Small Businesses


Why You Need This Service

Our company is classified as a veteran-owned and operated small business. If anyone understands what it is like to be a small business in the United States, we do. We also understand that small business owners spend all of their time running their businesses and less time trying to understand their telecommunications invoices (phone bills) or, whether they are correct or not. It does require understanding of telecommunications and the inner workings of the telephone companies; an expertise we have possessed now for over 20 years in the United States. You can call your service provider today and not necessarily receive the best contract promotion available. We know the best options currently available for your service.

Small businesses are the backbone of the United States economy, at 23.5 million strong (Morris, 2011: 27.5 million; Small Business Administration, 2013; Bureau of Labor Statistics: 23.5 million, 2013: 23.5 million). However, small businesses remain underserved by the consulting industry in the U.S. There are reasons for this of course, most of which center around cost effectiveness. It is more costly, to an auditor, to have 1,000 separate decision makers than it is to have one decision maker for 1,000 locations. That is why we have minimized the procedural aspects of small business telecom auditing, without affecting the quality of our service. Every small business must use this service at least once every few years. If you are being over-billed as little as $15.00 per month, your annual loss is $180.00. If you are paying $45.00 more monthly than you have to, that is an annual loss of $540.00. The take away from these examples is easy to understand as we present a few examples, which follow. The cost for small business auditing is very low, compared to the prospect savings you may experience from our work. You probably pay a teenager more to mow your yard in the summer, or babysit, than you will pay for this service.

Your telecommunications invoices are a major aspect of your monthly expenses. During these difficult economic times, it is important to minimize these costs by ensuring that what you are paying is actually correct, but especially, optimized. Here are two examples of small businesses that found that they were not paying what they should be:

Example 1

In 2007, a local hospitality manager asked us to look over their local phone invoice. The manager was not sure how many phone lines the business had. The invoice was for $183.00. Since the business had multiple entertainment devices (NTN and an internet jukebox), he assumed that he had at least three or four lines to service the machines; it turned out that he had only two lines for the business.

We retrieved the service programming from the vendor. The account had numerous issues. The account decreased to less than $100.00 per month in invoicing or, almost $1,000.00 per year in cost reduction, due to our work. The savings is the equivalence of over 25 cases of copy paper or one new personal computer per year.

Example 2

A small business owner had two lines in his home office, one for voice and the other for fax. After reviewing the account programming, and ancillary features, it was evident that many of the services, on both lines, he had ordered when the phone lines were originally installed. These additional service features were unused for over 10 years. The owner did not know they were still on the lines. The result was a reduced monthly phone invoice by slightly over $45.00, or $540.00 annually.

American Small Business is the largest demographic of all businesses operating within the United States; representing the largest underserved client base for telecommunications auditing. Small business owners have little time to spend making sense of their monthly telecommunications invoices; they generally just pay them, according to Aberdeen Group (2005).

In 2004, the Small Business Administration commissioned a report from Stephen Pociask, of TeleNomic Research; studying average telecommunications use and costs by small businesses in the United States. To see the report (PDF, 118 pages) you can click here. (Link in new browser window is: http://archive.sba.gov/advo/research/rs236tot.pdf) The report states that the average monthly telecommunications costs of American small businesses are approximately $383.45 (long distance and telephone lines). Some small businesses averaged a monthly expense as high as $1,800.00. Specific industries, such as retail and hospitality, have significantly larger average monthly telecommunications expenses (Pociask, 2004).

American small businesses generate between $10.5 billion and $15 billion annually in revenues to the telecommunications industry. On average, 7% to 12% of all invoices contain incorrect charges or extraneous services. This means that small businesses overpay between $735 million and $1.8 billion annually (Aberdeen Group, 2005). Although not all invoices have overcharges, the average error rate does not disclose that some invoices can have overcharges or waste of more than 25%, others have been even higher.

Our service is an inexpensive investment. It is an investment that businesses should make every two to three years or, when you see unexplainable increases in your monthly invoice. It is a service that businesses should utilize to ensure that their telecommunications invoices are correct, as well as to determine they are paying the lowest available price. If they are not correct, or priced higher than they should be, they represent capital waste, which during these economic times can represent a small contribution toward whether your small business survives or fails. Why let your telecommunications expenses potentially contribute to possible business failure? Big corporations do not, why should you? Use the "contact us" form to initiate a dialogue by clicking here. We can answer most of your questions via email, as well as determine our best fit to your existing expense rationalization endeavors.