Saving on phone bills…yes, you can!
As part of our ongoing “digging deeper” case studies, this one applies to many businesses and especially small businesses that are sole proprietorships or LLC’s.
Recently one of our small business clients with a Limited Liability Company and a sole proprietorship was struggling with the increasing costs of their phone bills. They had a landline, cell phones, DSL internet and over the past few years the monthly bill was well over $270. Which they felt was just too much to be paying. So, we started to investigate it for them. (I might mention they ran the business from their home as well... they had a personal line as well.)
Here’s what we found:
| Business phones | $65 per month | ||
| Home or personal land line | $78 per month | ||
| DSL for internet | $73 per month | ||
| Toll-free (sell products around the country) | $55 per month |
So, with a little digging we found we could port their current business and home line and get them a service for about $55 per month with the 2 lines. Plus get their toll-free number ported as well and ring on their business line... FREE (if over so many minutes, which they don’t use it that much, there could be overage fees).
It gets even better, while visiting a local trade show, we ran across a local internet provider that had a wireless service at 50mphs for $65 per month and an additional $10 router rental fee... so about the same cost as their DSL so no saving there... but 5 times the speed. That was impressive for where their rural office is located. So, the bottom line is profit.
On a personal note, they may as a family save even more by using the streaming of the faster internet provider to replace their cable / wireless TV provider and save $50 to $55 additional per month.
| Before | After | |||
| Business Phone | $65 | |||
| Home Phone | $78 | $55 (includes Business and Personal line) | ||
| Internet | $75 | $75 (5 times faster with new provider) | ||
| Toll-Free | $53 | Parked free and rings on main business line | ||
Totals |
$271 |
$130 |
Savings of $141 per month or $1,692 for the year.
By Ken Stavast
A serial entrepreneur, accounting and payroll software developer, marketer and consultant to small to mid sized business operations. Can be reached at AffordableSolutionsForBusiness.com or BusinessLogicUSA.com or HomeRunmarketing-USA.com on the contact page.