days to find and place an agent who fits your business, not five days of software setup. AI voice can go live sooner because there is no hiring step.
Do we have to choose between AI and a real person?
No, and most small businesses should not. You decide which call types go to AI and which reach a person, and you can change the split as your volume changes. Nothing about that decision is locked in at signup.
start
Send a month of call logs. We will tell you if you need us.
No form-gated PDF, no discovery call before you get a number. Send the volume, tell us what one job is worth to you, and we will come back with a tier and a price — or with the reason you should not bother.