About a year ago i sold my hosting co to another host i had 20 clients and i keep in regular contact with all of them (at there choice) and most left the new host and the rest dislike the service

Did i mess up when i sold ?

I mean i didnt have the time to dedicate to the customers like they deserved but i think they would have been more happy staying with me and not getting the 24/7/365 phone/email/chat support

What do you think?

Should i try to get the customers back and start another hosting co
should i leave it like it is
or at least help them find a host they can be happy with

Let me know what you think

depends how much you sold the company for.

$400

well you had 20clients, and I assume at 10$ per month for each client thats 200$..
In two months you could have made $400.00, minus all the costs of course.

I think in the long run you would have defintly made more then what you sold it for :)

If you have the time to deal with maintaing the server etc.. then you shouldnt have sold

Well its not the money that i care about

I care about the clients which probably sounds a little wierd but i do

I just want to know what you guys think would be the right thing to do

I dont have the money to restart another hosting co or i would but i dont want the host i sold the clients to to get mad and sue me

What should i do? is the question im stuck i want to do the right by the host i sold the clients to and i want to do the right hting for the clients

Why not start up another hosting co, get yourself a small reseller account and your set. Why not start it as a web based community, with forum etc.

That is a great idea but my problem is the finacial part of it

Right now, you're an individual who would, conceivably, be giving advice to an acquaintance or business associate on hosting services. As long as you're not trying to spam all clients - you keep in touch with these clients specifically - and as long as you're not trying to advertise another business you start up, I don't see any problem.

If the people decide to go with one of your recommendations, their current host may try to complain - but on what grounds? The service they're currently receiving is not satisfactory. I'm assuming that the people have tried to make things work with the current host. If the current host had better service, or a more responsive service team, the people might not be unsatisfied / inclined to go elsewhere.

i dont spam them we talk through Yahoo IM all the time when i first started i tried to make the clients my "friends" which in a way was a mistake in a way they send me an instant message to talk i dont send it to them

I HATE SPAM it really pisses me off so no i dont spam them

a few of the "bigger" clients want me to start a new company and they want me to let them know when i do soi they can come back

i really shouldnt go off the subject but do anyof you know another hosting company offering a free reseller package for a month so i can get off the ground with a new biz?

If my old clients want to come back i wont stop them but i wont force them either ( think thats fair, right???)

If you do please let me know

If this would be considered a hosting request let me know and i will edit this and moved it to the request's board

volumeserver,

we (reseller hosts) are not allowed to offer anything (even if its free) in this section of the forum.

cheers,
paul

ok i posted a request here

http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106162

I really didnt know if it was ok or not

There are a few points you should look at.

1. In all likelihood if you let your former customers and their current customers know you've started a competing business they would have pretty good grounds to come after you legally if anyone switched. This would be for those that would directly switch from them to you. Doesn't matter if you had a non-compete clause or not.

2. If you got people that are with other hosts, not the one you sold to, and they want you to start hosting them, make them an offer. Tell them you won’t do it unless you get a 3 month commitment from them. Have them put up $X upfront for 3 months.. Get a cheap dedicated box or a good size reseller package ($50--$100?) and start hosting. If they won’t put $50-$100 upfront for you to get back in the hosting business then they aren’t serious.


Michael
http://www.sitesouth.com
http://www.ReSellersISP.com (coming soon)