Supplement Your Income

Money's tight and getting tighter. Jobs are in short supply and even those considered safe last year may not be next year. Other than shaking in your boots, what can you do?

How about getting another income stream going? You can use it to build up a rainy day fund, make up for expense increases or loss of investment income, and at least have a little something going if your worst nightmares come true at work.

People with a technical and/or business background are well positioned to supplement their incomes with what has traditionally been called a "side business." You have your main job and then you have an after-hours venture, paying hobby, or start-up business that generates additional income.

But doesn't it take a lot of time and effort to get a business off the ground? You bet it does. Anything that's worth your while and is sustainable is going to take some doing to get started. That's why it's much better to begin long before you're desperate. There isn't much you can do today that will put food on the table tomorrow. But there is a lot you can do now that will pay off handsomely in the months and years ahead.

I've got two good opportunities for you that meet the requirements of being real, legitimate business ventures that don't require much, if anything, in the way of start-up capital and can generate serious income over time. One works best for technical professionals who already have a main or side business in computers or business phone systems. The other works well for those who have an online presence or are good face to face networkers.

If you are already doing consulting work in a technical field or acting as a business consultant or independent sales rep, or have a business selling computer, networking, or telephone equipment, then the VAR Network is right for you. You may already recognize the term VAR as Value Added Reseller. That means you have a relationship with one or more equipment vendors and are authorized to sell on their behalf. Professional IT gear fits this description. But it can also mean a computer store or even someone who fixes equipment after hours for businesses around town.

The VAR Network gives you two things: Free leads for your business services from prospects in your area and the ability to sell business telecom line services such as T1 lines, Ethernet connections, PBX telephone trunks, and the like, without having to pay any fees to add these services to your offerings. You'll be paid monthly residual commissions on services your clients buy based on leads you submit. You'll also get leads from clients who need what you have to offer. Learn more about joining the VAR Network now.

Who Says You Can't Sell T1 Lines?

You've built a successful business selling business telephone systems or computer networking services, but you still fall short of offering your customers a comprehensive solution. The one thing missing is the PBX trunk lines or WAN network connections. Wouldn't you like a piece of this business, too?

Of course you would, but isn't that the purview of the phone companies? Yeah, that's what they want you to think. When business owners and consultants see that empty jack marked "T1" they often just call the local telco to provide the connection. They also often wind up paying way too much for their line services and the consultants get nothing or maybe some token referral fee for their trouble.

The reason everyone thinks of calling the local phone company is that as the ILEC, or Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier, they traditionally own the first mile connection. That's the copper twisted pairs that run from a punch block in the telephone closet to the nearest central office location. What's not as well known is that industry deregulation has allowed the growth of competitive carriers for everything from dedicated broadband Internet connections to local and long distance services, frame relay or MPLS networks, Virtual Private Networks, and even carrier Ethernet. In fact, some of the larger competitive carriers can now offer fiber connections from their own offices right to the customer without having to negotiate with the ILECs for first mile connectivity.

Now, here's where you cash in. One of the big reasons that competitive voice and data carriers can offer impressive cost savings is that they don't have the thousands of entrenched local sales offices with huge fixed administrative costs. Instead, most of their accounts are provided by independent master sales agencies such as Telarus, Inc., developer of the VAR Network. The VAR Network is an affiliation of independent marketing agents and business owners, such as yourself, who bring customer needs to them. As a VAR Network Partner, you have the opportunity to earn monthly commissions on those line services you give away to the phone company now.

But, wait a second. Aren't T1 and related line services a specialty unto themselves that requires special expertise and relationships with the carriers? You bet they are. But there's an organization already in place with that expertise and relationships. That's the VAR Network. You only need to be able to relate your client's requirements. The rest is taken care of.

Here's an example of how this works in practice. You've just contracted to design and install a new VoIP system, including running the network wiring and jacks, installing the handsets, and configuring the IP PBX system. You know that your customer needs a dozen outgoing phone lines and maybe 50 DID or Direct Inward Dialing numbers plus Caller ID for all phones. You probably also know that a T1 PRI trunk line is probably the best match for this situation, but there may be other solutions that are also attractive. SIP Trunking is a newer service that may also fit the requirements. You don't need to research that yourself. All you need to do is go into your VAR Network back office and put in a request for quote for a voice line that meets your customer's requirements.

Next, a line services consultant will call you or your customer (your choice) to refine the requirements further and suggest possible options. Detailed price quotes for several competing services will be sent by email. If the customer likes the price and terms, the consultant will send the appropriate carrier paperwork and help you and/or your customer to get it filled out and signed. After a credit check, the lines will be provisioned and turned up. Billing will commence and commissions will be paid. Part of the monthly commission check will be sent to you.

Yes, it's that easy. You've got clients that need line services. Carriers have lots and lots of bandwidth to sell at very attractive prices. You might as well step into the income stream and start collecting those commissions.

And you thought you couldn't sell T1 lines. Or Ethernet WANs or Gigabit Ethernet. Or managed routers. Or any of the many other services that are perfect for your customer's needs. Well now you can. It won't cost you anything to sign up, either. This opportunity doesn't cost, it pays. Learn more and sign-up at VAR Partner site before any more of those lucrative line service opportunities slip through your fingers.

Telarus, the New Face of Telecom Sales

Disruptive technology is reforming the telecommunications field. Wireless is disrupting the 100 year old wireline business. VoIP is disrupting the 50 year old digital voice trunking business. Competitive fiber optic carriers are disrupting the stranglehold of incumbent phone companies on metro and long haul data circuits. Ethernet and IP network cores are blurring the distinction between local and wide area networks.

Despite this revolution in technology, what hasn't changed much is the sales and marketing process for business telecommunications services. It's largely parochial, consisting of isolated channels with sluggish inquiry and price quote systems. To call it Web 1.0 would be generous. But what's wrong with that? After all, augmenting telephone, paper and fax based systems with online inquiry request forms, email communications, and brochure Web sites seems like just the enhancement needed to keep up with changing times.

It did seem that way, until someone came along and completely blew the equipment rack doors off the staid old telecom sales and marketing process. In the last five years, Telarus, Inc., has totally obliterated a century of incremental improvement in the industry. Rather than cut the inquiry-to-price-quote time on a T1 line from a few days to a few hours, they reduced it to a few seconds. Instead of bolstering the carrier-by-carrier response to a customer inquiry, they merged all the responses into a single report that compares similar services, say ISDN PRI trunks, by price for the same service from all participating carriers.

An overworked IT manager can get an automatic price quote for a triple-bonded T1 data line at 3 AM in under a minute, including the time needed to enter the business location and number. That same manager can call a toll free number anytime 24/7 to discuss WAN expansion needs or compare telephone trunking options with a technical and sales consultant.

What has Telarus done that others didn't? A lot of the answer is in rethinking the business process with an eye to automating as much as possible and providing rapidly responding human links for everything else. The core of their pricing system is a patented software system called GeoQuote. It connects directly to carrier databases to perform the engineering and cost calculations needed for the most popular T1 voice and data line services. They also broke up the marketing team into dedicated sales people who work directly with carriers and customers on a real-time basis, and dedicated marketing agents who focus on bringing in qualified business leads.

Re-engineering the traditional wireline sales and marketing process would have been innovation enough, but Telarus has gone on to expand the GeoQuote system to support Ethernet WAN services that don't touch the incumbent telcos. Prospective customers can enter their building address and get a map of the nearest fiber lit buildings and carrier POPs with distance listings. Once again, this automated system is available for both business hours and second or third shift inquiries. Response time is easily under a minute and phone support is always available for consultations, if desired.

Not satisfied with revolutionizing carrier services, Telarus has gone on to re-invent the equipment sales and services marketplace with a social networking approach called the VAR Network. Also totally automated, this system allows customers to enter form-based inquiries which are routed to member VARs (Value Added Resellers) within the appropriate geographical footprint nationwide. Once isolated business telephone and network equipment vendors can now tie into a system that feeds them warm leads via email from businesses in their service footprint that need the products and services they offer. Dealers also have the entire Telarus wireline marketing system at their disposal so that they can add T1, Ethernet and other bandwidth services to their line cards without having to develop in-house expertise in this field.

Little wonder, then, that Telarus has won numerous awards from carriers impressed with the sales volumes they bring in. Now Telarus has been just been announced as a Phone+ Top 50 Channel Program winner. All of this makes us beam with pride to be part of the Shop For T1, Shop For Ethernet and VAR Partner Network programs that are the Telarus marketing juggernaut.