Recently, AT&T has been under fire for misleading its customers on several of its program’s pricing strategies. Additionally, the FTC just discovered that AT&T is also affecting how a customer’s data functions in order to reduce AT&T’s data costs.

AT&T has developed the promotion of the Unlimited Data plan which is supposed to charge a relatively low flat rate for all the data usage the customer needs in a month without charging them overages. This is a highly competitive tactics since other telecommunications providers say that there are too many costs associated with unlimited data problems.

Seems too good to be true? Well, the Federal Trade Commission says that it is. Based on FTC research, AT&T is being sued for mis-advertising the unlimited data plan. Apparently, once the customer gets to a certain level of data, the service slows up to 90% of the speed, making it impossible for customers to use the data quickly and forcing them to either wait for their connection or give up and stop using it. The barrier ensures that AT&T does not have to pay excess costs for data, essentially setting a technical limit on an unlimited plan. This technique is called throttling and it is not legal. It is illegal because AT&T is telling customers that they will get the same access to unlimited amounts of data, but really they are guilty of false advertising by making it impossible to use the data (even though technically they are providing unlimited data to the user).

Although this is frustrating for an individual AT&T user, it could be detrimental to businesses using AT&T services. Businesses rely on access to large amounts of mobile data to speak, present, and share information with clients. The unlimited data plan is enticing because business owners and corporations generally use a large amount of data. However, AT&T’s tactic ensures that business communication will slow and valuable partnerships could potentially end because of lack of response.

In many articles, I speak of how important it is to monitor costs. However, it is also important to know the company providing a service respects you and your business. Telecom providers often are not seen as partners to a business because they are a necessity. However, you need to remember that you are a client to them and their main focus should be to make their service work best for your business, not to make money. Make sure that those you form business relationships with are serving your best interests, or find another resource that wants to see their client’s succeed.

By Todd Larsen – CEO,  Limitless Technology ~ Cost Reduction Specialists

So, it’s the end of the year…

Not  a bad one. Business has improved, interest rates have remained low, the market has done extremely well, and the economy is slowly recovering. Goods things all in all and you can feel a certain change coming. 

And then you look at your P&L. Does it reflect this years tide? Does the bottom line look as good as it could have or should have? Was there any more that could have been done? Could more have been sold, expenses reduced, delivery made more efficient or products manufactured for less cost? Questions that have been most likely bouncing around in your mind since beginning budget planning for 2014.

Ok…so questions arise to help ensure profits next year soar. Right? Planned for everything, up turn, downturn, right purchased, right trend, right color, right size, right service model, right price….everything. No doubts, no concerns, no worries. Right?

Hmmm…most likely the perfect scenario but, not the most probable one. If you are like the majority of owners and executive leaders, you worry if all the plans are correct and will be executed in a way that ensures the most profitable growth. 

So is there is one thing you can do to ensure higher profits? The answer is yes, lower costs! I am not advocating lowering service quality, or purchasing inferior goods; I am a proponent of lowering the costs of what you already are buying. Sounds simple. Just pick up the phone, call your vendors, and tell them you want the lowest price for the  best product and service. Done. You call, they jump, bring you better products, lower prices and instantaneously you improve profits.  

Unfortunately most likely not, but it’s not for lack or trying. However, do you know how to negotiate the best offering for a particular product or service? Are there questions in your mind like…

– Where do you start? 

– What’s reasonable? 

– What’s good? 

– What price is right?

– What terms are best? 

– Am I protected against business trends? 

– Are my contracts flexible?

Quite honestly there an endless stream of questions and doubts. Ok…so how can I get all the questions answered, and moreover, improve my vendor positioning while improving my price points, flexibility and profitability? The answer is easy, but it’s not. Sorry to be ambiguous but that is the truth. In order to have the best positioning and pricing you will most likely need to look for a resource outside your company which has the skills, knowledge and experience to help you gain this positioning. Ok…now the tough question. Who do you trust? I believe when you can answer that question, you are on your way to having your problem resolved. First lets look at some points you should inspect when selecting a “trusted advisor”.

– Does the firm have inside industry experience?

– Do they have several written testimonials from other companies in your industry?

– Will they quickly provide a list of references?

– Can they show you a proven process to ensure success?

– Do they offer a money back guarantee? 

When you find that trusted resource, which can provide the above answers and position you best with your vendor, the questions will go away and peace of mind will take their place. You will allow them the opportunity to help lower your costs and provide the bottom line results your were looking for at the end of this year, last year and the year before. And this way when you look at next years P&L, you’ll know you could not have done anything more in those areas to be more profitable. 

Now… it’s an end of the year.

www.limitlesstechnology.com

I find it very intriguing, more often than not, managers will “buy” speculated cost savings that they have ample experience showing them they do not turn into real savings while at the same time they will reject speculated earnings.

In supply chain this phenomena is very vivid: companies invest time, effort and money in saving costs – uniting batches, full truck load, inventory reduction and many more initiatives are taken to save cost, focusing primarily on “cost per unit”. Cost per unit saved, in many of the cases does not turn into real savings.

On the other hand, initiatives that can improve availability and increase sales, are rejected with the claim that “it is not certain that the positive effects will materialize”.

Although there is a very high certainty that the cost savings will not materialize, and high probability that the increase in sales will, the common choice is to go for the cost savings.

It will be great to hear your thoughts about why?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mickey,

I believe the argument should not be either or, but should but a nice blend/mix of both. You cannot turn a blind eye to cost savings, to focus attention on sales growth. Nor should you only look at cost reductions, without having a plan to use those cost savings to increase distribution, sales, productivity, efficiency, etc.

That stated, cost savings increase the bottom line profitability of a Company NOW. There is no waiting, wondering, or hoping the investment made towards increasing sales was a correct choice. And even when the sales initiative has been made, you still need to go back and make sure you cut unnecessary costs from the new model…hence to be as profitable as possible.

Remember…find efficiencies, reduce costs, increase margin, & apply profits to good uses.

#1   The top 1 percent of all income earners already pay 39.5 percent of all federal income taxes.

#2   When you take all forms of federal taxation into account, the top 1 percent of all income earners pay 28.1 percent of all federal taxes.

#3   The top 20 percent of all income earners in the United States pay approximately 86 percent of all federal income taxes.

#4   One recent poll found that 64 percent of Americans are in favor of raising taxes on those that make $250,000 or more a year in order to help balance the federal budget deficit. Another recent poll found that 72 percent of Americans favor raising taxes on those making $250,000 or more a year.

#5   Approximately 45 percent of all U.S. households pay absolutely no income taxes at all.

#6   Overall, U.S. households are now receiving more income from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes. This is clearly not anywhere close to sustainable.

#7   During 2010, the U.S. government paid out a combined $2.3 trillion in unemployment benefits, Social Security benefits, disability insurance, Medicare benefits, Medicaid benefits, benefits for veterans, education assistance and other direct transfers of cash from the government to individual citizens.

#8   59 percent of all Americans now receive a government payout of one form or another.

#9   The ultra-wealthy keep much of their wealth outside of the United States so that the government cannot tax it. It has been estimated that a third of all the wealth in the world is held in “offshore” banks.

#10   Thanks to new corporate tax cuts in Japan, the United States now has the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world.

#11   Large corporations have become masters at avoiding taxes. Back in the 1950s, corporate taxes accounted for about 30 percent of all federal revenue, but in 2009 corporate taxes accounted for just 6.6 percent.

#12   General Electric has been a great friend to the Obama administration. According to the New York Times, General Electric made a total of 14.2 billion dollars in profits last year. So how much did they pay in taxes to the U.S. Treasury? According to the New York Times, not one penny was paid.

#13   Even though Boeing receives billions in federal subsidies every year and even though it has a bunch of juicy government contracts it did not pay a single penny in federal corporate income taxes from 2008 to 2010.

#14   Exxon-Mobil paid $15 billion in taxes in 2009, but not a single penny went to the U.S. government. Meanwhile, their CEO brought in over 29 million dollars in total compensation that year.

However…I think my question was should we worry about taxes? The answer is no. Worrying never helped anything. Instead try to understand better how you can impact future change. Educate your children, or other children if you do not have any, on how taxation affects us and make them better educated voters.

Also, know what you should or should be paying for in taxes (as well as, not paying for).  Look at your local candidates, as well as, your state and national government leaders taxation platforms, and make better voting decisions in the years to come.

And when it comes to watching you own personal or business wealth remember…

taxation reduction, cost reduction, lower telecom costs, billing optimization

High telecom bills hurting your business? One of the worst mistakes business owners make is trying  to eliminate services your company may need just to save money. You may not know  every service your company has and how much it needs those services until you have “cut” them off and it’s too late.

At Limitless Technology CRS, we make your company more efficient by researching what your company does and does not need and eliminating unnecessary services.  This makes your company’s telecom bills more cost affordable, while never compromising your company’s efficiency or productivity. We know that we can provide your company what it needs without making your company sacrifice, because….

 BOTTOM LINE We Improve BOTTOM LINES.

People Have Told Us We Love the Earth Too Much…

We can’t help it…We see it everyday, we live with it, we even wake up to it in the morning…How could we not have deep emotional feelings for the Earth?

Limitless Technology considers itself greener than green. We use digital paperwork and contracts that make us an almost entirely paperless company (unfortunately, our artist does use paper to draw these cartoons…pretty ironic).

Not only are we green, the services we provide can make your company greener! During telecom audits, we often will eliminate energy wasting telecom products. In some situations, we may move your company’s telecom operations to The Cloud. The Cloud moves you off traditional land lines saving you money and reducing your carbon footprint. Sometimes we even eliminate phone lines that your company does not need,  further reducing excess electricity and utility usage.

So you save your company money and help the Earth in the process… this is what we like to call a “win-win scenario.”

At Limitless Technology, we save you 25 -30% of your current telecom bill spend without costing you an arm and a leg.