The one-person electrical shop is not a startup story. It is a guy who got tired of splitting calls with a larger company, bought a van, and kept the same cell number because that is the number on the truck magnets. When he is in a panel, the business is closed. Nobody told the search listing.
He will tell you he “calls everyone back at lunch.” Some of them still pick up. The ones who needed a same-day disconnect already hired the company that answered at 10:12.
The lunch callback is a filter
It selects for patients, not for emergencies. That is fine if you only want remodel work you can schedule next week. It is a quiet way to donate the high-dollar panic jobs to whoever is still ringing.
Spouses are not a phone system
A lot of solo shops solve this with a partner who “grabs it when they can.” That lasts until school pickup, a second job, or a week they are out of town. Then the number is a brick again. If your coverage depends on one other adult’s afternoon, write that down as a single point of failure, because that is what it is.
What “open” should mean on the listing
If the Google hours say 8–6 and you are in an attic until 4, the listing is lying. Either change the hours to something you can honor, or stop routing the public number to a pocket you cannot answer. Those are the only two honest options. Everything else is hoping the next caller is in a patient mood.