The Missed-Call Money Leak

Two jobs today: find out what your missed calls have been costing you, and give those calls somewhere to go. About 15 minutes, nothing to buy, your number stays untouched.

Step 1 — Count the leak (5 minutes)

1. Open your phone's call log. Go back exactly 7 days.
2. Count every missed call from a number that isn't saved in your contacts. Those are your maybes — new work you never talked to.
3. Run those numbers through the calculator right here. That yearly figure is your own math on your own phone log.

Step 2 — Give missed calls somewhere to go (10 minutes)

Conditional call forwarding sends a call somewhere else onlywhen you don't answer or you're on the other line. Your number doesn't change. Normal calls ring exactly like they do today. It's a carrier setting, usually free or cheap on modern plans, and it's reversible in one dial code.

Where do you point it?If someone in your world already answers phones — office, partner, answering service — point it there today and your missed calls become their pickups. If there's nobody, do the setup steps anyway with your voicemail as the target so you know exactly how it works: Season 1's first paid mission stands up the AI number this forwarding will point at.

Android

Built into settings: Phone app → Settings → Calls → Call forwarding → set Forward when busy, Forward when unanswered, and Forward when unreachableto your target number. On Samsung it's Phone → Settings → Supplementary services → Call forwarding. On Verizon Android phones the menu sometimes errors — use the Verizon dial codes below instead.

iPhone (dial codes — iOS has no menu for conditional forwarding)

iPhone first step — before any codes: Settings → Phone → Live Voicemail → turn it OFF. Live Voicemail answers calls on your phone before forwarding gets the chance, and it quietly breaks everything below.

Other carriers (and business VoIP lines) have their own codes or dashboard settings — search "conditional call forwarding" plus your carrier, or ask them directly. One Verizon note: *71 covers busy and no-answer; phone-off/no-signal behavior varies and may go to carrier voicemail instead of your target.

Verify it actually worked (2 minutes — don't skip)

1. On GSM carriers, dial *#61# — it shows where no-answer calls forward. *#67# checks busy, *#62# unreachable.
2. The real test: have someone call you while you let it ring out. Confirm the call lands where you pointed it.
3. iPhone and the test failed? Check Live Voicemail is OFF (see above) — it intercepts calls before forwarding can fire.
4. Changed your mind? Dial the OFF code above. You're back to stock in five seconds.

What you just did

You measured a real number from your own phone log, and you took control of a carrier feature most contractors never touch. In Season 1 you'll point this forwarding at a number you own with an AI behind it — one you build yourself: it texts missed callers back, answers common questions from your business info, and runs on your own accounts. One heads-up now so it never surprises you later: when a business texts customers through software in the US, carriers require A2P 10DLC registration — real paperwork, real (small) fees, real approval wait. Mission 2 walks through all of it, straight.

Estimates on this page come from your own inputs and are not promises or typical results. Build Season teaches; it never handles your money or your customers.