How to Start Recharge Card Printing Business

You may recall that the Government banned the importation of GSM recharge cards/vouchers printed in foreign countries. This has opened up the industry to all players, both big and small. The business is all about you being a small to medium player, a mini franchisee! It is 100% legal; you are going to be dealing with companies that are licensed by NCC.

Printing GSM Vouchers

Before now, printing and selling of GSM vouchers had been a business reserved exclusively for the big distributors. But now all that have changed, it’s all about who is interested. Just considering that recharge card consumption in the country is expected to reach over 80 million each month would make any one who

may never have been interested in recharge card business to consider making an investment. And getting to know that you can actually control your own market (no matter how small) by printing vouchers on your own and distributing them to clique of outlets, makes the business even more interesting. The recharge card market is so lucrative that banks are jostling for the market share.

According to a survey conducted in 2004, recharge cards are the fastest selling product in the country-only second to pure water; imagine how lucrative investing in the business could be-with an insatiable demand for more and more cards.

Opportunity for Big Time Investor

Even though we have almost brought down the cost of voucher printing to the lowest entry cost, it holds more profit advantage for a big time investor. Almost all N500 vouchers are printed by third parties or distributors

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Imagine if a distributor can print and distribute just 5,000 of those fast selling N500 vouchers on a daily basis. Even at a profit say N10 per card, that company would be making profit of about N1.5million a month just selling recharge cards.

Then imagine where you sell more, which of course you can. And even if you decide to invest only in recharge cards as you can. And if you decide to invest only in recharge card as your core business, making a profit of N18 million per annum is not “bad at all for a company in its first year of operation.

Opportunity for Small-Scale Investment

And even if you want to start small you can start with as little as N35,000 (excluding money for your equipments) you can start up and you will be on your to making over N145,000 profit on a monthly basis.

How to Avoid Pitfalls That May Cause You to Lose Your Investment

Just like every other business in life, it’s not devoid of its challenges that may even lead to losing your investment. However, the most challenging aspect of vouchers business is not the printing but the marketing. You can print 100,000 vouchers in a day if you have the resources, but how many vouchers are you capable of selling on daily basis.

This is where marketing plan comes in. you need great ideas to take vouchers right down to those who need them when they need them. That means being everywhere that you may be needed. And only great marketing plans can help you achieve that.

 You may need to discover new GSM marketing ideas that work.

The Project

With the deregulation of telecom industry, comes an assortment of options for Nigeria telecom consumers –pre-paid phone cards represents a convenient a way of placing local and international calls and provides big saving over traditional telephone lines.

Can you Give Answers to the Following Questions

• How many GSM call centers are in the streets of Nigeria?
• How many people use GSM phones in Nigeria?
• How many recharge cards are loaded by individuals and GSM call centers?

Target Market       

• GSM call centers
• Road side Recharge Card Vendors
• Individuals

What Do I Need to Start?

The things you need to start with are:

Option 1- Computer Based

1. A computer (you can buy any computer of your choice)
2. A printer (Laser Jet or DeskJet printers)
3. Software that generates the pin numbers (this will be installed on your computer)
4. Bulk pin (this you will be buying to generate your pin numbers)

Where do I get the computer software and bulk pins?

There are many sources where you can get the computer software and bulk pins but each Vendor’s software can only covert his own bulk pin card this means that you cannot use Vendor’s A’s software to convert Vendor B’s bulk pins.

You can also contact me if you need information about getting a Vendor to trade with but this attract charges, Lol! I’m just joking I’ll give you the information for FREE!!

How Much Profit Can I Make?

Business outlook--- It is important to note that estimated profit derivable from this business depends on two major factors: 

• Marketing strategies 
• Initial investment

If you were already into GSM voucher sale, it may be immediately more lucrative since you may already have an establish distribution network. You therefore invest large sums and huge profits.

For example if you make just N4 per voucher and you are able to sell 1,000 pieces via your distribution network; your profit would be N4,000/day, which equates to about N140,000/month!!

For those who are already in the business, you know that selling 1,000 pieces is not a big deal. Dare to think of how much you would make selling 5,000-10,000 per day! You would be raking in “insane” piles of cash: N20,000-N40,000/day, equating to N600,000-N1,200,000 per month!!

In a summary, your profit is dependent on your market share and initial investment.

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Who Can Benefit From the Business?

Everyone can benefit from the billions in the GSM industry, I know you may exclaim, but in work or I’m too old or don’t even have enough money to start. Imagine you go to work from Monday to Saturday but wish you could have additional income source to supplement you small salary or other income.

GSM voucher business is simply a market based business. That means it’s about selling and that way anyone can be involved.