Telecom Agents, IT Providers Can Turn Obamacare Into Big Bucks

By Angela Leavitt

Beginning in 2014, provisions within the Affordable Care Act will require employers to subsidize their employees health care expenses or pay a fine. Obviously, ObamaCare will have a huge impact on your customers bottom lines.

But theres a catch: A company must employ more than 50 full-time workers to trigger the requirement. The 50-worker threshold is forcing companies to get creative with their staffing. Some have reduced the size of their workforce through layoffs and attrition. Others have moved employees to part-time or contract status.

According to a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece by Paul Christiansen entitled To Outsmart Obamacare, Go Protean,” these kinds of tactics are short-term Band-Aids on a long-term problem.  Ultimately, these corporations will have to innovate and restructure to thrive in the era of Obamacare.”

Technology and outsourcing offer smarter ways for small businesses to get a little bit smaller in the age of Obamacare. And, of course, telecom agents and IT providers have an incredible opportunity to serve clients in this area while cashing in on this byproduct of Obamacare.

Its only logical that a company confronted with the need to keep head count low would choose to hire or retain personnel that are key to their mission. Were talking about people who contribute directly to the product or operations. Theres no reason to keep marketing, human resources or finance in-house.

The same goes for IT. We already know that cloud solutions and managed services make good business sense. The cloud gives your customers access to the telecom applications and services they need without the capital expenditure hit of deploying in-house systems.

Thanks to Obamacare, these technology solutions add up to even more dollars and cents than in the past. The head count of cloud adopters stays static or shrinks because IT is no longer responsible for updating software, performing hardware maintenance and scrambling to recover from unplanned outages.

If that can help your customer stay under the magical 50-worker threshold, itll add up to big savings for them and big kudos and commissions for you.

Your marketing action item is clear. Review your customer relationship management platform soon and find clients and prospects with a seat size nearing or slightly surpassing 50. If theyve held out against the cloud to this point, Obamacare may push them over the edge.

Angela Leavitt is the chief mojo-making officer for Mojo Marketing. With more than 10 years of experience in sales and marketing, and nearly four years in the telecom channel, Leavitt helps telecom companies design and execute effective strategies for social media, PR, branding, Web development and more.