We travel very light in terms of administrative staff, and have been able to automate almost all order entry/ billing/ A/R/ inventory/ sales analysis/ sales tax reports/ credit card orders from our web site etc. What we decline to use is voice mail. I'm convinced it would cut our sales at least 20%.

As a result I have the pleasure of taking over 150 calls, faxes and emails on a busy phone day. About 6% are wrong numbers or people faxing our voice line. About 8% are people wanting advice on which printer to buy; another 10% want joysticks, CD's and other things we've never offered-that's the down side of the SOHO market. 20% want quotes, wheather they know their printer model or not. 30% are spams. A maximun of 30 people place orders.

The rest are trying to solicit orders from us. Not just toner but securities, light bulbs, cleaning services..... a great many begin arguing after a couple of minutes, few who call in cold have done any research on us. A standard question is 'how many cartridges do you do per month?' I'm always tempted to respond 'how much did you make last year?'

These are generally the same companies whose price list is liberally sprinkled with 'call'

Yes, I could hire a receptionist, the last time we tried I still got 30% of the calls, and she left due to the kind of people calling. Thank God for the internet, I can quietly delete a spam every 2 seconds.