It is Saturday morning. You are the receptionist, the technician, and the person who unclogs the sink, and the phone has rung four times while your hands were busy. A fair question forms: how much does a receptionist cost for a small business — and would hiring one actually fix this?
There is no single number, because "a receptionist" is three different purchases: hiring a person, paying an answering service, and covering the phone with The Mayor. Only The Mayor's own published numbers are quoted as figures below. For the other two, you get the full list of cost lines to run the maths yourself.
How Much Does a Receptionist Cost for a Small Business? It Depends What You're Buying
Owners rarely want a receptionist. They want the phone answered, the appointment booked, and the follow-up sent — without paying for hours when none of that happens. A hire bills for time: every hour on the clock, busy or quiet. An answering service bills for use: typically per minute or per call, so a long call costs more. The Mayor bills a flat plan: the same in a busy month as a quiet one. Count every line, not just the headline.
Option One: Hiring a Receptionist — Every Cost Line
Start with the wage you would pay in your town, for the hours you want covered. Then add the lines owners forget:
- Coverage hours, not opening hours. Lunch, breaks, sick days, and holidays are paid hours that go uncovered — unless you pay a second person or cover them yourself.
- One call at a time. A person answers one phone. The second caller, when your shop is busiest, still reaches nobody.
- Evenings and weekends cost extra or do not happen. Covering the 7pm–7am leak means more hours, a second shift, or after-hours callers waiting until morning — and missed calls cost more than you think.
- Hiring and training time is yours. Interviewing, and teaching your services, prices, and booking rules, comes out of your week — and repeats when they leave.
None of this makes hiring wrong. A great receptionist who knows your regulars by name is worth real money, and for shops whose calls are long and delicate, a person is the right answer. The honest comparison is your full loaded cost per covered hour — not the hourly wage alone.
Option Two: An Answering Service — What the Per-Minute Bill Hides
An answering service puts human operators on your calls, answering in your business name from a script you give them. Run these lines first:
- Your bill grows with your busiest weeks, exactly when you can least afford surprises.
- Most services take a message rather than finish the job. The booking, confirmation, and follow-up still land back on you.
- Round-the-clock cover is usually a higher tier, so price the tier that covers your evenings, not the tier in the advert.
- Your prices, hours, and rules live in a script someone else reads; keeping it current is an ongoing chore.
For complex or sensitive calls, a good operator's warmth and judgment are a genuine strength, and plenty of owners choose a service for that reason. Just price the tier and minutes you will really use.
Option Three: The Mayor — The Full Published Price
Here the numbers are printed on the pricing page, so they can be quoted exactly.
You can start free, with no credit card to start. The free plan is $0 and includes 100 reply attempts a month — roughly 10 real conversations — and 10 microphone minutes a month. Every reply attempt counts, not only replies that land, and microphone minutes count from the moment the mic opens. Pro is $99 a month, with 1,000 reply attempts (roughly 100 real conversations) and 120 microphone minutes. One-time top-ups — $4, $8, and $12 — add attempts and minutes for that period only; they do not roll over.
Once your number is connected, every unanswered call gets an instant text-back from your number — sent through Telnyx — with a path to a booked appointment against your real calendar and booking rules. You also get a morning briefing in plain words — who is coming in, what is still open, who to win back. The missed-call text-back walkthrough shows the wording callers receive.
Calls, texts, and your number are separate: they run through your own provider account, billed directly at its own rates — never on your Mayor bill, never marked up. The site's worked example on Telnyx's published US rates, checked in October 2026 — a $1.10-a-month number plus a month of answered calls, call-backs, and 150 text-backs — came to about $4.50 billed by Telnyx. Cancelling Pro stops renewal; the plan runs to the end of the period paid for.
A Worked Example: One Repair Shop, Three Saturdays
Here is the comparison as an example — a made-up shop, no result promised.
Picture a two-bay repair shop, open Saturday, owner turning wrenches. The phone rings nine times; the owner reaches three. The hire: you pay for the full shift whether it rings nine times or ninety — and if your receptionist is off, you pay yourself, in lost work, to cover. The answering service: you pay for the minutes those calls take, then spend your evening returning messages. The Mayor on Pro: $99 for the month whether this Saturday is quiet or slammed; the six missed calls get a text-back within moments, and callers who reply get offered real open times from the shop's book.
Same Saturday, three shapes of cost. The right pick depends on which shape matches your week — and on whether you want the follow-up done, or handed back to you.
Who Each Option Fits — and Who It Does Not
Hiring fits when your calls are long, personal, or sensitive, and your volume justifies a person's full week. An answering service fits when you want a human voice first and are glad to do the booking and follow-up yourself.
The Mayor fits owner-run shops — salons, restaurants, plumbers, dental offices, groomers, repair shops, med spas — where the person doing the work also answers the phone, and most calls are routine: book, move, quote, confirm. It is not the right pick if callers are often upset or calls are involved consultations; for those, it takes the details and hands off to you. And it does nothing until setup is done: connect your number and confirm your services, hours, and booking rules first.
Questions Owners Ask
How much does a receptionist cost for a small business, in one line?
No honest one line exists: a hire costs your local wage for every covered hour plus the gaps; a service costs per minute or per call at the tier covering your evenings; The Mayor is $0 free (100 reply attempts, 10 microphone minutes a month) or $99/mo Pro (1,000 attempts, 120 minutes), plus your provider's bill — about $4.50 in the site's Telnyx example.
Is the free plan enough to judge the cost properly?
For a quiet shop, often yes: free includes 100 reply attempts a month, roughly 10 real conversations, and 10 microphone minutes, with no credit card to start. A busier shop will feel that cap quickly — that is what Pro and the $4–$12 top-ups are for.
Does The Mayor replace a receptionist completely?
No. It covers the routine work — missed calls, text-backs, booking against your rules, reminders, the morning briefing. Delicate calls are handed to you with the details taken. Some shops run it alongside part-time human cover.
What else will I be billed for?
Only your own phone provider, directly: number rental, calls, and messages at its own rates, separate from your Mayor plan and never marked up. And the calls you answer yourself are untouched — the text-back only fires when a call goes unanswered.
Price Your Saturday Before You Hire for It
Before you post a job or sign a contract, count one week: how many calls came in, how many you missed, what coverage would have cost under each shape. Then start free with The Mayor, connect your number, and let one ordinary week show you what covered phones cost — before a payroll does.