More Than Money

Have you ever asked yourself "Why am I starting my own business?" There are all sorts of reasons people start their own business, from freedom from corporate life to doing what they truly love. I really thing that the latter is the best reason to start your own business. I know some people start their own business because they want to be rich. Although getting rich can be a good goal when starting a business, it should not be your primary focus. Most people who start their own business do not get rich per 'se, those who get the riches monitarly are a moderate percentage. Getting to the point of being "rich" comes after many years of struggling though life with very little money and lots of hard work. Success does not come overnight like a Fedex delivery, but more like a third class package from the Post Office. And if you know the Post Office, there is a chance he package may get lost. The true riches which come out of owning your own business are the intrensic ones, such as having more time for your family, taking vacation when you want, doing something you truly love to do, and not having to drive to the office everyday. Remember, when the money does not come rolling in the door, that the rewards of owning your own business are more than money.

Thought for the Day...

Being Loved as a Leader is not as Important as being Respected ~ Eric Wichhart

Telephones 101

As a business owner one of the biggest capital purchases you shall make is purchasing a telephone system for your business. Your telephone system is your lifeline to the outside world. We run our business off of the telephone and without it our business is bound to fail. With the telephone system being a key factor in the success of any business, why do people spend less time researching the purchase of a telephone system than they do buying a copier? The bottom line I believe is that they do not understand the value of their telephone system. So often we think of a telephone as just an article on our desk, like a stapler, that we don’t realize that telephones have as many options as buying a car. That leads to the purpose of this article, to help you make the best buying decision when purchasing a telephone system.

Different Types of Telephone Systems
Telephone systems fall into three basic categories: PBX (Public Base eXchange), Key systems and Other. PBX systems are designed for larger businesses of over 100 employees. They are the most robust systems, but at the same time tend to be the most expensive, not only in upfront costs but also in continual maintenance. If you purchase a PBX system, you are more than likely going to either have a fulltime telephone technician or a contracted outsourced vendor to support this switch. If you think you need a PBX style of telephone switch, I highly recommend you hire an outside consultant to help you make your purchasing decisions. The vast amounts of factors which affect the purchasing decisions of a PBX are outside the scope of this article.

The second type of telephone system is a Key system. A Key system is the most popular system for small businesses due to its overall lower cost, and reliability. A basic Key system is made up of three components: a main switching unit, the desk telephones and a voice mail unit which is optional and sometimes intergraded into the main switching unit. The main switching unit is the brains of the system. It takes the incoming and outgoing call and routes them to the proper location. It in essence acts like an automated operator. The desk telephone is the device you see sitting on your desk and is used for user input and output. The voice mail unit handles all the aspects of your voice mail including the recording and storing of greetings and voice mails. It also handles call processing in most cases. An example of Call Processing is when you dial a company and a recording comes on the line, greets you and tells you to press one for this and press two for that. Key systems have many attributes which make them the most popular telephone systems in small businesses. They have many standard features such as intercom, multi-line phones and expandability, but each system has a different set of standard and optional features which the buyer should take into consideration when purchasing a system.

The final type of telephone system is Other. These systems can vary in type and design but the latest systems to come on the market in this category are the PC based systems, the small office systems found at many office stores and IP based systems. Systems in this category tend to be sold as the latest and greatest system on the market, but often times leave the customer with a less than appetizing taste in their mouth after a year or so. The big selling point of the PC based systems is that they offer the capabilities of a PBX system at the Key system price. What aspiring businessman would not jump at the chance to have all the features of a Lexus at the cost of a Honda? The biggest problem with PC base systems is the reliability. Key and PBX systems have been around for over 20 years and have been built on a reliable and proven technology. PC based systems are based on the unreliable PC. Don’t get me wrong, I love PC’s. As part of my consulting business I work on the constantly, but I do believe they have their place. If you work on a PC you know that they need to be rebooted and they have problems, so why would you want to replace a piece of equipment that is so reliable it might need to be rebooted every couple years with something that might have to be rebooted daily or weekly? That to me is probably the biggest issue with PC based systems. The second, which we will cover more later in this article, is serviceability. If you buy this from Joe down the street and he goes out of business, who is going to service this? The second type of system that fits in this category is the little systems you find down at the office store. This seems to be a hot market right now because of the popularity of small home based businesses and that is the best place for these telephone systems. If you have a need for less than 10 telephones, you do not have a high call volume and are not in need of flexibility these systems may be right for you. They are inexpensive to purchase and maintain and best of all they can be installed by you. Many of them also offer excellent features that compare to the more expensive Key systems such as voice mail and intercom. All of these systems do have limitations on the number of telephones supported and also the number of outside telephone lines. Usually they are limited to ten phones and four lines, but each system is different so do your research before purchasing one. One important thing to look at if you are looking at ones with portable phones is that they do not operate in the 2.4 GHz range if you plan on using any wireless networking in your office. These telephones will interfere with your network and cause slower connections over the wireless.

The final type of telephone system is IP based telephones. You will often hear this referred to as Voice over IP or VoIP. If you would like to learn more about this, please read my article Straight Talk on IP Telephony. A good rule of thumb for IP based telephones, at least as of the publishing of this article, is that unless you have an enterprise level business or have lots of remote offices that all need to talk to each other, IP Telephony is not for you.
Picking a System
There are several factors that you need to take into consideration when purchasing a telephone system. Many time people do not consider a telephone system as a long term investment, but a good telephone system can last a company ten years. This is especially true for companies whose office staff does not grow rapidly. The biggest factors that need to be addresses when purchasing a system are: reliability, cost, expandability, functionality and serviceability.

Reliability is first and foremost the top quality you should look for in a system. Most businesses rely on their connection to the outside world to make their business go. Therefore having your telephone system down will cause you money in lost sales and bad customer service. Having a reliable telephone system makes sure that your customers can contact you and your employees can return those important messages. Also, when a system is not reliable you are constantly having the repair technician onsite and whenever he is onsite, it is costing you money. Systems which are not reliable can also cost you in employee moral. When the phones are down, employees are unhappy because they cannot do their work.

The second factor to take into consideration is cost. When you first hear me mention cost, the first thought that came across your mind was how big of a check am I going to have to write to buy this system. Although this is a big factor in the decision making, I ask that you take it one step further and think down the road. As we discussed earlier a telephone system can last ten years, so in economic terms the money up place upfront is only the initial investment, the real costs are down the road. Let’s get back to our car buying experience again. When you buy a car you don’t just look at the sticker price, although that is a factor, you look at the cost of ownership. You look at things like, how often does this car have to be in the shop, what is the MPG, how many miles will it last, and how long will this car fit my needs. The same considerations need to be looked at when buying a telephone system. Some systems have a very low cost of ownership and some have a very high one, it is up to you to decide which one is right for you.

Next we look at expandability. How will this system fit your future needs? To determine this you first need to look at the vision for your company. Are you planning on staying your current size or is your growth going to double or triple your size in the next few years? Is this system maxed out when you buy it so that if you add one more person you may have to replace the system? No matter how you envision the future of your company, you should always leave yourself some room to grow. Don’t buy a two seat economy car when you and your spouse are planning on having three kids in the next few years. Often times you may just need to spend a small amount extra to give yourself the room to grow don’t short change your future by being thrifty today.

Having the functionality to meet your needs requires a lot of thought on your part, but also requires system knowledge on your vendor’s part. Often times when we look for a telephone system we call around to a couple local vendors and ask for a quote for X number of telephones and X number of lines, but what we don’t look at is functionality. How will that telephone system fit my needs? Different phone systems have different standard functions and different optional components. For instance, two of the most popular Key systems are the Partner by Avaya and the Norstar by Nortel. The Partner has a downfall that if you do not have a main receptionist, I would not recommend it because all unanswered calls go to the operator, whereas the Norstar does not have this problem, although the Norstar does not have some of the features in the Partner. This is not to say one is better than the other, because I would recommend both of them. This is to say that one is better than the other in different circumstances and vise-versa. The key to functionality is communication and product knowledge. When the customer and the vendor are on the same page, the customer will be happy with their selection. This is why I would also recommend working with a vendor who sells multiple brands of systems.

The final factor and probably the one that is least thought about is serviceability. When you purchase a brand X telephone system from Joe’s Telephones down the road and next year Joe goes out of business, who will service your telephones. Some more obscure brands of telephone systems are only serviced by one company in the local area and sometimes you will not be able to find someone that is willing even to take a look at a system, especially if it falls in the Other category. I recommend that after you decide n a brand of system, call around and find out how many other companies’ service that same brand. Additionally, if you find that only one vendor services and sells a particular brand that should be a clue to the popularity of that brand.

In the end buying a telephone system is a bigger decision than most people think. Having all the knowledge available so you are an informed consumer is the best defense against buyer’s remorse. If you do not have the time to become informed, find a good consultant or vendor who is willing to help you sort through your current and future needs and find a system that best fits your company.

The Point

The point of being rich is not to be better than the other guy, but to better the other guy. ~ Eric Wichhart

Are You an Optimist?

Are you and Optimist or a pessimist? The answer to this question will reflect in several areas in your life from how successful you are and how healthy you will be in the long run.Did you know that being an optimist can give you less health problems and make you more successful? Columnist Connie Glaser studies this further in here article Optimism essential for success.