This one caught me. With my own little girl in business and me having periods of mobility where I'm away from my computer for long periods of time, I thought, Hmmm... Smart phone. Then, Hmmmm... Verizon (we currently have T-Mobile). With a few hours a day for a week while my older daughter was in Vacation Bible School, I took time to shop phones and plans. It didn't take me but two days to think, "I'd rather be car shopping." Oh my gosh! It's like comparing apples and tomatoes - they're both fruits, they're both red, but that's about it. They serve different functions, are used in different recipes and taste very different. The same with phone and plan shopping.
I'll spare you the gory details, but by the end of the week, I didn't have a new mobile carrier, nor did I get a new phone. I'd gotten caught up in the whole thing! My ocean blue Sony-Ericsson flip phone is covered with paint chips (apparently this is a normal complaint with this phone), and it's developed this really annoying habit of turning itself off at the least opportune times. At the time, AT&T was looking to acquire T-Mobile, and I really didn't want what AT&T would be bringing to the table. However, since then, the FAA has squelched the merger and T-Mobile is improving its coverage areas.
So, with a flip phone (for a few more months) and my non-Verizon mobile service, what can I do to make my small business grow? I can use that phone (yes, it's really more than a camera, Tweeting device and mode of updating my Facebook statuses) to make phone calls. I can arrange meetings and make cold calls. How cool is that? I can even use my less-than-smart phone to run credit card sales.
Enjoy cool, cute, well-created commercials, but don't get sucked in. Good commercials are made to get you to buy stuff. Take the time and make sure you're buying something you really need, not just what you want. I'll be replacing my phone so I can take care of my emails when I'm traveling, but that's after almost a year of shopping and comparing phones.
What great commercials have you seen recently? How likely will you be to buy those products based on those commercials?
