How to Start a Mobile Phone Business, an Introduction

So your job seems to be going nowhere and this current recession has you worried. What are your options?

You could look for yet another position at yet another firm, with the hope that it will be marginally better than the one you have now and that you will actually move up the corporate ladder instead of sideways. Or you could start to build your own business on the side and have something to go to when you are ready.

Becoming self-employed has been the dream of many people for a very long time. After all, when there's millions willing to join the rat race there must be an equally large group who want to leave it behind.

So how do you do that and what field do you choose? Which money making venture you chose depends on what you think you will do well at. There are almost as many different ways of starting your own business as there are people in the world.

Selling things online or through bricks and mortar businesses has often been the way many people choose to make money for themselves. One good product line to select could be the cell phone. In short, start a mobile phone business.

Why start a mobile phone business?

While the world is in recession right now and consumers aren't buying as much as they used to consumer electronics have managed to buck this trend... handset sales will grow by 3% in the US and Europe next year with developing markets like South America, Asia and Africa achieving much stronger growth in wireless cell phone sales.

People still want to keep in touch with each other when times are tough and if you start a mobile phone business that is online or through eBay then phones are fairly easy to ship to different countries due to their small size and light weight and cellular phones will not incur the huge duties that some other, higher profile items attract.

How can I sell mobile phones?

You can sell cellular phones any number of ways. By opening up your very own bricks and mortar cell phone store, stocking GSM phones, CDMA phones and cell phone accessories or utilize the classified section in newspapers and magazine.

There are also a number of ways online to start a mobile phone business, including opening your own online cell phone shop, marketing cellular phones through online classified sites like Craigslist.org or through online auction sites like eBay and Amazon.

How do I know which cell phones you should sell?

Selecting the unlocked cell phone to stock on your online store when you start a mobile phone business is a difficult job as there is such a wide range of unlocked mobiles available these days.

While I will talk about the different shapes and types of unlocked phone, their various benefits and problems and the types of people who buys each type of mobile in another article it very much depend on the types of people who use your service.

It doesn't matter whether you choose to stock a bar phone, flip phone, clamshell phone, ladies phone, slide cellular phone, flip cell phone or PDA. And you will succeed just as well if you get a movie phone, a music phone or one that lets you watch videos on phone. There are two things to make sure of... that you get phones that will work in the markets that you are selling them to and you buy unlocked cell phones.

All cellular networks around the world work within the frequencies 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz and 1900MHz with some networks operating on two or more frequencies. As a result most phones available wholesale operate on two, three or four bands.

Matching the ideal phone band to the market is essential for people who want to start a mobile phone business as it will be the difference between a phone that works and a phone that doesn't. If you have people buying unlocked phones from all over the world you are better selling quad band cell phones as these international phones will give you the coverage you need.

What is the difference between a locked and unlocked phone and why should I buy unlocked cell phones?

A locked cell phone is one that is sold by a particular carrier and cannot be changed to another server unless the carrier themselves do it. For example, if you have an iPhone or a Blackberry, you are an AT&T customer and you want to use Verizon's service then you have to call up AT&T and ask them to switch you to Verizon. Most locked cell phones are CDMA phones.

Unlocked cellphones don't come attached to a carrier so you can select which carrier you use. These are almost always GSM phones as the GSM SIM can be removed from unlocked GSM phones allowing another to be put in.

So why choose to sell unlocked cell phones over locked cell phones? The simple answer is when you start a mobile phone business then you're not going to have much money and you won't want to pay the licensing fee necessary to buy network-approved phones. And with unlocked phones you're able to buy phones wholesale which give you more profit and more freedom to run the business the way you want.

Where can I find cell phones to sell?

Sourcing products is one of the biggest headaches of anybody involved in e-commerce and buying unlocked cell phones is no different.

If you want to find unlocked cell phones you can look in several areas, from a local wholesale company, from a wholesale importer in bulk lots on sites like eBay and overstock or through wholesale dropship companies that stock China cellphones wholesale. As cellphones and most electronics come from China these days this would probably be a logical step. Thankfully many of these wholesale dropship firms are online these days.

It doesn't matter if you want a bluetooth phone, music phone, WAP phone or a flip cell phone you will probably have to look through the same types of sources. How can I get phones from my supplier to my customer?

When you want to start a mobile phone business online then you need to ask yourself one question which supply chain management method will I use, traditional bulk purchasing or dropshipping?

Both methods have their plusses and minuses but as you are unlikely to have little in working capital one good option might be to choose the dropshipping means of fulfillment.

Dropshipping is where you transfer the customer's order directly to your supplier and they fill the order and you use their payment to pay for the phone after first taking off your profit.

While this may seem like an e-commerce retailer's dream come true there are still some problems with this and you will need to source new phones carefully, make sure you have sturdy and active communications lines with your wholesale dropship supplier of China cellphones wholesale phones and have an excellent customer services system set up to make sure you don't get left with unhappy customers.

What should I watch out for when I buy cell phones wholesale and then sell them?

One of the most important things to be sure of is that you have a reliable wholesale cellphone supplier that will fill orders on time with the phones you ordered. It often takes some time to find the right China cellphones wholesale supplier so it might pay to shop around and get several samples before you decide who to give your business to.

It is especially important to get a sample of the phones and test them for yourself for this very reason.

It is also important to make sure that you get the phones with the right frequencies to the right markets.

It doesn't matter if you think you have found the coolest movie phone on the market with the best cell phone camera you have seen and incredible multimedia message functions.

If it is a dual band phone using the frequencies 900MHz and 1800MHz and you are trying to sell it in the US then you are just going to have a whole lot of unhappy customers.

This will end up with you getting many returns and a large number of multimedia phone paperweights on your hands.

This is why tri band phones and quad band phones work best for people who start a mobile phone business online as they are true international phones and will work anywhere.

This is just the start of your journey which may very well lead you to China cellphone wholesale suppliers and dropship wholesale companies. Just be sure to do your home work for as Chinese General once said "the enlightened ruler lays his plans well ahead; the good general cultivates his resources."

Ready to start a mobile phone business? Check out http://www.chinavasion.com for a fantastic range of phones that will bring in strong sales, healthy returns and happy customers.