Phone Bill Freedom

Donovan Lashley, owner at Mobilia Consulting, helps companies ease the grip of Corporate America on their mobile phone plans. A California native, natural entrepreneur, and amateur nomad, Lashley found the culture here in Charleston stimulated his adventurous spirit and supported his desire to break the business mold.

Mobilia is unique among contracting companies in that they don’t charge clients any money out-of-pocket. The initial consultation and audit are completely free. Only after the company sees the savings on their first bill does Mobilia claim half of the savings. They continue to claim fifty percent for three years following the inception of the contract.

Most of us are completely clueless regarding how to optimize our mobile phone plans. Instead we end up unknowingly hemorrhaging money on roaming fees, data overages and the like. For individuals the potential savings may seem insignificant, especially if it means saving the hour-long phone call and terrible hold music. But if you’re a company with 100 mobile lines or more, you could be losing as much as tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Lashley worked for corporate mobile carriers for a decade prior to starting Mobilia. In his most recent job with Verizon he began to realize some gaps in the system. Customers were constantly getting taken advantage of as sales reps raced to make their quotas, leaving little time for updating business accounts as they change. The cheapest plans aren’t always the most cost effective in the long run, especially for dynamic business accounts.

With this big-picture approach, Lashley began saving companies significant amounts of money. After saving one particular business client $30,000 and being rewarded with a cup of coffee, Lashley couldn’t help but laugh at the irony. “Wow,” he thought, “I saved you $30,000 dollars and you’re just going to give me some coffee?”

Having discovered that business accounts weren’t really being looked after, and how much money and time he could help them save, Lashley started planning to do just that. Confident that he could earn more than the one percent of his revenues Verizon was paying him, Lashley decided to found Mobilia. “I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I like to do things my way,” he said.

For new clients Lashley begins by performing a historical assessment of usage, looking over their three previous monthly bills. Cell phone bills, unlike electricity or water bills, are complex, long-winded, and usually overlooked when the check is written. People don’t have time to investigate every line to see where their money is being wasted, nor do they have the experience with the carriers to understand how to improve their plan. These costs add up significantly when each line costs upwards of $100 a month.

After assessing the state of their mobile phone plan the next step is to implement responsible change. “We do this by considering the needs of the company and to allow a reasonable buffer for usage instead of just looking for the lowest cost, which could then cause overages to occur,” Lashley said. If certain employees are out of the country often, need extra data, more minutes, or are hired on a temporary basis, there are optimal ways to get the service required depending on your carrier.

Lashley can help your business manage its mobile needs while saving you both time and money. “We are actually paying them to do work for them, and then we’re taking a load off them by alleviating the work of the person managing the bill,” he said. Technology has afforded us the opportunity to work remotely while maintaining our connectedness. Mobilia is here to make sure that your employees’ freedom isn’t your headache.