> One thing I think is important in a recurring revenue model is making sure > your pricing keeps pace with inflation. If you don't you make 10% less in 3 > years relatively speaking.
That’s tough when you are selling bandwidth. People expect the service to expand and support all their new entertainment uses, but for the price to stay the same or go down. Of course cable bills go up every 6-12 months, but they blame that on content costs. People are trained to believe content costs are rising, but Internet should just be a cheap, dumb pipe that makes the other stuff work. My prices have not increased for 13 years, but the peak BW usage per sub has increased about 20X in that time. Also customer tolerance for outages has gone from a few days to a few minutes. It used to be the occasional customer would say “I’m running a business here”, but now it’s “I’m watching a movie here” or “I’m playing a game here” and even a blip at 2am is the end of the freakin’ world for someone. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Lewis Bergman Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 2:07 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT Slightly, Cost of Living My life insurance is term, $1,000,000 and cost me $65 a month. I am 52. Health insurance for my family would be $1050 if I had kids on it and is an HSA with a $6500 deductible per insured I think. Property is a drag if it isn't producing income. If it is it can be great, or at least it has been for me. I can say I have anything to complain about but I live even more spartan than you as far as accommodations. I think I only own 2 rent houses that aren't nicer than the one I live in. One thing I think is important in a recurring revenue model is making sure your pricing keeps pace with inflation. If you don't you make 10% less in 3 years relatively speaking. On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 1:02 PM can...@believewireless.net <mailto:can...@believewireless.net> <p...@believewireless.net <mailto:p...@believewireless.net> > wrote: While starting my ISP, I lived very frugally. No paid TV, only made enough to pay bills and make dinner. Now, I'm reaping the rewards of putting all that money back into my company and taking a fat salary and still putting money back into the company. Compared to you, yes, I'm living "extravagantly" now. But if I average it out over the years, I'm still not making much on average. But, it's growing fast. Money does seem to go further for me and this ISP thing seems like an ATM with money constantly rolling in. I don't work as much as I used to and have tons of free time. But, that was by design and why I decided to get into the recurring revenue business. On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 1:23 PM, <ch...@wbmfg.com <mailto:ch...@wbmfg.com> > wrote: God Bless freaking Obama Care! From: Sterling Jacobson Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 11:12 AM To: af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT Slightly, Cost of Living I could literally buy two more houses on my cost of insurances alone. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com <mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com> ] On Behalf Of Chris Fabien Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 11:05 AM To: af@afmug.com <mailto:af@afmug.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] OT Slightly, Cost of Living Personally, I am afraid to add up what I spend on all our various insurance policies, business stuff and personal, because I am sure I'd have a heart attack... I think it's a large part of the strain. On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 12:57 PM, Sterling Jacobson <sterl...@avative.net <mailto:sterl...@avative.net> > wrote: I'm guessing this information is like a lot of you out there. Except maybe my earnings because I am making about double median gross salary for my city. I'm not saying I work double, but I do fulfill many roles as the only salary employee of my startup ISP. I don't think I can replace myself for the same cost to the company, so I feel ok with that. I don't live extravagantly, but I do live comfortably. I have a 3100 sqr foot rambler I've lived in since 2001 with a house payment of around $1500 a month. But my biggest expense is health/insurance and medical. I now pay about $2100 a month for my family health insurance through IHC. I just signed up for a good Dental Gold plan at $100 a month for my family, but since it's not company I have to wait 6-12 months for a lot of the benefits :( The insurance deductibles are I think around $6000 a year and I have medications that eat up most of that. I just upped my life and disability insurance on myself and my wife to make sure things don't go bad if I die, that's around $550 a month. I think I spend about $1000 a month on eating, groceries and movies/date nights, at least that's what I came up to in December so that might be a bit off. I've got real estate I'm still trying to sell, but it's not the panica everyone says it is, lol! I just feel like finances don't go as far as they used to a few years ago. I'm not sparking a political debate, just wanted to see if everyone see things in a similar light? Or am I just doing the wrong things?
