Are There Any Successful Home Based Telecom Reps?

I asked William Van Hefner of TheDigest.com if there were any successful home based telecom reps. I’m not talking about the folks in MLM’s where the real money (75% at least) came from recruting.

Here’s from an industry insider.

As for your question, are there ANY successful home-based telecom agents?

Absolutely. Of course, your definition of successful may vary, but I would consider anyone who makes a full-time living from telecom sales to be successful. If you make enough to cover your rent, car payments, medical
bills, food, etc., I think that you are probably successful at an industry that purely rewards people on their sales ability, and that provides no base salary to start with.

Keep in mind that many people who work from home also have offices, but choose to do most of their work from home. I’m definitely one of those. I spend $1,100 per month to rent a nice office downtown. It’s largely just in case I need to meet with clients, but I rarely do. I sublet much of my office space, and only go down there for about 10 minutes a day. Usually just to check my mail. Working from home is a lot less stressful.

Still, I started out working strictly from home, and could just as easily move everything back home (if I got a larger house!). You might want to take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions File at http://www.thedigest.com/programs/agents/ for info on how to start out as an independent agent, and some of the pitfalls involved.

The up-front cost for getting involved in telecom sales is minimal. If advertising expenses make up more than 10% of your budget, then you are definitely doing something wrong. My advertising budget last year was less
than $500. Even so, I still made more than enough to justify my $32,000 base salary from the corporation that I control.

Most telecom entrepreneurs do start out working from home. If you are only starting out part-time, this is really the best solution. 99% of your work will either be done over the phone, fax, internet or with visits to a
customer’s business. So, having a commercial address is not necessary. A Mailboxes, Etc. address will work just fine. I used one for many years.

Although it is certainly nowhere as easy to make a living in telecom as it used to be, there are still plenty of opportunities for those who concentrate on the more lucrative parts of the business. Selling residential
long distance is not much of a money-maker these days. Consider selling business broadband, VoIP, Wireless or phone systems instead. There are still many niches in the international sector as well, but you must really have some sort of “in” with the market you are targeting in order to be successful. i.e. If you are targeting Hispanics with cheap pre-paid calling cards, you had better learn to speak Espanol!!!

While I can’t get into a lengthy diatribe about what services are definitely the best vs. the worst, it helps to keep in mind that the more expensive a service is, the more money that you will potentially make at selling it. It takes no longer to sell a business account than a residential account, but you will likely make 10x the money for the same effort. It’s not enough just to work hard, you have to work smart.

Hope this helps. Take care.

William Van Hefner
Editor

Vantek Communications, Inc.
555 H Street, Suite C
Eureka, CA 95501
707.476.0833 ph
800.331.4638 fx
E-mail: editor@thedigest.com