How to Start a Hosted PBX or Calling Card Company

Communication systems have exploded in the last few years, and today this market offers a wide range of choices for customers, including PBX systems, prepaid calling cards and VoIP calling. As these systems gain more acceptance and use, more and more businesses want to jump into the communication business. Individuals and companies are increasingly looking to start VoIP telecom companies, voice termination, hosted PBX company and inbound/outbound call centers.

The first step for any prospective company is to identify the area of the market that it needs to serve. Within each category, there are many choices, so it is important to narrow down the choices. For example, if a company wants to start a prepaid calling service, it has to choose whether it wants to retail existing prepaid cards or start a new prepaid card service or create a new software for prepaid card services. Choosing a sub-option is necessary to create a niche for the company. While choosing the category, it is a good idea to play to the strengths. For example, if a company's core strength is sales and marketing, then a sensible line of business is to retail existing products.

Once a niche is identified, the next step is to do research and understand more about the target market. This can be done by subscribing to related magazines, attending trade shows and conferences and business networking. After the individual or the company has a good grasp on the situation, it is time to test waters by creating a prototype of a business model and implementing.

Irrespective of the choice of target market, it requires some infrastructure or software. Companies can either create their own software or take help from companies that specialize in creating VoIP, billing and switch software.

Once the infrastructure is in place and the company has access to funds, its time to get the company's operations rolling.