Trying to start a new contact center in the Philippines need Help

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I'm not sure what you ask for. There are so many answers so books are and can be written about business starts and handling     .

Contact centre for what type of contacts?  Phoning?
What type of customers?
Any incomes from abroad?   Enough to become at least 60 % of the yearly income?  (If so it's counted as "export business" so a foreigner can own whole.)

it would be a BPO for healthcare to start, and it would be phones. And my questions are more about setup the how of calls getting from businesses in the US to the call center in the Philippines and the software that should be used for the employees. Any and all help would be appreciated.

Appreciate your help Coach53

Do not post personal details and contact information in this forum. You can use PM for such activities.

I don't know about technical for such,
but it seem it can become an "export business" so you can own whole  (as long as not buying land).

Establishing in Cebu? 
There are/were much call centres there, so I suppouse no big problem to find the technical knowledge there.  When Trump got elected it became kind of panic in Phils by Trump's statement "takiing home jobs" by so mamy had such jobs in Phils. Do you know if it happened so Filipinos lost jobs by that? 
If so I suppouse there are experienced  unemployed in Cebu.

BUT you have the problem with covid. Hard restrictions in Cebu and Manila so I would chose somewhere else, but I know one working with such in Cebu, so there are some such still open. I can ask her if she know anything useful if you aim at start there.
(Plus I know an other who did work in Metro Manila handling Amazon orders, but that's closed. She is unemployed at Mindanao last we had contact a few months ago.)

Jerome, what do you know about the call center/BPO business? Are you currently working in this field? Management experience? You should have core experience, and from the  questions you're asking, it seems that maybe  you do not. Or perhaps your experience is only in a US call center? It's unclear.

Unless you are very experienced I do not think you can successfully start up a new business like that, especially without adequate funding. There are all kinds of international regulations and issues to be aware of and incorporated into your business model, on top of the need for core industry experience.

Just because some family and friends think it is a good idea means nothing.

Thanks for your Help Priscilla.

pnwcyclist wrote:

Unless you are very experienced I do not think you can successfully start up a new business like that, especially without adequate funding.

Just because some family and friends think it is a good idea means nothing.

Adequate funding is the big "bug-a-boo". Even successful businesses have gone out of business because of inadequate funding.

Enzyte Bob wrote:

Adequate funding is the big "bug-a-boo". Even successful businesses have gone out of business because of inadequate funding.

Yes, litle funding add big risk to fail.
But long time back when I started my first full time business I started anyway with crazy low start capital  for such business.  It was so low so I would be in big trouble to pay the salaries if a big customer wouldn't pay in time in startup.  But I started anyway by I like challenges which most people find imposible 

(I had to start big to get any chance to get the bigest regular work by cover all what that big customer demanded to get done by same supplier.  After I had got a small work done, so I had a reference, I went to that big customer and told what service I could offer:
-Very good! What price?
The national company, which had handled that region for that customer, had done so much wrong so the customer kind of threw that big work at me      That work was so big so my profit at just that work was enough to live ok at, plus I could earn much extra when I could coordinate other jobs with it, when more than one work could be done at same distribution routes.
Some years later I got offered the asignment to try to solve when the second bigest national company got crisis in "my" region. So I helped an opponent  but got allowed to coordinate my jobs with theirs and they agreed to pay all costs they would have had without the coordination, so my costs became just a small part compared to normal, which I earned much extra by.  Then I found them a new region boss and tought him,  sold all and started a new challenge, but that's an other story   

A Filipina I know started even with ZERO capital    just with a product idea and big determination     She made a sample, did show it for retailer and had got order before she even had started production.  She had no money at all,  managed to reach agreement with a tailor to borrow their sewing machine when they didn't use it and took an expensive "5-6" loan to buy raw material.  She got the problem she couldn't produce to fullfil the demand by she could use the tailor's machine to litle time, but when she had started earning, she convinced a cousin to sell her motorbike and buy a sewing machine to get full time access and use it from home so she could take care of her toddler at same time.  Allready second month the earning was double as much as e g a builder assistants, had paid off the loan, started saving to a second machine and planned to employ and sell to other cities too!

Question: how much money would you need to start a call center in Philippines? Without salary just an equipment for 20 people and a manager to start hire. Any suggestions?

- @boykotodorov

As many things, extra much in the Philippines, it depends   

But bargains pop up now and then e g by owner has died, move abroad, retire or has screwed up      geting depts so have to sell fast.  But there can be from many interested buyers to none.

((In a total other business type, which I am buying, there are a lot of bargains by them, who normaly want them, dont have money.  (Very few of the rich Filipinos are interested in provinces (except perhaps "hot" tourist places)  and local rich dont seem to have the knowledge how to run such business by almost all such businesses I have seen in the Philippines are very wrong handled making them bad earning so bad investments. But I know how     Many owners dont get sold even at very low asked prices. So when I buy I dont even try to haggle - except now we try to negotiate hard about paying terms because it would be nice to get 5 instead of 1      for the remaining of the money I have send.  (DIRECT pay. If they are interested in geting big part of the money later we will even offer them MORE total than the asked price.) Its an inheritance with many parts where they though they could get sold easy, but they havent even got any offer in 3 months now at the parts we are interested in mainly.  Inspite of it seem to be worth 3 - 4 times the asked price, it seem even no one more than us have been there and glanced at it! My business partner asked one of them a few days ago if they can be interested in a big part later pay (5 years and we can pay from earnings      and he said he will talk with his brother  When we know if we can get all or one, we will check more proper - including which if we get only 1 - before we decide buying.  There are more such bargains but this is best located for us and among them with best earning potentials. In the beginning we asked ONE and gossip made people know there is a buyer, which have made  we have got over 20 offers we have bothered to look at. But the most worth compared to asked price dont have the documents in order and its disputed within family, otherwice we would have bought that months ago. It was I  who noticed by the scetchmap looked wrong, officials had screwed up giving that lot a number which was occupied allready so big part of registration was about the OTHER lot!!! And when the officials "corrected" it they screwed up even more not including 1/3 of the lot inspite of its obvious where it end by neighbour lot look much different. I suspect they were to lazy to walk 100 meters more to where it ends 

@Parvaze

Not to be dismissive, but if you’re asking questions about what software to use, then you clearly don’t have industry knowledge.

The medical/financial industry clients are harder to cater to than others, needing agents to be trained to a higher level of proficiency & professionalism than other industries. Even someone with years of industry knowledge & local contacts will find this more challenging.

@Oursus

I agree with this, and but have no intent to being critical to the ambitions of putting up a call center,  it only makes sense to have even just a little bit of industry background experience before you venture off with this. Knowing the software and tools to launch it sucessfully just seems like it should be rudimentary knowledge. To publicly ask people here what software to use gives indication that there is great risk of your ship sinking before you have even left the dock.

Again, not to be critical. but it is very important you factor in your own professional capabilities and business/technical competancies...

You need to start with a detailed business plan. And then get feedback on it. Until then you merely have an idea that may or may not amount to anything.

The OP hasn't been here for 18 months, was he simply clutching at straws?

Time to let this topic drop off the radar.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.