My Cellphone My Terms

As business owners, we are well aware of how much money we spend on most aspects of our business. How about our business cell phone plans? The cell phone is the lifeline of communication for you and you staff. But what can we do to decrease our business monthly bill without sacrificing productivity?

For starters, let’s talk about leveraging a shared minute business plan so you can start seeing some cell phone savings. The one common thing that business owners are unaware of is the customization that exists for a business plan. We have all looked at our bill and said “I don’t understand. I signed for a business plan that is $60 per month but my total bill at the end of the month is $150.”  It is in the best interests of the carriers to keep your bills as high as possible. Using more weekday minutes per month than your plan allows means additional charges at an inflated rate.

Each business is unique and so are its’ needs. Each user within a company uses their cell phones differently. Some are voice heavy users, some are data heavy users and some are a hybrid of both. The variations go on and on. Business share plans are ideal for businesses. The ideal business plan is one that allows a company to pool every user’s minutes. A total pool of minutes will allow heavy users to share with low users. This greatly minimizes the chances that additional voice charges will be assessed by the carriers.

The key to picking the right business plan starts by looking at 3 factors;

(1) What is your current monthly usage pattern? From anytime minutes to long distance minutes.

(2) Where do you see your usage patterns one year from now based on your company growth plans?It’s always important to ask yourself, what will my company’s wireless needs be 1 year from now. Your business plan needs to flexible enough to handle future usage.

(3) What features are paramount for your business and what features are “nice to haves”.

As for data, unfortunately, the carriers have not added it as a shared plan feature. Each user under the business share plan requires a separate data package. However, the real question you should ask yourself is “how much data do I really need? Click on the following link to read our blog entry entitled “How much data do I really need?”

Also, educate each user in the company about their fiscal responsibilities surrounding their company cell phone pan. If usage is not monitored, then what is the incentive for an employee to keep their usage patterns modest? “Oh don’t worry, call me on cell phone any time, I don’t pay the bills”

Business owners need to understand what are all the options available to them from business share plans, to value added features, device types and , importantly, what each carrier is willing to offer them what. A one stop shop for all!