Hey I was just wondering how much time other hosts put into their companies. I know I'm on a lot fixing things, answering emails, etc...

How about you old guys with more experience? :cartman:

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I personally put in no more than 4 - 6 hours a day. I didn't start a business to work 24/7, I started it so I WOULDN'T have to work 9 to 5 ... those guys that work 24/7 don't make much sense to me, go get a regular job you'll be happier :)

I think we "old guys" can sometimes get by by not adding up the hours, we do a lot of design and that takes up a lot of our time, but it all hooks together. I wouldn't want to add it up but I can safely say starting out in the business it was a lot of hours to get things going, promote, etc (50+ Hours / Week) and it has gradually decreased since then.

I put about 20 hours a day or so...depends on the daily situation...lets say on average about 125 hours per week...7 day week :D

Unless you have the money to hire others, and they can do what you need, then you will be devoting quite a bit of time.

Oh yeah when I first started the hours were crazy because I was solo ... plus it took a while to grow because one person can only do so much. After about 8 months of that I said enough is enough and hired one technical guy and one sales guy (just paying them out of pocket since the business wasn't making enough to afford them yet). That freed up all of my time running the business so I could just focus on marketing. I wrote programs to automate everything initially, so I didn't have to spend any time setting up new customers, removing people who canceled, billing, etc. By having the other two guys there to take off the load, it was profitable (including salaries for the 3 of us instead of paying everyone out of my pocket) within 3 months.

If you want to make a real business out of it I wouldn't recommend going at it alone when you first start. You'll wear yourself out, and it takes forever to grow. It's not IMPOSSIBLE and you may get lucky, but if you start off with some help you'll grow much faster. If you're not profitable yet, it can also help soften the bills when two or 3 people are splitting the initial costs.

Originally posted by BVS
I put about 20 hours a day or so...depends on the daily situation...lets say on average about 125 hours per week...7 day week :D

And yet you still find the time to post on WHT..;)

about 7-9 hours a day. Mostly standing by waiting for emails/tickets from customers.

If you put it all together, I only actually work for about 1-2 hours a day. The rest I just do whatever I want.

Originally posted by Akash
And yet you still find the time to post on WHT..;)

Off course since I am on the computer when I work unless I am outside finishing up some deals :D I am practically addicted to this place...This is awesome, you learn a lot and you meet some very fine and artistic people :D

You people work too much.

Greetings:

Our staff put in anywhere from 10 to 20 hours (part time) to 40 to 45 hours (full time).

As the founder (Peter Abraham), I generally put in an average 70 to 90 hour work week (then, I was a geek from a baby <grin>).

Thank you.

Originally posted by Indy4
You people work too much.

Unfortunately in the web hosting industry, if you want to make a living out of it you need hard work :D extra hard work. :D

Of course there's hard work, and over work. I tend to think a great deal of churn this industry gets at the 'new host' end is people not setting priorities, and forgetting they need proper sleep and food. Unrealistic expectations will always lead to burn-out, and that's not going to help your customers very much ;)

If nothing else, it'll make you irritable, rude and short with customers when e-mailing them. Given we all work in a service industry it's impossible to just hide away from them when you're having a bad day. :)

As for time, all day and night as a business owner, but not all day and not all night - if you know what I mean.

Depending on the week, I can work as little as 10 hours per week, up to 90 hours a week. During most of January, I worked very little (for a variety of reasons). On the other hand, I have been consistently putting in 12-18 hour days since the last week of Jan.

For the most part, I really enjoy what I do; working long hours is not a big problem for me. However, I do have my limits. I can only do one 16+ hour day a week. If I do any more than this, my body simply can not handle it and I litterally begin to have physical issues - mostly hands and arms that hurt like hell.

As one example, last Monday I put in 18 hours, I woke up early on Tuesday, put in another 10 hours and then my basement flooded, so I was forced to spend another 6 hours dealing with that. I was pretty much devistated until Friday rolled around. My body hurt, I was tired, and emotionally burnt out. Working 34 hours in 2 days is not fun, ever.

I would say I put in 10 - 15 hours a day into IdleServ :)