Change is never easy, especially if you're a business owner. You budget, ponder, plan, compare, and discuss for what seems like forever only to determine that you still don't know what you're going to do. This morning I attempted the simple task of booking a flight. There were so many options and choices in front of me. I consulted websites, got quotes, weighed options, checked frequent flyer miles, compared more rates, played around with more options, visited more websites, made a chart, compared more rates again, calculated final costs, and made a decision. I may be a bit more thorough than most with decisions likes this, but I found this to be, in my mind, what it must be like for people to switch wireless carriers. Hear me out:
- Consulting websites: When any decision is made these days, we google things to get more information. Not sure what to eat for dinner? Research recipes for the ingredients you have. Not sure what fashions are in this year? Check out a store's website and see what's new. Not sure which car to buy? Visit reporting sites to gather information. We will Google and Google until our hearts are content, just to make sure we know what we're getting ourselves into. Finding out the intial information about the different wireless carriers is probably the most tedious and time-consuming task, but vital none-the-less.
- Getting quotes: we always want the best deal whether it be apples, televisions, or new wireless providers. We do fake orders on the same websites we used to gather our information just to see what the bottom line is. We call up connections and see if they can 'work us a deal.' Contacting the right source for the quote or proposal is the next valuable step in the process of changing carriers, and for many the most important.
- Weighing options: like I said, change isn't easy. Is this a good deal? Can we find a better deal? Does this fit within our budget, and if not, what can we/they change? Is this a good value for what we're receiving? Sometimes this part requires the 'sleep on it' attitude, and usually takes the longest.
- Playing around with more options: maybe you've decided that there are some problems with the intial quote and want a new one. Sometimes you need a second opinion. Maybe we can cut this here and add that there? The second go-around comes in here, and usually combines with my favorite step, making a graph. At this point, you should be narrowing down your options to 2-3 and getting close to finalizing.
- Caculating final costs: we're in the home stretch here! You've narrowed it down to 2 choices (hopefully) and are doing the final number crunching. You know what you want, who can give you the best cost, and are usually weighing what you consider to be the best value here. You do a few final test runs, attack that calculator one last time, hover your finger over the go button, anxiety at its highest point until you...
- MAKE A DECISION: hooray, we've made it! You've chosen your phones, your plans, and your costs (or in my case flight times, where I'm flying out of, and cheapest manipulation) and took the leap of faith. You made a trusted decision with much thought from both yourself, your advisors/joint decision-makers, and the wireless provider. You have determined the value, made the choice, and committed to it.
Every step of the way, there was something driving you to the goal, and other somethings keeping you from getting there. Making a major decision like changing wireless carriers can be stressful and nerve-wrecking, but sometimes you have to take flight to the better value to be happier in the long run.
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