Starting a telemarketing company is not that much different to starting any other business. Like any business idea, you need to have a business plan and a good understanding of marketing in general. In addition it is also good strategy to have ideas of securing contracts and for prospecting for business.

The Business plan

Creating the business plan should include financial, marketing and operational strategies that you plan to implement into your business. Obtaining a good template would help you with the outline of what you need to do to create your business plan. The internet offers free business plan templates one such place is Businesslink who are based in the UK. Understanding a business plans, firstly it should be realistic; it should state its objectives, a research of the market you plan to go into, the different strategies you wish to implement, and a projection of your financial forecasts for the business.

Crating the business plan and starting up the business

You need to look at your target audience for our business
Your business, its services and products.
The market and its competitors
What marketing a sales methods you wish to use
An executive summary
If you have a team, then their skills can be included
Where you wish to base your areas of operations, premises, etc.
Requirements related to equipment needed.
If you are situated in the USA you will need a business license, but in the UK you won’t need a business licensee only need to be registered to pay tax.
Once your business plan has been approved and financing approved, if applied for, then you need to get the operation up and going. To begin with you will need marketing material, Even a Telemarketing business can benefit from having business cards created and letterheads printed, this creates a professional business image that you wish to project. Sales letters on a company letterhead is more effective than on a blank page.
Next you will need telephones installed for making calls. If you are going to do telemarketing campaigns, you may use outside resources for that. Or you can set up your own office with phones where your telemarketers will make the calls.
Office space can be quite expensive for a start-up business; you could start up at home while you build the business then later on get outside premises when business picks up.
You will need a potential list of prospective customers to call. You could purchase lists, or use local telephone directories

Overall pre-preparation is important to ensure success. A Telemarketing business can be very lucrative but it does need time and effort put into it.

Even among the high gas prices and failed mortgages of the economy, it is still a viable time to start a small business. One of the first tasks to take care of when starting a small business is to create a marketing plan.

Here are the basics needed in a marketing plan for new entrepreneurs:

A core message

A great logo and brand

A Web site

Business cards

Exposure

First, you need to decide what your core message will be. If you don’t focus your message about your product, service or business, your customers will most likely be confused by your marketing materials. There’s no way you can get a clear message across if you don’t even know what that message is.

Part of knowing your core message is knowing your audience. Who are they? Where do they live? How much money do they make? And most importantly, what do they want? Why do they need your product? Your message needs to serve your customers’ needs, not yours. Your business’ survival depends on your customers’ opinions and knowledge of your business, not yours.

You also need to create a great, memorable logo and brand next. Your logo should show your business’ personality. When people take one glance at your logo, they should know what you are about and remember you. Your logo is part of your brand. A brand is not only your logo and it’s not only your advertising. It’s the combination of all your marketing materials, including these two elements, that creates a relationship with your customers.

To be successful today, you need to create a Web site. You need to plan for at least a basic Web site that shows a few of your products, and the benefits of your products. You should explain who you (as a business) are, what your business does and how your business can help your customers. You can add more functionality to your Web site as your business grows – like answering questions and ordering online.

Print some business cards. Be sure to leave room in your budget for business card printing. Even though a lot of marketing and advertising is done online, if you don’t have a business card, you’ll look unprofessional. You should print at least 500 at first and give them out to everyone you know. Give out a few to friends and family, and really anyone you think might pass them along to other potential customers.

Finally, you need some exposure. Contact your local media – many newspapers and local magazines like to profile new businesses and it’s a great way to get free advertising. You should also advertise in local media and hang up flyers and posters around your community. This can be done relatively cheaply – many places like libraries and grocery stores have bulletin boards on which you can hang advertising materials. These are great for the beginning entrepreneur who might not have a huge marketing budget. Also, word-of-mouth marketing works wonders for a new business – ask for referrals and ask your current customers to tout your benefits to others. Many times word of mouth works better than most of your other marketing techniques!

It’s finally time to throw away your business cards and marketing materials and print new ones with QR or EZ codes on them. 2011 will be the age of the code as it is already sweeping through various industries it is only a matter of time before it becomes common knowledge and losses its marketing power.
A few years ago I received an interesting business card from a friend with a strange bar-code symbol on it. Curious about the design I asked my Japanese friend what the strange bar-code symbol translated in English meant. He laughed and said that is not a Japanese character or sentence it is actually a bar-code with all my contact information on it which my friends and business partners can scan into there phones. I was really surprised and he then took out his mobile phone and scanned the business card to demonstrate how it worked. It was incredibly fast and easy to scan and his contact information appeared instantly. I remember holding onto that business card with fascination. I even went around and showed it to everyone whom I came across as if I just found the secret mobile marketing technology.

Needless to say I was impressed and did some researched about QR Codes at that time, but In America we are always behind the curve in terms of brand new technology, so I left my fascination aside and didn’t implement the QR codes in my marketing. The United States wasn’t ready to implement the new technology and it wasn’t as easy to create and read the QR codes as it is today.

The time has come where the United States is implementing the technology and is doing it in a big way. I will assure you 2011 will be the year of QR and EZ Codes. If you don’t have one for your marketing you need to get one and start promoting it right away. The truth is you’re already late to the party, so get on before we move to the more desirable EZ codes. Actually I suggest you consider using EZ codes from ScanLife even though it comes with a price. If you have the budget and want to track your EZ code scans than ScanLife is the way to go. Imagine being able to track direct mail campaigns making it easier for consumers to take action instantly. As the technology improves one can only imagine the possibilities and opportunities.

Mobile marketing is the future in business and Internet mobile marketing will be the main platform. Even though we are a few years behind the eastern world we can still benefit in the marketing world as consumers become aware of this new mobile convenience. Everyone has their IPhones, Droids, and BlackBerrys and with a simple scan your business and contact information is instantly in this constant contact device. Implement this early and you could reap the rewards as a entrepreneur or business owner simply from the fascination factor as the rest of America becomes aware of these bar-codes know as QR codes or quick response codes.

A Few QR Code Generators: A little caveat here make sure you do your own research when selecting a generator because there are more and more generators popping up everyday, so you might find a gem I haven’t come across.

Kaywa: Probably the most popular right now and really simple to use. It only takes 5 seconds to create just lacks the tracking capabilities the trade off is it is simple and free.

ScanLife: I truly believe this is the best QR; EZ Code Generator on the market and the reason is simple Analytics. Using the EZ code from ScanLife provides the business owner with essential data. In Marketing you make decisions based off of the data well at least you should if your not we need to talk:) ScanLife has a 7-day free trial, which you simply need to put your contact information in to start testing. If you like it and feel it is worth the monthly fee then you select a plan, which is right for your marketing.

ZXing Project: Another simple and easy to use QR Generator the infrastructure of this one uses Google API Charts to create the code.

Readers for your Smartphone: There are a number of choices when it comes to QR code readers and more are being added everyday. As always do proper research before purchasing or using to ensure it is compatible with your phone model.

IPhone: Quick Mark $99; NeoReader(Free); QR Reader (Free); Google Goggles Free and works for IPhone. Search the App store on the IPhone for others.

Android Platform: Barcode Scanner (Free);Quick Mark for Android (Free); Google Goggles works for Android.

Blackberry: ScanLife Barcode Reader (Free); QR Code Scanner Pro (Free); NeoReader (Free)

Browser QR Code Extensions:

Google Chrome Extension: QR Code Generator Extension generates a QR Code from the current page, link or selected text through a quick and easy right-click menu.

Firefox Extension: QRLink Maker
QR Code (2D barcode) generator extension for quick data-to-smartphone transfer! Supports links, images & text selection codes

Internet Explorer: None I could find sorry about that IE users, but seriously if you are still using IE we need to talk.