GeoBlog - All You Wanted to Know About T1 Service, Lines, and Pricing Software

2011 Year in Review

2011-12-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

Sometimes this business feels a lot like dog years. The past 12 months have flown by, and at the same time, it's mind-blowing have far we've come as a company since last year. Let's start back in January 2011, in our small, dreary office in Draper.

We had just learned from Comcast executives that we had been selected to be one of three national distributors. New people were hired to help us keep up with the demand that was soon to hit us like a ton of bricks. January was spent in and out of Comcast trainings - it was pretty hard to distinguish our back office from the actual Comcast support team near the end. Sandra Jeffs (new), Jessica, Daniel Smith (new) - we all trained backwards and forwards. Our IT team also put in the midnight oil to create the first (and still - only) Comcast automatic paperwork generator to help alleviate some of the support burden. It was full-steam ahead in preparation for the grand launch of the Comcast Business Class Solution Provider Program, which happened in March in Las Vegas, during the 2011 Channel Partner Show. Press releases flowed, and we created our comcast.telarus.com page to "catch" the influx of partners that Comcast sent our way. By the end of the year, in just 3 quarters, Comcast went from last to first on our carrier stack - an impressive, never-before-achieved feat in our company's history.

At the beginning of the year we also brought on a new channel manager, Phil Chandler. We had known Phil a very long time during his service as an XO local channel manager for Salt Lake City. His professionalism, tact, and whit endeared him to us since the first time we met him in 2008. Oh, did I mention he knows just about every agent in the state of Utah?

Why was that important? Because, in January 2011, we ripped apart our sales organization and put it back together in a neat, organized team. We split up the country into four areas, and attached each of our four channel managers to each zone: Phil Chandler - Northwest, James Knight - Southwest, Mike Gottwalt - Northeast, Aaron Cavin - Southeast. Robert Butler received a

promotion to VP of Sales - West, over Phil and James. Lance was reassigned to focus on the east, supervising both Mike and Aaron. This effort has since help us place new agents as close as possible to their Telarus channel manager, allowing us to travel a LOT more. Spending quality face-time with our agents is one of our core objectives for 2011 and the future, and this year we made a record number of visits.

So, just when we got our footing with the weight of Comcast on our shoulders, and a complete re-vamp of our Sales organization, we discovered that our 2,000 sq foot office was woefu

lly inadequate. Through a friendly referral we discovered a great office space in Centennial Plaza Tower in Sandy, Utah. The space could be build-to-order, the location was terrific, and the landlords were in a negotiating mood. The lease was signed and in June we moved in to the new space. One of the features we had the architects design into the new floorplan was our revolutionary Sales Operations Center (SOC), patterned after a carrier NOC. Since moving in we've written software to automatically pull the status of ALL of our orders every 12 hours from every carrier. When something changes, agents are notified via email. More importantly, when something doesn't change when it's supposed to, our operations team is greeted with a massive warning signal on the overhead displays. Issues that used to slip right by us are now caught almost the hour they pop up.

The new office ushered in a wave of carrier and agent visits. Our brand new board room has been used extensively to negotiate carrier contracts, train new agents, hold company-wide conferences, and our kids have even enjoyed watching cartoons on the large LCD monitor that adorns the wall. Each room in the new

office is furnished with a magnificent photograph of beautiful Utah vistas. It's a place that we're proud to call home.

In 2011 we welcomed some brand new suppliers to our roster: Advantix (wireless mobility management) in Feb, Comcast (coax in March, Fiber in October), Integra (August), and cBeyond (December). We also saw the combination of many of our carrier partners, which kept our overall carrier count unchanged. New Edge Networks and One Communications combined into Earthlink Business. Windstream and PAETEC/Cavalier are turning in to Windstream.

With all of this flux in suppliers we realized the need to have someone on our staff who just worked with carriers on a full-time basis. Paula McKinnon, one of the all-stars of our support team, was promoted to the role of Supplier Manager. Now we always know who our local channel managers are, we know what promotions are running, we know what new product needs to be added to GeoQuote, and most importantly, we're now matching up carriers and agents in strategic relationships - taking destiny into our own hands.

In marketing, my director, Justin Chugg, has created a media empire. Ruppert Chugg is his new nickname in the office. Last year he started a little LinkedIn group called "Telecom Channel Updates" and built it up to 2,000 members. By the end of 2011 the group now boasts 13,500 members - more than PHONE+ (Channel Partners) and Telecom Association combined. In November 2011 Justin also became an associate administrator of VAR Talk, a group of over 11,000 VARs and system integrators.

In late summer we added three new employees, Teresa Tompson (office administrator), Seth Ferguson (sales support - Comcast), and Angie Hefner (sales support - Comcast). All three have been performing at an extremely high level and have greatly helped our company.

So, from the college dorm to a nice office full of new faces, Telarus has seen tons of change - all for the better. Next year you'll see more hires in operations, marketing, and sales. Jessica Martin has recently accepted a promotion to corporate trainer and will begin onboarding new agents who join our ranks in early 2012. The Telarus Partner Summit, to take place in Park City Utah, is all queued up and ready to go.

http://www.TelarusPartnerSummit.com

The exhibitors are committed, the venue is paid for (well, at least a HUGE deposit!), travel arrangements are being planned. It's going to be the biggest most tightly choreographed and well-planned event the Channel has ever seen. Throw in 4 different trade shows (Miami, Las Vegas, Orlando, and Austin), dozens of "road shows" in the field, and odds are you'll have a great chance to see us in person in 2012.

Lastly, something near and dear to my heart, we'll be revving up the SEO (search engine optimization) engine again. I've been quietly acquiring new domains for the past few years and will be hiring a full-time Telarus employee in Q2 to help me manage them all. This will give us ample ammunition to win business away from our competitors and to expand the channel in my new role as VP of Business Development.

Someone asked me the other day what "Telarus" means. I think the appropriate answer is "progress".

A New Chapter in the Telarus Story

2011-05-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

This week marks some very important milestones in the development of Telarus from a 2-man shop to industry super-power. Our technology, training, and physical facilities are getting major upgrades in the next few days that will pave the road to the future and help us scale like we've never been able to before.

On Friday, May 20 we will be relocating to our new office in Sandy, Utah. The new location has over 5,000 sq feet of office space and comes repleat with a nice conference room, an operation center (with 4 LCD monitors that will allow our team to literally watch the progress of all of our agent's orders in the carrier provisioning process), rooms for all executives and directors, a break room, a war room (covered in white dry-erase paint so IT can draw up details plans and brainstorm together), and a very nice reception area for our guests to check-in when they visit us.

On the technology side, we have made huge progress toward the automation of carrier order paperwork. Right now we are 100% fully-integrated with Comcast Business Class. Time Warner Cable is coming shortly, and by the end of this year we hope to have as many Data T1 carrier's paperwork automated as possible. This automation will allow agents who have to or choose to play on the low end of the product spectrum to be efficient - keeping the ROT (Retrun on Time) investment in proper balance. The lower the MRC, the less time it should take to process an order.

The last area in which we've made massive progress in the past month is in the area of Agent Training. We've produced 9 different videos that explain to our newer agents (we've added over 100 in the past 60 days) exactly how our back office works, how to get quotes, where to see how much they get paid, etc. Prior to that, each training session would have to be produced by one of our four channel managers, each and every time. It was a huge burden on our staff to on-board all of our new partners and this new training will allow them to spend more time discussing specific deals and sales opportunities and less time teaching which buttons to push to generate real-time quotes.

It's pretty safe to say Telarus is now on very firm ground in terms of office space, technology, training, and overall morale, which has never been higher. Being chosen as one of Comcast's exclusive three master agents has forced us to make these changes, to mature in a hurry, and to create the necessary software and processes to allow us to scale.

And scale we will.

We've got a plan, right?

2011-02-12T20:59:00.000-08:00

While most other master agents are out there trying to figure out new ways to grow their business in the face of declining margins, the Telarus thought machine continues to crank out new and exciting ideas, technology, and partnerships that will keep us on the leading edge for the foreseeable future.

Here are some strange examples of ways other masters are trying to innovate:

1. Become master agents for hardware vendors (ready to learn how to program voicemail and wait on hold prompts?)

2. Invest in a call center to generate leads to be closed in-house (that's a lot of cold calls and overhead to generate a $250 PRI)

3. Offer energy (seriously, it's going to be huge ... some day)

4. Offer agents cash advances to easy the pain of crossing the desert (we've done that for years, just never published it)

All in all, without access to software, it would be really hard to continue innovating. At our annual agent conference in Las Vegas on March 12, 2011 we'll be unveiling the newest addition to our line of agent support / business expansion software that is sure to make our agents MUCH more money that anything we've come out with to date (including XML plug-ins and Premium web sites)

We've also added sales management staff (Phil Chandler, formerly of XO) to help support our agents like they're red carpet A-list celebrities. Phil is now supporting the northeast, James Knight is over California and the Southwest, Mike is over the midwest and northeast, and Aaron is supporting the south. Robert Bulter was promoted to VP of Sales - West (over James and Phil) and Lance is now VP of Sales - East (over Aaron and Mike). That is a total of six all-stars that work with our agents day in and day out.

Sales support also continues to grow. Under the leadership of Doug Miller, a 12-year veteran of Qwest, we are processing more manual quotes (complex networks), auditing order paperwork for accuracy (cutting days/weeks/months of delays from our customer's install intervals), supporting agents with renewal reminders and product education, and performing weekly audits of GeoQuote to ensure accuracy of both the pricing and the promotions being offered by each carrier. Under Doug is Jessica Martin (recently promoted) and Paula McKinnon - both all-stars in response time, helpfulness, and attention to detail.

Our IT department had a banner 2010 to say the least. In 2010 we deployed own own fully-redundant web and SQL server system in two different Telx facilities. We also deployed an internal email server, witness server, and marketing web server at a colocation facility here in Salt Lake City. All three locations work together to ensure automatic fail-over in the event something, somewhere breaks. Last week we learned first hand that our new system works - our main SQL server had a fan die, which put the machine into self-preservation mode. No worries! The witness server in Utah discovered that our primary system wasn't responding and instantly routed ALL traffic to our backup network. No agents or employees even had a clue that we were in backup mode - all of our sites continued to operate and no data was lost. Once the Telx tech was able to replace the fan and bring the machine back online, everything reverted back to the primary as if nothing had happened. Terrific work IT!

Last but not least, we've spend the better part of 2010 working on two main projects: internal software (Sabiona) to help us better manage agents, specifically individual opportunities that we are working on. Secondly, reprogramming our commission system to handle even more nuances, exceptions, spifs, automatic auditing, and easier importing. With the last upgrade our commission specialist can handle over 5,000 commission entries each month in just 20 hours/week - with lethal accuracy.

It's safe to say, we've come a LONG way in 2010. But if you think we've reached the end of our creativity rope, come on down to our Agent Conference in Las Vegas on March 12, 2011 - and you'll see otherwise!

Cheers!

Telarus Continues on the Rise

2010-09-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

I realize it's been a while since my last blog post. Been pretty busy.

Telarus ... wow, what a ride. We're making more people, more money, than ever in our history. The economy is slow, but our book of business continues to grow. The general mood of businesses is of gloom, yet to step into the Telarus office in Draper and you'd swear you're in a Tony Robbins seminar. It's a special magic that comes when you have great people (agents and staff) working together to have incredible success.

Carriers have noticed it too. We just returned from the Channel Partner Show in Washington D.C. and while there, had a great time to sit down with our carrier partners. We reviewed our 2010 YTD sales numbers, discussed ways to increase sales (which usually entails better provisioning and better GeoQuote API integration), and ways to increase efficiency in general. We also had the opportunity to meet with a few of our brand new vendors: TelX and Broadview Networks. I was very impressed by both and we look forward to working with them!

Now, the path to Vegas is being charted. We have a ton of new technology that will help agents make more money than every before in our 8-year history. I'm not at liberty to disclose details here, but suffice it to say that we'll make front page headlines when we roll it out.

Thank you all for your business and for making Telarus the master of the future.

Time to Give Back

2009-02-08T08:38:00.000-08:00

When I'm not making web pages, working with our programmers to create new quoting tools for GeoQuote, or changing diapers (my kids still aren't potty trained yet), I like to do triathlon. Swimming, cycling, running - they all help to keep my blood flowing to my most important muscle: my brain. I began doing triathlon in 2005 at the last-minute request of a friend and Telarus agent, Jason Oliver. Although the first race was a horrible experience, it left me wanting to get better; better equipment, better training, better prepared. I signed up for some more races, trained hard every day, and wouldn't you know it, I went from almost last to almost first. Then, I got it in my mind to become an Ironman - like the ones you see on TV every November riding across the big island of Hawaii. 140.6 miles ... wow. I hired a coach, got new race wheels, and began to train like never before, for hours on end. In June 2008, with the help of all of the training, my coach, and the right equipment, I finished the 140.6 course in 11 hours, 24 minutes. The thrill and sense of accomplishment overwhelmed me. M-dot (the slang for finishing an official Ironman race) was mine, and no one could ever take it away from me! To get a sense for how I felt about the accomplishment, I instructed my wife to engrave the M-dot symbol on my gravestone so everyone who ever saw my grave would know that an Ironman lay 6-feet under where they stand!

Finishing that triathlon did more for me mentally than physically. It's a feeling that can cure depression, desperation, self-pitty, or any feeling that brings someone down. It's a feeling that I'd like to help bring to people who battle with those feelings everyday they wake up: injured Iraq veterans. Through the Challenged Athlete Foundation, more and more wounded Iraq (and Afghanistan) vets are being helped out of their wheelchairs and into the water, and onto a bike, and into a specialized cycle-chair - for Ironman California (70.3 miles). I've done the race twice myself in the past, and I'm planning on doing it again on April 3, 2009. However, this time I'm racing for the troops:

1st Sergeant John Blue (lost leg below the knee in Iraq)

Colonel Patty Collins (lost her leg below the knee)

2nd Lieutenant Melissa Stockwell (lost her leg above the knee in Iraq)

Former Reconnaissance Marine Oscar “Oz” Sanchez (spinal cord injury)

Sergeant Michael Gallardo (lost his leg below the knee in Iraq)

Corporal Evan Morgan (lost his left leg below the knee, right leg above the knee and vision in one eye in Iraq)

Petty Officer 1-Class Casey Tibbs (lost his leg below the knee)

Ret. Staff Sergeant Chris Chandler (lost his leg below the knee in Afghanistan)

If you would like to join me and lend a helping hand to John, Patty, Melissa, Oz, Michael, Evan, Casey, and Chris, please donate what you can to the Challenged Athletes Foundation.

For me, the war is a whole lot more personal when you're running next to one of these heroes. This year, my conscience won't let me run by without knowing I did all I could to show my thanks and appreciation. Thanks in advance for your support.

Another Lead Source Emerges

2008-08-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

As I sat in quiet meditation on the flight from Salt Lake City to Boston, I took a mental tour of the past year's events that had transpired since the 2007 Channel Partner Show in Seacacus, New Jersey. Back then I was presenting my first marketing plan to our vendors. The plan included things such as Telarus Agent Conference sponsorships, trade show booth sponsorships, joint press releases, and co-branded magazine ads. Up to that point, Telarus has never exhibited at any trade show, we had never run an ad in a magazine, or engaged in any other form of marketing. The Telarus brand was built purely a result of public perception of our agents, our staff, and the founders.

Without any traditional marketing, we were still able to grow the number of agents, VARs, and referral partners from 0 to 20,000 in under 5 years. "How was it possible for us to grow organically and by word of mouth for so long?" I thought.

In my opinion, it all boils down to value. The stated goal of our company is to "make agents more successful with us than they would be on their own or with any other competing master agency." The only real way to provide value, in my estimation, is to help agents make up for areas in which they are deficient.

Some agents are great at selling, but horrible at finding leads. Others, like equipment dealers and network integrators, have the business, but lack a system that makes ordering and tracking telecom circuits easy. Others lack the back office software they need to scale their business so they can break through the glass ceiling of customer saturation.

By having a balanced approach to value creation, Telarus has attracted new partners each and every month since we opened our doors in 2002. Our first priority was leveraging my search engine optimization skills to generate warm leads. One thing that most agents always need is warm leads, even more than a top tier commission. Agents gravitate to companies who help them grow their business, not just provide contracts and process their orders. It took a few months to jump start the lead engine, but once it fired up in 2003, our agents have received over 500,000 opportunities as a result.

The second piece of the equation that we sought to provide agents was productivity tools that enabled agents of all backgrounds to become telecom consultants. GeoQuote, the main productivity tool in use by Telarus agents today, has required a massive and continual investment to build and maintain. I estimate that we have spent north of $2M to build and maintain that piece of software alone. And its not done yet. We are still struggling to get all of the data we need from our vendors so GeoQuote can accurately quote all of the products our carriers have to offer. Right now we can only quote about 50% of all offerings. However, with the help of our new GeoQuote Specialist, Danny Steer, we hope to change that equation. In the long run, our agents sell what they see quoted in GeoQuote. More products, more quotes, more business.

As the plane readied itself to land in Boston's Logan International Airport, I thumbed through my 2009 Marketing Plan that I had printed and ready-to-go in anticipation of numerous vendor meetings at the trade show. This time, I was able to think of more ways to generate leads - ways that would truly bring new and valuable business to our carriers as well as make a lot of agents rich. The simple scheme should have been an obvious one, but I failed to see it until recently. By realizing that Telarus has a CRM that can manage large numbers of leads effectively, and that many Telarus agents are eager for new leads, and (this is the one point that wasn't apparently obvious to me for some time) carriers have lead lists generated by their marketing research departments, I was able to create a new program called the "Vendor Provided Lead Calling Program."

That's right! Telarus can be more that just an Internet lead shop. Telarus has the technology, the people, and the resources to function as a carrier's de facto outbound call center. It's genius: a call center that costs a carrier nothing for phone minutes, for cubicle space, for telecom hardware, for salary, for bonuses, for health care - nothing. The carrier only has to invest in the marketing research, turn it over to us, and pay only for performance. Imagine that! Paying nothing for a TV ad if it got zero response rate! Paying nothing for a billboard that yielded no results!

To put it mildly, the Vendor Provided Lead Calling Program won rave reviews from every carrier I pitched it to. The success of the program will rest on my ability to ensure that the lead lists we receive are accurate, targeted, and compelling - so that the entire program doesn't turn into a dry ice cold calling exercise that isn't interesting to agents.

The program entered its pilot phase this week as Broadweave, new owner of the iProvo municipal fiber network, outsourced its outbound calling campaign to Telarus. Though it is still to early to tell how successful it will be, we know that we can modify it to meet our agents' very high expectations.

I don't know why I didn't think about this sooner!

Awards Anyone?

2008-03-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

Man - this past month has reallly kept me and the marketing department busy. Trying to keep up with the torrent of press releases I've had to put out has pushed me to my limit, but I'm more than happy to do it.

Some of the recent awards Telarus has won includes:

2008 Telecom Assocation Member's Choice Award Winner to Top Master Agent
2008 VAR Business Magazine Gold 5-Star Award
2008 Top Agent - Covad Communications
2008 Top Agent - Nuvox Communications
2008 Top Agent - Telnes Communications
2008 Top Agent - MegaPath
2008 AT&T Circle of Excellence Award Winner
2008 XO Communications Club MVP
2008 ACC Business Platinum Cup (4th consecutive year)

To put it mildly, we had a lot of momentum this year going into our annual Telarus agent conference and PHONE+ Channel Partner Show in Las Vegas 2 weeks ago. We even exhibited for the first time! Here are some pictures from the show!

The Telarus booth where we gave live demos of the back office and GeoQuote.

The Telarus team at our "pre-game" meal on Sunday night. The top row is: Pam Simon (AT&T/Qwest specialist), Thomas Hernandez (Channel Manager), Mike Gottwalt (Channel Manager), Daniel Pentecost (System Admin), me, Carole Calderon (Internal VAR Manager), Adam, Robert Butler (Director of VAR Network), Andrew Morgan (VP of Web Development). The bottom row is: Jessica Martin (Business Administrator), Aaron Jay Lieberman (Cold Fusion/PHP/SQL Programmer), James Knight (Channel Manager), Lance Akins (VP of Sales), and Chris Reynes (GeoQuote Specialist)

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Telarus agents after the annual Telarus Agent Conference on Monday, March 10, 2008. The conference was sponsored by Cavalier Telephone and XO Communications - both of which did a fantastic job. We were blessed to have such great sponsors!

Adam (blue shirt) receives the ACC Business platinum cup award (for the 4th consecutive year). Every agent you see to the right of him did less volume than Telarus. There were only two other masters in the country that did more ACC business than us, and one of them is actually two masters sharing the same contract! (Microcorp and X4!)

Overall, we've never had more momentum than now. Following up on all of the many leads we've received in the past few weeks will be ulta-critical to our success. We know that we've got a winning formula - we just have to tell more poeple about it!

Independence, Huge Limits

2007-10-08T14:49:00.001-07:00

Until 2003, all Master Agencies were pretty much the same. Each of them had (and still has) the self-proclaimed job description of acting as in intermediary between agents and carriers. Many of them have tried to distinguish themselves by providing a “back office” which is comprised of dozens of people who push paperwork, follow up with vendors on order status, and provide the necessary accounting support to provide agents with accurate and on-time commission payments.

Since then there have been a few companies who have taken a different approach to being a master agent. One Master Agent cut out all “back office” personnel in order to offer the highest commissions possible, selling “subscriptions” to agents to obtain these high commissions. Some agents jumped at the idea of super-high commissions and paid the gateway fee while others passed on the opportunity to make a higher gross commission in favor of the status quo.

The Master Agency that Adam Edwards and I started in 2003, Telarus, Inc., was one of the few (if not only) Master Agencies born of non-telecom veterans. Our naiveté was both a blessing and a challenge which ultimately led to the creation of the “next generation” Master Agent. Coming from an aerospace engineering and big-5 accounting firm background, we saw the entire telecom agent setup as a big “mess”. Agents needed Master Agents just to sort out all of the disorganization coming from the carriers, each one with their own rat’s nest of paperwork, pricing, and commission plans. Add to that the “island” approach to working in the telecom business, ergo agents dealing with a Master Agent on a one-to-one basis, competing with one another for business, and you have a recipe for independence.

That independence comes with a price, however. There is only so much a human being can do in a day. There are only so many customers an agent can call in any 24-hour period. As agents grow to around 200 clients, the work required to maintain the base of customers becomes a full-time job. Agents hit a saturation limit and their income growth is artificially capped. Granted, 200 clients should equal over $15,000/month in commission, which is nothing to sneeze at – but the glass ceiling exists nevertheless.

All of these things entered into our planning of Telarus. We could only succeed if we could figure out at way to get most of the people in the “back office” to go away through automation (we were funding the business with our savings accounts, which forced us to automate). We could only provide value to agents if we could get price quotes to them in 5 seconds, again, through automation. We could only allow agents to break through that “glass ceiling” by creating an in-house CRM system that actually allowed them to work together on deals, and to split up the lead generation and sales pieces of the sales process, and to interact with VARs. Likewise we would need to create a system to allow agents to grow beyond themselves, to hire administrative staff, and to eventually mature into master agents themselves.

Not coming from the 1980’s and 1990’s telecom crowd, things like this just made logical sense to us. We did not have decades of old dinosaur telecom logic engrained into our consciousness and thus, our business plan was and remains radically different. But even with what we thought was a great plan, we always let our agents guide the ultimate shape and form of Telarus. Each week we meet will ALL of our agents on a conference call to discuss what’s working and what’s not about our program, our software, our vendors, and our staff. Our agents are painfully honest in their feedback, but we see it as our job to create the software infrastructure they need to succeed as agents, and eventually as master agents.

So which kind of Master Agent is right for you? Here is a quick checklist that you may consider when making your choice:

A “traditional” Master Agent is for you if:

- You have no problem finding leads.
- You have no desire to speak to carriers directly about special pricing.
- You do not have a need of speaking to a technical sales engineer who works for a carrier.
- You want someone else to handle all of your order paperwork.
- You do not require instant pricing for your customers and can wait a few days for a quote.
- You have no desire to partner with other agents on sales opportunities.
- Your VAR partners send you telecom leads without requiring reciprocal equipment leads.
- You don’t mind using off-the-shelf, on-size-fits-all software like MasterStream and RPM Software.
- You are already a Master and would like to combine your book of business with a Master who has met their volume commitments.
- You are happy with your web site and online marketing strategy.
- You require the maximum commission, whatever the cost.

A “next generation” Master Agent is for you if:

- You don’t mind taking a lower commission in return for warm leads being assigned to you on a daily basis.
- You have no problem earning your way up a commission scale.
- You find it an advantage to obtain instant pricing for your clients.
- You don’t mind working directly with a Channel Manager who works for a carrier.
- You don’t mind helping your customers fill out paperwork.
- You don’t mind acting as a main point of contact for your customer, where carriers send you order status updates.
- You are happy to receive maximum commission on your own deals.
- You would like to upgrade your web site with value-added content (like xml-enabled real-time quotes).
- You like the idea of receiving marketing web site code that you can modify and use as you see fit.
- You would like to introduce your VARs to a system that feeds them equipment leads every time they feed you a telecom lead.
- You want to hire administrative staff and give them limited access to your customer records for follow-up and up-sale.
- You want to eventually graduate into a master agent of your own, with free software that enables you to do just that.
- You would like Search Engine Marketing coaching and mentoring by people who actually do it (successfully) for a living.
- You think that having a sales CRM, real-time quotes, and accounting system in one back office will help you be more productive.
- You like the idea of having a team of software engineers that can modify your back office interface, marketing web sites, etc. in a matter of hours.
- You like the idea of being part of an agent community, working as a team, communicating on a live bulletin board system.
- You want to make your opinions and suggestions heard on weekly conference calls.
- You are already a Master and are in need of a back office for your sub-agents, but don’t mind sharing contracts.
- You are already a Master and would like to combine your book of business with a Master who has met their volume commitments.

As you can see, there is a wealth of differences between the two main types of Master Agent. When making a decision about which one is best for you, keep in mind your own goals and end-game. Figure out where you would like to be in five years and then align your goals with the Master Agent that makes the most sense. Are you looking for a solid income stream that will afford you a comfortable living, or are you looking to create a system and employ people in hopes of building a substantial book of business? Independence is good, but interdependence is the only thing that can help you shatter the glass ceiling that hangs over the head of every agent in this business.

Another Programmer Added to Team

2007-10-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

Last month Commission River hired Jeremy Hicks, formerly employed by Novell. Jeremy started a few weeks ago and is doing a terrific job! Now that we have a full-time programmer working on all-things Commission River, the rest of the gang (Keith, Aaron Jay, Daniel) can focus on heavy-lifting for Telarus - which is exactly what's been happening.

As our company grows, the amount of projects we undertake also grows. The new projects that we are working on include: SEO work on ShopforEthernet.com, construction of ShopforVoIP.com and ShopforSIPTrunking.com, and further enhancements to the VAR Network, MARS (Master Agent Reporting System), and VENUS (VAR Enterprise Network Update System).

Look for GREAT things out of the IT department the last quarter of 2007!

Patrick

P.S. Look for great things from the Marketing Dept (i.e. me) too! I'm working on full-page Telarus ads for Phone+, planning the Las Vegas Telarus Agent Conference, the Channel Partner Show exhibit, and lining up sponsors for events, meals, and activities (golf). More to come later.

An Online Tribute to Kevin Anderson

2007-08-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

On August 11, 2008, Kevin E Anderson, the founder of Cognigen Networks passed away. Having been in ill health for the better part of 15 years, he finally succumbed to the inevitable. You may not know Kevin Anderson, but some where, some how, I am sure he has touched your life in some way.

Kevin founded Cognigen back in 1994 with his wife Laurel. He had this crazy idea that independent agents could use the internet as a vehicle to sell products and services for product suppliers. Although his web design was pretty good for a pure coding genius, his pages read like a classified ads page in the New York Times. But they worked.

Kevin figured out, using "hash files" in perl (yuck), that he could make web pages that were "self replicating", capable of tracking an individual's AgentID. This opened the door for thousands of people incapable of creating a web page to become referral marketers - directing their web traffic to these pages Kevin created to capture orders and deliver them to the associated vendor.

This all seems trivial now, but 13 years ago it was revolutionary. Kevin was a man ahead of his time in many regards.

I met Kevin in 1997 when I joined Cognigen. He took the time to welcome me and to show me the ropes of my Cognigen business, together with my upline Joe Kennedy. His low, baritone voice reminded me of the voice of God in the movie "The 10 Commandments". His command of the English language was superb - he could articulate his opinions ever so cleverly.

Kevin had an astute sense for danger. He spent 1995 - 2002 building up Cognigen and 2002 - 2007 trying to save it from would-be predators. Many "guys with business plans" came to Cognigen promising the fruits of prosperity only to take Cognigen's money and fall on their face. There surely would have been more had Kevin not guarded the hen house like he did.

He was a large man due to a combination of a large appetite and low metabolism - the result of many years of chemotherapy and radiation of his lymph nodes. A cancer survivor, he lived on borrowed time in some sense.

His body type caused Kevin to be somewhat self-conscious. He did not like to go out into public very often, opting instead for phone conferences and endless hours on his computer communicating via email, instant messenger, and VoIP.

I remember the first time I met Kevin in 1999. Cognigen had sponsored a drag race car and Kevin came down to LA (where I lived at the time) to watch the race and to meet me (the newest employee of Cognigen). After a few minutes, I didn't even notice his size. He was so friendly, gregarious, and full of trivia - it was easy to forget about the obvious.

In a lot of ways, I feel that much of the success I've had in recent years can be traced back to Kevin. I learned the system he built when I was the Cognigen Webmaster. I took that knowledge, mixed it with my own, and started Telarus with Adam Edwards. It's too bad that Kevin didn't have an Adam - someone who could be the face of the company, have the hard conversations with vendors, defend the company in public, etc. A great business requires two skill sets: technical/marketing and leadership/politics. Kevin had the technical/marketing pieces, but lacked that right hand - someone to be out in front of the agents, leading them, inspiring them, and making sound business decisions. But even without that, Kevin pioneered the affiliate marketing business model; the very one that Telarus uses to this day. Although our way of doing business has evolved, the basics can trace their ancestry to Kevin Anderson.

In looking through my vast libraries of past email and IM's with Kevin, I wanted to find what would turn out to be his "last words" to me. After a Cognigen training call, I told him "I better run. Debbie needs me to get off my computer and help with the kids" to which he replied "I understand. Laurel hates my computer." It's ironic that Kevin will be, in essence, immortal, because of his computer. His code, his web sites, his company, and his ideas will live on for many years to come.

Thanks for everything Kevin. You'll be missed, but not forgotten.

ShopforEthernet is Born

2007-08-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

Today I am excited to announce the arrival of the newest member of our "Shopfor" family: ShopforEthernet.com. As the name implies, ShopforEthernet.com allows people to "shop", or at least locate, potential carriers that offer broadband ethernet service in the customer's immediate location.

Why is this important you ask? Well, 5 years ago we set out to greatly reduce the time and effort required to sell a T1 line. Through GeoQuote, we were able to automate the research time required to sell T1s by over 95%. Telarus agents could price out and sell T1 lines 10X faster than their competition.

Fast forward to 2007, when Ethernet high-speed internet technology is just coming online as a potential powerhouse of a product. The problem that faces customers looking to purchase ethernet broadband is: it's only available where carriers have the equipment to provide the service. Unlike T1's, which can be extended by "local loops" provided by the local phone company, Ethernet requires a direct connection to the carrier. (Some carriers will relay the signal using DS1 (copper) or fiber if the distance warrants). Knowing the exact (and I do mean exact ... down to the physical building) location of both the customer and the carrier's equipment is the key to selling Ethernet. If you didn't have real-time access to this information, you would have to literally contact ALL 30 carriers Telarus offers and wait many weeks to hear back. And most of those responses will be "sorry - we don't have facilities in the area!"

Here is a mini-screen shot of the interface we've created by integrating the various carrier "Lit Building" lists together with Google maps. As you can see, our agents (who will see this image with much greater resolution) will know EXACTLY which carriers to go to for potential opportunities. Although there is never a guarantee a carrier will be able to provide service, we're greatly improving the agent's chances of striking ethernet gold, as well as removing all of the "dud" requests carriers have to receive from our agents who are quoting and hoping.

Never has there been a bigger day in the life of Telarus since we launched ShopforT1.com way back in July 2003, over 4 years ago. Look for many more specialty type web sites to come out in the months ahead: ShopforVoIP.com, ShopforSIPTrunks.com, ShopforMPLS.com, and ShopforVPN.com are among the sites in the planning stages right now.

Congratulations to the IT Department (I am now in charge of marketing) for a great job. I'm sure many people will find this site helpful while our carriers find this site profitable!

AT&T Specialist Hired

2007-07-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

When Telarus began dealing with AT&T, Qwest, and Verizon, we didn't know that those relationships would require anything more than including them in GeoQuote and watching the orders flow. After all, every other CLEC and reseller that we deal with is almost 'plug and play' with our business model and real-time quotes. It didn't take long before we were tripped up by our own bad assumptions. We soon learned that:

1) RBOCs don't have API's for commercial broadband pricing/availability. In fact, most of them are the compilation of many different smaller networks that were spun off of the AT&T circa 1985. These networks have different web sites, databases, etc. and are almost impossible to deliver in a comprehensive API. That rules out adding the RBOCs to GeoQuote and having our agents go right to proposal/paperwork in under 10 minutes.

2) RBOCs expect their partners to have substantial internal resources dedicated to the relationship. From the time we started we have assigned our sales managers the duty of managing carrier relationships. However, after a few dozen hours of trainings our guys quickly started to express concern about the RBOCs - stating it was a full-time job to become trained and well versed in their back offices, product sets, promotions, etc. since it was ALL manual lookups in their back offices.

As Telarus grew, the demand for RBOC services grew and we hired Lori O'Rourke, wife of President's Club Member Tim O'Rourke, to handle our AT&T and Qwest manual quote lookup requests. For two years Lori has done a fantastic job helping Telarus agents find the pricing, paperwork, and promotion codes they need to actively market RBOC service (except Verizon - see previous blog posting).

A few months ago, we got lucky. One of Lori's contacts at AT&T suggested we contact a woman by the name of Pam Simon - which we did. Pam comes from a long line of AT&T-related companies. In her own words:

"Pacific Telephone (part of the Bell system) was where I started. That company eventually became AT&T as it is today BUT I went down a different path. Pacific Telephone became Pacific Bell (Pacific Telesis) at divestiture, then SBC bought it and then bought the AT&T entity that was the AT&T Long Distance Company at divestiture, to become the "AT&T" it is today and almost come full circle. I never worked for any of those companies, but instead, at divestiture, chose the path to AT&T-IS (Information Systems), which was then the equipment/hardware/software arm that included Western Electric, Bell Labs and all the mad scientists with the Bell Labs patents. ATT-IS eventually spun off its various divisions and became Lucent Technologies, Ageis, Agere, Avaya, etc. I worked for Lucent Technologies (even though when I actually left, Lucent had sold the small-medium business division to another company called Expanets and I worked for them for a couple of months before taking my Lucent pension. That was clearly a contributing factor to my decision to leave). After Lucent, I worked for CompuWave a Lucent/Avaya Interconnect and while I was at CompuWave, I decided that I wanted to move away from hardware sales and focus back to my "roots"---dial tone and all the associated services. CompuWave needed someone to interface with (at that time) Pacific Bell and created a position for me. Pat Watkins (Telarus' previous AT&T Mgr) was the Pacific Bell Sales Manager for the Agent Channel (which included CompuWave), so she and I renewed our friendship from pre-divestiture days when we worked in the same Pacific Telephone office in Alhambra, CA.

I went to Corporate Telecomm after CompuWave had a massive "Happy New Year" layoff and an eventual spin-off of their Lucent/Avaya Division. Both companies are primarily equipment providers/Interconnects and their SBC/AT&T association as an Agent/now Solution Provider is an additional value-added service for their hardware clients. Yes, I guess I "headed up" their carrier division---I WAS their carrier division. I always ordered the dial-tone related services for my clients---it just made sense and was a complete package."

To say that I am personally very happy to have someone with Pam's experience both with AT&T and affiliated companies, but also working directly for VARs. She is already "up to speed" on Telarus processes and software, and our agents should feel an immediate impact.

I feel that Telarus is now in prime position to play in the RBOC sales space and we are looking forward to many great years with Pam Simon on our team!

Eclipsed by MARS

2007-06-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years Telarus has been the beneficiary of referrals from our carrier partners. Most of them have very high quotas and minimum activity requirements in order to even enter into a contract, not to mention low commission for low volume agencies. When carriers come across these agents they refer them to us, where they can use our contracts without risk, quotas, etc. Carriers do this to limit the support load placed on their shoulders, making large master agencies like Telarus the caretakers of the smaller fish. Although we are deeply grateful for these referrals, unless we can help them produce, we all lose in the end.

With that in mind, Telarus created MARS - the Master Agent Reporting System. I allows other master agents that work with Telarus to essentially become a mini-Telarus. The software is actually the second revision of our original idea, and took over $1M and 2 solid years to develop. Below I've listed a small list of features we've build into MARS:

- unlimited sub-agent management (masters can load thousands of agents into the system if needed)

- customized commission levels (masters can pay agents a simple split (ex: 50/50), a fixed commission level (ex: 10% across the board), or a fixed margin (ex: I want to make 4% on all this agent's business, regardless of the total payout)

- real-time data quotes (DSL/T1/DS3 - through GeoQuote, of course)

- real-time voice quotes (Integrated/PRI/Local/LD - ahhh, the real deal-breaker. NO ONE else has anything voice in their "real time quote" software)

- automatic proposal generator (our agents can create, send, save for later, and customize official proposals in just seconds)

- VAR Network leads to your VARs (sub-agents can recruit VARs into VAR Network, where they will receive equipment leads from our system. Happy VARs make for great T1 referral partners!)

- turn-key marketing web sites (sub-agents can use GeoQuote PLUS sites to generate their own leads)

- CRM package for subagents (sub-agents can run quotes, set tasks, queue up delayed-send emails, keep notes on each contact at the company they are dealing with, including birthdays, anniversaries, etc.)

- access to 30 carrier contracts (which now includes Cavalier, our newest carrier partner!)

- 100% SPIFF pass-through (some people think we're crazy for passing through ALL of the cash bonuses that our agents earn, but we think it's the right thing to do)

- complete financial reporting suite (it's important to know how much money you make, and have the ability to upload commission reports from non-Telarus carriers as well).

- full accounts payable modules (since the Master agent is responsible for paying his sub-agents, knowing exactly how much to pay them is a good thing!)

- associate administrator access (since most master agents have employees who help support their sub-agents, it's necessary for a master to create associate admin accounts to that each employee can access selected parts of MARS in order to do their job.)

- custom URL masking capable (right now, the URL for MARS is http://www.t1backoffice.com, but we can 'make' it anything a master wants using Microsoft IIS. EX: http://www.PatricksCoolTelecomCompany.com could also be set up to bring up MARS with my own logo, etc.)

As you can see, the real secret of Telarus is that we are really a software company with a really good sales division. In fact, half of our employees are IT-related. It is these code-writers that allow us to develop these tools based upon agent feedback. They are surely earning every dime we pay them, and then some.

If you'd like to learn more about MARS, check out the press release that we over the AP news wire this morning:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/6/prweb531902.htm

The Cavalry is Here! And Just in Time

2007-05-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

During the past few years I've been writing in this blog, you may have noticed that Telarus always has a ton of IT projects in progress at all times. Back in 2002, when Adam and I started this company, I was the only developer. I "hacked" together some web sites and databases - enough to get our company started without significant development cost. One by one we added programmers to re-write my ugly code and to begin building new technology well beyond my abilities. Soon I found myself managing the daily tasks of 5 developers. My days became so full that many phone calls and emails began to go unanswered. But that is about to change!

On May 1, 2007 Telarus found itself with a new Director of Web Development: Andrew Morgan. I met Andrew in Las Vegas at the Channel Partner Show. He was employed by PowerNet Global at the time and I instantly gained a respect for his knowledge of e-business as well as his integrity. After just a few minutes of conversation you can tell that Andrew has a good heart and he has a great deal of focus. What I didn't know when I met Andrew was that he was desirous of making a life change, moving his family from Cincinnati back to Oklahoma City, land of his in-laws.

Andrew began working for Telarus on April 23, 2007. He spent his first week with us here in Utah, where I attempted to "download" my brain into his a la fire hose style. He left soaking wet with information, most of which he'll remember later on. With Andrew on board there is an extra pair of eyes to search through our internal IT task list as well as an extra mouth to communicate to each developer what he should or shouldn't be working on. Alas, the cavalry is here! No more voicemail, no more unanswered email and IM's.

With Andrew slaying dragons by my side, I find myself able to focus on the things I do and like best: internet marketing - driving more leads to our sales agents and VAR partners, coaching and collaborating with our agents on new Google optimization strategies.

Someone a few years back asked me if I'd be interested in getting an MBA. Well, we just got an MBA! Welcome aboard Andrew!

Vegas on the Horizon

2007-02-13T09:17:00.000-08:00

The biggest event of the year for Telarus is coming up in Las Vegas on March 2. It's not the Channel Partner Show (March 3-5), it is the Telarus National Conference. All of our top "closers" (trained sales agents, not to be confused with our marketing or "lead generator" agents) and VARs (value added resellers) will be there. I am working with my IT staff on serveral new web sites and upgrades to existing web sites that I will be presenting at the conference. Rob Butler will be hosting a VAR discussion panel, and Adam Edwards will be presenting the President's Club Awards for 2006. The Conference is being co-sponsored by ACC Business, a division of AT&T, and Level3, formerly Broadwing Communications. We'll have the chance to hear form senior management of both companies during the day as well. The keynote speaker will be the president of Jingle Networks, parent company of 1-800-FREE-411, a Telarus client and newest member of our Commission River affiliate network.

As you can see, there is a lot to prepare for - however, my staff is doing a terrific job keeping up with the incredible demands that I am placing on them. The programmers who work for me are top notch and our continued success depends on their ability to complete all of the many projects I dream up!

See you all on March 2, 2007!

Robert Butler Takes the Reigns as Director of VAR Network

2007-01-07T09:56:00.000-08:00

Robert Butler officially began his new job as the director of the VAR Network today. He'll be here in Salt Lake City next week to continue his training and to present his ideas for the VAR program. We've known Rob for quite a long time, as he was our channel manager at NewEdge Networks. Rob was a specialist in retail multi-site broadband configurations and, outside of Telarus, Rob dealt exclusively with VARs (Value Added Resellers) and network integrator who referred new business to Rob on a daily basis.

Most importantly, Rob is a big Telarus fan. He has personally referred many high quality agents to Telarus over the years and he has been instrumental in our growth. He has a huge heart, is super-positive, and he even completed an "Eco Challenge" a few years back (250 mile group race across the wilderness). Rob is located in Austin, Texas - and will be working from home with all of our "in-house" VARs as well as providing support to the VARs recruited by our large group of professional closers.

Now, all of the pieces are in place for the VAR program - the code, the leads, and a leader who's sole job it is to grow and support the network. To say I'm excited would be an understatement!

2006 in Retrospect

2006-12-31T16:20:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that another year has passed us by. I just re-read the "2005 In Hindsight" post I made a year ago and it seems like an eternity ago. So much has changed since then, mostly in the form of new accomplishments.

This first major change is Telarus' book of business. Last year at this time we had just eclipsed $1M in T1 billing revenue. This year, we're right at $2M, for a 100% increase. This was achieved by the hard work and dedication of our lead generators, VARs, and closers (both new and seasoned veterans).

The second major change to Telarus is the growth of our payroll. Since New Year's Eve of last year, we've hired Daniel Vest (Senior Cold Fusion Programmer), Keith Grey (Senior Database and GeoQuote Pricing Programmer), Robert Probst (Head of Affiliate Sales), Thomas Hernandez (Channel Manager #3), Jessica Martin (Office Administrator), and lastly Robert Butler (Head of the VAR Program). Rob Butler will begin working for Telarus in under 1 week, focusing on the growth and development of our own internal VAR relationships as well as support our agents in their VAR recruiting and retention efforts. This increase in head count has allowed us to continue growing while improving the support we offer our agents. We've also managed to pay for each new employee from money generated from increases in operational revenue, so our debt is still miniscule and we are still 100% privately owned.

The third major change to Telarus is the addition of the VAR Program in which we generate telecom equipment and service leads for our VAR partners. Prior to this year we only recruited VARs by offering them real-time quoting and support for their T1 customers. We always had the dream to generate equipment leads for our VARs, and we spent the lion's share of 2006 programming VARNetwork.com and VARPartner.com to make that a reality. Now we generate over 500 equipment leads/month, and I foresee that going through the roof in 2007.

Lastly, my twins are now 1 year old! Every second I'm not at work I'm home playing with the little whipper-snappers who are getting into everything they can get their little hands on. Their favorite household items are: 1) Toilet Paper, 2) Tupperware, 3) my computers, 4) remote controls, 5) cell phones, 6) electrical cords of any kind, and 7) anything with bright lights on it! I am so proud of them and look forward to a great 2007!

I am also extremely grateful to be involved with all of the agents and employees that work for Telarus. Not only do they all do a fantastic job, they are like family to me and I care deeply for each and everyone of them.

VAR Network 3.0

2006-12-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

This week Telarus will be releasing VAR Network 3.0, the latest iteration in the phone system resellers, system integrators, telecommunication service providers and software VAR program. Versions 1.0 and 2.0 helped us get the program off of the ground, both in terms of creating VARSearch(tm) and actually being able to drive leads. Now, thanks to the help of our awesome affiliates, lead volume is steadily growing. Version 3.0 introduced many new programs to improve the QUALITY of the leads, so that VARs could be more productive and earn more money per lead than ever before. Some of the components of 3.0 include:

1. Target (niche) marketing
2. Human equipment lead filter
3. Agent back office CRM enhancements
4. Automatic order creation based on customer feedback
5. Publicly viewable customer reviews for each VAR

With these and other improvements to the system, 2007 will be the year that we help introduce thousands of new customers to our phone system resellers, system integrators, telecommunication service providers and software VARs. Likewise, it will also be the year thousands of VARs send us their T1 service business in kind.

Verizon Rains on Our Parade

2006-12-01T13:56:00.000-08:00

As you can tell from the previous post last month, I have been almost giddy at how well things have been working out for Telarus. Carriers continue to plead with us for inclusion in GeoQuote, our VAR program is taking off, our employees and agents are doing a tremendous job, and then POOF! Out of thin air we received a notice from Verizon Business that "[Telarus] was not selected for initial participation in the 2007 Verizon Solutions Provider Program." Adam and I were in SHOCK. Not only is our company rapidly becoming THE online resource for broadband and voice purchasing, we were told during the Verizon site visit last month that we were a "virtual lock" to get in to the program.

I thought that the feelings of anger and frustration were in the past. When Adam and I founded Telarus in 2002, we were met with red tape, road blocks, doubters, and all other forms of impediment to our idea of real-time T1 pricing. It took many years of hard work to prove to the carriers and the world that our business model was legitimate, feasible, and even profitable. But now, in the end of 2006, we're breaking records and raking in new commercial telecom service orders every day ... yet Verizon doesn't want us as a partner.

I suppose it is their loss, but my personal preference is to use rejection as a positive motivation influence in my life. Thus, I have framed the Verizon rejection letter which now adorns the wall of my office here in Draper, Utah. Every day I come to work I am greeting by the "you're not good enough" letter, which is better than any coffee at waking a person up and getting them psyched about the upcoming day! I suppose I should thank Verizon for filling my "missile lock" tank with fuel!

Triple Play

2006-11-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

Telarus continues to roll along with steady growth and momentum. However, there are some days that really get me excited about the business. Yesterday was one of those days.

Three major milestones were reached which validates all of the hard work we have been putting into this business. The three milestones were (in random order):

1. We received our first commission payment from an equipment installer (VAR) for whom we generated telecom equipment leads on VARNetwork.com.

2. We received unofficial notice from Verizon Business that Telarus will be invited to participate in their new (very exclusive) Partner Program. (Verizon and MCI have merged and are making huge cuts to their respective agent programs. They are only keeping a small handful of Master Agents with whom they will deal direct.)

3. We had a great conference call with Jingle Networks, marketers of the 1-800-FREE-411 service, in which Telarus agreed to build an affiliate tracking solution for them. 1-800-FREE-411 is driven by advertisers and is free to consumers. We will soon be putting together a program for them that allows people (users, advertisers, and Telarus affiliates) the ability to refer others to the service and earn a commission when the new referral becomes an active advertiser on the FREE-411 platform. It's a great company to work with and I'm excited for the chance to eventually bring this one-of-a-kind opportunity to Telarus (and hopefully Cognigen) agents.

Top all of that off with a new programmer who we expect to begin work next week (brining the total to 6 full-time software developers) and you have the makings of one very busy, but very profitable, November and December!

One More Arrow in the VAR Quiver

2006-10-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

The past six months here at ShopforT1 have been dedicated to the construction of the world's largest VAR program. So far we have created VARSearch(tm), a real-time VAR search engine that people looking for installers in their local area can use to find these super-smart technicians.

The latest addition to our VAR program is VAR Partner.com, as site that was built for the sole goal of recruiting new VARs to the program. ShopforT1 agents can use the site (by adding their tracking ID's to the URLs) to attract and ultimately recruit new VARs to the program. Every time a new VAR joins, the agents from which the referal came is tagged to that VAR - allowing the recruiting agent to earn a 10% override on all of the future telecom service commission that the new VARs receives in the future.

I had a lot of fun building VAR Parter.com, even though the idea to build it was not mine. One day an agent suggested to me that we build a site that focused on explaining the benefits of the VAR Program in plain English - outlining all of the reasons why a VAR should join and participate in our program. I thought the idea was an excellent one, and luck would have it that "VARPartner.com" was still available. I bought the domain in a New York minute and began working on the graphic templates back in 2005. Now, about a year later, we finally got around to building it out complete with a dynamic sign up form, a comparison table (my favorite) which outlines the similarities and difference of VAR Network from all other forms of generating equipment leads, testimonials of VARs in our program, and more.

I expect that this site will greatly help the ShopforT1 closers who are working hard to recruit VARs. VARPartner.com is an online brochure that they now have in their arsenal of T1 business building tools that I am priveledged to produce for them.

One Thousand VARs and Counting

2006-09-03T22:40:00.000-07:00

Business is good.

Last week we reached the 1,000 VAR mark, with over 400 of our partners entered to receive VARSearch leads. From 2003 through June 2006, we signed up a total of 400 VARs. In the last 90 days we've added another 600! With the increase in leads that we (me and the ShopforT1/Cognigen network of agents) generate, more VARs are being attracted to our program. And why wouldn't they? We're offering VARs free leads - they only pay us a commission IF the leads convert to actual sales, making this program 100% risk-free and 100% profitable.

Some people have asked me why I'm so infatuated with VARs. After all, we're in the business of selling T1's, right? Well, let me phrase it this way ... VARs represent over 50% of ALL T1 lines sold. Yup, their "scraps" amount to more T1 sales than ALL telecom master agents combined. The idea is to get this 50% of the market by getting VARs to submit T1 sales through OUR contracts. But first, you need to give the VARs a good reason to send their business to us.

That is where the idea of reciprocation comes in. The shear act of sending leads to VARs is a *guaranteed* way to establish relationships with VARs that last longer than 10 minutes. You take care of your partners, they'll take care of you. Sending leads to VARs will dramatically increase the likelihood of these VARs thinking of ShopforT1 when their clients ask them "what do you recommend for high speed internet or commercial phone service?"

Fact is, most of our VARs have never visited their http://var.shopfort1.com back office web site. They do not have any clue that they have access to real-time quotes from over 30 providers. One of the best ways to get them to see this incredible tool is to also house the VAR equipment leads that we send them in this same back office. They have to log in to see the customer's information - and I'm betting that many VARs will get curious and begin testing out GeoQuote. It won't take long for them to become as hooked on it as our agents are.

Lastly, last week we officially eclipsed our 2005 sales totals. In just 8 months we beat our entire 12 months of 2005 - which was a record year in and of itself. In fact, 2005 ushered in a new era of trophies and accolades for our program and our agents. 2006 is shaping up to be WAY higher still, with four whole months still left to go! Onward and upward!

My Heart is in VARs

2006-08-14T22:21:00.000-07:00

During the past six months, Telarus has almost shut down - well, our head has been down anyway - working feverishly on the new VAR Program. The more web sites and features we build, the more ideas are generated by our agents. From moving links around, to adding new telecom equipment vendors into the VARSearch profile, to completely redesigning the user interface - it's almost "done" now.

To make sure all of our agents understand the program, which has evolved dramatically since they were first introduced to the concept a few years ago, we are authoring manual, recording training calls, and producing "exams" to reinforce all of the information about the VAR program.

Likewise, I am also in the process of performing my Google magic on VARNetwork.com. Right now it is PR0, due in large part to the length of time that it sat half-baked with broken links. It may take some time for Google to realize that the site is now alive and well, and when it does look for keywords with "VAR" in them. That is my strategy; to rank well with "VAR" so that it will carry over to other 2-word keyword combinations like "Cisco VAR", "VAR technician", etc.

Today was a very special day in the VAR program ... we generated 3 legitimate leads (each lead being sent to 5 different VARs to fight for the business). That's a total of 15 equipment lead emails going out to our new VAR partners. It's hard not to get excited when you see something that was once just a figment of your imagination turn into something tangible and viable. Long live the VAR program!!!

Building for the Future

2006-05-19T12:55:00.000-07:00

So many projects are going on that have my excitement level at all time highs. Our office is a buzz with ringing phones with other master telecom agents and VAR partners wanting to work with us. Our new Master Agent Program and soon-to-be launched VAR Program are allowing us to partner with some very potent agents; the kind that have worked in the industry for a long time and know their stuff, not to mention the relationships they've forged over the course of many years.

We were also recently blessed with another award from one of our T-1 carriers, namely Network Innovations: 2005 Top Agent. We do a lot of intralata point-to-point circuits with them, not to mention the flat rate T1 which never goes above $750/month, even in the most remote areas of the country. Network Innovations uses the AT&T and MCI backbones, so our customers are very happy with the reliability and stability of the service.

June is looking to be a big month for new programs, as we have our "super" VAR program that will roll out. The super-VAR program is much like our Master Agent program, complete with customizable private-labeled back office, but will focus on the needs of big VAR companies with dozens of installers and coordinators. This will open further doors into T1 prospects that we would never find on the internet. It is our goal to have the VARs refer 50% of our volume by the end of 2006, which is a very lofty goal but one I truly feel we can accomplish.

Curt Bauer - In Memorandum

2006-05-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a good friend of ShopforT1 and agents everywhere passed away. His name was Curt Bauer, Channel Manager for Xspedius Communications. He was a great man who always went the extra mile to make everyone else's lives better.

When Adam and I first started this company, faith was in short supply. Most vendors we deal with needed to see "the numbers" before they would allocate any type of resources to support our new business model. Curt Bauer was not one of these people. He supported up like we were a million dollar company from day one. He was able to see that ShopforT1 was special, with great agents, futuristic pricing technology, and honest management. Though Xspedius has a pretty limited footprint, our agents rewarded Curt with new business in return for his support. In fact, many of our agents consider Curt a member of the family.

Curt, we will miss you good friend. The few years we worked together were a blessing.

Patrick.

300,000 is the Magic Number

2006-04-12T20:44:00.000-07:00

ShopforT1 just surpassed the 300,000 real-time T1 quote mark and reported a first quarter sales volume of over $300,000 (and we're not talking about a 1-time sales number - we're talking about contract value, which is a monthly commitment made by each customer). That $300,000 will add to the $1.4M already in the hopper to push us well north of $1.5M by May 30, 2006. Now the goal is to see if we can break $3.0M in total billing by the end of this year. Just with our ordinary volume we'll hit $2.3M, but it will take a tremendous push and effort from our agents to reach this goal.

One new SEO tool that my mind created and my IT staff built over the course of last year is the GeoQuote XML Plug-in, which allows agents to add GeoQuote real-time t1 price quotes to their own hosted web sites. This technology keeps the visitor on the same site where they came in by using XML to "ask" our servers in Dallas what content to display. All of the XML happens behind the scenes and the user is completely unaware that the site they are on is not the one actually generating the quotes. This is a HUGE break-through in affiliate and internet marketing technology. I plan to have thousands of these plug-ins deployed by the end of 2006. Competing with us for online leads will be comical.

Patrick.

Las Vegas 2006

2006-03-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

The Channel Partners Exhibition, the pinnacle conference for those in the business of telecommunications, took place March 1-2, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Everyone from ShopforT1 made their way there by bus, train, and plane. The Draper, Utah office mates (me, Adam, James, Aaron Jay) rented a brand new Suburban and had a great road trip. We stopped in Beaver, Utah to buy some fresh cheese curds and in St. George, Utah to see some interesting folks shopping in Wal-mart. We arrived later that afternoon and enjoyed a dinner buffet at the Excalibur with some of our early-arriving agents. The next day was very busy, starting with the ACC Business awards banquet in the Mandalay Bay Hotel. After a delicious meal we were delighted to be named to the Platinum Club for the second straight year, and even more amazed to see that ShopforT1 was the #3 T1 sales agency in the nation! Adam, James, Lance, and I were almost in shock to hear to our agents had produced more than the likes of other, well-respected, master agents like Microcorp, Intelysis, and PlanetOne. In fact, the representatives of these companies were dining at tables in the immediate proximity of our table. Most of them had never heard of ShopforT1 before, so I took the time to go over and congratulate them on their being named to the Platinum Club and to introduce myself. Only Brad Miehl, president of Microcorp, had any idea who I was since we worked together a while back when I was running PK Communications. PKCOMM ran all of our Cable & Wireless business through Microcorp until Brad terminated our contract when his crew provisioned one of our customers to the wrong rate plan and refused to reimburse the customer $20, which resulted in an FCC complaint. But that is ancient history - it was just a thrill to be included in the same group as these industry heavy weights.

After the ACC Business awards banquet concluded, we rushed over to the Excalibur to begin the official ShopforT1 Annual Training Conference and Awards Banquet. I presented to our closers the newest piece of technology created to facilitate new relationships: the Master Agent / Sub-Agent modules. These web sites allow our agents, many of whom have employees and/or subagents of their own, to set up, manage, and pay their people using one easy-to-use master control panel.

In addition to the new Master Agent modules, we also rolled out our new GeoQuote XML plug-in. This will allow any agent, anywhere, to add real-time pricing to their existing web site(s). The software was authored in Cold Fusion and PHP, which covers 90% of all hosting types. Our goal is to have millions of GeoQuote plug-ins deployed on the internet by this time next year.

After the new technology was unveiled, we rented the entire Italian restaurant on the second floor and had a fantastic meal with our agents. Once the meal concluded, our awards ceremony began. The top closer of 2005 was Tim O'Rourke, of Spokane Washington. Tim was our most consistent agent and he works the business on a full-time basis with the support of his wife Lori. In fact, we recently hired Lori to work as our Commission-Zsar, and what an excellent job she does to make sure all of our agents are getting from the carriers what they deserve!!

Once our meeting concluded, we brought in the chocolate fountain and invited ALL of our carriers to come and socialize with our agents. At one point, over 100 people were mingling and comparing notes during the evening. Adam and I just sat back and marvelled at all of the great people we work with. It is truly humbling and inspiring to see all of the people benefiting from our hard work. Likewise, it also gives us motivation to wake up each morning and continue working to build this one-of-a-kind system that benefits so many people on so many levels. Helping these agents achieve their dream is the stepping stone to allowing us to achieve ours. May we never forget it, and may we never forget our humble beginnings in Adam's one-bedroom apartment on the beach in San Clemente.

One Million

2006-02-13T15:23:00.000-08:00

After just under 3 years of operations, we've reached the first milestone in our young company's development: $1,000,000 in monthly billing. We started out very small, selling and quoting customers by hand. Now we've created a system that agents, customers, network integrators - all find very informative, time-saving, and unique. 2006 is going to be the year we take all of the infrastructure that we have build in-house and really scale on it. We are looking to double the number of agents that we work with by June, and double that again by year's end. Every available penny we earn in re-invested back into new employees, who are finding Telarus a fun and rewarding place to work!

2005 In Hindsight

2005-12-06T02:22:00.000-08:00

As I ponder what Telarus has accomplished in 2005, I am overcome with a feeling of peace and satisfaction. Each difficult year in the life of an entrepreneur causes reflection and a feeling of relief that our little venture has survived another year. Each December for the past three years I've had the same thought: glad the year is over - that was a lot of hard work - there's no way I'll be able to work harder next year. And every year, I somehow work harder, build more pages, build more effective pages, and learn more skills than the year before.

2005 was a year of building infrastructure. I started the year with the need to redesign our entire back office system and database architecture. Our database could not support T1 customers with more than one physical location, or more than one decision maker (company contact), or more than one order per business. As I made a list of things that needed to be upgraded, it soon became apparent that a complete overhaul and redesign was necessary.

January through March was spent on the HTML layout of the new back office. It took over five different layouts before Daniel (our IT director), Aaron Jay (the head programmer), and I could agree on a design that we could run with. March through May was a period of intense programming and in June, the 'closer' back office was ready for roll out. Of course, many features were left out and labelled 'we'll come back to those as soon as we get a chance'. May through August we labored on the Lead Generator back office, launching it on August 22. In September we built the VAR Back Office and in October we built the Vendor Back Office. In all, these four back office sites include GeoQuote real-time pricing for agents, customer relationship management software, 'set-it-and-forget-it' email delivery system, real-time commission reports, bulletin board software, link exchange software, online marketing training, offline marketing training, ShopforT1 Closer University (a series of online exams that agents go through before they are eligible to become closers), and even Call Center software that allows agents to process inbound calls from clients looking for a T1 quote over the phone.

In addition to the back office advancements, we also began developing XML technology that will allow us to really do some cool stuff in the arena of online marketing. We created a main XML server and programmed all of our sites (both on the physical network and off) to communicate with it when looking up information: T1 quote, content, Link Exchange info, etc. Not only does this allow us to maintain just one set of master source code, it allows us to scale in ways that were only a figment of my imagination just a few months ago.

Lastly, I became a father in 2005. How proud I am to have Darien and Grace as new members of my family. I am so thankful to the good God in heaven for their little spirits. They've only been here for 7 weeks now, but already they've touched my life and given me and Debbie a whole new perspective on life, including business. We'll all here working for something - I work for them, and they're future.

Yes, 2005 was the year of construction. We are now approaching the end of this major building phase and now we're getting ready for 2006 - year of growth, year of taking this platform and building on it.

Netifice Communications Names ShopforT1.com Top Master Agent for 2004 & 2005

2005-11-30T13:08:00.000-08:00

Here is a press release we just sent out regarding another award Telarus (ShopforT1.com) just won. You can find this article on the Telecom Digest as well. I am so proud of our company and agents - words can't express. Anyhow - here it is:

COSTA MESA, California - November 14, 2005 - Netifice Communications today announced its top performing master agent for 2004 and 2005; ShopforT1.com. The award was based on the total quantity of single-location data T1 lines sold each of the two years referenced.

"This award demonstrates the dedication and hard work of our agents. Armed with real-time Netifice T1 quotes from GeoQuote, they have been able to sell data T1 products better, faster, and more accurately than any of our competition." commented Adam Edwards, President and CEO of ShopforT1.com. "We are humbled and honored to be the top Master Agent for data T1 lines sold in both 2004 and 2005. Netifice has provided us with the data products and the sales support that make our jobs easy."

According to Patrick Oborn, Chief Technical Officer of Telarus, Inc., Netifice was the very first company willing to provide ShopforT1.com with the information required to quote real-time T1 prices in GeoQuote. Every time a customer from a major metropolitan area performs a search for data T1 pricing on ShopforT1.com, Netifice will likely show up in the top position due to their very aggressive price points.

"Netifice has targeted very specific regions of the country and done their best to compete in those areas" commented Oborn. "This advantage really comes into play when Netifice goes head to head with the ILEC and CLEC offerings. Combine their price advantages with the terrific support our agents receive from Eric Sandoval and you have a recipe for success."

"We have enjoyed our partnership with Netifice and look forward to many successful years to come" added Edwards. "The broadband revolution is just beginning and Netifice and ShopforT1.com are in a prime position to capture a good percentage of that market."

ShopforT1 Named VIP Partner by UCN

2005-10-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

On October 1, 2005 my company, Telarus, was named "Stellar Sales Performer" by United Carrier Network (OTCBB: UCNN) The award is bestowed to each member of UCN's Six Figure Club for 2005.

"The UCN Six Figure Club is a huge achievement by our agents. Only a select few master telecommunication agents ever experience this right of passage, and to think we did it in just three fiscal quarters is very exciting." commented Adam Edwards, president and CEO of Telarus, Inc. "UCN is a terrific partner and we look forward to growing our business through our relationship with them."

According to Patrick Oborn (me), Chief Technical Officer of Telarus, Inc., UCN offers a wide mix of voice and data services through a mix of top-tier carriers: Qwest, MCI, and Global Crossing. UCN is the only company represented in GeoQuote that employs a very unique method of least call routing in order to provide the maximum savings to their dedicated voice clients.

"UCN offers are very unique blend of applications in addition to standard broadband services to our clients" added Edwards. "Our agents have been very successful the the ACD Call Center application as well as the Intelligent T1 offering. But even more impressive than UCN's value-added products is the sales support they have provided ShopforT1.com. Our systems are seamlessly integrated and our agents find UCN information very quickly, enabling them to be very efficient."

My Patent Finally Published

2005-10-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

This past month my patent was published by the United State Patent and Trademark Office. The provisional patent was filed back in November 2003, and now the non-provisional has made its way into the archives at the USPTO. Soon the decision of the reviewer will be communicated to me, as I remain cautiously optimistic a patent will be issued.

The patent I filed with the USPTO involves the way in which my software, called GeoQuote, prices and displays t1 line prices in real-time. The calculations are very complicated, and the system we built can use four simultaneous ways to figure out the price values. While one thread is going via XML to hunt down prices for MegaPath, XO, Qwest, and others, our database calculates the prices of the other carriers. Finally, when all of the treads have finished calculating, our system them organizes all of the information and displays it to the customer and/or agent.

This is the first patent I've ever applied for, though it is not the first time I have been published. My first publication was a paper I wrote while in graduate school at BYU. The paper was about a new digital-to-analog converter architecture that I created to yield better accuracy while conserving silicon chip space.

This is an exciting time right now at ShopforT1.com. Most of our web projects for the year are now done and we have just hired a new programmer to help us maintain the thousands of pages of code we've just built. I am humbled by the loyalty so many agents have placed in our company and I work every day to make myself equal to the job.

FCC Grants Qwest Forebearance Relief in Omaha MSA

2005-09-18T19:56:00.000-07:00

Washington, D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission (Commission) today grants in part a petition for forbearance filed by Qwest Corporation (Qwest) seeking relief from statutory and regulatory obligations that apply to it as the incumbent telephone company in the Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metropolitan Statistical Area (Omaha MSA). Because of the particular market characteristics of the Omaha MSA, including the substantial infrastructure investment made by Cox Communications, Inc. in its competitive network, the Commission has determined to relieve Qwest of certain legacy monopoly regulations.

With regard to section 251(c)(3) unbundling obligations for transmission facilities, the Commission grants Qwest relief in targeted areas where intermodal deployment is extensive. Specifically, the Commission relieves Qwest of the obligation to provide unbundled network elements (UNEs) to competitors in 9 of Qwest’s 24 wire center service areas in the Omaha MSA. The Commission leaves in place other section 251(c) requirements such as interconnection and interconnection-related collocation obligations as well as section 271 obligations to provide wholesale access to local loops, local transport, and local switching at just and reasonable prices.

For mass market telephone services, the Commission grants Qwest relief from dominant carrier regulations that apply to it in the entire Omaha MSA. Specifically, the Commission grants Qwest’s request to forbear from applying price cap, rate of return, 15-day tariffing, and 60-day discontinuance regulations to Qwest for its provision of interstate mass market exchange access services and broadband Internet access services.

The Commission adopts a six-month transition period to permit competing carriers that currently use UNEs in the 9 wire centers receiving relief to migrate existing customers to alternative facilities or arrangements, including self-provided facilities, alternative facilities offered by other competitive carriers, or services offered by Qwest.

Action by the Commission, September 16, 2005, by Memorandum Opinion and Order (FCC 05-170).

WC Docket No. 04-233

Your VoIP Line May Be Terminated Next Week If you don't acknowledge the 911 service sucks

2005-08-26T08:17:00.000-07:00

This article was send to me by Daniel Pentecost, and written by
Karl Bode of DSLReports.com

--------------------------------------------
If you don't respond to your VoIP provider's emails concerning the limitations of 911 service, you could find your service terminated early next week. It's part of an FCC order many providers claim is unreasonable, and at least one is suing over.

Back in May a mother blamed Vonage 911 service for her baby's death, despite the fact Vonage proved to local news outlets that the 911 call in question went through - twice. That didn't seem to matter. This and other similar reports created an uproar, and VoIP 911 became a hot political issue.

In some instances the problem was that customers didn't carefully read this screen, alerting them that they must manually configure 911 service before use. The customer complaints led several states to sue Vonage. Vonage responded by routing everyone to 911 centers, regardless of whether they'd configured the service or not.

Too late.

Despite the fact that on any given day you can find ample examples of traditional 911 failures, VoIP 911 was now an FCC and Congressional target. This prompted the creation of new laws, and an FCC order demanding all VoIP providers offer 911 service by November (some VoIP industry insiders believe this is a trojan horse effort to eliminate bell competition).

VoIP provider Nuvio has decided to sue the FCC over the 120 day window, claiming the request "unreasonable, arbitrary, and because technologically infeasible, capricious."

As part of the order, providers were also told they had to get 100% customer acknowledgement of the limitations of VoIP 911 by August 29.

That request also hasn't sat well with VoIP providers. “You could tell people that their house is burning down and by clicking on this link you can stop it and only 60 percent of them would respond,” recently noted VoicePulse CEO Ravi Sakaria.

As the hour grows late, VoIP providers have grown desperate - flinging the "our 911 service sucks" confirmation emails far and wide. Our office receives at least one a day, and we're not even a current customer.

Time Warner Cable meanwhile claims they've gotten all 600,000 VoIP customers to respond (sure they did, says CNET's Russell Shaw).

Vonage states they've received confirmation from roughly 96% of their subscribers. If the estimated remaining 31,000 subscribers don't respond to Vonage by next week, they will find their services terminated.

ShopforT1.com Named VIP Partner by Broadwing

2005-08-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

AUSTIN, Texas - August 5, 2005 - ShopforT1.com, privately owned subsidiary of Telarus Inc, provider of real-time T1 price quoting through it's patent-pending GeoQuote technology, was inducted into the VIP Partner Program by Broadwing Communications, LLC. The VIP Partner Program is reserved for the top 15 Broadwing agents nationwide.

"To be inducted into the Broadwing VIP Partner Program is a tremendous privilege and honor. We added Broadwing to our real-time T1 quoting software just 12 months ago. To see this kind of success further drives home the success strategy of our technology combined with the skill and savvy of our independent Product Specialists." commented Adam Edwards, president and CEO of Telarus, Inc. "In fact, the very first Broadwing sale we made was a Gig-E 100MB connection. We also close a lot of DS3 circuits with Broadwing, which is a testament to their footprint, customer service, and technical support."

According to Patrick Oborn, Chief Technical Officer of Telarus, Inc., Broadwing has a very aggressive data offering, especially in the major metropolitan areas of the country; namely Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City.

"The employees and sub-Agents of ShopforT1, will have exclusive use of a VIP phone number and e-mail address that will connect them directly to 5 Customer Implementation Experts. Each Implementation Coordinator will recognize your status as a VIP Partner and will prioritize your requests and issues." added Zane Long, Vice President of Channel Sales for Broadwing Communications.

"In addition to the recognition, we are thrilled to have access to the VIP support channel. Our agents will notice a remarkable improvement in the treatment they receive from Broadwing, which will surely lead to increased sales" added Edwards. "The broadband revolution is just beginning and Broadwing and ShopforT1.com are working together to capture are good percentage of the DS3 and OC3 market."

About Broadwing Communications LLC

Broadwing Corporation (NASDAQ: BWNG) is the parent company of Broadwing Communications, LLC, an innovative telecommunications service provider, and Corvis Equipment Corporation, a developer of advanced optical networking equipment selling primarily to the U.S. Government. Broadwing Corporation was launched October 8, 2004, with the combination of Broadwing Communications, LLC, Corvis Corporation and Focal Communications. Corvis was founded by Dr. David Huber on June 2, 1997. Broadwing Corporation and Corvis Equipment Corporation are headquartered in Columbia, MD. Broadwing Communications is headquartered in Austin, TX. Other major operations centers include Reston, VA and Chicago, IL The company's Web site is www.Broadwing.com.

Washington Bureau for ISP Advocacy News Flash

2005-08-05T09:01:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, or very soon thereafter, we will see the FCC deregulate Open Access. What does this mean and what should you do?

While the answers are not clear on what the new terms and conditions for access (if any) will mean to thousands of ISP's we do know that this does not bode well for the future of the T1 industry. While the argument on the Hill has been that this will create greater competition, any first grader who can count apples and oranges will recognize that when you take a bunch of them off the table there will be fewer to count and compete. It defies logic that the Bells have been able to sell this argument, but I suppose if you say it long and loud enough it mysteriously becomes a truth.

First, brace yourself for it is going to be a rough and bumpy ride. Second, while it will not change the immediate outcome, it is contingent upon us to mobilize and send a message to the FCC that we are watching and are organizing our industry, business and consumers in opposition.

As soon as you read this message take a moment to send word to each of the FCC Commissioners about your concerns and the consequences to your business and that the ultimate impact of deregulation will be bad for America, small business, consumers and our economy. It would also be a good idea to copy your congressional representatives office when you send the message. You can find congressional contact information in the WBIA Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/wbia/home/.

For your convenience we have provided the Email address for each of the FCC Commissioners and a sample letter which you are welcome to use in crafting your own message. Edit accordingly to give out to your customers.

For posting a letter (not comment) on the FCC Electronic Comment Filing System, do one post each of the following dockets: 04-29, 04-416, 04-440 and 04-405. Copy, paste and edit the below sample letter, edit to your liking and submit a PDF or Word .doc.

Make sure they know who you are and use company letter head. Create another for your customers and or have them sign off on a petition and list all those separately on the letters and ECFS uploaded lists.

Chairman Kevin Martin - Kevin.Martin@fcc.gov Commissioner Michael Copps - Michael.Copps@fcc.gov Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein - Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy - Kathleen.Abernathy@fcc.gov

Dear Chairman or Commissioner _________;

We are an ISP, CLEC, or whatever in City_______, State_____ and serve #'s______ of customers. Deregulation will harm our business and the ability
to provide competitive services to our customers. Consumers need and
deserve the choice they enjoy today and deregulation will take away their right to choose providers and services.

President Bush signed Executive Order 13272 on August 13, 2002 requiring federal agencies to implement policies protecting small entities when writing new rules and regulations. President Bush' Small Business Agenda states that every new business starts with an idea for a better product or process, which has been the driving force of Internet innovation we enjoy today.

These ideas become reality only when confident entrepreneurs are willing to take economic risks and ISP's have gallantly taken this risk. Small businesses are the heart of the American economy because they drive innovation - new firms are established on the very premise that they can do a better job and recognize that a one-size-fits all approach is not good for business and innovation.

A few legacy carriers cannot continue to benefit from valuable government grants and licenses, including the use of public rights-of-way, and be allowed to extend those rights in a way that bars others from offering their service to the public.

President Bush has called for recognition that supporting America's small businesses is critical to ensuring continued job creation. Today, small businesses create two-thirds of new private sector jobs in America, employ more than half of all workers, and account for more than half of the output of our economy.

The FCC has been entrusted with protecting consumers, encouraging economic development, and ensuring that competition is allowed to develop, rather than being quashed by a deregulated monopoly. Already, we are seeing the Bells move to increase prices, and without regulation, small business will be harmed, thousands of ISP's will be forced out business, highly-skilled workers will lose their jobs and consumers will lose the choice of platform for broadband services and support.

Deregulation will be bad for America and we encourage to reconsider deregulating open access.

Written by: Cynthia H. de Lorenzi, Co-founder
Washington Bureau for ISP Advocacy (WBIA) http://www.wbia.us CdeLorenzi@wbia.us

Seattle Conference Report

2005-07-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

I returned last week from Seattle tired, but very excited about the meeting. Adam and I trained for 4 hours on Friday afternoon about offline and online marketing respectively. He unveiled the new offline brochures that we've designed and I gave a talk entitled "Inside the Mind of the Search Engines".

During the session I talked about the recent publication of Google's Search Engine patent and the new tricks that one can learn from it. The agents who attended the meeting (about 40 in all) were awesome - including some of Cognigen's top money earners. My own sponsor, Joe Kennedy, took a 5-day bus trip from Glover Vermont all the way to Seattle for this meeting! What an animal!

You can read more about the Cognigen Conference and the new T1 lead generator back office that will be launched to the agents on July 28, 2005. I am very excited to be a part of this company right now, excited to be working together with Cognigen, and please to see where this is all headed.

Patrick.

More Awards Coming Our Way

2005-07-17T23:19:00.000-07:00

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey - March 17, 2005 - ShopforT1.com, privately owned subsidiary of Telarus Inc, provider of real-time T1 price quoting through it's patent-pending GeoQuote technology, was awarded the Platinum Partner award by ACC Business, the business division of AT&T. The award is presented anually to the top 1% of all agent partners. Adam Edwards, president and CEO of Telarus, accepted the award during the ACC Business awards banquet held in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"This award validates the dedication and hard work of our agents. Armed with real-time T1 price quotes from GeoQuote, they have been able to sell ACC Business products on the AT&T footprint better, faster, and more accurately than any of our competition." commeted Edwards. "We are humbled and honored to be inducted into a very elite class comprised of fine telecommunication master agents, all of whom we hold with the utmost respect. ACC Business has provided us with the products and the support that make our jobs that much easier."

According to Patrick Oborn, Chief Technical Officer of Telarus, Inc., ACC Business has the most ubiquitous T-1 footprint of all of the 14 vendors loaded into GeoQuote. Having such a broad coverage area allows ACC Business to compete for more opportunities than any other carrier.

"ACC Business has the unique advantage of being just about everywhere." commented Oborn. "This advantage really comes into play in areas of the country that are rural, or underserved by the other national DS1 providers. ACC Business takes this advantage and combines it with excellent provisioning and customer service. Almost all of our customers who sign with ACC Business report on-time installation, correct and easy-to-understand bills, and show a willingness to renew their contracts at the end of their terms."

"We have enoyed our partership with ACC Business and look forward to many successful years to come" added Edwards. "The broadband revolution is just beginning and ACC Business and ShopforT1.com are in a prime position to capture are good percentage of that market."

LIve from Seattle

2005-07-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

I'm having a great time!

New ISP Coalition Seeks To Preserve Competition

2005-07-08T10:22:00.000-07:00

From National Journal's Tech Daily 6/6/05
by Randy Barrett

A new coalition of independent Internet service providers (ISPs), vendor associations and public-interest groups has formed to fight for full competition in the high-speed Internet marketplace.

The new Telecom Summit Ad Hoc Committee includes CompTel/ALTS, Consumers Union, EarthLink, the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), the Federation of Internet Service Providers of the Americas, and the Washington Bureau for Internet Advocacy (WBIA), among other organizations.

"What we want is to continue to have open access," said committee organizer Cynthia DeLorenzi, CEO of Patriot Computer Group in Fairfax, Va., and a WBIA co-founder. "We can drive penetration where they want to go." Currently there are about 6,000 independent ISPs in the United States.

Independent ISPs face a tough fight as the dominant telecom carriers such as BellSouth, Qwest Communications International, SBC Communications and Verizon Communications push for a rewrite of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The Bells want to end federal regulation of their networks, an outcome that ISPs and competitive carriers generally oppose.

Additionally, late last month the Supreme Court ruled that cable companies do not need to open their networks to broadband competitors, delivering more bad news to ISPs. DeLorenzi said the new group will press Congress to slow the telecom rewrite train. "We are urging legislators to back off a bit,"
she said. The committee also hopes to unify the message from the often-disparate ISP industry.

The new committee is self-funded, with members pitching in what they can, DeLorenzi said. "We see this as another opportunity for people to get together and work toward a common goal," said Earl Comstock, CEO of CompTel/ALTS, a group of Bell competitors and some Internet telephony firms.

"We're excited to have some other folks joining the fray." ITAA is eager to see a varied ISP industry survive. Its member companies provide the networking, hardware and software gear that make the Internet run.

"ISPs have played an important role in connectivity," ITAA counsel Mark Uncapher said. "Our concern is what's happening in the broadband world is the facilities of network providers are being leveraged to eliminate the independent ISPs."

Market diversity is important to Harold Feld, senior vice president of the Media Access Project, a public-interest law firm. "People should have the freedom to communicate without potential for corporate gatekeepers to get in the way," he said.

The new group plans to lobby Congress and tap into the grassroots power of its ISP-member customer base. "It's an opportunity to reach a group of folks who aren't necessarily focused on Washington," Comstock said.

2005-06-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

The entire year of 2005 has been dedicated to the design and build out of the new ShopforT1 Back Office sites. There are four in total: Closer, Lead Generator, Vendor, and VAR (Equipment Partners). The closer is 100% complete as of May 20, 2005. The Lead Generator Site will be online and functional on July 15, 2005 and unveiled in Seattle Washington at the Cognigen National Conference. The Vendor and VAR sites will be completed in August 2005 as well.

Each site represents the most advanced T1 quotes and customer relationship management software integration, giving our agents speed, accuracy, and technology to leverage their customer relationships and gain the advantage over any competitor. I am most excited about the CRM, which allows agents to queue up email to be delivered to a prospect as much as 10 years into the future. As in most sales situations, timing is everything and our new system will provide agents with the means to deliver the perfect message at the perfect time.

Another key feature to these new web sites is the ability to collaboratively work with customers. Agents can allow other agents access to their own customer records and share the commission according to any agreement they dream up. You just won't find this kind of functionality with off-the-shelf packages - it's truly been programmed by agents for agents.

Why ShopforT1 Dominates

2005-05-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

2005 has been an amazing year for ShopforT1. We have gone from a 2-man start-up in 2002 to a driving force in the t1 line sales industry. What most people don't know is that our success is not a fluke - everyone involved in ShopforT1 has a lifetime of success minded habits and achievements behind them. Allow me to go - one by one - through the people that make ShopforT1 work and explain how they have been groomed for success in the telecom battlefield.

1. Adam Edwards - CEO, President
Eagle Scout, High School football captain, 2-year LDS Mission to Seoul, Korea, 3.99 GPA at Brigham Young University - his only non-A coming his freshman year in U.S. History. He told me that day that "I'm not going to get another B", and he was more than right, he got all A's from his Sophomore year through graduation - without even an A-. He was heavily recruited by each of the big 5 accounting firms, and he selected KPMG, where he quickly rose to the top of his auditing group. He was only at KPMG for 2 years when he was offered a job as Controller of a public company - Irvine Sensors (Silicon Film Division). He travelled the globe meeting with shareholders and VC's, successfully raising money for the operation. When engineering hit a snag, he had to restrain himself from going into the lab and building the prototype himself! When the company was forced to declare Chapter 7, Adam was recruited by serval high-tech firms looking to fill CFO positions, but Adam wanted more than just an executive-level position with a Fortune 500 company - he wanted to create a revolution and have the ability to call the shots without interference or distraction from outside shareholders. He wanted to build a company from scratch that would take on his personality, and succeed as he has succeeded. His dream came true in 2002 when he and I started Telarus, Inc.

2. Patrick Oborn, Chef Innovation Officer
Eagle Scout, High School/College football player, 2 year LDS mission to Madrid, Spain, 3.79 in Electrical Engineering at Brigham Young University, Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from BYU (all 6 years on academic scholarship). I'm a humble guy, but very self-confident. My freshman year of college I went to class with fear that I was the dumbest one in the class - but by the sixth year at BYU I would know that I would lay claim to one of the few A's available and that the rest of the students would have to fight for the A- and B's, C's, and D's. Engineering, Math, Statistics - it all makes sense to me. After completing my Masters Degree, I was recruited by TRW Space & Defense in Redondo Beach, CA (close to LAX) to design high-speed analog IC's (computer chips) for satellite communication systems. At the same time I began a home-based business of selling telecommunications on the internet through Cognigen. I called my website CheapRates.com, where I sell cheap long distance rates and cheap travel rates. The website got the attention of the founder of Cognigen, Kevin Anderson, who in 1999 offered me the position of webmaster for all of Cognigen. Though I had never taken a web design class in my life, I took the job and left the field of tradition electrical engineering in favor of marketing engineering. During my 3 years at Cognigen I learned how to create e-commerce web sites to take orders, explain a complicated sale in a simplified manor understandable by customers, and most importantly how to interact with agents and company management/investors. When I spit off to form Telarus with Adam Edwards, we modelled the business after Cognigen with a large business focus, drawing on the power of the agent network and combining it with internet marketing tools and professionally trained T1 consultants; all of which combine to make ShopforT1 what it is today. Now we had all of the pieces in place to build an empire - for the benefit of our agents and for the benefit of our new partner, Cognigen Networks.

Though Cognigen didn't invest money to help us start out, they invested their time and their trust. Having worked for Cognigen in the past, I knew exactly what was necessary for our relationship to be mutually beneficial - sales, support, and training. If we could build the tools that agents could use to market online and offline, if we could adequately support agents, and if we could adequately train agents to market and sell T1's effectively - Cognigen would throw their muscle behind us. On September 11, 2003, we were ready for our official launch, and Cognigen didn't disappoint. In fact, every important member of the Cognigen Board of Directors was present on our Launch Call to endorse our program and the 'bless it'. We have followed up the great launch and kept up the momentum with an array of monthly lead generator training calls, and weekly T1 consultant training calls.

When we initially put together our list of vendors, and attempted to explain to them what we intended to do, the reaction was one of skepticism. Not knowing or understanding my background with Cognigen (a telecom MLM company), and being oblivious to the power of the agent network, they reluctantly met with us and heard us out. As we began to pick up momentum with our agents, and as we also began to ascend in the search engine rankings, sales began to trickle in. Soon, the trickle became a stream, and now the stream has become a river. If there is one thing T1 providers understand, it's sales. Soon they were calling us volunteering to host training calls and to raise our commission for more prominent positioning on our web site. With the increase in commissions, our agents began to make money equivalent to a full-time income and the momentum continued to spiral upward.

The success wasn't met without some speed bumps though. One of the biggest challenges to starting a company without Venture (Vulture) Capitol is cash flow. As we began to grow, our company's needs also grew; trouble was our income was 4-6 month delayed due to the slow cash turn-around with T1 sales. We dipped WAY into our own savings accounts to finance employees, servers, vendor visits, bandwidth, collocation, etc. The sacrifice was worth it - not having others with their hands in our cookie jar has been our saving grace. Now the company has adequate cash flows to grow at a very rapid pace (you can read about the new IT Director we hired below). We have a total of 14 web servers running 24/7 processing real-time T1 price quotes, customer proposals, running our in-house CRM/Back Office software (Version 2.0 is due out on June 1, 2005), running our email servers, and most importantly, our SQL (database) servers. With the great work-ethic our 7-man staff, we are making progress at 7X the rate we were just a year ago. Our agents get better support, our web sites are able to do more things, our training is better, our commissions are higher than ever, and more and more agents are becoming self-reliant and financially free as a result of their hard work within our program. I am proud to see the agents, all of whom I consider my friends on a personal level, doing so well. Seeing them pay their mortgages with the money they've earned selling T1s through our program makes it so I sleep real well at night! Knowing that the future of the company is in the hands of honest, dedicated, hard-working men and women give me peace of mind - which I'll need as I get ready to become a father (my wife is expecting twins in October).

3. Lance Akins, Sales Support Manager
Lance graduated top of his class from the University of Texas, Austin (hook 'em horns!) Oddly enough, he majored in Psychology, which has proven to be one of his biggest assets in the telecom industry. What most people don't realize in our field is the importance of relationships, and Lance has the tools to diagnose the personality type of the person on the other end of the phone line - enabling Lance to frame the conversation in a way that maximizes his success. I like to call it Psychological Engineering. Lance has a wealth of experience, with companies like Dell, ConnectSouth, and New Edge Networks. When we hired Lance, he had been our channel manager for about 1 year - and we knew ahead of time how excellent he was. One of the best days in the life of our young company was when Lance told us that he would accept the position of Sales Support Manager for Telarus. When our agents engage customers with tough questions, they go to Lance - our expert - who quarterbacks them all the way to the end zone. Our closers look like heroes while Lance lurks in the shadows, a true team player.

4. James Knight, Associate Sales Support Manager
James came to us recently by way of Austin, Texas. In early 2005, we found ourselves with agents banging on our door to get in, and Lance was SWAMPED. We began to interview interested candidates for the job, but Lance insisted we meet James Knight before we make our final decision. In early January James flew to Salt Lake to meet with us. Boy were we impressed. James, also a University of Texas graduate, worked in film and news media before choosing a career in telecom sales. He worked for ConnectSouth, New Edge Networks, and SmartPrice.com, prior to coming on board with Telarus. He is a super-competitive individual who is one of the hardest workers I've ever met. He shows up early to work every day, and he is the last one to leave. But most importantly, he likes to go to Real Salt Lake games with me! What a stud!

More to come soon....

Las Vegas Channel Partner Show Report

2005-03-27T12:59:00.000-08:00

ShopforT1.com showed up in force at the Las Vegas Channel Partner Expo at Mandalay Bay. Over 20 closers made their way to the show, which started off with a private meeting on Monday morning. We had breakfast and 3 breif powerpoint presentations. After we went around the room and allowed everyone to introduce themselves (we've all been working together for over a year and many of us had never even met in person!), I gave a quick overview of the new Back Office. I hope to have it done by May 1, 2005. Next came James and Lance, with some sales training, and Adam batted clean-up with his report on recruiting VARs. Everyone was also issued a ShopforT1.com golf shirt before we had a great catored lunch.

Likewise, we are RAKING in leads, now that we are #1 in MSN and #5 in Google for the most coveted keyword: T1. Also of note is our recent assention for the kewords cheap long distance rates and cheap travel rates, and T1 service. We are veru excited to say the least!

New IT Director Hired

2005-03-03T21:03:00.000-08:00

I would like to take a moment to welcome the newest member of our team: Daniel Pentecost. Daniel's services have been retained to help us build out a world-class enterprise network of web sites with maximum uptime and reliability.

Along with new web sites for both back office and public marketing, we plan to use Daniel to coordinate all of our technical development.

Progress of New ShopforT1 Back Office

2005-01-19T13:12:00.000-08:00

Thanks to many agents, including Daniel P, I am continuing to make great progress on the new Back Office. We are including some new features which include expandable data views, easy CRM tools, and more. I'll be posting here when I have more updates to report.

Welcome to GeoBlog

2005-01-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

This is Patrick's blog. I hope you'll find my thoughts and ideas enlightening.

If there were one word to describe me, it's 'builder'. I love to build web sites, businesses, systems, computers, everything but work around the house. (I hate getting my fingers dirty).

Back in 1986, a new family moved in to my neighborhood in Diamond Bar, California - one of many suburbs of Los Angeles. I still remember the first time I met Adam Edwards, my new neighbor. He was 13 years old, 6 foot tall, and had a commanding presence about him. I was also 13 years old, 5'1" tall, and was what my friends call a little Ricky Shroeder. I admired him, especially his self-confidence. Nothing could get him down. There was no girl that was too cute, no football practice that was too challenging, no wave that was too big. Adam was my friend and my inspiration.

After High School, college, and a 2 year church mission, we both ended back up in Southern California where we hooked up on occasion to go surfing. We enjoyed getting away from our 'day jobs' and just talking about entrepreneurial opportunities. I told him about the Cognigen business I was currently involved in and after some consideration, Adam gave it a look. A few years later, both of us found ourselves without full-time employment and a lot of money saved up on the bank - it was the perfect opportunity to start our own business together.

We decided to name the business 'Telarus', to reflect the telecom nature of our business and also because it was one of the few domain names still available! We obtained contracts with T1 companies and started to sell. I created our modest website and Adam began smiling and dialing.

Soon, we decided there HAD to be a better way to do business. Spending countless hours on the phone during the day, and 30 minutes per T1 quote were weighing heavily on our time. We are big Robert Kiyosaki fans and we had just read the book 'Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrand'. In it Kiyosaki describes the difference between carrying buckets of water and creating a pipeline to carry the water. The pipeline concept is the one Adam and I wanted to apply to T1 sales, where we could automate the quoting process and to create a system that would allow other agents to mass produce orders. We named the real-time quote technology GeoQuote, and created a new streamlined marketing site called Shopfort1.com.

Right now we are currently awaiting a patent from the USPTO, and we work with really cool agents like Daniel Pentecost. His main site is Anyion.com where he generates his own t1 service leads.