A PHONE FOR YOUR HOME BUSINESS FOR ONLY $5 A MONTH
          
          
               If you are running a business from home, or even a
          limited business activity like multi-level sales, but
          are not ready for a separate business telephone line,
          there is a service now available from most telephone
          companies that can make your life much easier, as well
          as save you money.  The generic term is distinctive
          number ringing, and the different local telephone
          companies have different trademarks for it --
          IdentaRing, IndentaCall, Distinct-A-Ring, etc.  What
          the service does is give you two (and with some phone
          companies even three) separate telephone numbers, but
          still only one telephone line.  
               The second number rings with a distinct tone --
          usually two short rings. (If you have a third number it
          has still another tone -- usually a long-short
          mixture.)  Since no extra wiring to your home is
          needed, the cost is very low -- around $5 per
          additional number in most areas.  Many families are
          using these to set up a separate children's number --
          two rings tells the children to answer it and the
          adults can avoid interruptions to take kids' calls.  In
          turn a business caller doesn't deal with a kid
          answering, and gets a professional response instead of
          a small child saying he'll go get Mommy.
               Many entrepreneurs are finding the service useful
          for business.  They give out the distinctive number for
          business use, and answer it either with a business name
          or at least with a more professional response than
          "hello" or "yeah."  You might find this an inexpensive
          solution to your business phone needs.  Also it is
          possible to buy mechanical devices which detect the
          different ring patterns, so that the business line goes
          to the answering machine if you're out, and the fax
          number is routed to the fax machine.  But do keep in
          mind that you still have only one line, so any
          telephone activity will block all numbers.