Cell Phone Distributor - What You Need to Know!

• Relationships - You'll need to have relationships with sub-dealers or stores.  In my opinion this is the most difficult part.  Building relationships with other dealers and/or stores is not easy.  It takes a certain kind of person to seek out such opportunities and to sell your services.  And because of the amazing potential to make a lot of money in the prepaid wireless distribution business, competition is fierce!  You can target a specific neighborhood, type of mom and pop store, small convenience store, etc.  Think about where people might want to buy a phone or topup their prepaid wireless account.  Also consider what unique value you can add.  Do you have special knowledge, insight, or existing relationships with a specific type of community?  This should be considered a critical success factor, and will largely determine whether you should be a master cell phone distributor at the top of the chain, a smaller one, or somewhere in the middle.  There's really no "wrong" place to be.  Wherever you fit in, and can apply your passion, you'll have a chance to succeed!

• Access to Technology - Depending on where you are on the food chain, you'll need to have technology to process airtime sales.  Usually the master cell phone distributor will provide access to technology to partners below them, so lets assume you're at the top for the moment.  You'll need to partner with a Technology Service Provider (TSP).  TSPs also have relationships with prepaid wireless carriers.  The larger ones will have direct relationships, while the smaller ones will have indirect relationships.  The closer they are to being direct, the more money you'll likely be able to make (due to higher available margins).  There are a number of technologies currently available, and depending on the dealers/stores that are selling your prepaid products, you may need one or all of these:

• Hot Cards - These require minimal or no technology, and can often be purchased directly from the carrier or master distributors.  I won't focus on this much, however, because hot cards are largely being phased out of the market, and many carriers have already discontinued using them.  In my opinion, any carrier that hasn't discontinued them at this point, should really have a plan to do so as soon as possible.

• POS Terminals - These are Point Of Sale Terminals that typically look like credit card terminals.  They can be used to sell electronic PINs (ePINs) or to perform PIN-less Real Time Replenishment (RTR) transactions.

• Web Terminals - These are secure websites that provide the same products as do POS terminals, but can be accessed via the Internet, without the need for special hardware or equipment.  Internet access, however, IS required.

• Money - You'll need to either have cash on hand, or access to money from banks or lenders.  You'll need this money to pay for technology, warehousing, staff, and of course, prepaid phones and prepaid airtime.  Although people tend to worry the most about getting money, I put it last because it really is the easiest part of the equation!  If you have good relationships and access to technology, you're well on your way to building a successful cell phone distributor business, and finding the money will be the easiest part!

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