Posts Tagged ‘New Business’

Bulk SMS Resellers in Nigeria

Monday, October 12th, 2009

Have you started your own bulk sms reseller business?

Have you started your own bulk SMS reseller business? A guy just asked me that question, and I was wondering what made him ask. He was all excited as he gave me a quick lecture on how I have been missing out in the  new multi-million dollar business of reselling bulk sms to fellow Nigerians.

At first I was a bit confused and I was wondering if anything spectacular had happened within the few days I went offline (I took a break from the virtual world to face some pressing issues). As much as I can recollect, bulk SMS has been available as an online business opportunity for more than two years. Well, it didn’t take quite 2minutes before I recovered from the initial shock from his question. He helped me without by unwittingly mentioning the phrase “multi-million”. Whenever I hear the phrase, “multi-million dollar” or “multi-million naira”, my security antenna gets fine tuned. Such phrase often accompany “get rich quick scheme”. This is naija you know. If you play the “mugu”(fool), you may not even live to  regret your action. Anyway, in this particular case, it wasn’t about 419 or Nigerian Scam as foreigners will term it. It is about an old business that some con artists are parading as a new discovery.

Online sale of bulk SMS is indeed the new business-craze in town. Not that it is new elsewhere, just that Naija brothers and sisters have decided to zero in on bulk SMS reselling as the new online business that will bring in the million fast.  In case you don’t understand, the politicians have made it a taboo to think on anything less than seven digit income.  Everyone talks about making a million (naira or better still dollar) as fast as possible. Gone are the days of working patiently for years to build a fortune.

So, whenever a naija brother or sister hits a jackpot with a business idea, be rest assured that within a few weeks, many wannabe entreprenuers will abandon whatever they’ve been working on and rush in to make theirs too (even though many business mentor has pointed out that this is not the way to do business, yet, the lure for quick cash won’t let them listen). It amuse me when I see such rush by newbie entreprenurs who fail to find out how the first guy went from raw idea to achive business success! It is not about duplicating a business, it is all about learning how it works and working SMART. Ok, enough of my personal view.

Bulk SMS is the new business idea rocking right now in naija. Online Forex Trading seems to have lost its appeal. At least those who want to be a millionaire overnight are no longer seeing forex trading as the way to get rich overnight. No thanks to those who have exposed the deceit behind those Forex Trading Seminars. David Ajao won’t be forgiven by many of the con artist. I learnt that the sale of automatic forext trading robots to naija newbie forex traders have dropped significantly.

What is bulk SMS by the way?

Ok, so what is Bulk SMS? First, SMS means Short Message Service .  Bulk SMS  is simply a way of sending simple text messages to numerous contacts at once using the internet instead of your cellphone and you need not go through your telecom service provider. Am not quite sure the Nigerian Telecom operators such as MTN, Glo, Celtel, Zain, Etisalat etc love this idea, because it robs them of the abnormal revenue they make from Nigerians for each SMS sent via their networks. The telecom providers charges for SMS is higher than that offered by bulk SMS resellers.

Why use Bulk SMS?

I just told you.

1. It is cheaper. Unlike your service provider who will charge a higher fee for delivering the same text to a contact on a different network, bulk SMS gateways will deliver all SMS messages at the same flat rate irrespective of the destination.

2. It is easier to send to numerous contacts. Actually toyou can send SMS to millions, within a short time, for example, you can send a message to a million contact in less than five minutes. Once you have purchased the required credit, you upload a list of the contacts and write out the SMS message. One click will send to 1 contact or 1million contact, it is simply your choice.

3. You can schedule the delivery. This is another great feature. You can actually write a message now and schedule it to be delivered at a later date.

Bulk SMS Reseller Business

Ok, so how do I make money online from bulk SMS reselling. Simple, get a reseller account, (I won’t provide any link here because I am not promoting any) you can Google for it by typing “Bulk SMS resellers in Nigeria” into any of the popular search engine. Once you get a reseller account, the next step is to get clients. Yes, you need people who will buy smaller packages of the bulk SMS from you . For example, if you buy 5,000 units of SMS at the rate of 3.5naira per message, you can offer to sell each packages of 200units at 800naira. That is far cheaper to the 5naira that Nigerian service providers charge per SMS, so be rest assured you have a ready market. Also, you can design a website and offer to send SMS on behalf of people. Once they pay you, you simply send the SMS on their behalf to the list of contact they provide at the point of sale. This is a cool business for youngsters. You can sell the service to those wanting to announce an event e.g. a wedding ceremony, burial ceremony or a corporate event. I guess you’ve received such an SMS in recent times.

Some bulk SMS gateway provide the facility of inputting the sender’s number, so that you can actually receive reply. However, some charge a fee for such.

Is Bulk SMS reselling for me?

Well, only you can tell wether bulk SMS reselling is for you. I never encourage anyone to engage in a business he or she does not have passion for. It is easier to succeed at a business you are passionate about than one that irritate you. Now you know what Bulk SMS reselling business is all about. It is not a new business, but for Nigerians, it is a new way of making money online.

Will Bulk SMS Reselling Make me a millionaire?

Well, it all depends on you. Several successful entrepreneurs started off with business ideas that didn’t look promising, and yet they became financial giants. If you get yourself equipped with the right knowledge, set a goal for yourself and work persistently on it, this may actually give you an opportunity to make your first million. However, I must warn you that it will not happen overnight.

Warning: Scam Artists use Bulk SMS as a tool

Some will not agree with that it is not possible to make a million from SMS reselling overnight. I understand, such must have been told the story of someone that started Bulk SMS reselling and hit the first million naira within 30days. Yes, that is “possible”. It is done by sending fraudulent messages to unsuspecting people telling them funny stuffs to get them to reveal their bank financial details or part with some cash. I have received several SMS congratulating me that I have just won a million naira from my telecom provider. The sender name reflects the name of my Telecom Service Provider or her code, however, I knew they were fake because my telecom provider will never inform you that you have won a gift via text message. Instead, a phone call will be made and there will be announcement on the electronic or print media. So when next you receive a text message claiming to be from any of the Nigerian Telecom service provider informing you that you have just won a million naira, remember, this post ;-). That is Bulk SMS being used by a con-artist to dupe you. If you’re greedy enough, you would have coughed out some cash before realizing that you’ve been defrauded.

Ok, enough of the gist. I guess it is high time I go get myself a Bulk SMS reseller account. Who doesn’t want to be a millionaire? For future updates to this post Bulk SMS resellers in Nigeria subscribe to my RSS free updates.

How Needs Give Birth To Business Opportunities

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

Have you observed that needs often give birth to business opportunities? If you haven’t it is time to take a look around you. While a lot of people are getting depressed because of the global and local economic crunch, some guys and gals are actually making money from the present situation.

Human beings are quite creative. I’ll share a practical observation that I made with you. I live in the part of a city where the roads are so bad that individuals often prefer to park their private cars and use commercial vehicle (just to save on maintainance cost). As the situation got worse, (the government agencies simply closed their eyes to commuters plight), some smart small scale entrepreneurs started importing motorcycle and were giving them out to jobless young men on hire purchase. That was the begining of okada business in my community.

Those entrepreneur made so much money while the okada business last. Unfortunately, some criminals took advantage of the situation also and started using motorcycles as quick-get-away vehicles for their criminal activities. It became an everyday occurrence to hear story of people being robbed or assaulted by motorcyclist. The complain from the public was so much and the only solution the state government could think of was to ban the use of motorcycle altogether (never mind the fact that it sounds funny that it is now unlawful to use a motorcyle in my neighbourhood).

The ban was a great misfortune to many entrepreneurs and many youth who earned their living via okada business were thrown back into the unemployment club. While some entrepreneurs went home counting their loss, the smart entrepreneurs went home brainstorming on the next opportunity to catch on. For your information, the roads are still as bad as before.

Well, those smart entrepreneurs settled for a new business with TRICYCLES. We call it “KEKE NAPEP” At first, people were reluctant to enter the tricycles (human beings naturally resist changes). Well, it wasn’t long before we were forced to change and embrace keke napep as the best means of moving from one point to another.

The reason being that they are better at navigating the bad road and they also find it easy to pass in-between on-coming and on-going vehicles whenever there is traffic jam. The CAB-DRIVERS in my neighborhood hates those tricycle with passion. As far as they are concern the tricycles are business spoillers. They carry more passengers than the taxi (you may not believe it, but some carry as much as 6passengers beside the driver, that is Naija for you) and also make more trips per day.

Why am I discussing this? Well, I have being facing a lot of challenge with my online businesses. The soucrce of the challenge is just my ISP (Internet Service Provider). My company relies heavily on internet for communication with clients. Unfortunately, after dishing out a whooping sum of $200 per month (thirty thousand Nigerian naira) per month as rental for VSAT internet connectivity, we are stuck with a bad service provider that gives excuse instead of quality service. It is not easy to dump the ISP and go for another because they are still the best available in my neighborhood, and our present subscription covers several months.

So, I’m just praying and looking for an opportunity to get rid of them. When I get the right opportunity (I’m really on the look-out for it), I’m going to start an ISP company to serve my community.

If you’ve been wondering why my posting hasn’t been consistent, now you know. I’m not quitting blogging, I’m just fighting the challenges hindering me from getting online as I want to.  However, I’ve been busy exploiting some offline business opportunities too. I do really believe in multiple streams of income, so I have several baskets for my business eggs, not just one. Are there needs around you? Think deep, those needs will birth business opportunities for you. Cheers.