Subject: BBS'S
(Continued from previous message)
There are two ways that they can make it work economically.  They can
buy a very small (56k) pipe to the Internet or they can over sell their
phone lines.  This makes for sluggish performance and/or busy signals.
Sometimes even this doesn't save them from the economics and they go
belly up.
We maintain general parity with other services in our area.  We offer 60
hours for $20 and have just switched our $40 unlimited account to 150
hours per month.   GTE is now offering unlimited access in our area for
$20 a month.  How can we compete?  There are qualitative differences
between dealing with us and dealing with GTE that make the apparent
price advantage they have a non-issue for most people.  We describe
those differences in detail when folks call.  As for the folks who want
600 hours of connect time a month...GTE is welcome to them.  The local
ISPs in this area are moving AWAY from unlimited accounts as fast as
possible as they are all discovering that the more unlimited accounts
you have, the more money you lose.  There are simply some customers that
you can NOT afford to have.  Knowing who those customers are is
important for your long term survival.
RP>Just as important is the stability of the board.  I need some assurance
  >that if I subscribe, the board will be around at least long enough for my
  >subscription to expire.  Far too many boards close after a few months in
  >operation.
We stress the fact that we are the oldest BBS in the area and that we
have been online since 1985.  Our biggest ISP competitor is just about
to celebrate their first birthday online.  They have no BBS for support
and how long they will be in business is certainly an open question.
Having a track record that extends more than a decade is now a BIG
advantage for us, especially every time some other startup disappears on
4 hours notice.
Summary:  While we've been talking specifically about Bulletin Board
Systems and online services, these general principles apply to ALL
businesses and ESPECIALLY to small home based businesses.  It's a dog
eat dog world out there and we need to carefully define what it is we
sell, define the advantages of our product are for the customer,
price it at a fair price/value point, get the word out that we sell it
(The yellow pages are a must), and provide the customer support that
today's consumers demand.
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