business plan for mobile money

Mobile Money Transfer Agency Business Plan [Sample Template]

By: Author Tony Martins Ajaero

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Are you about starting a money transfer agency? If YES, here is a complete sample money transfer agency business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE .

Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a money transfer agency . We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample money transfer agency marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for money transfer agencies. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.

Have you ever dreamt of becoming your own boss? Did you per chance study Banking and Finance, Accountancy or any related course and are finding it difficult to get your ideal job? You don’t need to worry because your dream of becoming your own boss and still work as a professional can be fulfilled.

One of the business opportunities that you can leverage on is to start a money transfer agency business. Although you would need ample experience with good track record to be able to attract well – paying clients, but that does not stop you from still making headway in this line of business.

The truth is that the business has pretty low entry capital and you can start the business from your home, shared offices space or from a kiosk with one or two staff members.

You can be sure that your services would always be in demand by people who want to send money to other parts of the world especially migrants who want to send money back home. If you are interested in starting a money transfer agency, then you should be ready to conduct thorough feasibility studies and market survey before committing your money and other resources to it.

Aside from a thorough and detailed feasibility studies and market survey, one of the important documents that will aid the success of the business is a good and workable business plan. Below is a sample money transfer business plan template that can help you to successfully write your own.

A Sample Mobile Money Transfer Agency Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

The money transfer industry comprises of firms that act as third-party agents that facilitate money transfers and payments among parties in different locations. Please note that this industry does not include organizations that are involved in bank wire services and card-based services.

Research conducted by IBISWorld shows that the Money Transfer Agencies industry has recorded robust growth over the past five years.

This growth is largely due to the increasing globalization and rising mobility of labor. Industry revenue is closely linked to the number of overseas workers employed in the united states, with many sending money back to their respective countries to support their families.

The resilience of the US economy relative to other developed economies and its skill shortages make the US an attractive place for overseas workers to seek employment. As a result, industry revenue is expected to increase at an annualized 7.2 percent over the five years through 2017-18, to $299.9 million. Industry revenue is anticipated to grow by 3.7 percent.

The Money Transfer industry is indeed a thriving industry and pretty much active in all parts of the world and the industry is responsible for employing several people.

The Money Transfer industry is in the growth phase of its life cycle. Industry value added, which measures an industry’s contribution to the overall economy, is forecast to grow at an annualized 4.5 percent over the 10 years through 2022-23.

This represents an outperformance compared with real GDP, which is projected to grow at an annualized 2.5 percent over the same period. This outperformance is a key characteristic of an industry in the growth phase of its economic life cycle. Increasing labor mobility and globalization will underpin demand for money transfer services over the next five years.

Any aspiring entrepreneur or investor that is considering starting this type of business whether on a small scale or in a large scale should ensure that he or she conducts thorough market survey and feasibility studies so as to get it right.

The truth is that, this type of business does pretty well when it is strategically positioned. Places like campus, school board / districts, passport office, immigration centers, licensing offices and migrant communities are ideal for this type of business.

Over and above, the money transfer business is profitable and it is open for any aspiring entrepreneur to come into the industry; you can choose to start on a small scale in one or two public facilities and operate on a local and national level. If you have the capital and business exposure, then you can choose to start on a large scale with several outlets in key cities.

2. Executive Summary

Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. is a registered and licensed international money transfer agency. We have been able to secure all the required documentation and a standard office facility that is highly suitable for the kind of business we are into.

Our head office is situated in Los Angeles – California and we hope to sometime in the nearest future have branches scattered all across major cities in the United States of America.

Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. will be involved in all aspect of money transfer, we will act as third-party agents that facilitate money transfers and payments among parties in different locations. Our business goal is to become one of the leading money transfer agencies in Los Angeles – California and we will make sure that every service we handle compete favorably with the best in the industry in terms of time.

We are aware that there are several money transfer agencies all around Los Angeles – California which is why we spent time and resources to conduct a thorough feasibility studies and market survey so as to position our business in strategic locations in Los Angeles – California.

Much more than prompt money transfer, our customer care is going to be second to none in the whole of Los Angeles – California. We know that our customers are the reason why we are in business which is why we will go the extra mile to get them satisfied when they patronize our services.

At Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. our client’s best interest come first, and everything we do will be guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by delivering excellent jobs and also meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely.

Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. is a family business that is owned and managed by Jude Adamson and his immediate family members.

Jude Adamson is a graduate of Business Administration and has extensive experience working with one of the leading global money transfer agencies in the United States of America. He will bring his experience and expertise to help grow Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc.

3. Our Products and Services

Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. is in the industry for the purpose of making profits and we will ensure we position our business to favorably compete for the available market in the industry. We are going to do all that is permitted by the laws in the United States of America to achieve our business goals.

Here are some of our service offerings;

• In-store money transfers operations
• Retail money transfer
• Online money transfer

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our vision is to build a money transfer agency that will have active presence all over the United States of America and the globe.
• Our mission is to establish a standard money transfer agency that will make available a wide range of services in the money transfer industry at affordable prices to residents of Los Angeles – California, and other locations in the United States of America where we intend operating from.

Our Business Structure

Our intention of starting a money transfer agency is to build a standard business with active presence in major cities in the United States of America and the globe. We will ensure that we put the right structures in place that will support the kind of growth that we have in mind while setting up the business.

In putting in place a good business structure, we will ensure that we hire only people that are qualified, honest, customer centric and are ready to work to help us build a prosperous business that will benefit all the stake holders.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of ten years or more. In view of that, we have decided to hire qualified and competent hands to occupy the following positions;

• Chief Executive Officer (Owner)
• Admin and Human Resources Manager

Sales and Marketing Manager

Money Transfer Agents

• Client Services Executive

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer – CEO:

• Intensifies management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, appraising job results and developing incentives
• Creates, communicates, and implements the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Accountable for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization
• Reports to the board

Admin and HR Manager

• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
• Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Defines job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carries out induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Responsible for arranging travel, meetings and appointments
• Oversees the smooth running of the daily office activities.
• Manages external research and coordinates all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
• Models demographic information and analyze the volumes of transactional data generated by customer purchases
• Identifies, prioritizes, and reaches out to new partners, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts; participates in the structuring and financing of the business
• Documents all customer contact and information
• Represents the company in strategic meetings
• Helps to increase sales and growth for the company
• Handle in-store money transfer operations
• Handle retail money transfer
• Handle online money transfer
• Responsible for operating IT systems for the organization
• In charge of planning for and negotiating technical difficulties
• Responsible for monitoring exchange rates
• In charge of negotiating service charges.
• Responsible for dealing with the effects of network congestion.
• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for the organization
• Serves as internal auditor for the organization

Client Service Executive

• Ensures that all contacts with clients (e-mail, walk-In center, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Assist in helping clients track their transfer and provide helpful information as required
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the human resources and admin manager in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the organizations’ products, promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information are supplied to clients when they make enquiries.

6. SWOT Analysis

Our intention of starting our money transfer business in Los Angeles – California is to test run the business for a period of 3 to 6 months to know if we will invest more money, expand the business and then open transfer centers all around key cities in the United States.

We are quite aware that there are several money transfer agencies in the United States and even in the same locations where we intend locating ours, which is why we are following the due process of establishing a business.

We know that if a proper SWOT analysis is conducted for our business, we will be able to position our business to maximize our strength, leverage on the opportunities that will be available to us, mitigate our risks and be equipped to confront our threats.

Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. employed the services of an expert HR and Business Analyst with bias in startups to help us conduct a thorough SWOT analysis and to help us create a Business model that will help us achieve our business goals and objectives. This is the summary of the SWOT analysis that was conducted for Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc.;

The strategic locations we intend positioning our business, the business model we will be operating on, ease of transfer, wide range of services and our excellent customer service culture will definitely count as a strong strength for Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc.

So also we have a team that can go all the way to give our clients value for their money; a team that are trained and equipped to pay attention to details and swiftly and safely transfer money both locally, nationally and internationally.

A major weakness that may count against us is the fact that we are a new money transfer agency and we don’t have the financial capacity to compete with multi – million dollar money transfer agencies in this industry.

• Opportunities:

Rising globalization and labor mobility continues to benefit the industry’s revenue performance and online operators have benefited from their lower cost base and the rise of online transfers. The fact that people and businesses are always sending money from one location to another provides us with unlimited opportunities.

We have been able to conduct thorough feasibility studies and market survey and we know what our potential clients will be looking for when they patronize our services; we are well positioned to take on the opportunities that will come our way.

Just like any other business, one of the major threats that we are likely going to face is economic downturn. It is a fact that economic downturn affects purchasing / spending power; in essence, if the economy is under stress, people will find it difficult to transfer money.

Another threat that may likely confront us is the arrival of a new money transfer agency in same location where ours is located. unfavorable government policies and technology can also pose a threat to businesses such as ours.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

Rising globalization and labor mobility continues to benefit industry’s revenue performance and online operators have benefited from their lower cost base and the rise of online transfers.

Although the fact that the industry is divided in the two categories makes it easier for aspiring entrepreneurs to choose to start on a small scale by servicing local communities and small to medium scale businesses or to start big by offering all the services.

A common trend in this industry is that money transfer agencies usually position their offices close to colleges and migrant communities. This is so because statistics shows that international students and of course working class migrants/expatriates are known to be top on the list when it comes to transferring monies from the United States to other countries of the world.

8. Our Target Market

The target market for those who need the services of money transfer businesses are all encompassing. In view of that, we have positioned our transfer centers in strategic locations to service residents and businesses in Los Angeles – California and other towns in key cities in the United States of America. We are in the money transfer industry to attract the following clients;

• Expatriates
• Business men and women
• Small scale businesses
• Clearing and forwarding agents
• Corporate Executives

Our competitive advantage

The competitions that exist in the industry is stiff because anyone that has the finance and business expertise can decide to start this type of business howbeit on a small scale servicing a city or more. Although, the money transfer industry requires some form of trainings and expertise, but that does not in any way stop any serious minded entrepreneur from starting the business and still make good profit out of it.

The business model we will be operating on, having a good reputation, proximity to key markets, unlimited access to the latest available and most efficient technology and techniques, ease of money transfer, wide range of services and our excellent customer service culture will definitely count as a competitive advantage for Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc.

So also, we have a team that can go give our clients value for their money; a team that is trained and equipped to pay attention to details and deliver parcels on time both locally, nationally and internationally.

Lastly, our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category in the industry meaning that they will be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the money transfer industry and we are going to ensure that we do all it takes to offer our services and products to a wide range of customers. Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. will generate income by offering the following services;

10. Sales Forecast

One thing is certain; there would always be individuals, businesses or corporate organizations in Los Angeles – California and in the United States of America who would always need the services of money transfer agencies.

We are well positioned to take on the available market in Los Angeles – California and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income from the first six months of operation and grow the business and our clientele base.

We have been able to examine the money transfer agencies industry, we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. Below are the sales projections for Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc., it is based on the location of our business and the wide range of services that we will be offering;

• First Fiscal Year: $240,000
• Second Fiscal Year: $450,000
• Third Fiscal Year: $750,000

N.B : This projection was done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and natural disasters within the period stated above. There won’t be any major competitor offering same services as we do within same location. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales Strategy

Before choosing a location for our business, we conducted a thorough market survey and feasibility studies in order for us to penetrate the available market and become the preferred choice for businesses and residents of Los Angeles – California.

We have detailed information and data that we were able to utilize to structure our business to attract the number of customers we want to attract per time.

We hired experts who have good understanding of the money transfer agency industry to help us develop marketing strategies that will help us achieve our business goal of winning a larger percentage of the available market in Los Angeles – California.

In summary, Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. will adopt the following sales and marketing approach to win customers over;

• Introduce our business by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to corporate organizations, households and key stakeholders in Los Angeles and other cities in California.
• Print handbills about our business and its locations
• Advertise on the internet on blogs and forums, and also on social media like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn to get our message across.
• Create a basic website for our business so as to give our business an online presence (list the locations of our transfer centers)
• Directly market our business
• Join local business center associations for industry trends and tips
• Provide discount days for our customers
• Advertise our business in community based newspapers, local TV and radio stations
• List our business on yellow pages’ ads (local directories)
• Encourage the use of Word of mouth marketing (referrals)

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

Despite the fact that our office facility and transfer centers will be well located, we will still go ahead to intensify publicity for the business. We are going to explore all available means to promote our business.

Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. has a long term plan of opening our transfer centers in various locations in key cities all around the United States of America which is why we will deliberately build our brand to be well accepted in Los Angeles – California before venturing out.

As a matter of fact, our publicity and advertising strategy is not solely for winning customers over but to effectively communicate our brand. Here are the platforms we intend leveraging on to promote and advertise Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc.;

• Place adverts on both print (community based newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, twitter, et al to promote our brand
• Install our billboards in strategic locations all around Los Angeles – California
• Distribute our fliers and handbills in target areas
• Position our Flexi Banners at strategic positions in the location where our money transfer centers are located.
• Ensure that all our workers wear our branded shirts and all our delivery vehicles are well branded with our company’s logo.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

At Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. we will keep the prices of our money transfer service charges below the average market rate for all of our customers by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance from corporate organizations who would hire our services. In addition, we will also offer special discounted rates to all our customers at regular intervals.

• Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation of the United States of America.

Here are the payment options that Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. will make available to her clients;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via check
• Payment via Point of Sale Machines (POS Machine)
• Payment via bank draft
• Payment via mobile money

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our clients make payment for our services without any stress on their part.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

When it comes to starting a money transfer agency, the major areas that you should look towards spending the bulk of your cash is in the renting or leasing of well – located facilities. Aside from that, you are not expected to spend much except for paying of your employees and the purchase of supplies. These are the key areas where we will spend our startup capital;

• The total fee for registering the Business in the United States – $750.
• Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits as well as the accounting services (software, P.O.S machines and other software) – $1,300.
• Marketing promotion expenses for the grand opening of the business in the amount of $3,500 and as well as flyer printing (2,000 flyers at $0.04 per copy) for the total amount of $3,580.
• The cost for hiring Business Consultant – $2,500.
• The amount needed for the purchase of insurance policy cover (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $2,400.
• The cost for payment of rent for 12 months at $1.76 per square feet in the total amount of $35,600.
• The cost for the facility and remodeling – $10,000.
• Other start-up expenses including stationery ( $500 ) and phone and utility deposits ( $2,500 ).
• Operational cost for the first 3 months (salaries of employees, payments of bills et al) – $100,000
• The cost for store equipment (cash register, security, ventilation, signage) – $13,750
• The cost of purchase and installation of CCTVs and car tracker devices – $10,000
• The cost for the purchase of furniture and gadgets for the office (computers, internet device, photocopy machine, computers, fax machine, phone box, printing machines, laminating machines and scanning machine, TVs, Sound System, tables and chairs et al) – $20,000
• The cost of launching a website – $600
• Miscellaneous – $10,000

We would need an estimate of $150,000 to successfully set up our money transfer agency in Los Angeles – California.

Generating Startup Capital for Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc.

No matter how fantastic your business idea might be, if you don’t have the required money to finance the business, the business might not become a reality. Finance is a very important factor when it comes to starting a money transfer agency.

Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. is a family business that is solely owned and financed by Jude Adamson and his immediate family members. They do not intend to welcome any external business partners which is why he has decided to restrict the sourcing of the startup capital to 3 major sources.

• Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings
• Source for soft loans from family members and friends
• Apply for loan from the bank

N.B: We have been able to generate about $50,000 ( Personal savings $30,000 and soft loan from family members $20,000 ) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $100,000 from our bank. All the papers and documents have been signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited with the amount.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the number of loyal customers that they have, the capacity and competence of their employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business, then it won’t be too long before the business close shop.

One of our major goals of starting Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running.

We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer our money transfer services a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and also to ensure timely and safe deliveries. We are well prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

Swiftness© Money Transfer Agency, Inc. will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List/Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check : Completed
• Business Registration: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
• Securing standard photo booths: In Progress
• Opening Mobile Money Accounts: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Leasing of facility for positioning and remodeling the facility: In Progress
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Generating capital from family members: Completed
• Applications for Loan from the bank: In Progress
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents and other relevant Legal Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Printing of Promotional Materials: In Progress
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of furniture, racks, shelves, computers, electronic appliances, office appliances and CCTV: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business both online and around the community: In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement (License): Secured
• Establishing business relationship with third party services providers – banks, technology companies and other financial institutions et al: In Progress

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E-Book Download – 2024 GUIDE: Building a high-performing mobile money business strategy

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• Learn the truth behind the buzz: what does it really take to launch a successful mobile money business?
• Go inside a mobile money company five years after deployment, using numbers based on real-world metrics to understand their rollout strategy.
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Mobile Business Ideas to Make Money on Wheels Discover mobile business ideas for the modern age and learn how to leverage flexibility and innovation for on-the-go profits.

By Dan Bova Aug 7, 2023

In today's fast-paced, technology-driven world, the entrepreneurial landscape is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Innovation is at an all-time high, driven by advanced technology, consumer behavior changes and market dynamics that consistently challenge traditional business models.

This shift is characterized by the increasing dominance of service-oriented businesses, the integration of technology in all aspects of operations and the rise of entrepreneurship as a viable career choice for many. Furthermore, the advent of digital transformation has made it easier for businesses to reach out to consumers and vice versa, thus leading to more dynamic interaction and transaction models.

Amidst this transformation, one particular trend has caught the eye of many entrepreneurs and investors — mobile businesses. These enterprises are not tied to a specific location, and instead bring their services or products directly to the consumer.

The concept isn't an entirely new creation; think of food trucks or traveling salesmen. However, the modern interpretation of mobile businesses has expanded to include a wide array of sectors and services, all leveraging the power of modern technology and digital connectivity.

Related: Thriving in a Rapidly Changing Business Landscape with Innovation and Agility | Entrepreneur

Why is the popularity of mobile businesses skyrocketing?

The rise of mobile businesses is no accident. Various benefits make them attractive for entrepreneurs, contributing to their growing popularity. Here are some reasons why mobile businesses are currently enjoying the spotlight:

Flexibility

At the core of mobile businesses is their inherent flexibility, which allows them to maneuver swiftly and adjust to evolving market conditions .

Unlike traditional businesses tied to a specific location, mobile businesses can move directly to where their customers are. This ability to "go where the customer is" greatly reduces dependence on foot traffic and physical location, providing an edge in today's consumer-centric market.

Furthermore, the mobility of these businesses enables them to respond promptly to changing market needs, customer preferences and emerging trends. Whether it's moving to a new location to tap into a different demographic or adapting services based on real-time feedback, the flexibility of mobile businesses is a key factor driving their popularity.

Lower startup costs

Another compelling factor is the cost-efficiency of mobile businesses.

Starting a traditional brick-and-mortar business often requires a substantial investment upfront, including rent for premises, renovation costs, utility bills and property maintenance expenses. In contrast, mobile businesses, whether they operate from a food truck or via a smartphone, typically have significantly lower startup costs.

The absence of expenses related to physical premises allows entrepreneurs to channel more resources into improving their products or services and enhancing customer experience. This makes mobile businesses an accessible entry point for aspiring entrepreneurs or those with limited capital.

Related: How to Track Your Startup Costs and Save Money | Entrepreneur

Digital connectivity

The digital revolution has undoubtedly paved the way for the growth of mobile businesses. The ubiquity of high-speed internet and the proliferation of smart devices have changed the way businesses interact with their customers.

In today's digital age, businesses are no longer confined by geographical limitations. They can reach global customers with just a few clicks, provide real-time updates via social media and offer personalized online shopping experiences.

Online platforms, social media and digital marketing are all significant elements in a mobile business's toolkit. They enable mobile entrepreneurs to engage with, attract and serve customers in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago.

These tools also facilitate seamless transactions, customer relationship management and data-driven decision-making, making it easier for businesses to grow and succeed in the digital sphere.

Related: 5 Ways Small Business Owners Can Embrace Rapid Digital Change to Get Closer to Their Customers | Entrepreneur

What mobile business ideas stand out in the modern age?

There is no shortage of ideas when it comes to opening a mobile business. Here are just a few examples of the best mobile business ideas of the modern age:

Mobile food and beverage enterprises

There's no denying that mobile food businesses have surged in popularity over the past decade.

Whether it's a gourmet food truck offering locally-sourced delicacies, a mobile coffee shop brewing artisanal blends or an ice cream van bringing joy to local neighborhoods, mobile food and beverage businesses provide a flexible, cost-effective alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar establishments.

The mobility of mobile food businesses allows them to cater to different locations and events, creating a diverse customer base. Furthermore, these ventures often draw attention with their unique branding and innovative menu offerings.

Related: Why Food Truck Businesses Are Revving Up | Entrepreneur

Mobile retail shops on-the-move

The idea of a "store on wheels" has reinvented retail in many ways.

Mobile retail shops offer a unique shopping experience, bringing products directly to consumers. From fashion and accessories to books and homewares, these stores can pop up anywhere – festivals, street fairs, corporate events or busy urban areas.

This business model reduces overhead costs associated with a physical store and allows for more dynamic customer interaction. Additionally, the novelty of shopping in a mobile retail store can attract clientele.

Health and wellness services on wheels

The health and wellness industry is another area where mobile businesses are making a significant impact. On-the-go health and wellness services, such as mobile medical clinics, mobile spa services or even a traveling fitness coach, are increasingly sought after.

These services can provide valuable care in underserved areas or offer clients a convenient, personalized experience. They can also partner with businesses to offer on-site services, creating an additional stream of clientele.

Related: 4 Reasons Why You Should Enter the Health and Wellness Industry Now | Entrepreneur

On-the-go pet care ventures

As pet ownership continues to rise , so does the demand for pet care services. Mobile pet care ventures can range from on-the-go grooming and veterinary services to mobile pet daycare or dog walking services.

By coming to the pet's home environment, these businesses can provide less stressful and more convenient services for both pets and their owners.

Mobile educational and tutoring services

In the age of remote learning , mobile educational services have become increasingly relevant.

Whether providing tutoring in various subjects, teaching musical instruments, or offering language classes, mobile education businesses can deliver personalized, one-on-one instruction tailored to the learner's pace.

Moreover, by using digital tools, these services can be offered both in-person and virtually, further expanding their reach.

Related: Examples of Educational Business Ideas | Entrepreneur

Tech and repair services at your doorstep

As we become more dependent on technology, on-demand tech support and repair services become increasingly valuable. A mobile tech repair business can offer services ranging from smartphone and computer repairs to home network setup and troubleshooting.

Such businesses provide a convenient solution to clients, saving them the trouble of disconnecting their devices and hauling them to a repair shop.

Related: Beyond the Food Truck: 10 Unique Mobile Businesses | Entrepreneur

How do you launch a successful mobile business?

Starting a successful mobile business involves a blend of strategic planning, compliance with regulations and effective marketing. Here's how to set your mobile venture on the path to success.

Develop an effective mobile business plan

A well-crafted business plan serves as a roadmap for your mobile business. It should outline your business concept, target market, competition analysis, operational plan, financial projections and marketing strategies.

Research your industry thoroughly and identify the unique selling proposition of your mobile business. Develop a solid financial model, including startup costs, operational expenses and revenue projections. Your business plan should also incorporate growth strategies, highlighting how you plan to expand and scale your business over time.

Related: How to Prepare and Write the Perfect Business Plan for Your Company | Entrepreneur

Consider regulatory aspects for mobile businesses

Mobile businesses, like their brick-and-mortar counterparts, need to comply with various regulatory requirements.

These might include obtaining necessary permits and licenses, complying with health and safety regulations (especially for food and health-related businesses) and ensuring you meet zoning laws for operating in different locations.

Make sure you understand the specific regulations in your industry and locale to avoid potential legal issues.

Create a marketing strategy for your mobile business

Effectively marketing your mobile business is crucial to attracting customers. Leverage the power of social media, create a compelling website and use online marketing tools to reach your target audience.

Local SEO is particularly vital for mobile businesses as it helps local customers find you. Offering promotions and discounts can attract initial clientele and engaging with customers online can help you build a strong brand reputation.

Related: 9 Tips to Successfully Market Your Business | Entrepreneur

How can you overcome the unique challenges that come with a mobile business?

Like any business venture, mobile businesses come with their unique set of challenges.

For instance, the nomadic nature of mobile businesses can make it hard to establish a steady customer base. Unpredictable weather conditions can also impact operations. However, these challenges can be tackled with the right strategies.

Building a loyal customer base can be achieved by consistently offering high-quality products or services and maintaining a strong online presence. Regularly updating your locations and hours on social media can help customers find you. As for weather conditions, having a backup plan for bad weather days, like offering home deliveries or focusing on online sales, can be beneficial.

Related: 5 Ways to Grow Your Customer Base Organically | Entrepreneur

Finding a winning business idea

In conclusion, the mobile business trend has become a powerful entrepreneurial path, offering the flexibility and potential for creative business ideas.

With strategic planning, compliance, effective marketing and resilience in overcoming challenges, you can successfully ride the wave of this trend. As technology advances and consumer behaviors shift, the future for mobile businesses looks promising and full of exciting opportunities.

The ideas above are only scratching the surface for potential mobile business ideas. By using your imagination, you just might create the next billion-dollar industry.

If you're interested in learning more about how to start a business, then check out some of the additional information available at Entrepreneur today.

Entrepreneur Staff

VP of Special Projects

Dan Bova is the VP of Special Projects at Entrepreneur.com. He previously worked at Jimmy Kimmel Live, Maxim, and Spy magazine. His latest books for kids  include  This Day in History , Car and Driver's Trivia Zone ,  Road & Track Crew's Big & Fast Cars , The Big Little Book of Awesome Stuff , and  Wendell the Werewolf . 

Read his humor column This Should Be Fun  if you want to feel better about yourself.

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Small Business Trends

67 mobile business ideas for modern on-the-go entrepreneurs.

What Are Mobile Businesses?

Here’s a word from Zay Wonder about ‘Mobile Business Ideas For 2023 That Can Make You $8k/month or More!’ He’s a regular guy but has entrepreneurial savvy, which you can see in several of his great mobile business ideas.

The Mobile Retail Business Industry Today

Why people should consider becoming mobile business owners, mobile business vs. brick-and-mortar: a comparative overview.

Our Methodology for Picking the Best Mobile Business Ideas

Assessing market demand and trends (rating: 9/10).

Our first step was evaluating the market demand for mobile services or products. We focused on ideas that cater to current consumer needs and preferences, ensuring a viable market presence.

Cost Effectiveness and Initial Investment (Rating: 8/10)

Flexibility and lifestyle compatibility (rating: 8/10), unique value proposition (rating: 7/10).

To stand out in the mobile business sector, having a unique selling point is crucial. We looked for ideas that offer something distinct from traditional brick-and-mortar businesses and other mobile competitors.

Scalability and Expansion Potential (Rating: 7/10)

Skill and passion alignment (rating: 8/10), regulatory compliance and logistics (rating: 7/10), best mobile business ideas, 1. mobile catering business.

Mobile Catering Business Caterers often find themselves at weddings, birthdays, or corporate events. To launch a mobile catering service, secure a reliable vehicle, stock up on delicious food items, and invest in quality serving equipment. Tailor your menu based on event types to stand out.

2. Mobile Salon

3. mobile pet grooming business, 4. mobile car wash, 5. mobile bike services.

Cycling enthusiasts often need tune-ups or repairs. Provide valuable, on-site bike maintenance or restoration services. By meeting cyclists in their homes, you eliminate the need for them to transport bulky bikes to a shop.

6. Food Truck Business

7. mobile cleaning services, 8. photography business, more ideas for starting a mobile business, 9. ice cream truck.

Distinct from the traditional food truck, ice cream trucks embody nostalgia and joy. They remain constantly on the move, engaging communities at every turn, bringing delightful cold treats to neighborhoods and parks, changing locations to maximize reach.

10. Clothing Boutique

11. mobile billboard, 12. mobile mechanic, 13. personal trainer.

Craft a niche as a traveling fitness mentor. Collaborate with clients in their homes, serene local parks, or even community gyms. Tailor exercise regimes to individual needs, ensuring each session feels personalized and effective.

14. IT Services

15. farmers market vendor, 16. mobile coffee shop, 17. party bus.

Transform occasions into memorable journeys. Cater to weddings, proms, or corporate retreats with a fleet of luxury buses. Equipped to hold numerous guests, these vehicles should ensure comfort, safety, and a touch of extravagance.

18. Independent Bookstore

19. thrift store, 20. home organizer, 21. junk removal.

Post-construction debris, old furniture, or accumulated clutter often overwhelm homeowners. Junk removal businesses come to the rescue, clearing up spaces, responsibly disposing of waste, or even recycling. They ensure homes and commercial spaces regain their original luster.

22. Drone Photography Business

23. tour guide, 24. errand services, 25. tutoring.

Education doesn’t always need a classroom setting. Offer personalized sessions at students’ homes, assisting with tricky subjects or providing guidance for standardized test preparations. By being mobile, tutors can tailor teaching styles to individual learning environments.

26. Handyman Services

27. event planner, 28. landscape designer, 29. home chef.

A gourmet experience doesn’t always need a restaurant. As a mobile chef, you can curate customized menus for families or intimate gatherings, cooking in clients’ kitchens. This approach ensures fresh preparation, personalized dishes, and a memorable culinary experience.

30. Wardrobe Consultant

31. event entertainer, 32. florist, 33. pet sitting.

Pet sitters offer peace of mind to traveling animal owners. By caring for pets in their familiar environments, stress is minimized. Whether it’s playful dogs or tranquil fish, pet sitters ensure all creatures receive care, attention, and love in their owners’ absence.

34. Smart Home Installations

35. business consultant, 36. in-home care, 37. travel blogging.

Chronicle wanderlust adventures through a blog, sharing insights and experiences. Monetizing can arise from ads, brand partnerships, or building a following that values genuine travel advice and stories.

38. Yoga Instructor

39. pop-up events, 40. mobile photo booth, 41. mobile phone repairs.

Phones, essential in our daily lives, often suffer mishaps. Offer on-the-spot repairs, addressing issues from shattered screens to malfunctioning buttons, ensuring customers stay connected.

42. Laundry Service

43. airport shuttle service, 44. corporate transportation service, 45. employee training service, 46. courier, 47. locksmith.

Lock predicaments are common yet stressful. Mobile locksmiths offer relief, whether it’s crafting new home keys or unlocking stranded cars, always ready for emergency calls.

48. Food Delivery

49. recycling service, 50. compost collection, 51. tool rental business, 52. pool cleaning service, 53. painting service, 54. window tinting, 55. massage therapy, 56. dog walking, 57. personal shopper, 58. party rental provider, 59. holiday decor service, 60. landscaping service.

The beauty of a well-maintained yard is undeniable. Offer comprehensive landscaping services to those passionate about their outdoor spaces. This includes meticulous lawn care, strategic weed control, and decorative mulching, ensuring gardens radiate throughout warmer months.

61. Paint and Sip Parties

62. home inspector, 64. power washing service, 65. windshield replacement service.

A cracked windshield poses both aesthetic and safety concerns. Offer customers swift, on-location windshield replacement, ensuring they’re back on the road with a clear view, without the hassle of visiting a workshop.

66. Disc Jockey

67. home services provider, which business is best for mobile, places to meet your customers.

Selecting strategic locations to engage with your customers is vital for the success of your mobile business. These locations should align with your target audience’s preferences and routines. Consider setting up at popular community events, local markets, office complexes, or near recreational areas. High foot traffic areas, such as festivals downtown districts, shopping centers, and college campuses, can also be lucrative spots to connect with potential customers. A lot of customers like to relax at home, so think about bringing services like lawn care to them.

What Are the Advantages of Mobile Businesses?

How to start a mobile business in 6 easy steps.

2. Set Your Budget Even though mobile businesses boast lower overhead costs, you’ll still need to budget for various expenses. Startup costs may include purchasing or outfitting a vehicle, registering your business, designing a website or app, and obtaining necessary licenses and permits. Ongoing expenses encompass vehicle and inventory insurance, small business insurance, staff wages, fuel, parking, and more.

6. Hire Your Team and Start Selling With your vehicle customized, permits obtained, and inventory ready, it’s time to build your team and launch your business. Whether you’re starting small or expanding rapidly, hiring motivated team members and hosting a grand opening can create a buzz and kick off your selling journey.

Summary of Steps

Ways to Build Repeat Business

Mobile Money

Explore the world of mobile money and how it revolutionizes how people access and manage their finances.

What is Mobile Money?

Mobile money is a transformative financial service enabling individuals to conduct various financial transactions conveniently through mobile phones. Originating from regions with limited traditional banking infrastructure, mobile money platforms empower users to store, transfer, and manage funds securely, fostering financial inclusion on a global scale.

The term "mobile money" encompasses a range of digital financial services accessible through mobile devices, offering solutions such as money transfers, bill payments, airtime top-ups, and even microloans. It represents a paradigm shift in how people interact with money, transcending geographical barriers and bridging the gap between the banked and unbanked populations.

Mobile Money Utilities

With mobile money, users can:

Store funds securely in a digital wallet linked to their mobile phone number.

Transfer money to family, friends, or businesses domestically and internationally with ease and affordability.

Receive payments for goods and services, including salaries and remittances, directly into their mobile wallets.

Access credit and microfinance services to meet short-term financial needs.

Pay bills, purchase goods, and top up mobile airtime credits without the need for physical cash.

Why Should Businesses Embrace Mobile Money?

Embracing mobile money as a payment method offers numerous advantages for businesses, including:

Expanding customer reach : Mobile money usage is widespread in regions with limited access to traditional banking services, opening up new markets and customer segments for businesses.

Enhancing convenience and accessibility : Mobile money enables seamless and instant transactions, catering to the growing demand for digital payment solutions in an increasingly connected world.

Strengthening financial inclusion : Businesses foster financial inclusion and economic empowerment by accepting mobile payments, particularly in underserved communities.

EBANX & Mobile Money

Incorporating mobile money into your payment strategy through EBANX can revolutionize your business operations and unlock growth opportunities in emerging markets. 

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• Best Business Cell Phone Plans

Best Business Cell Phone Plans Of 2024

Updated: Mar 17, 2024, 11:08am

Business cell phone plans are an important consideration for any team. LinkedIn reports that 57% of sales professionals saw an increase in calls to customers in 2020. Ensuring that all of your staff can pick up the phone no matter where they are can make a huge difference in your overall sales.

If you want phone calls on the go, you have several options at your disposal. For one, you could go with a business-centric plan from one of the major United States wireless carriers. Alternatively, you could use one of the leading voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP) platforms and stay connected via a mobile app. Forbes Advisor ranked the best mobile options on the market to help you figure out which is best for your brand.

• Best VoIP Service
• Best Free VoIP Phone Service
• Best VoIP Cell Phone Service
• Best Conference Calling Services
• Best Call Center Software

The Best 5 Business Cell Phone Plans of 2024

Why you can trust forbes advisor small business.

RingCentral

Verizon Wireless

Google voice, at&t wireless, forbes advisor ratings, methodology, considerations for choosing the best business cell phone plan, frequently asked questions (faqs), next up in business.

Featured Partners

$20 per user, per month (paid annually)

On RingCentral's Website

Starts at $10 per user, per month

On Zoom's Website

$18.95 per user, per month

On Nextiva's Website

• RingCentral: Best VoIP business mobile plan
• Verizon Wireless: Best traditional wireless carrier
• Google Voice: Best mobile solution for sole proprietors and freelancers
• AT&T Wireless: Best for mobile security
• T-Mobile: Best for novel features

The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

We reviewed the leading mobile phone providers in the market using a detailed system to determine the five best cell phone services for small businesses. Pricing was an essential consideration when putting together our list as were the features that each provider offered. We also took into consideration real users’ experiences with the cell phone providers to come up with our final rankings. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Best Overall Business Cell Phone Plan

Starting price

$24.99 per user, per month

Free hardware available

International coverage

RingCentral is a far cry from your traditional business cell phone plan. It does not offer a wireless network or devices for your team. Instead, this VoIP service offers a monthly (or annual) subscription to software you can use from a computer, tablet or smartphone via an app. In most cases, subscribing to RingCentral and having your team log in to the app via their accounts is a lot more affordable than going with one of the big wireless carriers. Therefore, it is our top overall pick for business cell phone plans.

Regardless of which plan you choose, all versions of RingCentral come standard with the following:

• Unlimited calls within the United States and Canada
• Unlimited business short message service (SMS)
• Team member messaging
• Voicemail to text
• Document sharing
• Toll-free numbers

Service plan costs vary depending on how many people you employ. Pricing for two to 20 users on an annual basis is as follows:

• Essentials: $24.99 per user, per month with unlimited domestic calling, SMS, document sharing and voicemail-to-text functionality
• Standard: $27.99 per user, per month with unlimited fax, video calling for up to 100 people, the ability to adopt a number in more than 100 countries and more
• Premium: $39.99 per user, per month with automatic call recording, third-party software integrations and more
• Ultimate: $54.99 per user, per month with advanced status reports, alerts and unlimited online file storage

RingCentral’s plans offer features that aren’t available through larger carriers. The fact that RingCentral offers toll-free numbers is helpful in commanding a more professional business presence, and features like video calling and faxing are nice bonuses. RingCentral also has an intuitive, modern interface that closely resembles your smartphone’s default phone and texting apps. Once it is installed, you can think of the app as a business phone that lives in your personal phone.

The only downside with RingCentral as a business cell phone plan is it requires a fair amount of trust. On one end, you will need to consider whether or not you can count on your team members to keep company information secure if the app is installed on their personal devices. Additionally, your staff may not feel comfortable with having their work phone installed onto their smartphones.

While the lines between work and home continue to blur, thanks in large part to apps like Slack and Zoom, you might want to evaluate your company culture before moving forward. It’s also worth noting that all of RingCentral’s features can be used on a PC or Mac.

Learn more: Read our full RingCentral review .

Who should use it:

RingCentral’s pricing and features make it a good fit for businesses of every size.

• Free 15-day trial
• Very affordable monthly plans
• Able to customize service by business size and industry
• Available across multiple devices
• Possible to video conference with up to 200 people
• Must upgrade for 24/7 customer support and, even then, it apparently leaves a lot to be desired
• Plans get inexplicably more expensive for sole proprietors
• Can only rent phones with multi-year contracts

Best for Traditional Plans and VoIP Features

Plans as low as $30 per month, per line

Verizon is one of the largest carriers in operation, with coverage and services spanning from coast to coast and beyond. The company makes our list as it provides solid cell phone plans for small and large businesses alike. You can choose from one of several subscription options according to what works best for your company.

Flexible Business Wireless Plans

The Flexible Business Wireless Plan offers unlimited domestic talk and text, unlimited international messaging and a mobile hot spot. It also comes with a shareable data pool for your phones, tablets and other devices. You can even gain access to corporate email services.

What makes this plan “flexible” is that you get to choose the amount of data you want to add to your smartphone, tablet or both. The pricing plans vary according to the amount of data you need for your device. Use a handy calculator to determine how much smartphone or tablet data you’ll need to get an idea of your expected monthly price.

Business Unlimited Plans

These Verizon business phone subscriptions provide companies with unlimited talk, text and data through three tier levels: Start. 2.0, Plus 2.0 and Pro 2.0:

• Business Unlimited Start 5G: As low as $30 per month when you add five or more lines. Includes unlimited talk, text and data; 5G nationwide/4G LTE and call filter
• Business Unlimited Plus 5G: As low as $40 per month with five or more lines; it includes everything in Start plus 5G Ultra Wideband, 100 GB Premium network access and an unlimited mobile hotspot. The tier also offers Business Mobile Secure, which protects your smartphones against potential security threats.
• Business Unlimited Pro 5G: As low as $45 per month when you buy five or more lines; offers unlimited Premium Network Access and a 50% discount on Business Unlimited Pro tablet plans

The monthly plan price fluctuates according to the number of smartphone lines you buy. Although Verizon offers generous price discounts with each tier, smaller businesses might find the pricing plans a bit expensive, even excessive if they don’t need five or more lines.

Verizon lets you bring your own device (BYOD) to the service and even offers discount deals for doing so. However, not every device is compatible, and the brand recommends confirming compatibility before making the switch. Verizon often offers free phones or generous credit, between $200 and $1,000, toward purchasing a new phone.

Like many service providers, Verizon tends to automate customer support to the point where some customers struggle to speak with an actual human. Because it can be hard to talk to anyone, customers often find Verizon’s customer service somewhat lacking. To make up for this, Verizon offers a feature in which an agent will call you when one is available if you don’t feel like waiting on hold.

Verizon represents a more traditional phone plan structure, one with its service easily accessible across the country and via different locations worldwide. As such, even pricing and customer service issues are but minor deterrents. You’re still getting a big carrier plan with coverage in most of the United States and a wide range of service plans and devices to suit your needs.

Verizon works well for small to large businesses with a healthy budget.

Learn more:

Read our full Verizon Wireless review .

• Nationwide coverage
• Offers mobile VPN with certain plans
• Data, calls and texting available to use while in Canada and Mexico
• Ability to mix and match plans
• Could be overkill for smaller organizations
• Plans can get expensive

Best for Sole Proprietors and Freelancers

Plans starting at $10 per month, per user

Google Voice is an ideal choice for those who need an extra business phone number but might not be able to afford a complex and pricey service plan. Google Voice is a popular virtual phone service that offers call forwarding, voice and text messaging and voicemail options. Best of all, there is a version of the system that is entirely free to use as long as you have a Google Account.

Google Voice is popular for offering an impressive set of functionality in its free tier. As long as you have a personal Google Account, you can adopt a local number with nearly any area code in the United States. You can make unlimited domestic calls and texts across the U.S. and Canada from your phone or computer.

Because Google Voice is a free service, it can be especially useful to a small, cash-strapped business that wants to be able to make and receive calls without committing to pricier service plans offered by AT&T or T-Mobile. Though an existing number is required, once you link it to Google Voice, you’re able to communicate using virtually any device. If your business needs more than what the freeware offers, you can sign up for one of Google Voice’s subscription plans:

• Business Starter: $10 per user, per month; recommended for entrepreneurs or small businesses with 10 people or less
• Business Standard: $20 per user, per month; works for businesses of any size
• Business Premier: $30 per user, per month; aimed at larger, international companies

Once you upgrade, you can enjoy features such as unlimited domestic calling and text, voicemail transcripts, a “do not disturb” feature linked to your Google Calendar working hours, use and activity reports and 24-hour technical support. Upgrade to Standard or Premier for additional perks, including desk-phone compatibility, auto attendants and eDiscovery for calls, text messages and voicemail.

Overall, Google Voice offers businesses several benefits at either no cost or through very affordable service plans. Even if there are downsides, with the amount of free features, Google Voice is a beneficial service.

Learn more: Read our full Google Voice review .

Google Voice works best for organizations, small and large, that want a business cell phone plan that streamlines their contacts across multiple devices.

• Free version available
• 14-day trial for paid features
• Highly scalable, with service options for businesses of every size and budget
• Get a local number
• Unlimited calling and SMS
• Need an existing phone number to forward calls
• Must have internet/Wi-Fi connection to use

Best for Mobile Security

$30 per line, per month

We chose AT&T Wireless as it offers flexible cell phone plan options with plenty of added perks. With AT&T, your company has access to nationwide coverage and a range of plans that come standard with unlimited talk, text and data.

In addition to domestic coverage, AT&T provides unlimited talk and text from the United States to Canada or Mexico with no roaming fees. Some plan options even extend service options from the U.S. to up to 120 countries. It is crucial to note that some features are only available through devices compatible with AT&T’s service.

You can choose between one of several business-related subscription plans, priced per month and per smartphone line. AT&T’s best per-line pricing options come with six or more lines.

Unlimited Your Way

AT&T provides unlimited business service plans that let you choose only what you need for team members. There are three tiers available; you can purchase between one and 10 lines with these plans (per the Unlimited Your Way plan group), with per-month pricing fluctuating according to your decision.

• Business Unlimited Starter: Begins at $30 per month, per line with five or more lines and includes unlimited domestic talk, text and data, and unlimited talk and text to Canada and Mexico; offers access to AT&T’s 5G and 5G+ services on compatible devices where available and standard streaming and mobile security
• Business Unlimited Performance: Begins at $35 per month, paid per line with five or more lines. It includes everything in Starter, plus advanced mobile security and high-definition streams; each line has access to 30 GB of hotspot data.
• Business Unlimited Elite: Begins at $45 per month and per line for five or more lines; this plan adds AT&T Business Fast Track, which gives higher priority to your data usage, letting things run smoothly during times of high congestion; the plan gives you 100 GB of hotspot data

AT&T Mobile Select (Pooled)

Perhaps one device needs 5 GB per month while another only needs 2 GB. Pooling data means that each team member only uses a specific amount and your business only pays for exactly what it needs. In addition to pooled data, this plan provides unlimited talk and text. Customers will also get access to Stream Saver, which conserves data when users stream content.

Depending on your device or location, AT&T also offers its Call Protect Basic service. Plans start at $35 per month for 1 GB and increase according to your intended data pool.

AT&T Business 4GB

This plan option gives your business access to 4 GB of data per line, plus unlimited talk and text. Pricing isn’t as straightforward as it could be. The most affordable plan costs $50 per month, per line, when you buy at least three lines; the service option maxing out at 10 lines. Please note that this price is only guaranteed when you agree to sign up for autopay. This knocks $25 off the price per smartphone line with a service commitment.

AT&T’s Security Features

AT&T offers protection against increasingly common annoyances such as spam and fraud calls, including the ability to block suspicious phone numbers outright. For an additional service charge, AT&T provides its Secure Wi-Fi VPN service through AT&T Mobile Security Plus. The most basic version of this is available free with every plan and includes device security and breach reports. The add-on costs $3.99 per month and comes with a serious upgrade on secure mobile features:

• Secure Wi-Fi VPN
• Personal ID monitor
• Safe browsing
• Wi-Fi alerts
• Theft alerts (Android devices only)

If you’re looking for free hardware, AT&T Wireless does offer discounts and deals from time to time, including free phones or generous discounts towards the purchase of a qualifying phone.

AT&T’s business cell phone plans are impressive. Unfortunately, when things get congested, your service quality can drop substantially thanks to data caps and slowed coverage. AT&T often forces customers to upgrade to higher tiers to avoid slowdowns. The company’s plans can also get very expensive when you account for optional add-ons and devices.

AT&T Wireless is one of the larger service carriers, and so it can guarantee coverage and high-quality service to almost all of its customers. That said, its service fees could prove to be too expensive for smaller businesses with very tight budgets.

AT&T is best for mid to large-size companies with specific data needs and a desire for greater security when communicating or transferring information.

• Provides highly customizable business cell phone plans
• No roaming fees for Canada and Mexico
• Offers stellar mobile security add-ons
• No overage charges
• Data speeds drop when service gets very busy
• Add-ons and premium tiers can make the service pricey

Best for Novel and Unique Features

$25 per line, per month

T-Mobile is the third of the three biggest U.S. wireless carriers, after merging with Sprint in 2020. While it has all the standard functionality of the other business cell service providers, what makes it stand apart are its unique and novel bonuses that come with select plans. For instance, some plans come with Microsoft 365 and unlimited in-flight Wi-Fi.

T-Mobile offers limited and unlimited talk and text service in Canada and Mexico and standard 5G in its business packages. Additionally, all levels of T-Mobile’s business cell phone service come with its scam shield module, which identifies and warns you about known scam callers on your caller ID.

You get to choose from one of four service plans available for businesses, each priced per month and per line:

• Business Unlimited Select: Available for as low as $25 per month, per line when you purchase at least six lines; comes with 50 GB of premium data and 5 GB of hotspot data, limited talk and text to Mexico and Canada and unlimited standard definition streaming
• Business Unlimited Advanced: Available for as low as $30 per month, per line when you purchase at least six lines; includes one hour of free in-flight Wi-Fi,100 GB of premium data and a 40 GB hotspot plus unlimited talk, text and data in Canada and Mexico, as well as 5 GB of high-speed data at no extra cost; provides unlimited high definition streaming; includes two basic Microsoft 365 Business licenses
• Business Unlimited Ultimate: Available for as low as $40 per month, per line when you purchase at least six lines; unlimited access to premium data and 100 GB for your hotspot as well as unlimited in-flight Wi-Fi; get unlimited video streaming with quality up to 4K UHD
• Business Unlimited Ultimate+ for iPhone: Available for as low as $50 per month, per line when you purchase at least six lines; unlimited access to premium data and 200 GB for your hotspot as well as unlimited in-flight Wi-Fi; get unlimited video streaming with quality up to 4K UHD and Apple Business Essentials and AppleCare+

As mentioned, T-Mobile’s smartphone pricing will change depending on how many lines you choose to buy. You will be charged $60 per month for the most basic option if you only buy a single line. For this reason, smaller companies with tight budget constraints might find T-Mobile’s pricing to be too expensive, especially if they only need a few lines.

But for more mobile businesses that have employees constantly on the go, there are some really great perks. Offering access to unlimited in-flight Wi-Fi and unlimited talk, text and data to employees in Mexico and Canada could become a great selling point for your own brand.

Like most major carriers, there are a lot of customers competing for data priority. While T-Mobile offers access to this “premium data,” you have to pay a lot more out of pocket to ensure that your service doesn’t stagnate when things get particularly busy.

T-Mobile typically has multiple deals concerning phones, including free devices or credit up to a few hundred dollars towards buying a new smartphone. Like many such deals with carriers, they come with specific contract requirements, so it’s best to ask about the details before signing up.

T-Mobile seems best for businesses with team members who are constantly on the go and can therefore better appreciate perks related to international travel and flights.

• Reliable 5G network
• Service plans offer unlimited talk, text and data in Canada and Mexico
• Optional perks such as in-flight Wi-Fi and Microsoft 365
• Plans are expensive for six or fewer lines
• Bonus features only available in advanced plans

When putting this ranking together, we considered several vital components. Forbes Advisor researched the industry and analyzed multiple companies and plans. Then, we scored these providers across four categories of features using 13 different metrics that were weighted to favor features that small business owners find valuable in a cell phone service provider. The following are some of the metrics that we used to rank the providers that made our list.

Our main concern when it came to pricing was if the service is affordable, especially for small businesses, especially for the entry-level plan. Then, we looked at the costs and variety of plans available from each provider and what kind of value that each upgrade brought to users. Pricing accounted for 30% of our weighted scoring.

Key Features

We broke features into two distinct categories: general features and additional features. For general features, we looked at the offerings from each cell phone service provider that we considered to be common ones that every customer needs. Some of these general features include unlimited domestic calling and texting, international calling, conference calling and if any necessary hardware came free with the service. We weighted features at 45% of our total score.

Additional Features

For additional features, this included aspects of cell phone service that some users would consider to be nice to have, such as an automated attendant, mobile hot spot access and mobile security. For both kinds of features, we gave more weight to those that came with the service automatically as opposed to those that were add-ons that users had to pay additionally for. We weighted features at 15% of our total score.

Expert Analysis

Finally, based on our market research and the categories listed above, our experts also ranked additional criteria from customer reviews using metrics that included ease of use, popularity, value for the money and any stand-out features, such as offering international texting plans, mobile VPNs, free in-flight Wi-Fi, video calling and access to free local phone numbers. Altogether, these criteria make up 10% of the total score.

When selecting the best business cell phone plan for your company, there are a few factors to keep in mind. At the moment, for example, there are only three mainstream nationwide carriers. These larger carriers have pricing plans that might be too expensive for smaller businesses. Google Voice and RingCentral could work as much more affordable alternatives. We listed a few specific considerations in the sections below.

Smartphone Lines and Pricing

It’s a good idea to consider the number of lines your business needs, not to mention monthly or annual costs. Service providers will often offer a lower per-line price, but you’ll have to buy several lines to get the discount. It might be more affordable in the end to buy one or two lines rather than buy extra lines your company doesn’t need or can’t afford.

Free Phones and Purchase Credits

While the top carriers often allow you to BYOD, it might be possible to get at least one new phone for your business. If not a free phone, it’s common to provide you with substantial credit worth up to $1,000 towards the purchase of a brand-new smartphone.

A common caveat is this generosity gets tied to a long-term contract commitment. Do the month-to-month, and even year-to-year, math and decide what you’re willing to agree to in exchange for free or heavily discounted hardware. If all else fails, check to see if you can bring your existing devices with you to the new service provider. Some providers will let you do this at little to no extra charge.

International Perks or Availability

Many business cell phone plans focus on domestic features. Yet, if your brand is global, you’ll likely want to work with a company that offers talk, text and data options beyond American borders. Will data caps or a lack of in-flight Wi-Fi inhibit your ability to share information or communicate adequately? If you need worldwide service and support, it might be better to go with a much larger and more reliable carrier.

How ‘Unlimited’ Is Unlimited?

When a phone service says that an offer is unlimited, it is rare that an asterisk does not accompany the promise. Not all unlimited pricing plans are the same. Often, when things get congested, you may find that your service quality drops significantly. So, you learn that while your service option may be technically unlimited, there’s no such promise about the quality.

Some providers offer tiers that guarantee high-quality service no matter what. It’s best to read between the lines of the fine print to see what type of unlimited service you are getting offered.

Who has the best business cell phone plan for small businesses?

We selected RingCentral as our top choice due to its affordable payment plan structure when compared to other telephone companies.

What cell phone companies are offering free phones?

AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile are among the most popular brands known to offer a free phone when switching to their service. Brands often have such deals periodically, so it is good to stay updated about potential offers.

What is the average cost of small business cell phone plans?

Your final cost will depend entirely on the service package and the number of lines you have on your plan. With that in mind, smaller businesses can expect to pay anywhere from $29 and $69 per smartphone line, per month. That does not include any additional hardware costs. Be sure to research and compare brands to find the price that works best for your business.

Who has the best unlimited talk, text and data plans?

We recommend RingCentral, Verizon and AT&T Wireless. Verizon and AT&T offer more comprehensive unlimited plans. Meanwhile, RingCentral’s options are generally more affordable.

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For nearly a decade, Toni Matthews-El has published business topics ranging from cloud communication software to best steps for establishing your own LLC. In addition to Forbes Advisor, she's published articles for Medical News Today, US News and World Report.

Cassie is a deputy editor collaborating with teams around the world while living in the beautiful hills of Kentucky. Focusing on bringing growth to small businesses, she is passionate about economic development and has held positions on the boards of directors of two non-profit organizations seeking to revitalize her former railroad town. Prior to joining the team at Forbes Advisor, Cassie was a content operations manager and copywriting manager.

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The 5 Best Business Cell Phone Plans of 2023

Data as of 12/7/22. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change. *AutoPay Discount included: -$5/mo. per line. Plus taxes & fees.

We are committed to sharing unbiased reviews. Some of the links on our site are from our partners who compensate us. Read our editorial guidelines and advertising disclosure .

Business.org’s 5 best business cell phone plans

AT&T: Best full-featured plans

Looking for a broad choice of bells and whistles? As a telecom behemoth, AT&T has plenty of cell phone features and packages to offer a business—around 20 plan variations, small to large. All plans include free US roaming, unlimited talk, and text messages, as well as unlimited texting outside of the country. Basic features like call forwarding, voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, and conference calling also come standard with all AT&T business cell phone plans, along with bring-your-own-phone support.

AT&T's business cell phone plans

Data as of 12/7/22. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

Business Unlimited plan prices start at $35 a month per line, and there is a new perk where unlimited data is included in the unlimited talk and text plan. This means there is no need to worry about overages or data caps. 

 AT&T business plans can also accommodate up to 10 lines per account, and they come fully loaded with perks—like Stream Saver. This feature optimizes streaming video on your phone to 480p so you can watch webinars on-the-go without dealing with a blurry picture.

Each plan also includes a decent array of iOS and Android smartphone options and even a few good ol’ flip phones. A 15% military veteran discount can be applied to the Business Unlimited plans, as well as AT&T-owned DIRECTV services (because, again, telecom behemoth).

Users are eligible for a discount if they elect for autopay and paperless billing but this discount is only applied until after two pay periods. We don't know why the discount cannot be applied earlier in the billing process but we do find it frustrating. 

T-Mobile: Best flexible plans

Not sure exactly what you’ll need in a mobile plan besides future adaptability? T-Mobile, the third-largest wireless service in the US, offers four Magenta® for Business plans, all packed with unique features that set T-Mobile apart from the rest. The German-owned company has also earned a reputation for stellar customer service and was the first to eliminate annual contracts (an idea that stuck—none of the plans reviewed on this page require contracts). In April 2018, the company announced its intention to merge with Sprint under the T-Mobile banner.

T-Mobile's business cell phone plans

Data as of 12/7/22. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change. *While using AutoPay.

All of T-Mobile’s Business cell phone plans offer the same basic features:

Unlimited talk and text

Unlimited 5G and 4G LTE data on our network

• Unlimited mobile hotspot
• Scam Shield

Unlimited calling and texting to Mexico & Canada

Unlimited video streaming

In addition, all T-Mobile Business plans include DIGITS, which allows you to access up to five phone numbers on a single device. That means you could answer calls to your work number and your personal number on one device—no more packing two phones in your bag every day. DIGITS also lets you share your phone number across multiple devices, so you can answer on your phone, smartwatch, tablet, or computer.

T-Mobile users with a Business plan can also add the PlusUp add-on and get extra features, like Voicemail to Text, HD streaming, 20 GB of 4G LTE mobile hotspot data, unlimited in-flight Wi-Fi, caller ID, and double the data speed when roaming internationally.

Keep in mind, though, that T-Mobile’s Business plans are available only on plans with two to 13 lines. If you need more than 13 lines, you’ll need to sign up for the 13+ Plan ($285 per month for 13 lines, plus $25 per month for each additional line).

T-Mobile plans also allow bring-your-own-device convenience, or you can buy phones up front with a single payment (there are nearly 40 iOS and Android phones to choose from).

Now that T-Mobile and Sprint have been merged for almost six months, some significant changes have taken effect. T-Mobile’s website is now the only place businesses can sign up for Sprint or T-Mobile business phone accounts.

Sprint still has an active business website for previous users but all new plans will be sold by T-Mobile on its website.

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Verizon: Best growing business plans

Serving over 150 million customers, Verizon isn’t just big, it’s BIG. Such a mobile mammoth might not seem like the obvious choice for a small business, but for what it lacks in a personalized customer service reputation, Verizon more than makes up for by offering every cell phone feature there is, as well as dominant US, and near-dominant global, coverage. Like McDonald’s and Marvel movies, Verizon is everywhere.

Verizon's business cell phone plans

Data as of 12/7/22. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change. *With 4+ lines

While business owners can get business cell phone plans with limited data, we recommend choosing an unlimited plan if you have multiple employees (or do a lot of work via cell phone).

Verizon’s Business Unlimited cell phone plans are scalable from four employees up to and over 40. And with plans starting at just $40 per line, Verizon Business Unlimited plans are an attractive option whether you’re running a tiny company with no expansion plans, a medium-sized business with an eye toward growth, or a large enterprise with heavy cell phone requirements.

Verizon Beyond Unlimited plans also include unlimited mobile hotspot use, though your speeds are limited depending on your plan. Plus, you get unlimited calling and texting to Mexico and Canada—not to mention unlimited calling, texting, and data while in those countries. And naturally, you also get unlimited talk and text as part of your Beyond Unlimited package.

Verizon doesn’t skimp on device choices either. There are nearly 100 iOS and Android phones and tablets available—including the Verizon Jetpack, a mobile hotspot device that can connect 10 devices to its 4G LTE network and an additional five to 3G.

If your company requires truly “unlimited” cell phone service and scalability to grow and is in the position to pay for functionality with frills, Verizon Business Unlimited is the way to go. Bare-bones operations, however, might want to look elsewhere.

Each of our recommendations has its strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes the most difficult part about finding a phone system is determining exactly what you need and don't need. The best place to start is separating your needs between installing a new system, replacing a system or expanding system.

If you are having trouble sorting out exactly what your phone needs are, use this tool to help you understand what the best options are for your unique needs. 

MintMobile: Most affordable plans

We are sure you’ve seen the commercials with Ryan Reynolds talking about this new phone carrier business with a fox logo called Mint Mobile. In fact, a lot of Mint customers were drawn to Mint because of Ryan Reynolds Hollywood looks, but that’s not the only thing Mint has to offer. 

Mint is inexpensive and transparent, compared to other cell phone carriers with hidden fees and seemingly random regulations.

MintMobile's business cell phone plans

Data as of 12/7 /22 . Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.

T hese are the prices for new customers and will last up to three months. After the third month, you are eligible to sign up for a 6- or 12-month contract on one of the tiered plans, all less than $35/mo/user, which is astronomically less than other providers. 

MintMobile is no fuss, and you really do feel like you must be tricking the rest of the world with its pricing. The only issue is that MintMobile is fairly new, launched in 2015, coverage is not completely everywhere. There are still a couple of coverage gaps in the West, namely Utah, Nebraska, Idaho and Nevada. If you are east of the Rocky Mountains, you are good to go!

Teltik: Best perks plans

If you’re a strapped startup, New Jersey’s Teltik can get you up and running on the cheap. Teltik is a reseller service operating on T-Mobile’s 4G LTE network, meaning it can offer the reliability and reach of a giant provider at smaller-company prices. Teltik also has the advantage of being completely US-based, with 24/7 local customer service that’s not outsourced overseas.

Teltik's business cell phone plans

3 more (non-business) cell phone plans reviewed by Business.org

Teltik appears to have a dozen plans, but they’re mostly just variations of the essential plan that offers all the expected basics. Not coincidentally, the features mirror those of T-Mobile, as they’re on the same network.

The most basic plan starts at $20 a month and includes unlimited calling and texting, mobile hotspot service, and unlimited data—with a 2 GB cap on 4G LTE speeds (meaning your speed gets throttled to 128 Kbps if you use more than 2 GB of data in a month). From there, you can upgrade your plan to include more 4G LTE data and more mobile hotspot data. Upgraded plans cost anywhere from $30 to $40 per month, and they all include one cloud-phone VoIP line—perfect for small businesses looking to save on all their telecommunications needs.

One distinctly entertaining feature (pun intended) of Teltik’s business plans? You get unlimited media streaming from over 40 music services (including Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music) and more than 100 video services (including YouTube, Netflix, and any other channel you can think of). That means you can stream as much TV as you want without it eating into your data. It’s almost as if Teltik doesn’t want you to get any work done.

Another thing you need to know: Teltik doesn’t sell phones. Instead, the company operates on a strict bring-your-own-device basis. Any unlocked phone will work with its network, as will any T-Mobile device, of course. However, you will have to spend $10 plus shipping and handling to buy a new SIM card for each of your devices (unless they’ve already got brand-new, unused T-Mobile SIM cards).

The takeaway

Assess your company’s current cell phone usage, and projected future needs, before diving into any plan. What looks like a great deal could turn out to be more than you actually need—or you may have initially underestimated your business’s cell phone requirements. Also, if your company has both cell phone and regular office phone needs, check into bundling. The larger telecom providers offer both types of phone coverage, and bundling services is an easy way to save money in the long run.

Don’t want to carry around separate phones for work and personal calls? With the right VoIP service, you don’t have to. Check out our favorite business VoIP providers to see which ones offer on-the-go business phone capabilities.

Business cell phone plan FAQs

If you have several employees working outside of the office on a regular basis, desk-bound phones obviously aren’t going to work for them. Some may be only calling and texting while others will be checking email, using GPS navigation, and accessing the internet for work, but a cell phone is a must for employees in the field.

If you’re a one-person operation accountable to only yourself, you could get by with a personal cell plan. Keeping track of multiple employees’ hours, data, and providers, however, would be an extra headache you don’t need. For streamlining and collaboration purposes, a business cell phone plan would be the easier route.

Most of the plans we’ve reviewed here offer unlimited data—domestically, at least—so hitting the data ceiling won’t likely be an issue. But if you want to forecast how much data your business uses every month, providers make data plan estimators available on their websites. Or you could use a third-party calculator app.

BYOD stands for bring your own device . Another common term is BYOP for bring your own phone . These can mean that employees are using their personal phones, tablets, or laptops on their own carrier plans for work or that they’ve put those devices on the company’s plan. The upside? Less expensive than buying devices. The downside? Extra security concerns.

In the annoying absence of Wi-Fi, you can use a cell phone signal to connect a wireless device to the internet by switching on the mobile hotspot option and simply treating it like a Wi-Fi router. For multiple device connections, a dedicated hotspot (such as Verizon’s Jetpack) can provide a faster, and more stable, connection.

Business owners weigh in

Methodology

To find the best business cell phone options, we considered pricing plans, customer support, and data limits. We also looked at the variety of contracts and whether these plans were flexible with discounts. 

At Business.org, our research is meant to offer general product and service recommendations. We don't guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each individual or business, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services.

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Disclaimer: The information featured in this article is based on our best estimates of pricing, package details, contract stipulations, and service available at the time of writing. All information is subject to change. Pricing will vary based on various factors, including, but not limited to, the customer’s location, package chosen, added features and equipment, the purchaser’s credit score, etc. For the most accurate information, please ask your customer service representative. Clarify all fees and contract details before signing a contract or finalizing your purchase.

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Mobile money in emerging markets: The business case for financial inclusion

Mobile money systems offer a dual promise, as an engine for financial inclusion and as an emerging market business opportunity for providers. Most people and small businesses in emerging economies today do not fully participate in the formal financial system. Two billion individuals and 200 million small businesses in emerging economies today lack access to formal savings and credit. They transact exclusively in cash, have no safe way to save and invest their money, and must rely on informal lenders and personal networks for credit. Even those with access can pay dearly for a limited range of products. Success in financial inclusion entails reaching these individuals and small businesses with products that go beyond payments and that can significantly improve their financial lives.

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For providers of digital financial services, mobile money can be a gateway into huge and largely untouched markets . Digital finance has the potential to reach over 1.6 billion new retail customers in emerging economies and to increase the volume of loans extended to individuals and businesses by $2.1 trillion. The providers of these products stand to gain by having access to potential new revenue streams, and to increase their balance sheets by as much as $4.2 trillion, in aggregate. By building digital finance capabilities, companies will gain the opportunity to develop new business models ranging across new forms of more data-based financial services, micropayments, and entirely new digital businesses. Existing financial services providers also stand to reduce the direct costs of their current businesses by $400 billion annually. 1 1. All figures in the paragraph are from Digital finance for all: Powering inclusive growth in emerging economies , McKinsey Global Institute, September 2016.

The scale of the opportunity is clearly understood; however, firms seeking to tap the mobile money opportunity are faced with a landscape of unknowns. How will the mobile money value chain work in practice? What do we know about consumer behavior? Mobile money’s underpinning structure, with its combination of financial and telecom industry firms, and a heterogeneous regulatory landscape, is complex and unique. And there are few examples of firms that have achieved scale.

To answer some of these questions, and understand how digital payments providers can capture the opportunities while benefiting those without access to financial services, we have examined the actual financial data of a sample of mobile money providers, all on a blinded basis. This work is the first to our knowledge that attempts to look systematically at the economics of mobile money in this way. We relied on proprietary data from six institutions for detailed benchmarking analysis, and also drew on publicly available data. The benchmarking analysis focused most heavily in East Africa but also included representative companies from both West Africa and Southeast Asia. It included banks, mobile network operators (MNOs), as well as other third-party providers of mobile money services. Some of the providers we studied were subscale, capturing under 25 percent of their markets and only a small amount of transaction volume; others were operating at scale as the dominant players in their markets. The companies we examined also ranged in degree of maturity, from under five years in operation to over ten years.

Our analysis of mobile money economics, case studies, and observation of industry trends indicate that while the opportunity for providers is both significant and attainable, some providers will need to shift their mind-sets to succeed. They will need to invest for the long term and be prepared to work in new ways, including through partnerships with other types of firms. Providers will not be able to unlock the mobile money opportunity through incremental action or by doing more of what they have always done. Regulation can serve as either help or hindrance. Because success is in everyone’s best interest, providers and regulators should consider constructive collaboration.

Scale enables profitability but requires significant up-front spend

Payments systems realize significant benefits of scale when fixed costs become small on a relative basis and when network effects kick in—both for individual providers and at the market level. We estimate that above scale, mobile money can be a 35 percent-margin business; but small providers may need to spend over two times what they earn just to maintain their size. Providers will break even once they see sufficient value flowing through their systems. For the providers we observed, the break-even point occurred at $2 billion to $3 billion in annual transaction value and corresponded to total system revenue of roughly $20 million to $30 million (Exhibit 1).

Since mobile money requires fixed investment, unit costs decrease as more value flows through the system. The most significant fixed-cost component is the IT backbone required for transactions processing, which can include software licensing fees. Overall, our benchmarking indicates that IT represents roughly $1.5 million in annual cost—significant for a smaller provider but relatively minimal once a system has more than several hundred million dollars of annual flow, generating well in excess of $1 million in annual revenues. 2 2. In our benchmarking, average transaction fees were roughly [1 percent] of value, though fees charged by mobile money providers for individual transactions typically are defined by bands of transaction value rather than as a straight percentage of the amount transacted. Personnel and real-estate costs also contribute to the fixed-cost base of companies exclusively devoted to mobile money. On the other hand, providers who support many lines of business—like MNOs and banks—leverage existing staff and buildings as they grow their mobile money offering, effectively marginalizing these spend components.

As providers grow, they also can reap network effects that lower their marginal costs, particularly in sales and marketing, agent acquisition and management, and cash distribution. Once the system is established, at least some new customers will join based on word of mouth or to transact with others already on the system. Similarly, agents may sign up because they directly observe the business opportunity and how it works. Active cash distribution requirements can also become less intense as individual agents are more likely to collect and disperse cash in equal measure on any given day. For example, our analysis indicates that subscale providers spend roughly 40 percent more on above-the-line marketing compared with at-scale providers and that overall smaller providers can spend up to two times more per customer.

To gain the benefits of scale, however, providers must invest heavily and with long time horizons. This holds true across the world for Internet players in network businesses—firms such as Alibaba and Google have invested significantly in long-term growth and market capture, even when this means immediate losses. Since a rosy end-state business model means little without the ability and appetite to foot the initial bill, successful providers will draw on their own reserves, find long-term investors, or look to partner. International plays may be required. For example, MNOs may look to group-level mobile money strategies and resource sharing for their country-level businesses to succeed. Individual providers or partnerships that already have the capabilities needed to grow will have an easier time attracting investment than those that need to build competencies.

Regulation can accelerate or hinder ability to scale

Regulatory decisions can impact mobile money provider profitability and ability to scale. Regulation has potential to influence the ability to grow and maintain a customer base, build and sustain a high-quality agent network, develop critical capabilities and infrastructure, and offer products beyond basic payments (Exhibit 2). Since large-scale digital finance both promotes financial inclusion and boosts GDP, financial regulators should consider the impact of regulation on mobile money provider economics as part of the balance among multiple factors including financial system stability, customer interests, broader policy aims, and macroeconomic considerations.

A few examples demonstrate how regulation can impact the economics of mobile money providers. First, tariff caps intended to make services affordable to poorer users can hinder profitability and make growing the customer base more difficult. Caps on fees reduce how much a provider earns from an individual transaction or cash withdrawal and, in some cases, can make the difference between a profitable business and a money-losing one. For the business models we studied, for instance, capping cash-out tariffs at $0.25 each would shift overall provider margins from 35 percent to roughly –5 percent. Even when tariff caps do not make a type of transaction unprofitable, they increase the transaction value required through the system for a provider to be profitable overall. They may also make some customer segments unappealing for providers to serve, if the expense to reach them outweighs the benefit from gaining more users.

As another example, restrictions on who can serve as an agent can hinder providers from growing widespread cash-in-cash-out (CICO) networks. For instance, when providers can only sign up agents who are already registered legal entities they cannot work with airtime distributors or small informal shops. Motivating factors behind this sort of restriction can include controlling illicit financial activity and easing the burden on limited staffs of supervisors by having fewer types of agents providing financial services. However, such restrictions can block providers from signing up those agents that might make most business sense—for example, airtime distributors for MNOs—or are most likely to be located where currently underserved people live.

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Finally, required firewalling of mobile money and other business IT systems can discourage growth and add cost, thereby reducing profitability. Several countries require such a firewall to protect mobile money customers against control failures outside of the mobile money business—in the voice and data business of an MNO, for example—where financial services regulators typically do not have oversight. Controls might fail to protect against risk events including cyberbreaches, external identity theft, or illicit activity on the part of employees. However, such IT requirements can be costly to implement overall and contribute to fixed costs that are hard for small providers to shoulder.

Opportunities for providers will increase as mobile money business models evolve

The acta framework.

The four-part ACTA framework is a simple way to understand payments system activities and the underlying market dynamics and economics.

The first A stands for accounts, and the associated activities cover the primary relationship that a customer has with a provider, including opening new accounts and maintaining existing ones. Accounts provide a secure, accessible store of value. Mobile money accounts are an example, as are standard current accounts (also known as checking accounts).

The C stands for cash-in-cash-out (CICO). To use the payments system, customers must be able to deposit and withdraw cash into and from their payments accounts. For mobile money, most CICO activities occur at individual agents. This is the activity in which mobile money most differs from traditional banking, for which CICO occurs at more costly ATM and branch channels.

The T signifies transactions, or direct transfers of funds between accounts, including those initiated by mobile phone as well as over-the-counter transfers initiated at individual agents.

The final A stands for adjacencies, which are activities, both financial and nonfinancial, that generate nonpayments revenue for payments system providers. Financial adjacencies include interest earned on balances held, and the spread between the interest that the institution pays on savings accounts versus what it charges for loans. Nonfinancial adjacencies include strategies to help companies acquire new customers, reduce customer attrition, cross-sell services, improve collections, or power other businesses with consumer insights. These revenue streams are vital for overall payments systems economics.

Mobile money providers make money by charging customers for some combination of four types of activities: those associated with opening and maintaining the account, CICO services, transactions between two accounts, and adjacent activities tied to the mobile money wallet or services (see sidebar, “The ACTA framework”). A provider is profitable as long as total revenues from the underlying activities exceed total associated costs. Looking ahead, even more significant opportunities await; increases in digital transactions will boost the bottom line and new business models will give payments providers access to entirely new revenue streams.

In today’s mobile money business models, CICO drives provider economics (Exhibit 3). For at-scale providers, it represents roughly 60 percent of profits and accounts for the largest share of both revenues (70 percent) and costs (80 percent). Since margins on CICO are relatively slim, at 20 to 30 percent, even small cost reductions can impact overall economics and cost increases can make players unprofitable. While innovation on CICO cost structure could be game-changing, caution is critical; since agents play a central role in acquiring and maintaining customers, changes in CICO structure could require meaningful increases to customer acquisition costs.

Account-related activities are the second-largest contributor to mobile money system costs, at roughly 15 percent of the total outlay (or 10 percent of total revenues). These costs are associated with opening and maintaining accounts and stem primarily from marketing. They are a small contributor in models where MNOs run the agent network, totaling between $2 to $5 annually per customer. MNO marketing spend, which would occur anyway, can indirectly contribute to customer acquisition but is not counted in economic models. Regardless of model, marketing costs may need to be higher than this average for acquiring down-market customers who are more difficult to reach and who may be less prone to switching behavior quickly.

Transactions are currently the second-largest contributor to mobile money revenue but hold significantly greater promise. Today, transactions represent roughly 20 percent of total revenues. Appealingly, margins on transactions can exceed 75 percent thanks to fees that are large compared with the low costs to the provider, due to automated systems and digital user interfaces. As a result, providers stand to improve profitability meaningfully by increasing the number of digital transactions for every time cash is put into the system (Exhibit 4). That said, all evidence indicates that cash and thus CICO will not disappear anytime soon. Even in Norway, for example, the country with the largest share of digital payments globally, 17 percent of all payments are transacted in cash. 3 3. McKinsey Global Payments Map. Thus, to improve profits, providers should look to grow digital transactions even if it means also increasing the number of CICO transactions.

Finally, adjacencies remain a largely untapped opportunity, contributing no more than 10 percent to both total revenue and total profit at most providers. New economic models that leverage payments offer huge potential. Mobile money offers providers the opportunity to enhance existing business models and to develop new ones beyond standard digital payments—including new forms of more data-based financial services, micropayments, and entirely new digital business models.

As the network of mobile payments grows, new types of financial services are emerging. Companies are developing innovative products and services by using risk data sets engendered by digital payments. When people conduct financial transactions with a mobile phone, they leave a digital data trail that can transform providers’ understanding of customer needs and inform assessment of credit risk, allowing for extension of credit to individuals and businesses whose past transactions suggest they are low risk. Providers also can use mobile technologies to issue, monitor, and collect payments on the loans they extend, reducing costs and thus enabling extension of smaller loans. A common example for consumers is peer-to-peer lending, which is growing across many markets from players like WePay, Lufax, and Yirendai in China to Kubo Financiero in Mexico. Business models directed toward micro, small, and medium enterprises include supply-chain financing, cash management, and digital salary payments.

Mobile financial services in Africa: Winning the battle for the customer

Because digital payments allow people to transact in small amounts, they create new opportunities based on micropayments. These include consumer payments for services such as school fees and healthcare, as well as the potential for business salary payments, made as frequently as daily. Digital payments also enable pay-per-service, or pay-as-you-go, models. For example, low-cost private schools like Bridge International Academies in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and India rely on receiving school fees and paying teacher salaries digitally as part of their cost-efficient business models. M-Kopa Solar in East Africa enables consumers to pay a small deposit on a solar panel and then pay per use with mobile money.

Digital payments also enable e-commerce and new sharing-economy models, including ridesharing and employment matching. Such business models are increasingly appearing and scaling quickly in the developing world. Online marketplaces like Alibaba, the world’s largest retailer by gross merchandise value, aggregate large numbers of sellers to improve customer choice and reduce prices. Ridesharing platforms like Didi Chuxing in China and Go-Jek in Indonesia match passengers with drivers of cars or motor bikes in real time. Didi Chuxing is now the world’s largest mobile transportation platform, supporting more than 20 million rides a day in over 400 cities.

To seize current and future opportunities, providers will need to partner or acquire new skills

While a range of value chain models are possible, not all are equally well suited to foster profitable growth or to take advantage of evolving mobile money business models. While models differ, there are typically five main roles across the value chain: deposit holder, e-money issuer, payments service provider, agent network manager, and telecommunications channel provider. 4 4. The deposit holder holds funds safe, and, in most markets, runs the back-end of the cash-handling network. The e-money issuer guarantees e-money value. The payments service provider provides transaction processing and, in some markets, clearing and settlement. The agent network manager oversees agents responsible for opening accounts and providing CICO services. In some markets, agents also provide over-the-counter transactions. Finally, the channel provider provides network access. Historically, this has been over telecom networks, but in the future could equally well occur over Internet networks. Which entity—bank, MNO, or other third-party provider—plays each of the five main roles varies by country, and sometimes even within a single country. In all value chains of which we are aware, a bank or other depository institution plays the role of deposit holder and an MNO plays the role of telecom provider. Banks, MNOs, or third-party providers can play each of the remaining three roles (Exhibit 5).

Growing and sustaining a profitable and dynamic mobile money system requires a set of diverse and hard-to-develop capabilities. Success requires broad marketing and distribution, management of an agent sales force, systems and analytics, rapid product development, and financial intermediation. For example, the ability to reduce costs by leveraging existing customer bases and distribution networks will help promote growth. Driving transaction volumes through existing or emerging use cases, such as e-commerce, will also help scale usage. Capabilities and experience in offering adjacent products that build on mobile wallets will generate additional long-term revenue streams. Such products could include both financial products—including savings accounts, lending products, and insurance—or nonfinancial products (for example, e-commerce).

Today, no single type of provider—banks, MNOs, or Internet providers—has all of these skills (Exhibit 6). For example, MNOs can leverage their existing agent and cash distribution networks to achieve costs for CICO that are roughly 40 percent lower than those of banks, comparing growing but still subscale mobile money services. On the other hand, MNOs have no experience or existing capacity holding deposits as part of financial intermediation. Recipes for overall success could include a bank-MNO partnership or an established Internet player acquiring an agent distribution network. Examples include Equity Bank’s partnership with Airtel and Standard Bank’s partnership with MTN .

Ultimately, providers’ eagerness to provide mobile money and adjacent products will depend on the benefits and trade-offs doing so presents to their core businesses. Companies will look to participate in mobile money only in those ways that provide higher returns than the other opportunities that they have to grow their businesses.

For people in developed markets, mobile money is a convenience, one of the many digital advances that have made our lives easier. For billions of people, and millions of small businesses, in emerging markets, mobile money is much more than a “use case.” It is—or can be—a lifeline, bringing the benefits of financial services to those who currently lack access, and thus enabling them to take initial steps toward healthier financial lives.

To understand how mobile money providers can tap into this opportunity in a sustainable way, we analyzed mobile money economics and proprietary real-world data from mobile money providers, and conducted a study of industry trends. The resulting conclusions led to several salient points for existing or aspiring mobile money providers. First, the up-front investment is significant; there is no avoiding the fact that scale is the key determinant of ultimate profitability. Second, few current providers possess the capabilities they need to fully seize current and future opportunities—they will need develop those capabilities—quickly—or partner and acquire firms that have those skills. Finally, successful providers will maintain a dual focus: a clear view on what drives mobile money economics today, and a forward-looking perspective on the potential for new, innovative financial services and products and adjacent revenue streams.

Download the full report , Mobile money in emerging markets: The business case for financial inclusion, in English (PDF–888KB) and French (PDF–1.05MB) .

Philip Osafo-Kwaako is an associate partner in McKinsey’s Lagos office ; Marc Singer is a senior partner in the San Francisco office , where Olivia White is a partner; and Yassir Zouaoui is a partner in the Dubai office.

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Verizon business phone plans: What are they and are they worth it?

If you're on the search for Verizon business phone plans, here's a look at what the carrier offers

When it comes to business phone plans, Verizon stands out as one of the best options around. Filled with features, backed by some excellent coverage and heavy on the discounts for added lines, there's a lot to like about what Verizon has to offer.

As with standard Verizon phone plans , the best Verizon business phone plans won't be the cheapest option. But if you're looking to stack up on lines, you could end up with some pretty affordable prices for your business.

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Verizon keeps things simple, offering just three cell phone plans in its business section. All three options offer unlimited data, calls and texts; the more you pay, the more features that get chucked in.

These extras include security features, mobile hotspots, more advanced 5G and priority data. Verizon also offers business phone deals and 5G internet service. In some cases, Verizon business phone plans can also get you discounts on tablets and phones when you sign up for different plans.

What Verizon business phone plans are available?

The choice in Verizon business phone plans is pretty simple: You can choose between three options, all with unlimited data — Unlimited Start, Unlimited Plus or Unlimited Pro. You can stack the plans up for added discounts with the price falling by $5 per line the more you add.

Verizon Business Unlimited Start Verizon's cheapest business plan, the Unlimited Start offer, features unlimited calls, texts and data with 5G nationwide and 4G LTE. While you do get unlimited calls, texts and data, the plan is otherwise pretty limited. A Call Filter is included for screening potential spam), but you won't get mobile hotspot data or access to Verizon's faster Ultra Wideband 5G network.

Verizon Business Unlimited Plus Jumping up in cost, the Unlimited Plus plan sits in the middle of the Verizon business phone plan offerings, blending features and affordability. You'll get the same basics as the above plan — unlimited calls, texts and data — but you'll also get 60GB of premium network access, giving you priority when there is congestion. You'll also get a unlimited mobile hotspot, access to Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband and, enhanced security features with Verizon's Business Mobile Secure .

Verizon Business Unlimited Pro Finally, Verizon's most expensive business plan — the Unlimited Pro. This plan, just like the two above, includes unlimited calls, texts and data, but it brings your premium data up to 120GB. Other than that, this is almost identical to the Plus plan above with the only other difference being that you can also get 50% off Business Unlimited Pro Tablet plans.

Why choose Verizon?

As the biggest carrier in the U.S., Verizon has the infrastructure, speeds and connections to offer impressive wireless performance. It takes the number 2 spot in our best phone carriers guide and for good reason.

While Verizon has some pretty pricey plans, that's in part because Verizon offerings tend to be packed full of features across all of its plans, including its business options.

Through our tests, Verizon has come out on top for LTE speeds and its Ultra Wideband 5G connections reach more than 80 cities, capable of reaching 1 Gbps download speeds. Verizon's nationwide 5G network isn't that fast, but it does bring coverage to 230 million people.

Among the features included with Verizon business phone plans are Call Filters, enhanced security features and the possibility of additional plans for devices and internet service.

Which other carriers offer business plans?

While Verizon does have some of the best business plans around, it isn't the only provider catering to businesses. The other two major wireless services and many MVNOs offer business plans in some form, some focusing on affordability and others on features.

Like Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile put their priority on feature-filled business plans...at a high cost. With unlimited data, add-ons and a host of features around data prioritization, these are the options if you've got a bit more budget in your business.

Alternatively, if you're looking for something more affordable, a number of MVNOs offer plans that will work well for a business. Mint Mobile for example is one of the cheapest providers in the US and while it doesn't offer specific business discounts, it will likely be the cheapest option for smaller businesses; just don't expect discounts on multiple lines like you'd find with Verizon business phone plans.

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Why create a business plan for a mobile app?

A business plan is the backbone of any enterprise. Many people like to describe it as a map that assists you in getting from point A (idea) to point B (success) without accidentally venturing into point C (financial failure). You can also think of it as a set of guidelines used to devise app development strategies and manage the budget in a responsible and effective way.

A business plan helps steer the enterprise in the right direction

With a comprehensive mobile app business plan, you’ll be able to use facts and exact calculations to determine the overall direction of the business :

• Gain useful insights into the competition and the current state of the market
• Make informed decisions regarding marketing and communication
• Outline a comprehensive financial strategy
• Evaluate performance and decide on the best allocation of resources

It will also help you to better manage your team :

• Keep everyone in sync and focused on the same target
• Establish clear goals and KPIs, as well as set priorities

And finally, having a business plan is crucial if you want to win over investors and stakeholders.

This is not just our opinion — research confirms the value of writing a business plan. Recently, Palo Alto Software surveyed 2,900 entrepreneurs and discovered that those who create business plans are almost twice as likely to succeed as those who don’t. To measure “success”, Palo Alto used three metrics: business growth, secured investment capital, and secured loans. Find out more information about the study.

This study clearly shows that a business plan isn’t just a formality

What does a mobile app business plan look like?

A typical mobile app business plan is comprised of 8 sections:

• Executive summary
• Products & services
• Company overview
• Market analysis
• Competitive analysis
• Marketing strategy
• Financial strategy

The whole document usually runs 20 to 40 pages including appendices, but this number largely depends on the scale of your project and your goals. A mobile app business plan for a massive product with international presence may well run into hundreds of pages, while an average startup is unlikely to go over 50 pages. 

When writing a mobile app business plan, you should always consider the target audience . Keep everything informative but concise — otherwise, you run the risk of losing the reader’s attention. This is especially important if you’re writing a business plan to raise funds: investors don’t want to have their time wasted. However, it’s crucial not to sacrifice any important information for the sake of hitting a hypothetical 40-page goal.

Things to keep in mind when creating a business plan

Before we dive straight into writing a mobile app business plan, let us give you some tips that will help you along the way.

Before getting started on that Google Doc, ask yourself one question: what are you trying to achieve? The answer to that question defines your priorities. For example, if you’re going to use your mobile app business plan to raise some funds, you’ll want to focus on the reasons you need that money and exactly how you’re going to spend it.

Readability is highly important. This means that the information you present may be complex, but navigating it should be as simple to do as possible. The document should have a coherent structure, with one part logically flowing into another, and clear formatting with headings, subheadings, and enough white space. You can also supplement the numbers you provide with graphs to highlight the most important takeaways .

Pay attention not only to what the document says, but also to what it looks like: with headings, subheadings, and diagrams you create a better document structure

Fact-based estimates

All financial forecasts in your mobile app business plan should be realistic — too much optimism will likely damage your image and lead to lack of trust, not to mention that inflated expectations can ruin the enterprise itself. With that said, all the reports should clearly indicate that there are good prospects for the business and what investors stand to gain if they support the project. If the reports paint a bleak picture, maybe it would be a good idea to test another concept.

External review

Creating a 30-page formal document is a daunting task, and there’s not a single reason why you should face it in solitude. In fact, it’ll be much better if you don’t! As you go, ask other people (preferably experienced) to review it from time to time — this way, you’ll be sure that your plan is logical and makes sense.

How to create a business plan for an app

OK, so we’ve established that a typical startup business plan consists of 8 sections, each equally important. But what exactly do you put in these sections? Let’s find out.

Write an executive summary 

An executive summary is a rundown of the whole document. It describes the current situation in the market, establishes the target audience, as well as puts forward the product’s concept, business goals, and financial projections. Put simply, it answers three big questions:

A well-written executive summary can act as a standalone document. In fact, many investors make their initial decisions after reading this part only, so getting it right is crucial if you want to win over important stakeholders.

The secret is to keep everything clear and concise: you want to convey the message that your app idea has huge potential without overwhelming the reader with 5-page long sheets and abstract ideas. Ideally, the executive summary shouldn’t run longer than 2–3 pages.

The four key components of an executive summary

Prepare the company overview 

In this section of your mobile app business plan, you tell the reader more about your company . Include the following information:

• Mission. It’s a brief explanation why a company exists (take Google, for example: “Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”)
• Vision. It’s a declaration of the company’s potential impact on the world.
• Corporate values
• History and past achievements (if any)
• Competitive advantages

You should also provide detailed information about the team : the number of people you employ, as well as their qualifications and previous experiences.

We recommend dedicating a separate subsection to your top management and key team members to tell about their background and achievements. This will help convince investors that apart from a great app idea , you also have great people behind it.

Make sure to cover the issue of ownership . Does each partner own an equal portion of the business? If not, how exactly is ownership divided?

Potential investors will definitely want to know this information.

Describe your products & services

This is where you really get into detail about your business idea. First, provide some information about the problem you want to solve. To do this, answer 3 fundamental questions:

You need to convince stakeholders that your product solves an important problem. Answering these 3 questions will help

You need to convince the reader that this issue is of importance. You can cite some research or statistics, but try not to oversaturate this section with numbers.

Then, you move on to the actual solution and tell how exactly you plan to tackle the problem. This is where you describe your product or service. Give a brief description of the processes involved, but again, avoid flooding the section with too many technical details.

Finally, give a brief examination of your competitors and highlight how exactly your product is going to surpass the already existing options.

Conduct an audience analysis

In the audience analysis part, you evaluate the current state of play and give justified reasons why you believe your product has a place in the competitive environment. This section includes queries into the target market , customer behavior, current trends , and several important metrics: cost per acquisition (CPA), total available market (TAM), service available market (SAM), and service obtainable market (SOM).

Try to be as specific as possible when talking about the target audience. Consider building customer personas — generalized representations of the people who are going to be interested in your product. To create a persona, conduct several in-depth interviews and organize the obtained information into the following blocks:

• Demographic information — age, gender, income, place of living
• Psychographic information — goals, challenges, motivation, personality type
• Professional activities — qualifications, current job, past job experiences
• Interests and personal tastes
• Needs — why would they need your product?

This is an example of what a customer persona sheet may look like

Carry out a competitive analysis

We’ve already touched on the subject of competition in the executive summary and the products & services section. This time, however, you dive in much deeper and provide a detailed analysis of your direct and indirect competitors, answering the following questions: What are their strengths & weaknesses? What marketing strategies do they use? What is their pricing?

Once you’ve described the competitive landscape, it’s time to show why your product is going to be superior. One way to do this is by conducting a SWOT analysis.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It actually doesn’t need to be any more complicated than this: the section names speak for themselves.

In Strengths , you state the advantages that separate you from the competition.

In Weaknesses , you focus on the things your product lacks and resource limitations.

In Opportunities , you describe the prospects for your business, as well as the external factors that can have a positive influence on the enterprise (rising demand, changing attitudes, etc.).

And finally, in Threats , you cite any external factors that can have a negative influence on the enterprise (bad media coverage, changing regulations, and so on).

Conducting a SWOT analysis is important for proper positioning

Outline your marketing strategy

This is where you describe three important things. First, you need to cover the channels you’re going to use to reach your target segments — for example, social media, target ads, or physical ads. Then, you specify the amount of money you plan to spend on marketing activities, and finally, the KPIs you’re going to use to evaluate efficiency.

Describe your financial strategy

We’ve reached the core of any mobile app business plan. A startup needs a financial strategy much like a ship needs an engine or a mast, and this section is where all the crucial number crunching is happening — akin to an engine room. Let’s look at what you need to include in this part of the plan:

• A revenue model, also known as a monetization strategy
• A monthly sales and revenue forecast for the first 12 months and annual projections for the next 3–5 years
• An income statement, which outlines annual net profits or losses
• A cash flow statement, which shows how much money the company operates with in total
• A balance sheet, which lists assets, liabilities, and equity in your company
• Funds needed (how much money you need to gain in investments)
• Use of funds (how exactly you’re going to use gained investments)

Exit strategy

You need an exit strategy if you plan to sell your company some time in the future. Having this subsection is crucial if you want to draw the attention of venture capitalists and angel investors. The most common exit strategies are acquisition, initial public offering (IPO), and management buyout.

Make sure you understand all these terms correctly and can confidently use them when pitching — investors are more likely to trust an entrepreneur who knows their numbers .

A typical balance sheet lists a hefty number of assets, liabilities, and stockholders’ equity. Complicated, but important!

Compile an appendix

This isn’t a mandatory section — you can omit it altogether, if you want. However, it might be a good place for charts, tables, legal notes, licenses, permits, detailed studies, illustrations of your product, and all other miscellaneous pieces of information that can seem a little out of place if you include them in any of the primary sections of your mobile app business plan.

How to fund your app startup

We’ve compared the main sources of funding in the table below.

And now a bit more about every source of funding.

Bootstrapping

Bootstrapping is just a fancy word for using your own money. Unsurprisingly, this is the best way to fund a startup: there are no loans, no interest rates, no bonds, and no contractual obligations. If the idea fails, you’ve got no one to answer to (well, apart from your wallet) — and if it takes off, you get to keep more of the returns. 

Personal networks

The second most desirable source of funding. A personal network is your friends and family — or, in other words, people you have a close emotional connection with. Persuading them to fund your mobile app development project will be much easier than pitching the idea to complete strangers. And in case the startup fails, they will likely give you enough time to recuperate and pay them back. 

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding means turning directly to end-users to get funding for the project, usually via the Internet. This method is very popular among smaller, niche-specific enterprises, but it doesn’t mean that large-scale ventures have nothing to gain from it — some businesses (including app development companies) manage to raise millions of dollars on Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms. Pros: you get to build a customer base super early. Cons: failure to deliver the promised product usually leads to court, unless you have exceptionally good PR.   

Angel investors

Angel investors are wealthy individuals who use their own money to support business ideas they find promising. They usually invest in budding projects in the seed stage, when the risks are at their all-time high — hence the name. But here’s the catch: in return, they get a share in the business, or at least a convertible bond. This means that if the idea takes off, they’ll gain a certain level of control over your company and become entitled to a share of your income. 

Startup contests at IT events

The tech industry is packed with conferences that can define the future of your app startup. Many of these events host startup contests with formidable prize funds reaching millions of dollars. Winning a contest like this is a quick way to get a solid influx of money early on — but, of course, there are no guarantees, and the competition is fierce.

Bank loans are your last resort. We recommend using this option only if every other one has failed. Why? Tons of paperwork, strict deadlines, and unfavorable interest rates make it poorly suited for fledgling startups — and don’t forget that failure to return the money on time may lead to severe consequences. It’s much safer to take a loan once you have an established company, but definitely not when you’re just starting out.

Monetization strategies

Deciding how your product is going to make money is one of the most important steps to take when developing a mobile app . There are multiple monetization strategies available, each of them suitable for specific types of businesses. Let’s look at some of the most popular ones.

One-time purchase

This strategy is based on the “pay once, use forever” principle. With this business model , you make your app available only after the customer purchases it, either before or after the download. This model can generate substantial revenue, but only if you offer unique features that are highly valuable to the user — otherwise they will most probably turn to free alternatives. Very common among productivity apps and games.

In-app purchases

The app and its basic functionality are free to use, but users can pay to access more advanced features or nice-to-have bonuses. The most famous examples of this model are probably games like Clash of Clans or Fortnite — you can play all you want for free, but if you want to progress faster or get in-game benefits , you can buy skins and in-game currency. Very lucrative if applied properly, but is mainly limited to the entertainment segment.

Subscriptions

Users can download the app for free, but to enjoy the full range of its features they’ll have to buy a subscription. Usually, this business model includes multiple options : for example, you can subscribe for a month, 6 months, or a year. To increase conversion, developers often offer trial periods that allow customers to fully experience all the advantages of the product before choosing to commit.

This strategy is also known as the freemium business model

Talentum , an app we developed a couple years ago, used a subscription-based revenue model. Users could order food from their favorite chefs without any paywalls, but there was always an option to upgrade their accounts and unlock the full range of features.

Talentum, the app that connects customers with top-notch freelance chefs

A fitness app we developed uses a similar system, but on the vendor side: coaches can buy higher-level subscriptions to take on more customers.

The subscription model is also used in dating applications such as Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge. Users that subscribe receive profile boosts, unlimited likes, advanced filters, and other benefits. Check out our article if you want to know more about dating app monetization strategies .

The most popular business model , which is also easy to combine with others. In this model, you use the app to run ads to generate revenue. There are several formats you can choose from, with some of them being more intrusive (like interstitial ads), and some less (like native or banner ads).

Many developers use this strategy together with a subscription-based model: the free version of the app is monetized using ads, while buying a subscription removes this annoyance and grants other benefits.

Keep in mind that the more intrusive the ad, the less users are going to like it

Commissions

Very handy for marketplaces of all sorts: if a vendor uses your app to sell their goods, you charge a commission for every sale they make at a fixed percentage. Alternatively, you can opt for charging fixed flat fees, but the first option is more widespread. The more vendors you attract to the platform, the heftier your revenue will be.

What is a business plan for a mobile app?

A mobile app business plan is a set of guidelines used to devise comprehensive app development strategies and manage the budget in a responsible and effective way.

How long does it take to create a business plan for an app?

Creating a mobile app business plan may take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month.

Is it possible to create an application without a business plan?

Yes, it’s entirely possible, but in this case you’ll need a reliable partner to help with refining the concept and turning it into a cool product on the go. If you have an idea for a mobile app, reach out to us — we’ll help bring it to life with low development costs.

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How to Start Mobile Money Business in Uganda

Vincent Nyoike | Posted in: Uganda

Mobile money was introduced in Uganda in 2009. It is among the fastest-growing industries in Uganda. Most countries are moving towards cashless transactions making mobile money one of the profitable businesses. Some of the money service providers available in Uganda include MTN, Airtel, Uganda Telecom, Africell, Micro-Pay and M-Cash. In this article, we will show you how to start a mobile money business in Uganda.

What is Mobile Money?

Mobile money is the electronic means of sending, storing and receiving money using electronic devices like phones and tablets. You can start a mobile business and work as an agent.

How Do Mobile Money Agents Earn in Uganda?

You can start a mobile money business in Uganda as an agent and earn a commission. Mobile money agents in Uganda earn commission for facilitating transactions such as deposits and withdrawals for their customers, paying airtime and bundles for customers, processing bill payments and registering new mobile money users.

How Profitable is Mobile Money Business in Uganda?

Is mobile money profitable in Uganda? Mobile money business in Uganda is profitable if you follow the right strategies in starting and running the business. The level of profitability will also depend on factors such as the startup capital, location, number and types of transactions in a given day/week/month.

If you haven’t registered your business, find out how to register a company in Uganda .

How Much Money Do You Need to Start Mobile Money Business in Uganda?

The amount of money you need varies based on the mobile money provider and whether you apply directly to the mobile money provider or through master agent/aggregator. The intended size of your business will also be a factor. For instance, will you be working alone or you intend to employ someone or people to work for you? Will be renting a business space or you will use a kiosk or building that you or your family owns?

How to Get a Transaction Line as a Master Agent or Aggregator

You can work as an aggregator or a master agent. An aggregator is authorized to recruit mobile money agents. Master agents purchase and manage e-money from Mobile Network Operators and then sell them to agents.

To become an aggregator or a master agent, you need to fill in an agent Agreement form, exclusivity agreement form and agent application form. In addition, you will need training and branding for your business.

Agents are paid commissions, and the commissions depend on the master agents. Agents have to forego 10% of their income to the Uganda Revenue Authority.

As an aggregator or master money agent, you are responsible for recruiting agents into your territory. You will need to go through the bidding process by presenting an identity card, get a recommendation letter from the local council, and fill in an application form. You will need to make a deposit of Ush 80,000 and have a starting float of at least Ush 2,000,000.

Duties of a Mobile Money Agent

• Registering mobile money customers
• Depositing money into mobile accounts for the registered mobile money customers
• Processing cash withdrawals by registered mobile money customers
• Selling airtime to customers
• Complying with mobile money regulations
• Customer education

How to Start MTN Mobile Money Business in Uganda

To work as MTN mobile money agent in Uganda, you need to meet the following requirements.

• Be a registered limited company or sole proprietor and your business must have been in existence for at least one year
• Original and copies of identity card or passport for the company directors
• Have permanent or semi-permanent physical premises from where to operate
• Have a certificate of business incorporation
• Letter of introduction for the Local Council 1 (LC1)
• Contact details of your company
• Have at least three months of business bank accounts
• Have a copy of articles of association or memorandum of association
• Proposed outlets for inspection by Telecom’s regional representative
• Initial startup capital investment of Ush 1,500,000

Get MTN Xtra Float for business continuity This is a service that MTN Mobile Money agents can use to borrow float when their float is depleted and still have customers to save. You can now get MTN Xtra Float worth UGX 50,000, 100,000 and 250,000 at a fee of UGX 300. MTN Xtra Float has to be paid back in 48 hours. There’s a penalty of 3,000shs charged against your commission if you fail to pay. To get MTN Xtra Float, you should Simply dial 165 5# and follow the steps.

How to Start Airtel Mobile Money Business in Uganda

To become an Airtel money agent in Uganda, you need to meet the following requirements.

• Proof of residence
• Recommendation letter from LC1
• Passport size photo of the applicant
• Subscriber registration form
• Trading licenses
• Subagent application and registration forms
• Startup capital of Ush 2,000,000

How to Become M-sente Agent in Uganda

Uganda Telecom offer mobile money service called M-sente. Requirements for M-sente agent business are the following.

• Certificate of registration or Trading license.
• National ID
• One passport photo size
• Fill and sign the agent contract
• A minimum deposit of at least UGX 300,000

What You Need to Start a Mobile Money Business in Uganda

Apart from the requirements that you need to meet to register as a mobile money agent or aggregator, you will also need the following to run your business comfortably.

• Have two transition lines. You should have MTN and Airtel lines because they have a large market share.
• Have a mobile phone with dual features to operate two lines.
• Rent a stall or a room. You need a secure place where you can operate your business. Ensure that it is visible by foot traffic.
• Have a transaction book
• A secure and lockable desk to keep your money

Some of challenges to expect in mobile money business in Uganda include competition from well-financed competitors, theft, fake money, network problems in some areas of the country, conmen, dishonest workers, etc.

How to Start a Profitable Mobile Money Business in Uganda

To start a mobile money business in Uganda, you need to understand how mobile money works and how you can succeed in this business. This section will provide you with useful tips you need to venture into the business.

Draft a Mobile Money Business Plan

The success of any business depends on how well it is planned. You need to do market research and find out the money services in high demand and those you can provide. Consider the security of the area you intend to operate your business, the market share, competition, availability of customers, cashflow projections, risks and strengths of the business. To know how to about writing a successful mobile money business plan in Uganda, read our previous article on what a business plan should include. Alternatively, you can hire a professional to help you.

Choose a Good business Location.

Mobile money business works well in areas with high influx of people like in towns, near institutions like colleges and hospitals. Such an area will maximize your profits. The more customers you serve, the higher your commissions.

Get Business Permits and Licenses

You need to secure business licenses to operate a legal mobile money business in Uganda. You need to get a certificate from the Uganda Revenue Authority for tax purposes. You may also need a business trading license from authorities.

Get Started and Advertise Your Mobile Money Business

Once you have secured the necessary business permits and licenses, you can launch your business. Provide quality customer service, and your customers will keep on coming back and refer more customers to your business. You can advertise the business using posters and business cards.

Final Word on How to Become a Mobile Money Agent in Uganda

The mobile money business is a profitable business in Uganda. Besides, you can provide other income-generating services like selling sim cards, airtime, soft drinks, and sim card registration. With the growing demand for mobile banking, this is a business you are unlikely to make losses with a suitable business location.

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What do the new developments in the mobile money business mean for the industry

According to statistics, mobile money has been a tremendous contributor and one of the biggest drivers of financial inclusion in Uganda.

By the second quarter of 2021, Uganda Communications Commission ( UCC ) the telecom sector regulator revealed that mobile money agents had grown by 49,488 within a short span of only 24 months.

The UCC report also disclosed that between the second and third quarters of 2020, at least 8,500 new agents were added to the network.

This was in addition to over 227,736 mobile money agents who operate across different networks like Airtel Money, MTN Mobile Money and others.

There are several players in the mobile money industry in Uganda and East Africa.

As of 2021, there were seven mobile money schemes in Uganda, including MTN, Airtel, Uganda Telecom, Africell, M-cash, PayWay and Eeezy Money. But new players like Wave have joined the industry and others like SafeBoda are diversifying their product offering to include this service in their list.

But regardless of this increment in mobile money schemes, many mobile money agents have voiced complaints of reduced benefits from this line of trade,

Some agents say that their commissions have significantly been slashed by telecom companies for whom they work.

What agents refer to as Commission is the money that they are paid by the telecom company from every transaction made by a mobile money agent.

A case in point is, that if a customer goes to a mobile money shop and sends Ush100,000, the agent is entitled to earn a commission of about Ush1,000 off that transaction, which is paid periodically.

New entrants join the industry

In July 2022, SafeBoda launched a new update that allows money transfers to bank and mobile wallets.

This new development allows Safeboda’s customers to transfer money from their SafeBoda wallets to a preferred bank account or to a mobile money wallet like any of the existing ones.

According to pctechmag, the ride-hailing firm in July 2022 announced a new update to its app that will now allow its customers to transfer money from their SafeBoda wallet to the bank or to a mobile money wallet.

The update comes four months after the e-transport company officially made its mobile money payment service available to the general public —joining a space dominated by telecoms.

“We believe that by making it cheaper and more convenient for our customers to move money between their SafeBoda wallets and other mobile money wallets & bank accounts, we will drive adoption and acceptance of cashless payments by informal economies such as mobility and informal merchants,” said Christian Wamambe Mayeku, Head of Financial Innovations at SafeBoda, in a recent media interview.

How agents are rewarded and taxation’s impact on their businesses

Mobile money agents earn commission from making deposits, helping clients to withdraw funds, buying airtime and paying bills for their customers.

In 2021, agents said their commissions reduced significantly after the introduction of the one percent tax on mobile money withdrawals in July of 2018. 

George William Nyombi, the chairperson of the Association of East African Mobile Money Traders Limited, says that although the mobile money tax was later reduced to 0.5%, this had already discouraged some agents who opted to abandon the business over reduced customer transactions which subsequently impacted their commissions in a negative way.

The union’s chairperson, Mr Nyombi noted that members of his association were unhappy with the commission paid by telecom companies, saying the telecoms ought to support mobile agent associations, “the same way the government supports sports associations.”

According to a Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) 2021 Quarter 3 report, the number of active mobile financial service agents grew by 11% from 285,371 in June 2021 to 315,895 by the end of September 2021.

 This positive trend in the industry reflects a sustained increase in business activity that is gradually positioning the mobile phone as a financial tool.

“Compared to 2020, the agent footprint across Uganda has grown by 39% and over 88,000 mobile money agents have been added to the distributed file system ecosystem over the last 12 months,” states the UCC report.

Ms Susan Akello, an agent operating in Gayaza, admits that mobile money is no longer as profitable as it once was.

 “These days you cannot rely on mobile money alone because of the very low commissions,” she narrates her ordeal.

According to her, in order to make ends meet, one has to operate the business alongside selling other items to supplement your income.

Statistics from the Bank of Uganda indicate that between June 2016 and June 2017, the total value of mobile money transactions increased from Ush36 trillion to Ush60 trillion.

But on the flip side, in the years that followed, the total value of mobile money transactions reduced from Ush73 trillion to Ush66 trillion between July 2018 and June 2019.

A ray of hope on the horizon

 Mr Alex Kikomeko, a mobile money agent based in Luweero, is still optimistic. He says despite the reduction in their commission, he still earns enough profits from the business.

He reveals that his monthly income on average is Ush500,000 commission which he says is usually enough to sustain him.

Increasing challenges in the mobile money business

According to the Chairperson of the agents’ association, Mr George Nyombi, mobile money agents endure a number of challenges which include increased insecurity which is a threat to their lives, including robberies, kidnaps and illegal or fraudulent transfer of cash from their accounts.

The mobile money agents association has over 180,000 members spread out across East Africa.

In May 2022, Airtel Money Uganda offered small businesses merchant numbers for mobile money accounts.

This year, regular Airtel Money customers and business owners across Uganda, using their existing SIM Cards, are now able to separate their business finances from their personal airtel money wallets by using the USSD Code 18510*10# to create a Unique Merchant Till Number.

Mr. Japhet Aritho, the Managing Director Airtel Mobile Commerce Limited (AMCUL) during the launch of the new service said;

 “We are committed to delivering on our promise to grow financial inclusion for all in Uganda. Today, we have enabled small businesses, in the comfort of their shops, to create the Airtel Money Merchant Till Number. This is the first tool in business basic financial management. It will help these growing businesses to focus on growing their businesses

and tracking their revenues better.”

Airtel’s huge investment in telecom infrastructure includes over 21,000 masts countrywide

The telco MD acknowledged that;

 “Airtel has deliberately built a telecom infrastructure of over 21,000 site masts across Uganda, and it is on the back of this infrastructure that innovative solutions like the Merchant Till Number service have been made possible. Customers can enjoy seamless border-to-border connectivity, get access to affordable devices, and affordable e-commerce solutions,” said Mr Aritho in May this year.

In line with this new development, Airtel customers can use this number to accomplish the following tasks: • Receive payments for goods and services from their duuka, Boda rides, saloon, etc. • Transfer money from the till number to their Airtel Money number and • View balances on both their new Merchant Till Number and personal Airtel Money wallet.

In conclusion, Japhet says,

 “The new Micro Merchant Till number service will boost business as the proprietors will have proper accountability and oversight of their business. They will know the income that is resultant of the business transactions separate from their personal transactions. The users will use their current SIM cards, and be able to monitor up to 10 different branches of their small businesses.”

MTN Uganda has a product called MoKash.

 Mokash is an MTN Uganda mobile money service that allows users to save and borrow money.

When you access a loan between Ush3,000 and up to Ush1,000,000, you will pay a nine percent facilitation fee. However, if you fail to repay the loan in 30 days, MTN will extend the loan period for another 30 days at a cost of nine percent.

In March 2022, the e-commerce platform Wave Mobile Money, a startup with a big footprint in several francophone countries, was 2021 licensed by the Bank of Uganda to operate financial services in Uganda.

Wave is a new entrant in the Ugandan industry, but with continental ambitions to cover the entire Africa, hopes to tap into a market that processed transactions worth $46 billion in 2020, a 23% increase from 2019.

On the other hand, SafeBoda customers who want to use their mobile money feature have to update their apps to the latest version(s) v.4.6.0 (Android) and v.4.2.3 (iOS) so as to be in a position to make money transfers to the bank or mobile money.

According to one the founders of the App, Ricky Rapa Thomson;

“The option of money transfer from one SafeBoda wallet to another is still available for customers. The SafeBoda Wallet is one of the most common features of the SafeBoda Super App —besides enabling you to use the app for more than just rides, the SafeBoda Wallet ensures that your digital payment experience is the very best,” he says.

Following a huge cash injection into SafeBoda, the ride-hailing App is expected to get more aggressive in the fintech sector. With funding from Google Africa Investment Fund at the tail of 2021, SafeBoda emphasises it will drive its growth in Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria, scaling its transportation-led app to offer new payment and financial services solutions for its expanding set of customers: passengers, drivers, and merchants.

According to SafeBoda co-founder, Ricky Rapa part of the objectives of the fund is to see the company launch its fintech service and make an impact on digital financial inclusion.

In May 2021, Bank of Uganda issued licences to payment service providers Airtel Mobile Commerce Uganda Limited and MTN Mobile Money Uganda Limited.

The available bank options that allow money transfers from the SafeBoda wallet include; KCB, Stanbic Bank, Equity Bank, ABSA Bank, DFCU Bank, and Centenary bank.

As for mobile money, SafeBoda as of now only allows the transfer of money from your SafeBoda Wallet to your Airtel Money account.

SafeBoda is curerently in talks with MTN Mobile Money Uganda and will soon have this feature available for their customers.

How to transfer Money from SafeBoda Wallet to a Bank Account

• Open the updated SafeBoda app and click on ‘Withdraw’.
• Select the ‘Bank’ option and a list of available banks will be displayed for you to choose from.
• Enter the bank account details including the name and account number. The bank account number should match the account name for the transaction to be completed successfully. If it does not, the transaction is aborted and the amount refunded back to your wallet.
• Input the amount you wish to send and confirm the transaction with your Wallet PIN.

The transaction charge is only Ush1,000.

The SafeBoda Wallet was approved by the Central Bank of Uganda that allows customers to send and receive money, recharge airtime & data bundles, pay utility bills, shop online, or pay to friends/vendors.

Mobile money adoption is growing at a fast pace in Uganda.

 According to industry experts, in an underdeveloped financial infrastructure in Uganda with a large section of the population having no formal bank accounts, the mobile money market in Uganda leverages the use and convenience of mobile phones offered by the mobile money service to these consumers.

Wave’s business presence in Uganda and Kenya is evidence of new competition for long term telcos like MTN Uganda, and for Airtel’s Airtel Money—the country’s flagship mobile money giants.

MTN has been a leader in this domain, since the launch of Mobile Money services in Uganda in 2009.

MTN Uganda starting from USSD-led mobile money 1.0 to smartphone-led mobile money 2.0 with the introduction of the MTN MoMo app.

The increase in the number of players in this sector is a welcome move for most people who had voiced growing concerns from some sections of the public that felt existing players were overcharging due to lack of competition.

As a result, many view the entry of Wave as healthy competition to MTN Mobile Money and Airtel Mobile Money.

Wave relates itself in similarity to PayPal in terms of offering easy money transfer between peers, but it works with mobile money accounts instead of bank accounts.

How it works, Wave customers visit physical agent posts to make deposits and withdrawals without a fee, or use a smartphone app with a flat 1% cut of the money being sent.

Wave Mobile introduces free charges

Wave on their twitter page, explained that users can pay for utility bills such as electricity, water, and pay TV free of charge using the Wave Mobile Money Platform.

With both MTN MoMo and Wave, customers can withdraw or deposit money and pay utility bills without the use of the internet or offline.

Wave mobile money uses a QR code on a card for offline access. Customers without a smartphone are registered and given a card with a QR code which they can use to deposit and withdraw money from their Wave accounts.

“We are so excited about our expansion in Uganda. Our mission remains the same, build an inclusive and affordable financial network for all everywhere,” Wave stated in a recent tweet.

The tech firm recently poached MultiChoice Uganda’s head of marketing Collin Asiimwe to lead its marketing team.

The growth of mobile money across Africa

On a continental scale, it has grown tremendously in the West African nation of Cote d’Ivoire, from being used by 30% of the population in 2016 to 83% in 2021.

In 2020, East Africa as a sub-continent had more active mobile money accounts (94 million) than West Africa (47 million) but West Africa had more live services (70) in comparison to East Africa’s (57).

In 2021, Uganda’s mobile money transactions hit the one billion mark, translating into an average of 15 transactions per active account every month.

Bank of Uganda (BoU) in 2021, separated mobile money services from telecom services. This was done under the National Payment System Act 2020, which was guided by the National Payment System Implementing Regulations.

Uganda’s central bank has since then gone on to licence 14 companies to offer similar financial services. They include Airtel Mobile Commerce Uganda, MTN Mobile Money Uganda, Interswitch, Pegasus, Micropay and Wave.

In addition to this, the following players were granted Payment System Operators, Payment Service Providers and Issuers of Payment Instruments permits. They are Chipper Technologies, Future Link Technologies EzeeMoney, Guiness Tech and Agent Banking Corporation.

Some of Uganda’s top commercial banks such as Stanbic Bank Uganda are now officially e-money providers.

Ugandans can now expect improved access to financial services as a result of this increasing number of companies who are joining the fold of service providers.

Business Times Uganda

Musa Hashim Kasibante

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Money blog: Heinz urged to bring back classic snack that sells for £50 on eBay even when it's years out of date

Welcome to the Money blog, your place for personal finance and consumer news/tips. Today's posts include a backlash against Waitrose over its essential toilet roll and our latest Bring It Back feature. Let us know which classic treat you'd like to see return in the comments box below.

Tuesday 13 August 2024 11:11, UK

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Not content with being named the UK's top on-the-go breakfast destination this year (ahead of McDonald's), Greggs is now targeting the evening meal market - with pizza potentially the main attraction.

CEO Roisin Currie said the bakery chain's evening sales were "growing faster" than any other time of day.

"We are very focused on evening trading at the moment because we believe this is a really profitable part of the business long term," she told The Grocer .

Ms Currie said the company could offer a "breadth of range" to customers - including hot and cold sandwiches, pizza, bakes and salads.

"Pizza is very important for us when competing with the food-to-go market as a whole," she said.

Up to 160 new sites, set up for evening trading, could be opened each year as part of the plans, The Grocer reports. The stores would be opened near train stations, airports and popular commuter routes.

"If a [Greggs] was open and busy at 7am, the shop would open at 6.30am," said Ms Currie. "The same way, if a shop is still busy at 7pm and there is trade around that shop, we will stretch their hours to 7.30pm."

A slight easing in wage growth "will be welcomed" by the Bank of England and could clear a path for more rate cuts later this year, an economist has said.

Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said the latest data drop from the ONS indicates that "labour market conditions are continuing to cool".

However, she warned that despite figures also showing a decline in the unemployment rate, it's unlikely today's release "will move the needle too much for the Bank of England".

"We still think the Bank will pause in September before pressing ahead with two more 25 point rate cuts in November and December," she said.

"But much will depend on a broader range of indicators of price pressures, including inflation. July's inflation figures will be released tomorrow."

Market forecasts were fairly unchanged this morning - pricing in a 35% chance of a base rate cut in September.

By  Sarah Taaffe-Maguire , business reporter

The effect of conflict around the world can be seen in the cost of oil and gas on the markets and soon will be evident in household bills. 

As Ukrainian soldiers continue their invasion into Russia, and in an unverified video appear to have taken control of a Russian gas facility key for exporting through Europe, the price of gas edged to 95.74p a therm (the measurement for heat) on Tuesday morning. 

It's down from the 100p a therm high seen on Monday evening but still at an eight-month high.

More expensive gas will mean higher electricity bills.

The oil price rose to a high of $81.88 last seen in late July. A rise in the benchmark oil price, as measured by a barrel of Brent crude, will make things like filling a petrol or diesel tank more expensive. 

In better news for consumers, and specifically holidaymakers, sterling is at a week high against both the dollar and euro with £1 equal to €1.1708 and $1.2797 respectively. 

Yesterday we reported on four straight weeks of losses for the currency.

The Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 index of the most valuable companies on the London Stock Exchange rose a slight 0.05%, while the larger and more UK-based FTSE 250 index was up 0.14%.

Grocery inflation has risen for the first time since March 2023, according to closely watched industry data.

Prices in food shops rose by 1.8% in the four weeks to 4 August, research by Kantar Worldpanel found.

It follows 17 consecutive months of  easing inflation   in the sector, including during the previous month when the rate dropped to 1.6%.

Vitamins, supplements, drinks and chocolate were among the goods that went up fastest in price.

The research, based on the purchasing habits of 30,000 UK households, also found a surge in spending on drinks and snacks during the  Euros football tournament  and the  Olympic Games .

Read the full story here ...

Wages were 5.4% higher in the second quarter of 2024 than a year ago, the Office for National Statistics has said.

The weekly earnings figures - which the Bank of England is keeping a close eye on in deciding where interest rates should go - exclude bonuses.

The fall from 5.8% was in line with economists' expectations.

The figure remains well above inflation, a concern for the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, which wants to see evidence the battle with high inflation is over before loosening monetary policy.

Interest rates are kept high to discourage spending and encourage saving - when this happens, price rises tend to slow.

Employers expect lower headline inflation to reduce pressure to raise wages over the coming year. 

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said yesterday that employers expect to raise pay by 3% - the lowest expectation in two years.

However, a BoE survey pointed to pay rises of 4.1%. 

Last month, new Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves approved pay rises of at least 5% for millions of public sector workers, including a 22% rise for junior doctors over two years to resolve a long-running industrial dispute.

Unemployment lower than expected

Meanwhile, the percentage of people who are out of work and looking for a job dropped to 4.2% in July.

Those polled by news agency Reuters expected a rise to 4.5%, up from the 4.4%  recorded a month ago .

A low unemployment rate can indicate a healthy economy and - relating back to where we started this post - increase pressure for wages to rise.

Angry Waitrose customers have aired their complaints online after the supermarket shrunk the size of its own label toilet rolls.

The upmarket grocer has made changes to its Essentials loo roll in order to lower the price - including adding an "embossed texture".

The number of sheets has also been reduced from 240 to 190.

A flood of disgruntled customers have aired their views on social media and the Waitrose website.

One user documented the "disappointing" size change, while another said they wished they hadn't "wasted hard-earned money on a 16 pack", adding that they felt "ripped off".

In a one-star review on the Waitrose website, one person said they had bought the toilet roll "for years" but would not purchase it again.

"Very thin. Disintegrates. Smaller rolls smaller sheets. Very poor quality. Waitrose what on earth are you doing."

Another customer said: "Essential Waitrose bathroom tissue has always been my go-to product, surpassing competitors by a mile. What has happened, what have you done to this once incredible product?"

Waitrose said its changes were aimed at providing better value for money, with the price reduced in recent months. A four-pack of the bathroom essential now costs £2, down from £2.50 in May.

A Waitrose spokesperson said: "We recently embossed our rolls to give an improved texture, while also cutting the price to reflect the reduction in sheet count. We always welcome feedback and are already reviewing this with our team to see how we can make improvements.

"We are committed to delivering excellent customer service and are proud to have just been named the best supermarket in the UK. We sincerely apologise if our partner's approach didn't reflect this standard and we're certain it wasn't their intention."

The company also said the size of their own-label loo roll was in line with other brands.

Here's a look at how own-brand four-pack toilet rolls at other major retailers compare:

• Tesco - Luxury Soft Toilet Tissue - £1.45 - 220 sheets
• Sainsbury's - Super Softer Classic Toilet Tissue - £1.90 - 190 sheets
• M&S - Quilted Rolls - £2.50 - 170 sheets
• Ocado - Aloe Vera Toilet Tissue - £1.65 - 160 sheets

After the revival of popular Cadbury's chocolate bar Top Deck earlier this year, we asked you which discontinued treat you would like to see brought back - and we got so many responses that we've decided to make a weekly feature of it called  Bring It Back . 

Every Tuesday, we'll pick one from our comments box and look at why it was so beloved and, crucially,  find out whether the companies in question might consider reintroducing them.

This week, we turn our attention to Heinz Toast Toppers.

We were inundated with messages about this range of products, which were popular from the 1970s and onwards, before being discontinued in 2015.

Toast Toppers were cans of creamy spread that fans would slather on toast and then grill. They came in flavours including ham and cheese, mushroom and bacon, and chicken and mushroom.

Their disappearance from supermarket shelves has been mourned ever since, with thousands of people following a Facebook group demanding their return.

Aimee Foy, from Manchester, runs that group and told Sky News: "It was just a really nice but versatile snack.

"Like a lot of people, I have really nostalgic memories of having it as a teenager.

"It was tasty, but also really simple and cheap, especially when you compare it to how much you have to spend if you're getting a meal delivered by Uber Eats or something."

She said there remained huge demand for the product and that it would prove especially popular given its relative affordability amid a cost of living crisis.

"I've seen tins on eBay that were six years out of date but going for more than £50, which just shows how much people love it.

"It was only around £1 when they stopped doing it, but even at twice that price people would definitely still buy it.

"It's obviously not a la carte or anything, but we loved it - and I'm sure that people would jump on it if Heinz did decide to bring it back."

Indeed, Heinz is all too aware of the continued interest in Toast Toppers - with the company's official UK Facebook page posting a popular meme in reference to the fixation many fans have with the product.

A Kraft Heinz spokesperson told Sky News: "Toast Toppers were a huge hit with Brits back in the '70s and '80s, but as consumer tastes and trends evolved, Toast Toppers sadly fell out of favour, so we took the decision to pull them from sale in 2015.

"It simply wouldn't have been feasible to continue making them, despite the iconicity of this delicious teatime snack.

"We don't have any immediate plans to bring them back, but we'd never say never and have plenty of exciting innovations in the pipeline that we're confident consumers will love."

Which currently discontinued chocolate bar, crisps, sweets - or any other food product - would you like to see brought back, and why? Let us know in the comment box at the top!

Heathrow says a drop in passenger numbers is down to a government scheme that charges non-visa connecting travellers £10 to pass through the airport .

It said the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) had been "devastating for our hub competitiveness" - accounting for a 90,000 drop in passengers.

The chairman of Asda says he is "embarrassed" by the supermarket's recent decline.

The retail giant reported a 2.1% drop in like-for-like sales in the first half of the year.

Asda has also lost market share since it was acquired by the Issa brothers in 2021.

Lord Rose told The Telegraph he was "slightly embarrassed" and did not like "being second, third or fourth".

Card Factory has teamed up with food delivery app Just Eat to offer customers the chance to get greetings cards delivered to their door as quickly as a takeaway.

The partnership is live in 19 stores across the UK, including Liverpool, Manchester and London, and is set to be extended.

Rioting caused sales to plummet as much as 40% in areas where rallies, protests and riots were rumoured to take place last Wednesday, according to a hospitality association.

Businesses reported footfall was down by as much as 75% in some locations, while sales fell by 10% across the country, UKHospitality said.

Shops closed down, events were cancelled in city centres, and customers stayed away, working from home and cancelling day trips to coastal towns.

"These figures are startling and show the enormous impact the riots, and threat of further disorder, have had on our high streets and communities," said Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality.

"Bustling, vibrant city centres were turned into ghost towns as the public stayed at home and businesses shut."

A flooring company which trades out of John Lewis has collapsed into administration, resulting in the loss of around 200 jobs.

The Floor Room, a sister firm of Carpetright, closed concessions in 34 John Lewis shops on Friday and appointed administrators PwC.

A message on the company's now-closed website confirms the company has ceased trading and will not complete outstanding orders.

The accounting firm said management at the collapsed company had "exhausted options to secure further funding or a potential sale" prior to calling in administrators.

Some 201 employees are losing their jobs as a result of the move.

What are your rights?

If you've paid for an unfulfilled order, or want to return an item, a lack of shops mean you have to file a claim with administrators PwC to join a list of creditors owed money – but there's no guarantee you'll get your money back.

Credits and debits

You can file a claim with your debit or credit card provider to recover lost funds:

• Credit card:  If you bought any single item costing between £100-£30,000 and paid on a credit card, the card firm is liable if something goes wrong. If any purchase was less than £100, you may still be able to get your money back via chargeback;
• Debit card:  Under chargeback, your bank can try to get your money back from The Floor Room's bank. However, be aware that this is not a legal requirement and it can later be disputed and recalled back.

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