How to separate work calls and personal calls on one phone

If customers have your personal number, work never quite ends. The phone rings on Sunday evening and you cannot tell, before answering, whether it is your sister or a client. Many people solve this by carrying two phones. There is a lighter way.

Keep your personal number on your SIM, exactly as it is. Add a second number in an app, and use that one for work.

That is what a cloud number does. With Ukutel, your work number lives in the app on the same phone. When it rings, you can see it is a work call before you answer. When you phone a client from the app, they see the work number, not your private one.

What changes in daily life:

• You know who is calling. A call arriving in the app is work. A call arriving on the normal dialler is personal.
• You choose when work can reach you. Sign out of the app, or silence it, on leave and at night. Personal calls still come through on your SIM.
• Your private number stays private. If a client relationship ends, or a staff member leaves, no personal number goes with them.
• Your costs are separate. Work calls come off the Cloud Airtime balance, where you can see each one. That makes claiming or budgeting simple.

Setting it up properly takes ten minutes. Put the work number on your invoices, email signature and WhatsApp Business profile. Record a greeting. Tell your regular clients once.

Two honest limits. The app needs internet to ring, so it depends on your Wi-Fi or data. And clients who already have your personal number will keep using it until you move them across, politely and more than once.

This is a small change with a large effect on your evenings. It costs from R80 (about $4.86) a month, which includes R50 (about $3.04) of airtime, and you can try it for five days for R25 (about $1.52).