Posted by: Todd Larsen, CEO of Limitless Technology~Cost Reduction Specialists

Wouldn’t you agree…?

…Most  organizations have wonderful personnel that each and every day go to work giving their absolute best effort to ensure a company is working efficiently.

Whether you agree or not, I believe understanding efficiency is knowing exactly what that word or term means. Let’s look at the dictionary definition:

ef·fi·cien·cy

// Show Spelled [ih-fish–uh                         n-see] Show IPA

noun, plural ef·fi·cien·cies.

1. the state or quality of being efficient; competency in performance

2. accomplishment of or ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort: The assembly line increased industry’s efficiency.

3. the ratio of the work done or energy developed by a machine, engine, etc., to the energy supplied to it, usually expressed as a percentage.

4. efficiency apartment.

So now we know what the definition of efficiency is…so let’s look at the most important key to the definition as it is defined, and according to what I will call employed expectation.

Most Companies believe their employees should know near everything about their job function. And while this is an incredible ideal, would you say it is realistic? Most Companies believe their employees have a deep level of knowledge, which in truth, is difficult to obtain or is unavailable to them. In telecom it would be in some areas such as:

• constantly changing pricing
• competitive pricing
• new product and services
• vendor margin modeling
• vendor cost allocations
• affimity discount programs
• vertical discount programs
• taxation differentiations
• tariff rates
• USOC codes
• USF rate charges
• CSR reports
• CDR reports
• Utilization Reports

Then if they made available to them how do they decipher the information, and how long will a Company give the employee to not only learn, but perform this function when they have multiple other job duties which may be considered to have higher priorities. Most often learning of his kind is not in the employees training, mentoring or readily available to them. Yet it is expected by many Companies the employee(s) deliver on an ongoing basis, effective and efficient procured services which are optimized. So wouldn’t this contradict the first belief?

And…often times Companies burden their employees with the fear of failure in these types of disciplines, because the employees feel they should have their “Companies best interest in mind at all times”. What is not realized, is that employees do have best interests in mind. So the struggle remains between levels of expertise, capabilities and what is most important to accomplish that day. This often detracts from an employee being able to provide additional efficiencies and effectiveness for Company’s billings regarding their products or services.

Highlighted above is the key to efficiency ” to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort”. If a capability does not inherently exist within a Company, and is not already a part of the process and being performed in a machine like manner….Wouldn’t it go to say that some services are much better off being outsourced than in-sourced?

Remember…when you are making the decisions that impact the profitability, effectiveness and efficiency within your business unit or for your entire Company, find the expertise that will ensure efficiency in what you are trying to accomplish.

I fixed one of my outside sprinklers this past weekend. It wasn’t completely broken; in fact, it performed its main function okay. The timer went off, the water came out and the plants got wet. But apparently the PVC had become brittle and a significant leak began to occur draining resource in some areas and over watering where the leak was occurring– nothing major, we were probably losing 50 gallons of water 3 x per week.

The bad part was this must have gone on for many weeks,  because it wasn’t noticed until there was a hole blown through the earth.  So, once I noticed the issue, I had the sprinkler repaired by an expert so I was sure it would be done right. I asked him if there was a way he could have detected them sooner, and he defined a process and procedure on how they detect leaks and repair them before the customer like me received a giant bill. My expert also said why not all customers have them, it was good to check on e a year for a fee, or monthly fora smaller but more regular checking to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

After the repair, and my conversation with the repair company, I thought about what that leak meant to me. It was only about a little water, so it didn’t seem like much of an issue. Then I started to do the math: I was losing near 150 gallons of water per week. That was 600 gallons of water each month, or 7200 gallons a year!  Every day that I didn’t repair it, another 20 gallons of water lost. What a waste. And…It hadn’t dawned on me that the water I was losing meant money out of my pocket. (I get my water bill only once a quarter, so out of sight, out of mind). Then my water bill came: The utility devised a new rate based on the amount of water used. I was now paying for that leak in two separate places, and paying big over an $800 jump in my bill!!!

My sprinkler dilemma reminded me of how many organizations handle their telecom billing. For instance, most companies don’t notice their bills have changed and wonder why their bills are higher. The difference starts small and goes on in multiple areas of their business.

These charges are…Hidden in landline services, misunderstood on Internet rates, never noticed at the setup of the original billing, in 3rd party slamming and cramming charges,and many other areas.  And even when a “leak” on a bill is noticed, trying to work with the provider to get it removed is cumbersome and frustrating at best. (Not as nice as working with my professional irrigation company).

Yet…medium and large companies sometimes lose hundreds of dollars a day, thousands a week, $10’s of thousands a month and yes even $100’s of thousands of dollars per year with these billing errors!!!

Hopefully you won’t let your Company suffer these expensive and wasteful  “leaks” , and you will make sure you get an expert to help you ensure it won’t continue to cost you money that you’re not even aware of losing.

By Todd Larsen CEO Limitless Technology~CRS  April, 24th, 2013

Limitless Technology~CRS

Delivering expert results on: telecom auditing, telecom contract management, telecom expense management, and telecom billing optimization services.

www.limitlesstechnology.com

#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

She uses her iPad in college because it is more portable and taking notes is very easy on it. Realizing she didn’t have a pen or paper, she had to scour the crowd for a pen and pencil. In that process, she stepped on two people’s feet and was yelled at by her professor for interrupting class discussion. I wish my daughter had taken my advice and put a KudoCase on her iPad.

The KudoCase would have allowed her to charge her iPad on the synthetic light in the room. She always talks about how important recycling and saving the environment is, well the KudoCase collects wasted energy and utilizes it instead of using more resources by taking energy from an outlet. She is also very forgetful…but with the KudoCase finding her iPad would never be a problem again. All she has to do is whistle and the KudoCase emits a noise that helps you find it.

The KudoCase saved my daughter a lot of hardship, and Limitless Technology Cost Reduction Strategies can save your business allot of hardship. We make your telecom bills as low as possible so that you can buy your kids things like KudoCases!

Call Limitless Technology at (866) 504 4050 to order a KudoCase today or to reduce your telecom bills FOREVER!

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.

Piggyback your Data Card on Your Smartphone!

It seems small, but this tip can save you about $10-$20 dollars per month on your employees’ mobile Internet.

Let’s do the math:

You have fifty employees who all need mobile Internet, with an average savings of $15 per month on each of their phones….

$15 x 50 employees = $750/month saved

$750 x 12 months = a yearly savings of 9,000 dollars!

Making this change is simple, all you have to do is call Limitless Technology!

Piggybacking is just one of the many ways we can save your company money.

It is worth your time to give us a call at (866) 504-4050

My business is a lot like golf, it takes a lot of diligence, patience, and hard work. I am an avid golfer and often like to quote golfer’s views on golf.

Here are some of my favorite quotes by some professional golfers that really relate to my business:

1. “Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course – the distance between your ears.”  ~Bobby Jones

You have to think through every shot in golf, and we have to carefully look through every bill to find you the greatest savings possible without losing any quality of service. Our job is to take the strain off of your mind, think of Limitless Technology as your telecom bill reducing caddy.

2. “I have a tip that can take five strokes off anyone’s golf game:  it’s called an eraser.”  ~Arnold Palmer

I know what you’re thinking, no…we do not cheat like the expression says, but we do find overcharges the phone companies have left on your bill and ERASE them. We cut down your budget the easiest way possible, by reducing what your already spend.

3. “Forget your opponents; always play against par.”  ~Sam Snead

We do not try to undercut competitors with cheaper price, we only receive a portion of what we SAVE you. We challenge ourselves to find you savings and only take a percentage of those savings. Limitless will never cost you extra because BOTTOM LINE, all we want to do is IMPROVE YOUR BOTTOM LINE.

Now I want to leave everyone with the promised joke:

Now,” said the golf pro, “suppose you just go through the motions without actually striking the ball.”
To which his pupil replied, “but that’s precisely the difficulty I’m trying to overcome.”

Don’t keep hacking away at your telecom bill with no luck; let the pros at Limitless Technology help out!    (866) 504-4050

My daughter recently returned from her first year of college to spend the summer with my wife and I. I could tell that the year of business college had done her good, making her more confident and competent young lady. However, when I saw her final report card I noticed that she had one C- among her long list of A’s.

Now, if you have ever met my daughter, you would know that a B would have sent her into hysterics in high school… but when I turned and looked at her, there were no tears in her eyes. Instead, she had a huge smile and was bright eyed as she looked at her report card. When I asked her why she was not crying on my shoulder she said “ because of what the Dean of Students told me…”

She then told me the most intelligent advice I have ever heard an educator give…advice the I will tell you in this blog and relate it to how you should treat business.

Forget about grades (aka those quarterly reviews)– although these are helpful tools for management, reviews should not be a concern to you. The only thing focussing on these reviews will do to your performance is lower it. Instead make your own realistic goals. My daughter is a very intelligent girl, but even she cannot master a higher level accounting class when she has never even learned to balance a checkbook! So she gave herself a realistic goal of passing which she accomplished (sad to say more than 50% of her class did not…)

Join a sorority (in other words, make valuable connections)– Now my, daughter did not decide to do this, because she wanted to work instead ( She tries to be so independent) however, she did join a bunch of business clubs and honor societies. In college, like in business, quality connections are the most valuable thing you can make.

Have fun (this means the same thing in business)- Obviously college is not all about scholarly pursuits (although I really don’t want her to tell me about those things…) . What my daughter finally learned to do is have fun while learning. The same should be done in business. The more you enjoy your business, the more productive you will be!

Limitless Technology wants to strengthen your business as much as possible, and our business does this every day by saving companies huge amounts on their telecom and utility bills. Contact us if you would like Limitless Technology to reduce your companies overhead, thereby allowing you to spend more time enjoying your business, and less time worrying about your budget.

For four days in a row, the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine.

Eric calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery. So, the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles. It will take you 4 1/2 hours to drive 270 miles at 60 mph. Then add 10 hours to charge the battery and you have a total trip time of 14.5 hours. In a typical road trip your average speed (including charging time) would be 20 mph.
According to General Motors, the Volt battery holds 16 kwh of electricity. It takes a full 10 hours to charge a drained battery.

The cost for the electricity to charge the Volt is never mentioned so I looked up what the average American pays for electricity, (it varies with amount used and the seasons) $1.16 per kwh.

16 kwh x $1.16 per kwh = $18.56 to charge the battery.

$18.56 per charge divided by 25 miles = $0.74 per mile to operate the Volt using the battery.

Compare this to a similar size car with a gasoline engine only that gets 32 mpg.
$3.58 per gallon divided by 32 mpg = $0.11 per mile.

The gasoline powered car cost about $15,000 while the Volt costs $46,000.

So some politicians wants us to pay 3 times as much for a car that costs more than 7 time as much to run and takes 3 times as long to drive across country.

REALLY?

Bottom line is…understand what you are buying before you sign the contract. If already too late…find someone that can help you lower your costs.