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Every founder frets about competition from a big company, me included.

We scoff at their inability to innovate and for prioritizing shareholders over customers, but still we quiver in fear.

Dozens of people on Answers.OnStartups ask about it so I know I’m not alone. It always goes like this:

I’m just a two-person operation with no budget. What if a huge company with a hundred software developers and a million dollars in marketing budget decides to copy my idea?

Answer: You’re dead! Give up! No small company has ever survived competition with a large one!

Oh wait, that’s not true. But poking fun doesn’t help; maybe this article will.

First, take a deep ..read more

Many people have asked me about Bell Canada’s new late payment fee — 3 per cent a month or 42.58 per cent a year compounded.

As Bell says here, the regulated part of your bill is subject to a much lower fee of 1.25 per cent a month or 16.07 per cent a year.

I guess the CRTC, which regulates an increasingly smaller share of Bell services, would never allow a 3 per cent monthly fee.

In September 2008, Bell lost a class action lawsuit initiated by Ottawa customer Peter DeWolf, challenging its imposition of a $25 monthly fee on overdue satellite TV accounts. The Ontario Court of Appeal supported Bell a year later, saying the $25 administrative fee was a legitimate charge.

Now Bell is ..read more

In 2008, Rebecca took out an MBNA credit card with a low rate of 1.99 per cent. She was told the rate would never go up as long as she paid the minimum due each month.

She continues to pay promptly. But she doubts she can do so in the future because of a change in the way MBNA calculates the minimum payments.

The result is that she’ll have to pay $474 a month, compared to $79 now, to keep her account in good standing. She thinks this is unconscionable.

Rebecca wants to wait a few months until she sells the house she has just renovated. (The $41,000 debt on the card stemmed from these repairs.) She’s worried that if she makes any late payments, MBNA ..read more

Why do Bell customers pay $2.80 a month for touch tone service? Rotary phones are still around, but you can’t get a rotary phone hooked up in a new installation.

Last week, the CRTC ordered Bell to reimburse a select group of customers who weren’t supposed to be charged for touch tone service. The refund mechanism needs work, alas. But the decision is welcome.

Andrew Cyr was promised he’d never be charged for touch tone. Bell did grandfather him for many years, but arbitrarily added the charge last year (maybe thinking he wouldn’t notice). See his story below.

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre has details of the CRTC decision here. If you’re owed a refund, make sure to put in your claim.

This is a guest post by Steve Hanov, who blogs about programming and startups.

For a micro-ISV, selling to big businesses can be more lucrative than selling to consumers. Instead of making a few dollars per sale and hoping for thousands of sales, you sell to only a few customers, and charge much higher rates. But the rates are high for a reason. It takes more time and money to sell to businesses, especially the big ones.

Legal Issues

Consumers rarely read software license agreements. Most corporate customers don’t read them either, but some have legal departments that must approve any agreement that the company makes, no matter how small. ..read more