Helping with VOIP Business

Hello. I need some yours help. I'm starting VOIP business now for some customers. I'm selling phone services, wholesale services for ISP or VSP and I offer hosted PBX for companies who need to save money. I don't know what type of service I can offer and that services doesn't exist in other provider. I also thinking about method of promotion in my city like put some informations on white paper to pizza boxes or something. In Poland there isn't any operator who have outside form of promotion - only Internet like Google Adwords or something. But I think promotion in my city will be very good. I still thinking about services. Of corse all servers will base on Digium hardware. I also very worry because somebody tell me i will lose money on VOIP. We have too many operators in Poland but lot's of them are resselers of another big companies. I also very worry for new services in voipbuster - unlimited calls. At start I can't create services like that - only charge per minute and I don't know people will use that. I need any sugestions about promotion and services what I can offer for my customers. Please for help. Thank's for all. Bye

Greetings greegoro and welcome to Voipuser

A difficult question with several possible answers. In pure marketing terms you need to be promoting something 'different ' something that sets you aside from your competitors. You cannot compete with Voipbuster on price but you can in terms of customer service so that for example gives you a saleable benefit. If you do this analysis for each of the main competitors in your market sector then you will have a shortlist of possibilities, each of which will have a different cost implication to you.

Cost of aquisition of new clients is an interesting one, some give away hardware but tie users in to exclusive service packages. Some give free calls for an initial period. Both of these ideas have worked in the early days but have probably lost their appeal now with every newco trying the same tactic.

You do however have some distinct advantages both in terms of your geographical location and your potential market. All the statistics I have seen show an amazingly high interest, take up and use of VOIP in Poland. Even just within Voipuser there are a large percentage of Polish users. A well informed and technically capable audience are easier to sell to, especially in terms of provision of quality service. Quality service is itself most appreciated by companies and business people - most of the kids that order pizza (anywhere in the world not just Poland) just want 'free stuff'.

The geographical placement of Poland means that as a 'hub' it is able to bridge some interesting Eastern European countries with less established Telecom structures for example acting as a hub and organising interconection with Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine and Slovenia - all of which are slowly shedding their Teleco monopolies and embracing VOIP.

I would imagine that some of your biggest potential business could involve hardware provision in association with service provision. for example, many companies want Asterisk installations and access to advanced telecom systems to link their offices via VOIP so a separate part of the business to handle this would make a contribution to your profitability and net some new clients for service provision. I also think your hosted PBX project has big appeal - this is a huge potential growth market.

If you can associate with, get distribution of; or just buy very cheaply some quality hardware (Cisco, Avaya, Mitel, Aastra, Polycom etc) and put together some installed packages then that will network you into a lot of places where you can sell your services + you make money from the hardware sale.

Sadly 'Voice Traffic' as a stand alone entity is never going to be very profitable, especially if you have made significant initial hardware investment rather than go for a zero investment white label. You put yourself already at a disadvantage in terms of cost. However you can turn this into an advantage - if you can devise some clever ways of using your new hardware by dividing it into private user areas and making bespoke services available to more discerning clients then I think you have a business.

You need to focus your attention away from pure volume of clients and more towards providing some specialist services. The most important thing you can do at this time is to speak to your target audience, especially to businesses and ask them what services they really want. Then of course work to provide those services reliably and profitably and of course expand the market to others.

Everyone likes Pizza but its all about selling quality services within a specific market now and not pure volume. Sounds to me as if you are clever enough to do some specific market research, identify some new directions and steer your company towards them. Too many pure voice companies have failed to understand the requirements of their users, have thought it was only about 'numbers of clients' and are no longer in business for that reason !

Thank's for reply Gray. What do you think - what type of promotion will be good at first - maybe some in Google AdWords or something ? I relly don't know. Customer suport is neccesary - i will have 24/7 support and I think customers will be hapy with that. Please for help with promotion and marketing. THank's for all. Bye

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I relly don't know.

If you are unable to understand basic steps in marketing (and Gray has given you all you need to research that further in his post above), don't get into the VoIP business. You will lose a lot of money.

Don't even think about AdWords until you know what you're marketing and understand the market you're marketing to.

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only charge per minute

Forget it. You need to find a model that works for you without a per minute billing cycle.

If you are unable to come up with a plan that is completely unique in what it offers and you understand fully the market you are targeting then don't do it. Open an ice-cream parlour instead - far more likely to be profitable in the long term