Welcome to an already overcrowded field, Mr. Martin ;).
You asked "I am seeking help from the industry leaders as to how I can set up a workable business so that my company can profit which in turn provides employment for members of the community (something which is desperately needed here)."
I lay NO claim to being an industry leader. But I'll offer my advice anyhow, for what it is worth.
1. Get clear on the order in which you need to take the steps involved. Do a critical path analysis: what is the **order** in which you need to take the steps you have to take?
Unfortunately, running a call center is not Field of Dreams. No vendors are going to come just because you've built it. Without *business* what you will have is an expensive investment in consulting time, telephone and IT infrastructure, cost-of-capital, etc., bleeding red ink down a financial hole. Even if you can get your local government to pay for some of this in the name of job-creation, your infant business is going to be a complete loss unless and until you have **contracts**.
2. To get contracts, you need contacts. If YOU were a vendor looking for a center, would you go with an unknown with no track record? No. Find talent with a strong track record and bring it on board. Vendors need to hear that the person running the operation has done it before. They like it even better if the person running it used to work for them, or someone they know. I would suggest that you identify TOP-grade call center managers in your target markets and offer them a lavishly paid, low-tax, entrepreneurial job starting up a call center in an island paradise.
3. Sorry to be cynical, but vendors do not care if your community desperately needs employment. What do they care about? (1) How fast you can turn a dollar for them into two dollars for them, (2) how likely you are to just lose that dollar. Those are the main (if not only) reasons they will pay you.
You will find it hard to compete on cost, because there are tons of areas with much deeper talent and infrastructural bases that compete on cost (India comes to mind). You have to have something unique to offer. Again, use your *location* to compete on a *talent* basis. Your unemployed local talent are worth little until they are trained. Attract the top people in the industry by offering them the same thing I suggested you offer the manager. These people will make you money, by making your vendor money. Hiring locally, you will go through a hundred people for every one you keep. You will not be creating the mass of jobs you are hoping for. But when your people spend locally, THAT will create those jobs.
(And to mollify you, Mark, if you're reading this post-- guess where the top talent I'm talking about would come from? When Mr. Martin employs consultants, where does that money go?)
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