Pro Tips: Choosing the Best Mobile Plan for Your Startup
Choosing the right mobile plan isn’t exactly like shopping for books, or shoes, or fun new gadgets. It’s a vaguely stressful, confusing process that tends to frustrate you as you attempt to browse through offers that all sound the same to you. However, as annoying as it might appear to be, finding a good mobile plan for your startup doesn’t actually have to be tiresome at all.
Since most businesses are allowing their employees to work remotely these days, a good phone plan is now more important than ever. In order to make this process as easy as possible for you, we’ve decided to share a few tips that will help you find a good deal for your startup. Here’s what you need to pay attention to when browsing.
Understand how your workers intend to use their phones
What does your employee need on a daily basis? Will they spend most of their time at the office and only occasionally take a call? Do they work with a lot of different clients and constantly need to be available? Do they have to travel between a lot of different locations during the day?
Employees who don’t work with a lot of clients and rarely have to leave the office might only need a basic phone with a wireless service, while salespeople who are constantly on the go might need a more comprehensive data plan.
You should also take into consideration how much communication will be done over calls, and how much of it will be done through emails or messaging. All of these factors can help you figure out what to do.
Choose a provider with good customer service
You have to find a provider with a good reputation if you want to get a good deal. If you want to browse mobile offers and find that one that will really suit you, look for a company that has good customer service. A customer service representative can get on the phone with you and explain all the details of every plan you’re considering, and you can often ask them to tailor a deal that will truly suit your company.
Customer service will be important even after you sign up for a plan – in case anything goes wrong with the phone plan or you need any kind of clarifications, you want a company that can respond quickly and help you out.
Consider international travel
Most companies offer special mobile plans for people who do a lot of international travel. If you stick to a regular plan bear in mind that any kind of overseas phone call will likely result in exorbitant costs, so consider what your employees will really need.
Do they travel abroad on a regular basis? Or maybe they have a lot of clients who live in different countries all over the world. Maybe your business is international itself – if you have headquarters in different countries, you will likely deal with a lot of mobile roaming charges.
Consider the size of your business
Since you’re running a startup, chances are that your company doesn’t have too many employees yet, so you are likely to be ineligible for the really good business mobile plans. This means that you’ll probably rely on buying each of your employees an individual plan until the business grows. Once your business starts growing and you hire more people, you can contact the customer service and ask to sign up for a big business plan.
Business plans usually come with very good services for your employees. For example, you can get fast phone delivery, which means that your phone will quickly get replaced in case it gets lost or stolen. This can be crucial for a running business.
Make a budget
If you’re still finding your feet as a company, there’s really no need to splurge on pricey mobile plans. Consider your current needs and plan your budget around them exclusively, because you can easily expand your contract later on.
There is absolutely no need to invest in an international mobile business plan yet if you only have a handful of employees and you don’t do all that many international calls on a monthly basis. A simple individual consumer contract can do the job just fine.
To summarize
Figure out how much your employees need mobile communication, whether it will be international, and what kind of technical skills they possess. Basically, consider the needs of your business carefully, and see how much of your budget you can allocate for a good mobile plan.