Time Sensitive Billing
By Peter DeHaan For the Telephone Answering Service industry there are likely as many pricing philosophies as there are companies to implement them. In general, however, all pricing schemes fall into...
View ArticleHow Individuals Are Making Money Through Group Call Processing
By Tony Murray I was at the Amtelco user’s group meeting last month in Atlanta and the subject of networking was discussed at a number of sessions. I get many questions from owners who are interested...
View ArticlePersonalized Pager Information Services: Increase Revenues
By Carol DiGiulio The wireless industry is among the fastest growing in the United States, with over 34 million pagers currently in use. The American consumer invested $340 million on paging devices in...
View ArticleRethinking Rates? Charge More – You’re Worth It!
By Donna West It has been said that we are in the Information Age, the Communications Revolution. I think that is very much true. It has also been said that the TAS industry is dead or dying: I do not...
View ArticleThe Marketability of Seller Carry Back Business Notes: Are They Valuable or...
By Jim Bashaw One of the fastest growing segments in the financial arena today is the “Cash Flow Industry”. It deals exclusively in the brokering of cash streams created by debt instruments that can be...
View ArticleWays to Raise Your Rates, Part I: Giving You Money to Grow
By Donna West We put our first rate increase into effect when we were not quite one year old. It was the simplest little note on a card the size of a #10 envelope. It said, If you pay peanuts, …...
View ArticleAcquisition Aftermath, Part III: Managing Pricing Transitions
By Marteann Bertrand As I sit down to write this third and final article in our “Acquisition Aftermath” series, I realize there is not a whole lot more to be said about managing pricing transitions...
View ArticleWays to Raise Your Rates, Part II
By Donna West (Part I of this article appeared in the January/February issue of Connections Magazine). 14. Archiving messages: Be sure you charge for printing out messages and for archiving messages...
View ArticleSeller Carryback Business Notes: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
By Jim Bashaw A “Seller Carryback Business Note,” as you probably already know, is a promissory note held by a seller, which represents that portion of the sale of a business that was not paid for in...
View ArticleThe Case For Higher Prices
By Norm Brodsky It’s harder than ever to get customers to accept price increases, thanks mainly to Alan Greenspan. But you’re making a mistake if you don’t raise prices on a regular basis. Alan...
View ArticleIVR Stands for “Immediate Value Returned”
Our company has been in the voice mail business for about 14 years. Since day one, I have continually mined the market for new voice mail applications. There’s something about no labor cost that is...
View ArticleCredit and Collections: Preparing for Tougher Times
By Peter Renton What a difference a year makes. Just go back and look at the business section of any newspaper from February or March last year. You’ll read about new dot-com deals, stock market...
View ArticleAre You Mining the Gold From Your Clients?
By David Saxby Customers are gold to your business! They are your lifeblood. Without customers, we would all be out of business. So if customers are truly the lifeblood of the business, why do most...
View ArticleMake Money Scheduling Appointments
By Derrick Boston You can increase your revenues and deepen your customer relationships by scheduling appointments for your customers. The problem, as we all know, is that the scheduling task can be...
View ArticleBusiness Credit Tips – Part 1: Business Tenure
By Wayne Moseley The first most important aspect of credit for any business is time in business (tenure). Formal business tenure is established through a filing with the Secretary of State/Department...
View ArticleBusiness Credit Tips – Part 2: Personal Credit
By Wayne Moseley Personal credit history is viewed as a barometer or an example of the payment habits of the owners, stockholders, and/or officers. A company’s payment practices starts at the top...
View ArticleCredit Tips – Part 3: Business Banking
By Wayne Moseley [Parts I and II appeared in earlier issues of Connections.] Banks have recently become a lot like the government: they continue to get bigger and they’re always looking for ways to...
View ArticleCharging by Degree of Difficulty
By Donna West For as long as I have been in this industry I have been hearing about how we need to increase the value of our services, but we are convinced that cannot charge more when we do. The …...
View ArticleHow’s Your Company’s Financial Health? Maybe it’s time for a checkup
By Ronald S. Niemaszyk Ralph is the owner of a small answering service and one of my favorite clients. One day, when I was in his office, he dropped a report on the table in front of me. With great …...
View ArticleMaximizing the Margin: Operational Cost Modeling
By Eric Miller In the highly competitive market of outsourced call centers, the ability to differentiate from the pack and provide an exemplary level of service is critical to success – particularly in...
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