For many businesses, communication costs are eating up much of their profits. When you go to the phone company, asking for a business account automatically doubles your phone or internet bill. What these communication companies need to realize is that small businesses around the country are struggling and need help. If they won’t give it to them, they will find it on their own. Many times, that means dumping them and paying less for communication services.

In the Atlanta area, on average 1 business telephone line is apx. $100.00 plus taxes etc. If you work in an office where they may need 4 – 8 telephone lines, that would be a cost of $400-$800 dollars per month. For a small business, that is a lot of money and this does not include internet. Internet is another $100.00 per month.

Because of technology, small businesses have a chance to lower their communication costs up to 70%.

Internet
As a small business, you need a secure, fast and reliable internet connection. This is the base of you saving money on your communication costs.

Types of Internet Connections

DSL- (A Digital Subscriber Line) is issued by the telephone company. The father away from your providers hub the less reliable your internet connection will be. In major cities, this is usually not a problem. However, in areas will less population, you should check with your provider to see how far you are from their hub. The maximum distance from a hub to get reliable internet connection from your dsl provider is around 8000 feet.

DSL is a good option for offices or storefront retail locations that need internet and a few telephone lines. DSL comes in either ADSL (Asymmetric digital subscriber line) or the rarer SDSL (Symmetric digital subscriber line). With ADSL, it means your upload speed is lower than your download speed. With SDSL, upload and download speed are the same. ADSL costs less than SDSL.

SDSL is a cheaper alternative to T1 lines.

ADSL apx. costs (for businesses) From $49.00 – $199.00 per month – Depends on speed
SDSL apx. costs (for businesses) From $99.00 – $300.00 per month -Depends on speed

Cable Internet

Cable internet is starting to gain steam. It is internet service delivered through a cable company’s line. Sometimes called fiber optic internet service. Unlike DSL, the distance from your providers hub does not impact speed or quality of service. Speeds are 15x faster than DSL with around the same price,many times cheaper. Like DSL, cable internet’s upload speed is less than download speeds.

Cable Internet Cost (apx. $49.99 – $125.00) for really fast speeds.

T1 Internet Connection
A T1 internet connection is a dedicated internet connection from your provider to your place of business, with the exact same upload and download speed of 1.544 mbs. This speed is faster than residential internet service but slower than cable. For most business, this will be more than enough speed for what you need to do. Most T1 providers offer service guarantees. They promise a 99.9% availability for your internet service. If there is a problem, they will fix it immediately.

With a T1 line, it is broken up in 24 nodes therefore, your provider can split those nodes up. For example, you can have 24 voice calls at the same time, or 10 voice calls and 14 people on the internet. This internet connection is most used with a VOIP (voice over ip phone service). This is the connection most VOIP providers recommend when you are doing VOIP.

Secure, fast, service guarantee of availability.

T1 Pricing From $250.00 – $900.00 per month. This service usually has a 3 year contract, installation fees and cancellation fees. Your provider will install a professional router/modem in your place of business.

Good for small – medium sized businesses who have high internet use or want to use VOIP and have the need for multiple telephone lines and mission critical applications and cannot afford to ever be down.

Also good for those who do not have access to DSL, or Cable internet.

Now is when the savings come in. Once you have your internet connection, you can then add telephone lines that work through your internet connection. VOIP has come a long way and many businesses today are switching to VOIP to save money.

VOIP
VOIP (Voice over IP) means just that. Sending voice through your internet connection instead of an analog telephone line. Many different companies do VOIP. From Vonage to many smaller companies.

VOIP requires a high speed internet connection. Once you have that you can get connected with a VOIP company for your telephone calls.

Please see the VOIP article for additional information.

When you apply for a merchant account, Your business information as well as your personal information is checked and verified. At minimum, a credit check is run in order to assess the risk to your merchant account. In addition to running your credit, whenever you sign the merchant account agreement, you personally guarantee that merchant account. For instance, lets say you close your business. However, 2 weeks before you close, you get a chargeback that you lose. You now owe that money back to your merchant account provider. Let’s say your business has no more money (That’s why you are going out of business), you will be personally responsible for the amount owed.

What if you don’t want your credit checked (Maybe you have bad credit, or about to buy a home and don’t want inquiries on your credit report), or what if you don’t want to personally guarantee your merchant account?

Your merchant account application will be scrutinized much more because you don’t sign a personal guarantee.
Here are a few things you will be asked for when applying for a merchant account without personal guarantee:

• DnB Number
• Tax ID Number
• P&L Statements
• 2-3 years taxes
• 3 Months Merchant Statements (If previously processed)
• Articles of Incorporation

Those are the documents you should be prepared to submit to a merchant account provider if you would like a merchant account without a credit check or a personal guarantee.

In business, How do you choose your vendors? This is a very important aspect of running your business because the right vendor will help you succeed, the wrong vendor will help you fail.

When it comes to accepting credit cards, it is vital that you choose the right merchant account processor to fit your business. Accepting credit cards and merchant accounts are directly related to your cash flow. Over 60% of commerce in America is completed using some form of electronic payment.

Considerations when evaluating your local bank

If you want to accept credit cards, It’s usually very easy to go into your local bank, open up a checking account and a merchant account. However, your local bank may not be the best place for you to have your merchant account. The majority of local banks today do not handle merchant accounts. They outsource it to Acquirers or ISO’s. This means, when you open a merchant account at your bank, they are really giving you a referral to an organization they use for merchant accounts.

The pro’s on this approach is you won’t have to search for a reputable company yourself and you will feel a sense of security. If my bank says it’s okay, then it must be good.

With your local bank, that’s where the pro’s end. When you enter into a merchant account agreement this way, you rarely negotiate rate, equipment prices, or type of merchant account. You basically take what the bank has negotiated with this merchant account provider. It may be good or it may not be good.

If and or when you have a problem, you cannot call your local bank for assistance, instead you are given an 800 number to a call center where no one knows who you are and frankly, where no one cares about your business. Situations get frustrating really fast and you end up wasting time, money and effort for the simplest things.

It is prudent to consider your local bank for merchant processing. When you do, make sure you find out who the merchant processing company is and research that company by it’s own merits. After all, it is a separate company.

Speak with that merchant processing company and ask about the right merchant account for your business type, negotiate rate, fees, and equipment prices. Find out there policies on funding times, risk management, chargebacks, holds, and timetable when fees are deducted from your account. Make sure you find out about time of contract as well as cancellation fees.

Last but not least, find out about there service. What are there customer service hours? Get there customer service number and call it. What type of reception do you get? Are the customer service reps knowledge? What is the hold time to speak with a Representative? Are you willing to put up with there level of service?

When you have this information, call 5 more merchant account processors and start all over again.

I know it’s a lot of work, but the work you put in now will save you time, money and frustrations later.

Here is a video that aired on Georgia Public Broadcasting featuring John Weiland, The Founder and Chairman of John Weiland Homes and Neighborhoods. A very successful Builder in the Southeast. He offers some great pointers about how he started his business and how he became successful. He also offers some down to earth pointers for business owners. Check it Out! Great Stuff.

It’s not a matter of if you should accept credit cards but who should be your provider and how much it will cost your business. Here is a simple rundown on how merchant accounts are billed so you can better determine the best provider for your business.

See more at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1549729/how_merchant_account_fees_are_billed.html