A really cool business Idea

Here’s an idea that’s been percolating in my head for the last 2 years. I was stunned to see my phone bill after a trip I made to Las Vegas some time ago. Included in the roaming bill were charges for unanswered incoming calls. People would call me at night (while I was sleeping), and I would be, of course, unable to answer those calls. Sometimes the calls would come in while i was at a trade show, where the noise would be so loud that i would be unable to hear the phone ringing. The net result was that I was charged about $3-$4 per unanswered call! Sometimes people (in Manila) would call me twice or thrice, not knowing that I was travelling.

Equally irritating was that calls made within the US would be charged at international rates, rather than at local rates. So rather than pay 25c/min for a local call, I’d be paying $2-$3 per minute for intra-state calls! So using a Globe or Smart mobile was useless. I was better off buying a local prepaid calling card for calls I made within the US (as well as calls to Manila).

The obvious solution - was to buy a US Carrier’s prepaid GSM SIM. But none was to be found at the airport, nor at the hotel, nor at the strip. So I thought - hey! wouldn’t it be a great idea to set up a website that sold International GSM SIMs to the public, and set up some online chat software for people to make inquiries about, as well as set up a US/European phone number for them to call?

I let this idea sleep for a while, and you can imagine my disappointment when I found that someone else had been thinking along the same lines.

But a look at Telestial’s pricing shows just how underserved and profitable this market is. Smart Buddy SIMs (w P600 load) are sold at $49, while the local cost is P750, or just $13. That’s a 276% profit margin! Checking their website reveals that they’re based in San Diego. Clearly a call center in the Philippines can do this far more efficiently than an American company can! All it takes is to put up a good website w/ good chat software, set up a Vonage account (so you can have a US phone number for US clients to call). This just costs $2/month, and then train (and compensate) your staff well!

Marketing is easy - the obvious thing is to contact travel agents (here and abroad) to offer these SIMs to their clients. Don’t offer them commissions (it’ll be too small). Just offer them free GSM SIMs! (As Travel Agents always get free plane tickets and will want the free SIMs to make cheap phone calls).

If you can sell about a thousands SIMS a month (surely the Philippine market alone is bigger than that), and assuming you sell your cards at 30% less than Telestial’s (say at $35/card), you’ll still make about $20/card or net $20T/month. That’s pretty good, as you probably won’t need more that 5-6 people to run this operation!

I think the real beauty about this plan though is that (1) it’s a global business. Your market is the world - not the local community and (2) the clientele you acquire will be AA and AAA customers - people who travel frequently whom you can upsell hotel deals, plane tickets, etc. (You’ll even know where these frequent fliers travel to..)

So there! Check it out!

Why am I giving this idea away? Because I’m far too busy to pursue it! (although I’d happily put money into such a venture if I found people who were smart enough to pursue it properly.)