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Question: Starting Hosting Company

J

Jerome_42o

New Member
Believe me when I say this, I know there are Millions and Millions of people on the .net who own there own hosting company so why should I include myself into such a business field in which I am not guaranteed clients. Well its a risk that everyone takes and its something I feel I will have time for.

I have money, I just need to know the proper steps it will take for me to start a company up.

If there is any company that is willing to give direct steps on what I should do first to the very last step of starting this business up, I would Greatly Appreciate it.

Thank you very much for your time and have a great day,
- Jerome

P.S. I hope I have posted this in the correct section
 
1. Ok, first of all, you must decide, what kind of host would you like to make? FREE hosting or PAID hosting.

2. Even if you have a lot of budget, DO NOT WASTE IT by renting a dedicated server. Just start off with a VPS (or if possible, a reseller/master reseller). Believe me, you'll spend a lot of money on other things that you can't imagine now, example:
- Uptime monitor (downtime notification)
- Billing software
- Promotion (Advertising)
- and much more that I can't imagine too...

3. Promoting. Every host will have their own way of promotion. REMEMBER: DO NOT OFFER a promotional package with "too good to be true" packages. A lot of people will think that your host is "crazy"/unprofessional.

4. Staff. You'll need to hire some staff. Try to make 24/7 support by using shift system (eventhough I own a free host, I apply this as well).

That's all from me.

(If you think that this post's useful, please add my rep :D )
 
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Secret said:
2. Even if you have a lot of budget, DO NOT WASTE IT by renting a dedicated server. Just start off with a VPS (or if possible, a reseller/master reseller). Believe me, you'll spend a lot of money on other things that you can't imagine now, example:
- Uptime monitor (downtime notification)
- Billing software
- Promotion (Advertising)
- and much more that I can't imagine too...
Click to expand...

This point is very important :p Unless you really have a lot of capital, don't go spending it on a dedi straight away.
 
I really would advise not to get into hosting at this time. The competition is pretty crazy. You'll never be the cheapest host, and everyone knows it. Why should someone buy hosting from you when they can get it from one of those huge companies for cheaper? You know darn well they'll get 24/7 support, and more space and bandwidth than they can imagine.

On a lighter note, some people seem to boom in this market, for some reason.
 
1. Get a vps for around $40 with cpanel.
2. To start off you'll have to have a billing system, I'd recommend whmcs. Get a live support system(I would recommend the one by kayako if you can afford it)
3. Pick a template or get a person to design it for you.
4. Get volunteers. To get volunteers try making a new thread in the ads & offers section of this forum. To attract people, offer them something in return for example a hosting account.
5. You are ready to go! Make sure to advertise your business on a lot of hosting forums.
 
1st step would be research.
2nd determine budget.
3rd decide what kind of host you would like to be, paid shared, paid reseller, free shared, free reseller, post to host shared, post to host reseller.
Do you want to offer vps, and dedicated.
What platform or platforms, (Linux, or Windows, or both)
4th look at how you would like to provide theses option. Reselling all these options from someone else or purchasing your own hardware and locating it in a data center or start your own data center.
5th determine the market you would like to target.
6th research the options you decided on above.
7th Come up with a name, and register a domain name.
8th Design a site or have 1 designed for you.
9th find some support staff.
10th advertise.
11th before you open get insurance. Especially if you locate your equipment in someone else's data center. You want to cover your equipment.
12th Sell your 1st item.
Might have missed a few but hope this helps.
 
Just answer one question: Why am I starting a host? That is the basis on which everything else must be built. Until you answer that one fundamental question, nothing else matters.
 
If you're going to do it, do it because you enjoy it... I honestly wouldn't be in this industry if it were for the money.
 
Right now people are being fooled into buying hosting from the big companies. 1TB of space and 2TB of band for $6.95?? come on, that is overselling and we all know it. There are a few out there that know the truth and look for hosts that offer reasonable hosting with good quality to back it up. It takes time, and patience to own a hosting biz when your competing against godaddy, lunarpages, hostmonster, etc...
 
You simply cant start a company and make it successful with just a few steps. Yes, I mean it. Even 50-100 steps aren't enough.

You need to outline your plan and keep modifying it as circumstances change.
 
It takes time to start and run a successful hosting business. Regardless of the Millions of "Companies" out there, success is possible but only if done right.
It takes patience and hours upon hours of daily hard work.
I started first in 2003 and still struggling. But, I refuse to lay down and take a beating.
 
Before starting a hosting business I think you must understand what you are getting into. You need to know the ins and the outs and you need to understand the market and the customers and the list goes on and on.

If you have no experience in this field I suggest get a small reseller and get your feet wet. However, if you are confident that you know how to target the customer you want and know enough about the market and want to make it really work in the long run; then a dedicated might be a good solution.

After that, you need to do the numbers and have a plan. A lot of the times people start it with no planning and that will limit your success greatly. You need to crunch the numbers and figure out what your potential pay backs, net benefits and etc are. You'll need to figure out your budget and research the necessary initial investment that you need to make for a success company.

A marketing plan would also be very helpful. Budget how much you spend on advertisement is use it wisely because you can literally pour thousands upon thousands of dollars into it and not get anything out of it if your not smart. But with a budget of even just $50/month you can get results.

Finally, you need to be ready to work. It's not a get rich plan and it's going to take a while (up to 1.5 years) for you to break even and if you can't deal with that; then stop now. This is just like any other business, rarely do you break even before 1 year.

Oh and one more thing, be sure to set goals. Have your eyes on the big prize but also make sure you set short term goals that can be worked towards on a monthly or quarterly basis.

If you require more details or would like assistance making up a real plan give me a shout, I do some consulting work.

Best of luck and regards,

Tang
 
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Jerome if yopu find your niche and will provide quality service. And this is the one and the main factoeк for your sucess.
 
now that you have got so many great suggestions. I would like to add a little to it. whatever you decide to offer free or paid hosting.. focus on customer satisfaction . Customer is the biggest advertiser as they say :)


(Thanks to all those who contributed.. the suggestions were great I must say! Helps many people out there..)


Good Luck
Lea.
 
One major think that I have to say is LOCAL MARKET! So many people over look this aspect of hosting, but im telling you, that is where the money is!
 
yes the local market is a great place to start. Although people can host anywhere, the majority of people do search for a host that is local to them!

Also i second the recomendation on the WHMCS billing solution. I just switched to it from WHMAP and it is like night and day! Hostgator offers it free with their reseller plans which makes it a really cheap and easy way to get started. They also ofer enom domain reseller accounts free too so not a lot of overhead to get started with them.
 
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