Hi everyone, need some advice. I never thought running a business from home would require so much legwork. I guess it comes with “mother” being a second job title, haha. Anyway, my issue is that what with my kids starting school I’ve been running up the cell bills to ridiculous amounts keeping contact with my staff. What’s to be done?

Hire a secretary? Upgrade your plan? Get your husband to take the kids to soccer practice? You could also upgrade to a smartphone.

Getting one of those from the carriers usually comes with a plan that allows you to check email, which is usually cheaper than calling or texting. My outfit uses gotvmail to route calls, and they recently added a "play it on mobile" feature to stream voicemails without calling the system, so it’s pretty quick. Nothing’s quite the replacement for a good light laptop yet, but cells are getting there.

Would it be possible to get a blackberry with unlimited web and email services?  With tmobile, if you ahve a blackberry unlimited use of email and web services is only 20$ as opposed to any other phone that you get that stuff I think its around $50.  I use my email alot when I need to get in contact with employees while Im on the run. It makes it easier and it has a plus side...its much harder for them to argue with you if they disagree if they are receiving your requests via email!