Virtual phone number for sole traders

You set them in the LineHQ dashboard, not on a handset. Your virtual number forwards to the phone you already own during the hours you choose, and sends calls outside them straight to voicemail-to-email. Schedules can differ by day and even wrap past midnight, so you can be reachable Monday to Friday, quieter at weekends, and never disturbed in the evening — all without a separate work phone.

Yes. You hand out the LineHQ number instead of your own, and it forwards calls to your personal mobile without ever revealing that number to the caller. So customers, suppliers and one-off enquiries only ever see and dial your business line, and if you later want to stop taking calls on a particular number you can change where it points without giving anyone a new one.

LineHQ’s entry package is £4.99 a month and includes a UK number with voicemail-to-email, plus pay-as-you-go call forwarding: 5p/min to UK landlines and 7p/min to standard UK mobiles. There’s no physical line rental, no setup fee and no contract — you top up a prepaid wallet and only pay for the forwarding minutes you use. Either way that’s usually far cheaper than a second phone and SIM, and you can cancel anytime.

Yes, for two reasons: it makes you look established, and it keeps work off your personal phone. A dedicated business number on your website and invoices signals a real company rather than a mobile you’ll change next year, while forwarding and voicemail-to-email make sure enquiries reach you and nothing is missed. It all runs on the phone you already own, with no contract.

It depends on how you want to look. A local geographic number (like 020 or 0161) suits a freelancer serving a particular area and reassures nearby clients. An 03 national number gives you a UK-wide presence with no city tie, and an 0800 freephone number looks especially established. You can start with one and add others on the same account as you grow.

Yes. You can start with a brand-new LineHQ number now and port an existing one in later, or port straight away if you already advertise a number. Porting most UK landline, 0800 and 03 numbers is free and usually completes within a couple of weeks, and the number keeps working throughout — so you never lose the line your clients already dial.

No hardware or PBX is required. A LineHQ virtual number is configured online and can ring the phone you already carry. You choose where calls forward, set your business hours and switch on voicemail-to-email from the dashboard in a few minutes; the app is optional for app ringing and Professional Calling.