How to Become a Prepaid International Calling Card Provider

I know the heart of so many will skip a beat for fear, at the sight of the title of this article. There are things that sound impossible or too big a project to some people and they tend to avoid such things and rather stick to what looks like a small project to them. But the truth is, every great business we see today started as a small insignificant idea. You can move up from becoming a mere phone card user or retail trader to a phone card producer. Now this article may not be for everyone out there but for a few persons with entrepreneurial mindset. It is for those who are not afraid to take the bull by the horn. If you get the picture I’m painting, let’s ride.

To become a calling card provider, you will need three things; start-up capital, VOIP servers and Call Manager software. After acquiring these, you can then follow the steps below.

Step 1: Write a plan for your prepaid international calling card business. Identify who your suppliers will be including ways to effectively handle the technical areas of the business. Identify your target market and list out methods of advertisement you hope to employ to effectively reach your brand of consumers. Find out the total cost of doing the business and forecast how to cover this cost.

Step 2: Obtain the funds necessary to cover the first year start-up cost of the calling card business. If your business proposal is well written you won’t have much problem getting loans from friends and banks. Everyone loves to invest in a viable business.

Step 3: Know that this business is run effectively by using software. So look for a befitting software solution to power the prepaid international calling card business. Build a customer software program or you simply use CARDSAVER program sold by Voice Saver. This software will answer inbound calls, verify PIN number of the customer’s calling card, allocate the available minutes for the call, etc. You can get this “cardsaver” software on the internet.

Step 4: Acquire the servers and server hosting that is necessary to run your prepaid phone card business. If you can afford a big server, the better, in order to accommodate more call volumes.

Step 5: To operate this business you will need to buy a block of airtime containing several thousand minutes, which are divided among the cards you will print and sell. Since you buy in bulk you will get it at a low price and resell at a higher price. There are many network carriers that sell airtime for this purpose. Buy from a long-distance carrier. You will find them on the internet.

Step 6: Look for a very good printer to handle the production of your cards. Any big print shop can handle jobs of this nature.

Step 7: It is not easy to sell cards directly, so partner with retail locations to sell your calling cards.

Finally, this is just an abridged procedure on starting a prepaid phone calling business. If you really want to go into it you will still have to do a little more extensive study based on the steps provided in this article. If you take active steps, then you just might be the next big name in the industry. I toast in advance, to your success with a bottle of Don Perignon because I know you can do it. It’s in you.

Photo source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1065245