Many of us often focus all our attention on increasing revenue and profits in our fashion businesses that sometimes we fail to realize that having a higher disposable income, i.e. more money to spend, is not only possible by increasing our cash inflow but also by reducing our expenses. Simply put, cutting costs saves you money! And YES we know we need to cut costs but just have no clue how to go about it since everything we spend our money on seems vital to the business. However, there is always a way… if you know how…
Today, I’ll draw your attention to an expense caption in the books that gulps so much of our money that if computed over a period can actually buy all the machinery we need and even pay salaries for the next 12 months! Any idea?
Yup! PHONE BILLS! Those things I hate to see at the end of each month and which makes my heart beat faster anytime I check my account balance. Yeah.. this may be the happy face 😀 I have when talking to friends, family and customers but then it quickly turns to: 🙁 when I see my credit balance at the end of the month & when it’s time to pay my bills! Yeah… not a happy time for me at all I tell you. Thankfully I use a post-paid line else it would have been much worse!
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Many people ask why I use a post paid line. Well I ask how possible it is for an entrepreneur not to use a post paid or contract line. The excuses I usually get when I advise people to get post-paid lines are “I will be unable to control myself” or “I would rather pay as I go along so that when I run out, I know I’m out and I do not run into debt”. All I say is HA! Like seriously?!
I doubt a lot of people chat as much as I do. Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that I can gist for state and country! One of my most shocking moments was when I got banned from Facebook chat for reaching my chat limit. Like really, who gets banned from FB chat?! I didn’t even know there was any such thing as a FB chat limit. BUT one thing I realized was that no matter how long my conversations last for, my bills are ridiculously reasonable in comparison with the costs I would have incurred if I was using a pay as you go line. AND I have a chat limit. Interestingly enough and contrary to what people think, I chat more when I have a positive balance and begin to watch how long I spend on the phone the minute I hit a negative balance since I do not want to get disconnected.
And why do post paid lines make so much sense?! I’ll tell you just now!
1st, your bills are cut by half! Ok forget the fact that you can’t make free midnight calls but seriously, why should you be calling people in the middle of the night anyway?!
2nd, your phones do not go off in the middle of a conversation! There is nothing more embarrassing and more unprofessional than telling your customer, “Sorry, I ran out of credit!” Oh yah, I forgot. Blame it on the network why don’t you?!
3rd, you have a credit limit. Anyone in business or business school would tell you the best way to finance your business is to leverage on credit facilities to enable you have sufficient cash flow to run the business. In other words, try to buy assets and raw materials on hire purchase or credit facilities where you buy now and pay later, or in instalments. So if this can be done on assets, why not extend the same towards your phone bills and work towards paying the bills.
RECENTLY, I discovered an even amazing communication facility that cut my bills even further and no is not limited to post paid lines only! I’m not even sure if it applies to post-paid lines. Closed User Group (CUG)! I actually knew about it like 2 years ago but never got round to getting one set up for my staff and I till like last month or so and it has been completely amazing! And I tell you, this really is the way forward for business owners!
On my current CUG plan, paying N1,000 a month for each of the 3 lines within the Group gives me 500 free minutes to talk to anyone within my CUG and reduces my call costs to those outside the Group to I think 25k per second as against 50k per second. That’s about N12,500 worth of free phone calls and about N8,000 savings in my pocket for handing out more instructions over the phone 😀 And the best part is, you can add as many numbers to the CUG list and call your tailor, driver, accountant, marketer, you name it.
AND even better! At Oja Ara the other day, I discovered a company which offers CUG platforms on all networks at an even better deal. With their CUG plan, you actually talk for free throughout the month! @ least that’s what they told me! I think many telecomms companies actually offer a CUG plan. Now THAT’s what I’m talking about!
So there you have it! Be more efficient and get chatting for free! You know what BT says… “It’s good to talk!”
Have a good day people!
PS. Pictures culled from the internet
Thanks for the info! But are you sure the info on the flyer is current?…it says "Etisalat"…if you understand what I mean
"Sorry, I ran out of credit!" Oh yah, I forgot. Blame it on the network why don't you?!" LOL….That got me in stitches!! But truly though, you can get away with that…Naija networks no dey try abeg!
Still LOLing at your being banned from FB chat!!! Not a small somtin!