Time to Upgrade My Phone/technology?

You run a business in 2011. If you aren't instantly available, the next guy will be. You should give yourself every possible tool to be competitive. Businesses that don't adapt, don't thrive.

One creative solution is to set an autoreply on your email. Everytime someone emails you they will get your response instantly. You can set it to say something Like Thank you for your email, I will be sewing until 4 and will return all messages between 4 and 6. Or get creative with it. Like "a stitch in time saves 9" Thanks for your time but I am busy stitching, will return your message this afternoon.

I agree with Tracy you need to keep up with technology. The next person will be. I used the auto message when I was working and made sure to email people back as soon as I could even if it was only to let them know I got the message and was working on it. Now that we are in this technology age some people don't want to wait for anything.

From someone who took a year or so to get over the mandatory data charges I can understand how you feel... I just upgraded to a user friendly smart phone this last weekend... So far? I LOVE IT! I dont use the data while out and about, or haven't yet anyways, but hooked it onto my wi-fi at home, so here I am checking emails and responding to mamapedia while making pancakes for my kids, I like the ease of the phone, because it unlike my computer is fast, it takes mere seconds to do something that used to take minutes to do on the computer, as a busy mama of 4 it has been a blessing to be able to do things like this in my other wise twiddle my thumbs moments between pancake flips! Good luck to you, and I do agree with the other Moms set up an instant reply, and if you do decide to get smart phone leave the instant reply on, just move where you check emails to a more comfortable location! Like your bed! LOL

I feel the same as you, but unfortunately we live in an age where this is becoming the norm, and is expected. I had to get texting on my non-smart phone last summer because my children's schools have started using texts as a means of communication with parents about school closings, events, etc... I wasn't getting any of the info unless I heard it from a friend or went on the school website. I refuse to get a smart phone, because I would be constantly glued to it, and can see where it would be problematic for me personally. It would be too enticing to stay online all day long, and I wouldn't get a darn thing done!

Like several others have said, in business today with the super technology we have, if potential customers don't get you on the first try, they'll move onto someone else. You have to be competitive, and unfortunately in means being a slave to your email/phone/texts.

Good luck!