Saturday, November 12, 2016

Saving Your Future- Taking my book to Youtube

As many of you may know, I wrote a book on how to secure a successful financial future and I published it in 2013.

After the publication, I purchased my first small business and focused my efforts there.  It's definitely been challenging and rewarding as I have worked with some very good people and I learn more and more every day on how to be a better boss and a better businessman.

With almost 3 years in the cellular business, I wanted to take some time to evaluate and focus on other efforts as well.  As a result, I decided I am going to make videos for my book and post them on YouTube to accomplish one of two objectives, but hopefully both.

Objective 1 - Sell More Books.  Over the past few years I have sold somewhere around 2-3 books per month with minimal amount of focus or promotion. Let's face it, growing a small business and also growing a not as small family takes time.  I am hoping that the YouTube channel will allow me to get the word out about my book a bit more and drive additional sales.  I also see it as intriguing to see if this will help increase sales and I'm the type of person that finds this type of experiment interesting.

Objective 2 - Share the information.  To me, it's so important in life to share what you have, what you know and what you have learned with others.  I feel like if you know something that can help someone else succeed, it's your obligation to share it.  I also find it rewarding to help others and I believe it also helps me learn.

With that, take a look at my YouTube Channel

Also, consider buying a copy of my book Saving Your Future here

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Why Verizon Wireless Device Payment Plan is a good deal

Everyone wants to save money and get a great deal right?  We all do.  We also understand math, which will tell us that paying $650 for a phone is a lot more than paying $199.  That's obvious to everyone.  Well, what if I tell you that paying the $650 price is cheaper for you than paying the $199?  You would want to hear why, right?   Well, I'm about to tell you how.

Let's first get a disclaimer out of the way:  Although I am the owner of the Wireless Zone franchise stores in Herndon, VA and South Riding, VA, I do not represent Verizon Wireless directly and all concepts, opinions and discussion herein is mine and in no way reflects the thoughts, values, positions or opinions, etc of Verizon corporate.  In plain English, I'm representing myself as far as what I am saying, just like if I wrote a blog article about how much I like the Samsung Galaxy S7, I am not a spokesperson for Samsung.  

With the disclaimer out of the way, let's get into how the Device Payment Plan (DPP) works and how it differs from the historic way things worked and how it is good for you.

First, let's discuss history.  As we all know, when the initial iPhone was launched, the only way you could buy it was to go to an Apple store and pay them $700 for the device.  You then got an unlocked phone that could be used on your network.   Soon thereafter Apple signed an exclusive deal with our competitor (who shall remain unnamed).  It was only when the carrier came into play that we saw a subsidized cost on the phone.  In other words, Verizon and the other lower quality carriers (sorry, I know I don't represent Verizon directly, but I do stand by them strongly and for good reason) began to pay part of the cost of the device in order to obtain customers.  The fact that they were getting your business for two years and you were paying for their service allowed them to recoup the cost of the phone that they were paying.  Sticking to the same example, on a $650 phone, you were paying $200 and they had to pay the other $450.

Fast forward to about 2013 and one carrier brought over the European model which said you pay for your device separate from the service provider.  That model caught on.

What does this mean for me?

Well, instead of charging you $40 for your line access (unlimited talk and text), because you chose DPP, Verizon is able to lower your line access charge down to $20 instead of $40.  They also provide 0% financing on the device and they break it into 24 monthly payments for easy installments.  Therefore, when you consider that you would have otherwise paid $200 up front when you "bought" the phone and then $40 per month, your true cost is $40 plus $8.33 ($200 you paid divided by 24 months even though you paid that $200 up front).  So your line access plus device cost was $48.33 all in (before taxes and fees).  Now instead, if you put no money down, you would pay $20 for the line access, plus $27.08 for the DPP payment to cover the device cost.   The total is $47.08, which is cheaper than $48.33 every day of the week.

Some might say, saving about $1 a month is no big deal so why bother with the DPP?  Well, if $1 per month in your pocket isn't enough, you also pay a smaller upgrade or activation fee ($40 for 2 yr vs. $20 for DPP) and you are no longer locked into a 2 year contract.  If for any reason you wanted to terminate your contract (which you might if you were on another carrier, but Verizon, why would you?), you could do so.  Also, if the next device that comes out is one you just have to upgrade to, you certainly can.  All you need to do is pay off the rest of your device.   Even better, for some devices you only need to pay off 50% of the device in order to trade it in and get an upgrade.

When you look at the options available to you on DPP vs. a 2 year plan, its clear that for just about anyone the DPP is the clear winner.

If you want to learn more, check out our website at www.wirelesszone.com/herndon and www.wirelesszone.com/southriding  Come in and see us and we can explain this to you based on your individual plan, as sometimes there is even more savings available depending on your particular scenario and plan you currently have.

We are located at 13340 Franklin Farm Rd Herndon, VA 20171 in the Giant and Starbucks plaza and at 25031 Riding Plaza Suite 125 South Riding, VA in the Home Depot Plaza 


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