Running a Call Center

[aadelmalik]

Hey guys, I am thinking of running a call center, what do you think, how profitable can it be?

I live in a country where:

* We have a good European/American Accent
* Wages are around $350 per month
* Internet is Fast
* Flexible laws for Businesses

Opening a call center with 20 employees would cost me around $8,100 monthly (including everything from wages to electricity to transport to food and office) and they can answer around 11,000 calls monthly (20 minutes per customer).

What do you think?

 

[zinxpxbl]

One of the sisters used to run a call center at some point. From comparing notes with other girls it came out it's about the same as running a camgirl studio -- if you're careful with a) managing the churn and b) training you can make ok money. Also a great way to meet large numbers of idiots, you need 10-20x as many cubical drones as you need hos to make the same money.

On the other hand, if you're not the type of person that everyone shuts up when you enter the room, they'll eat you alive. She certainly is, you I don't know.

 

[DuckingOutstanding]

My advice would be start small and scale up.... it can be a very profitable business especially if you have clients lined up... don't hire anyone until you secure a contract with one I would go with a good business VoIP provider for your phone shop around because a lot of them have a cap on outbound or inbound or both minutes some of them are Unlimited most of them charge per seat in other words per person you would have either calling or answering calls besides that if you have a client lined up or a good product to sell it can be an awesome venture best of luck

 

[W9go]

you have clients ???

 

[William702]

Hey guys, I am thinking of running a call center, what do you think, how profitable can it be?

I live in a country where:

* We have a good European/American Accent
* Wages are around $350 per month
* Internet is Fast
* Flexible laws for Businesses

Opening a call center with 20 employees would cost me around $8,100 monthly (including everything from wages to electricity to transport to food and office) and they can answer around 11,000 calls monthly (20 minutes per customer).

What do you think?

Do you have any experience in this space? Do you have clients already lined up? I would not go to 20 employees out of the gate if you dont. I have an NVQ level 6 in call center management which I was able to do through work when working in call centers in the UK and a handful of other relevant NVQ's done through that job. You have covered just a few of the costs involved in this so I would budget for more than 8k each month as 7k of that would be going just on the wages based on 20 people x $350 a month. When call centers relocate they can go to countries with far lower costs than that! There is a lot more too it than that and your clients may want awkward payment setups etc. its a lot of work but can be lucrative if you have the right clients ready to do business with you. I wish you lots of luck with it if you move forward.

 

[MatthewGraham]

Opening a call center with 20 employees would cost me around $8,100 monthly (including everything from wages to electricity to transport to food and office) and they can answer around 11,000 calls monthly (20 minutes per customer).

I have the same question as @W9go - do you know what you're doing? Do you have experience? Do you have capital to fall back on?

Common mistake that happens when people inexperienced in business start their first (and often only) venture: They choose ventures with high fixed costs.

Variable Cost: A cost that varies with the level of output.
Fixed Cost: A business cost, such as rent, that is constant whatever the quantity of goods or services produced.

$8,100 per month is a hefty amount. And if you have hourly employees, it's a fixed cost. Your employees are getting paid by the hour even if 0 people call them over the course of that hour.

If you know what you're doing and can monetize it, then great, go for it. If you're new to business, you're going to risk putting yourself in a stressful and expensive situation where you have to propel yourself over the hurdle of making $8,100 of revenue per month before you see any profit. And if you sell less than that, you're losing money.

Same issue as the 8,000,000th person who quits their office job to open an artisan cupcake shop in the trendy part of town. If you're paying $x,xxx or even $xx,xxx+ per month for rent/labor/utilities/perishable goods/other/etc without the business experience to know for sure that you can turn that into real money, you're putting a lot at risk.

Better/safer options would ideally use a flexibly-sized workforce, at least at first. Maybe even subcontracting out your clients' calls to someone else's existing call center. And once you have the consistent revenue and leads, look into getting a permanent internal team.

 

[MatthewGraham]

Also a great way to meet large numbers of idiots

Oh my god yes. I don't run a call center, but do have several businesses that sell custom services (i.e., lots of people talking to our customer service team directly), which is pretty similar in practice... Just... dumb, dumb people.

OP you may envy the days when you didn't run a business that deals with disgruntled members of the public 24/7.

 

[jmsalvador021]

Im actually on the same boat. I run an office here in Philippines and i have 10 employees(part-timers) who are all working in a call-center company. They have at least 2yrs call center experience(US accounts) but theyre working for me as part-timers doing IM basic data entry jobs, account creations, etc mainly as additional income while they work 8hrs a day on call centers.

I studied how to setup the call center workplace and other stuffs required to run it. I havent started yet however because im still studying on how to get initial clients for us to work with.

 

[Alex Manroah]

Yes! I think this can be very profitable if they can speak English and French.
Also, if you cater to startups by providing shared agents billed per minute you can make good money.
Easily charge $500+/month/client and make each agent handle 2-5 clients. Small businesses will pay for the impressions.
You should target handymen too because most of the time they have issues with taking calls and responding to jobs all at once and hiring an assistant is more expensive.

 

[VirtualNomad]

If you are thinking of also including data entry work, feel free to PM me. We have unlimited staff currently doing data entry and can help add to what you offer your clients.

 

[FreakenSEOsmh]

We have unlimited staff currently doing data entry

yeah i don't think so..

 

[hardybents]

If someone will work for $2.18 per hour, it is guaranteed that their accent will turn off 99% of all Americans and you will waste $8100 per month.

 

[laklaker]

Im actually on the same boat. I run an office here in Philippines and i have 10 employees(part-timers) who are all working in a call-center company. They have at least 2yrs call center experience(US accounts) but theyre working for me as part-timers doing IM basic data entry jobs, account creations, etc mainly as additional income while they work 8hrs a day on call centers.

I studied how to setup the call center workplace and other stuffs required to run it. I havent started yet however because im still studying on how to get initial clients for us to work with.

Hi from Philippines too. Do you actually need a permit for this and what exactly is the requirements on running a Call Center Company? Do they need the certification that is related to Call Center? Thanks.

 

[Petty Link]

I think you can start if you people have Good Accent. I am from India started and failed because of Bad Accent..

 

[SkyJoker24]

If you want to be profitable right off, then the most important thing to consider is whether you have demand lined up, as previous posters have mentioned. As long as you are assured of at least some stream of demand, you can worry about how to scale up, whilst having enough revenue to support everyday activities.

 

[hardybents]

Why do you need a call center? And why do you think it will cost $8100.00. There are ways to have a highly profitable, very low cost operation. For around $1000-$1500 per month.

 

[John Winter]

One of the sisters used to run a call center at some point. From comparing notes with other girls it came out it's about the same as running a camgirl studio -- if you're careful with a) managing the churn and b) training you can make ok money. Also a great way to meet large numbers of idiots, you need 10-20x as many cubical drones as you need hos to make the same money.

On the other hand, if you're not the type of person that everyone shuts up when you enter the room, they'll eat you alive. She certainly is, you I don't know.

you have a sex house for online porn? woah