BPO or business process outsourcing means contracting a specific part of business task to a third party. Over the years, the BPO industry in India has gained popularity and the business which started from just mere telephonic conversation has become a sector with more than 400 companies. It is not just a recent trend but today India is also the leader when it comes to voice related work. The efficiency and support provided by the BPO’s are motivating large companies to depend on them for different work like payment service, human resource, finance, front office, content development, and other backend work.
Today, a large part of the revenue in this sector is generated from the foreign companies. Manufacturing, telecom, insurance, healthcare, airlines and even retail foreign companies are selecting India for outsourcing their work. Starting BPO business in rural area will surely be a good choice in near future because there the competition is less. The investment in BPO firm when opened in rural area is lower than in city because the manpower cost and other overhead expenses are low.
Who can start rural BPO
Anyone can enter into the BPO business but there are a few things that you must know before venturing into the sector.
- Before you plan to start a BPO business you must know the basis of the sector includes its trend, opportunities, challenges, marketing strategy and risk. Just by reading books you will get all the required bookish information but practically when you venture into the field you will have to face many challenges. The best way to know about the sector is from experienced people, who have been in the field for quite a long time. You can speak to them and learn about the challenges they faced and solution they came up with.
- Once you know about the trend of the company, decide on what kind of business you wish to provide. You will just look after the finance work or would like to diversify and provide other back office services.
- Create a proper business plan. The plan should have everything starting from the amount of profit you wish to earn and expense that would incur in running it. When planning for your businesses do make sure that the goal you fix is realistic. You just cannot start earning profit from day one. Profit will surely come over a period of time but the expenses will start from day one.
- All the business needs certain investment and same is with BPO. You can either get finance from somewhere or run it through self financing. When you finance the business from your savings then you are the sole owner and the profit earned is yours. Self financing also has some disadvantages. If you are in emergency then financer can only save you at the nick of the moment and protect you from facing worst scenario.
- You might also need some legal help when starting a BPO business because there will be a lot of documents and agreements to sign and just a single mistake without knowing can be costly for you.
- Before setting a business there are some technical aspects that you must know, which includes LAN Cabling works and why is it important, what is an international private leased circuit line, what is automatic call distribution etc.
- Manpower is the backbone of BPO business. Even if you have a good business strategy, all the necessary infrastructure, and finance, your company will not work and be successful if you do not have a team of good people working under you.
- Proper knowledge will surely give you a winning edge in the field of BPO Business. SEO Training point is a marketing agency, based in Bangalore which provides proper training to people who wish to establish their own business. The training session provided by the experts help the candidate develop leadership qualities and other skills which includes business promotion skill, team building and management skills, marketing campaign management etc.
Challenges Faced By Rural BPO Firms
Opening BPO in rural area can be quite economical when considering manpower and other overhead expenses but there are few challenges that you would have to face:
- Some rural area in India still does not have power supply whereas the others face long power cuts. You will have to buy a generator or try out some other means to cope up with the situation. You must keep this point in mind when calculating your business expense and planning business strategy.
- Internet has not reached most of the villages and some run on extremely low speed.
- Most of the educated people in rural area migrate to city in scarcity of employment thus proper selection of manpower can also be challenging.
- The education level of people living in the rural area is also low thus you might have to spend a lot of money, training them in order to cope up with the market competition.
Future of BPO In Rural Area
Though there are many challenges when you open a firm in the rural area but in future there is a chance that people who have migrated to different cities in search of work will come back home when they find good employment opportunity. Secondly the government is running a lot of project for the growth of rural people so in future there will be no issue of power cut or internet connectivity. Thirdly, the BPO sector in India is growing and surely it will reach the rural area in the near future.
Marketing
A proper marketing plan will make your business successful. You can have a separate marketing team for promoting your business both online and offline. You can have your own website with details of service provided. Youtube is also a platform where your business can be promoted. You can create a video and upload it. When people watch the video they will be able to know about the qualities of people working with you and the infrastructure you have. Contacting people on social media pages like Twitter and Facebook can also be great for your business. You can also advertise your firm on PTC website. All these marketing ways incurs some money so manage your resource and select the perfect marketing strategy.