Posted by Toots on 1/8/05 6:15pm
Msg #15880

Cut faxing costs

Does anyone do their post closing by scanning and emailing instead of faxing? I tried to do one but the after scanning 6-8 pages, the email size was about 1400kb. A large email with pdf doc attachments. Does anyone know how to compress attachments?

Reply by MI_Notary on 1/8/05 8:28pm
Msg #15900

You could try the free zip software to zip it prior to sending. However, the person on the other end would need the same software to unzip. I like the signing companies who offer a 1-800 fax number. That way the cost is not on you.

Reply by CaliNotary on 1/9/05 3:48am
Msg #15933

How much could you possibly be spending per month on faxes? My phone bill went up about 5 bucks per month when I started doing this full time. Faxing is a cost of doing business, don't be such a penny pincher.

Reply by Toots on 1/9/05 4:36am
Msg #15938

My phone bill up $95 - faxing agent packets and post closings. Business phone lines are expensive.

Reply by maureen/nh on 1/9/05 5:41am
Msg #15941

Do you run a yellow pages ad? Is it paying off for you? This is the only reason I have found to have a business line unless there are other factors I am not aware of.

Reply by Clay/TX. on 1/9/05 9:31am
Msg #15952

If you have a high speed internet connection (DSL or Cable), you might try a Voice Over IP service. You can keep your current phone number. You also get free long distance and all the same features offered by you current phone company (voice mail, caller id, call waiting, etc.). I use Lingo and it's only $19.95 a month. With tax and fees, it's less than $25 a month. They also give you one month free when you sign up and you will get another $25 credit if you let me refer you. If you are interested, my email address is [e-mail address].

Reply by Julie-MI on 1/9/05 8:40am
Msg #15948

Couldn't have said it better, myself, CaliNotary.

Try TalkAmerica if it's available in your area. My bill has never been over $54 inlcuding state and federal taxes.

Reply by sue on 1/9/05 8:08am
Msg #15946

I've got a calling card from Sams. Not sure what I pay per minute but it's very cheap if you buy a lot of minutes at a time.

Reply by Susie/CA on 1/9/05 11:11am
Msg #15959

Onesuite.com . . best deal around

Reply by CarolynCO on 1/9/05 11:12am
Msg #15960

Re: Don't change instructions on your own

Fax charges are a very minimal monthly business expense that can be deducted on your taxes. As for scanning/emailing tPDF attachments, as has been pointed out, the SS must have the same compression program you use, and unless the SS specifically says to email instead of faxing, I wouldn't take it upon myself to do it on my own.

Reply by Gerry/VT on 1/9/05 11:31am
Msg #15964

When you scan, your scanning software may have a box where you can describe what the document is, or what it is for. Try selecting something along the lines of "Black and White" or "Text" or "Laser Printing" and see if that reduces the file size.

Reply by Toots on 1/9/05 1:41pm
Msg #15974

Perhaps the title of my post should have been...."Cut back telephone bill". I need to have a business line because I run two other businesses in my office. I need to keep a seperate line to run faxes and credit card transactions. There are some cheaper telephone rates but it applies only to residential accounts or digital lines (for voice only - won't work for data). I'm paying almost double for high speed internet for the office because it is a commercial account.

And, since I've been aggressively marketing my SA services, my phone bill sky roketed due to the significant increase in faxing I've been doing, we're not talking pennies or few dollars here. So, perhaps we can keep the sarcasm to ourselves, heh?

Reply by CaliNotary on 1/9/05 3:05pm
Msg #15983

We weren't being sarcastic. Phone bills are a cost of doing business. If you've been aggressively marketing your SA services it's likely to pay for itself many times over. Suck it up and deal with it.

Reply by Toots on 1/9/05 3:53pm
Msg #15987

If there isn't a sensible or justifiable way to cut back on certain business expense, so be it. I don't see the harm in asking around if anyone had any ideas without being accused of being a "penny pincher." A phone bill that went up from $150 to $245 should be looked into.

Cali, You appear to be smart and an experienced SA and have valuable information to share with others on this board. But sometimes you ought to bight your lip and loose the sarcasm. The intention here is not to offend you, I do enjoy reading your posts most of the time. But you shouldn't draw your conclusions on people by the questions they ask on this board.

If I kept on complaining about my phone bill inspite of what responses I've gotten on my post, then perhaps you can tell me to "suck it up". Turn the table around, I might do the same. But you don't need to be so negative right from the start. You decided that since you experienced a $5 increase in your phone bill, then I shouldn't be complaining about my phone bill. I wasn't talking about $5, but you didn't know that yet you were sure to call me a "penny pincher." You know, if you give people a chance, they might be smarter than what you think.

Reply by Terri Garner on 1/9/05 4:07pm
Msg #15992

Unfortunately, faxing is a cost of doing this business. I have one client that wants a barge full of items faxed back. During a very nice conversation with the one in charge, I mentioned the number of pages required to be faxed back, that I would have to charge them back for the excessive number of pages (to a non-800 number mind you). She agreed. So now, I charge them $10 on top of the agreed signing fee and they have paid it.

When you take an assignment and you know that there will be fax backs, adjust your fee to accomodate them if necessary, or ask them if they can waive their "fax back requirements" for you.

Many of us who post here, do not have "business" lines but residential, thus our costs have not gone up as yours seem to have. My husband recently investigated "vonage" which is a Voice over IP system. They have a separate package for fax lines. You might want to check into that, I believe it was $25/month. Something to check out for sure.

Good luck with your business.

Terri
Lancaster, CA

Reply by CaliNotary on 1/9/05 7:01pm
Msg #16009

Do you have any idea what sarcasm means? There is nothing sarcastic about my reply to you.

You're the one who stated " There are some cheaper telephone rates but it applies only to residential accounts or digital lines (for voice only - won't work for data)" which implies that you've already looked into ways to reduce the cost of your business line and found that you were unable to do so. So if you're stuck with that phone bill then you're stuck with it. In other words, suck it up and deal with it and get yourself enough new business to cover the additional expense. It's not negative for me to say that, it's a reality of doing business.

Of course if you truly were smarter than you think I thought you are, I'm sure it's already occurred to you that you can plug your fax machine into your residential line and send outgoing faxes on a number where you *ARE* able to get discount residential rates.

(The last paragraph was sarcastic. Deliberately worded that way so you can learn to recognize the difference)

Reply by CaliNotary on 1/9/05 7:20pm
Msg #16012

And one more thing

If you're familiar with my posts on this board, then you should know by now that I respond to posts how I respond to posts. Telling me to be nicer or to word things differently ain't gonna work so you might as well give that up right now. If people are too sensitive to deal with me, they have the option of ignoring my posts.

And don't take it personally. I'm not drawing conclusions about you personally, I'm responding to the information that you choose to put in your post. If there's other relevant information it's YOUR job to include it, not my job to guess what it might be.

Reply by Becky on 1/9/05 8:13pm
Msg #16022

Maybe people shouldn't be guessing?????

Reply by CarolynCO on 1/9/05 4:20pm
Msg #15994

I take it that the two other businesses you operate are not from your home? Since 1992 when starting my own secretarial business, I had a separate line run into the house so I could have a dedicated fax which, at that time, also served as the line for the dial up modem before internet broadband was available in my area. So for 13 years, I've been paying for two phone lines -- granted, not as much as your phone bills, but still two bills monthly. As has been mentioned, I purchase 800 minute calling cards for a little over $20 and use for it long distance voice calls and faxes.

Reply by HisHughness on 1/9/05 5:07pm
Msg #15998

My phone company, SBC, offers a distinctive ring function, with a different telephone number but only one line. I use that for my fax number, and the other number for my voice phone. Thus, I pay for only one line, but have different fax and voice numbers. In the three years I have had the distinctive ring, I have almost never encountered a conflict between the two.

Reply by Toots on 1/9/05 5:35pm
Msg #16002

I use maxEmail for incoming faxes. Cost about $15 for a year. When there's a fax for me, I get an email notification. This way, I always know when that important fax has come in while I'm on the road by getting email notification on my cell phone. I've programmed it so that I'm immediately notified when an email arrives from specific list of people.

I've always thought of getting that distinctive ring function for my home phone so that I can get a different number as an alternative business number for me. When I leave the office, I forward all the calls to my house or my cell, when I'm on the road. I'd rather not the children answer the business related calls. I'll give it some thought.

Reply by Toots on 1/9/05 5:25pm
Msg #16001

Yes, we have a separate office and warehouse for our businesses. In my area, PacBell offers unlimited nationwide calling for a monthly flat bill. Unfortunately, it is only offered to residential customers....not for business use from a residence either. Time Warner offers a digital line with unlimited nationwide calling for $39 but it is a digital line for voice only - and again, residential only.

I'll do online reasearch on telephone services. When we lived in California years ago, there was a abundance of phone companies offering discounted long distance and international phone services by dialing special codes before dialing the destination number and we saved a lot of money that way. But we don't have those kinds sof service here in the midwest, at least I don't think so. But I'll definitely look into that.

I was just wandering if someone knew a way to use the web to handle some of the faxing we do. Plus, I thought the scanning feature on my new all-in-one machine is so cool....I'd like to somehow use that feature and email instead of faxing. I know the scanning thing is not a new feature but this is my first scanner, I wanted to play with it!

Thanks for all your suggestions. I'll check into everything you all have suggested. It's great when people are nice. It's a beautiful day again!

Ciau!

Reply by sue on 1/10/05 8:14am
Msg #16058

a tip I learned from these boards - since you've got the e-fax, if that is a local number, fax the docs to yourself and then forward the e-mail