Most small businesses I talk to are not overspending on technology because they bought the wrong thing. They are overspending because they bought the right thing five years ago and nobody has looked at the bill since. The contract renewed on its own, the employee who left still has a phone line, and the fax number nobody remembers is still billing every month.
None of the fixes below need a new system, a big project, or a long meeting. Most start with pulling one recent bill and reading it properly.
1. Cancel the Lines Nobody Uses
This is the easiest money in almost every business. Look for:
- Wireless lines for people who left. The phone went back in a drawer, but the line kept billing.
- Old fax and alarm lines. Lines that were installed for a machine that has since been replaced, or for a building you moved out of.
- Extra phone numbers. Numbers from an old marketing campaign or a merged location that still ring somewhere, or nowhere.
- Tablets and hotspots. Data plans on devices that were bought for one project and never used again.
Wireless is usually where the most waste hides, and I wrote a whole post on the warning signs: Five Signs Your Business Is Overpaying on Wireless.
2. Replace Copper Phone Lines Before the Price Goes Up
If your business still has traditional copper lines for phones, fax, alarm panels, elevators or card machines, you are paying for a service the carriers are actively trying to retire. As they do, those lines tend to get more expensive and slower to repair, not less.
Replacing them with a modern line that does the same job usually costs less per month, and doing it on your schedule beats doing it after a shutoff notice. The background is in AT&T Is Shutting Down Copper Phone Lines and What Actually Happens When You Move a Business Phone System Off Copper.
3. Move the Phone System to the Cloud
An older on-site phone system comes with costs that don’t show up on the phone bill: a maintenance contract, a technician visit every time someone changes desks, and a box in the closet that will eventually need replacing.
A cloud phone system is billed per user, with maintenance included, and most also bring the extras you may be paying for separately today, like video meetings, call recording, text messaging and a phone app for people working away from the office. Paying for those once instead of three times is where a lot of the savings come from. More on how they work on the cloud phone systems page.
4. Get Your Card Processing Statement Reviewed
Credit card processing is one of the least watched costs a business has. Rates creep up through small fee changes that arrive as a line in a notice nobody reads, and the statements are hard to follow on purpose.
This is also the easiest review to say yes to. The providers I work with for this are paid from a share of what they save you, so there is nothing out of pocket and nothing owed if they find nothing. If you want to look first yourself, start with How to Read Your Merchant Processing Statement.
5. Shop Your Internet Before It Renews
Business internet contracts often renew automatically at whatever the current rate is, which is rarely the best rate available. Before yours renews:
- Find the end date. It is on the contract, and the window to give notice is often 30 to 90 days before it.
- Check what you are actually using. Some businesses are paying for far more speed than they need. Others are paying for a slow connection plus a separate backup line, when one better connection would cost less than both.
- Get competing quotes. Even if you stay with the same provider, a real alternative on paper changes the conversation.
On the islands, provider choices are more limited than on the mainland, which makes it more important, not less, to know exactly which options exist at your address. More on that in The Island Connectivity Gap and on the network and connectivity page.
6. Look Hard at the Copier Lease
Copier leases are built to be renewed without anyone reading them. The monthly payment, the per-page charges, the minimum page count, and the cost of returning the machine are all set at signing and then forgotten.
If your office prints a lot less than it did a few years ago, there is a good chance you are paying for a page volume you no longer use. A review before the lease ends often finds a smaller machine, a better per-page rate, or both. Details are on the copiers and printing page.
7. Clean Up Software Licenses
Microsoft 365 and most other business software is billed per person, and licenses rarely get removed when people leave or change roles. Check for:
- Licenses assigned to former employees. The admin center lists every assigned license and when it was last used.
- People on a bigger plan than they need. Not everyone needs the most expensive tier.
- Add-ons nobody opens. AI add-ons are the newest example. I covered how to check whether yours are being used in Why Your Security Team Likes Copilot and Your Operations Team Doesn’t.
- Tools that do the same job. Two file sharing services, two video meeting tools, three AI writing subscriptions on three different cards.
What to Pull Together First
You don’t need to do all seven at once. Start by collecting the most recent bill for each of these, which takes about twenty minutes:
- Wireless
- Phone lines and phone system
- Internet
- Card processing statement
- Copier lease and the last few usage invoices
- Microsoft 365 or other software subscriptions
Put them side by side and two things usually jump out: services you forgot you had, and contract dates coming up sooner than you thought.
How I Fit In
I am a consultant and a partner with OTG Consulting, which is a consultancy that presents the services of other providers. I don’t own a phone company, a processor or a copier dealer, so I have no reason to steer you toward any one of them.
What I do is go through those bills with you, find where the money is going, and compare what you have against what is available. When a change makes sense, I introduce you to a provider that does that work every day, and they deliver and support it. The consulting costs you nothing, because I am paid by the provider you choose. And sometimes the answer is simply canceling something, which saves money without buying anything new.
Start With One Bill
If you only do one thing this month, pick the bill you understand least and read every line. That is usually where the easiest savings are.
Or send it to me. Schedule a no-cost consultation and we will go through your bills together and find out what you are paying for that you no longer need.