All,

What is the single most important factor in becoming a successful web hosting business. Maybe people who have got something up and going for years now can contribute and would be appreciated. i think it is " a unique value proposition to your target market"

But so many to choose from. Reputation, prices, web site design, business plan .............list is too long. What do you think??

I believe as with any business it is all about providing your customers with exactly what they need at a reasonable pricing. Also good personal service would indeed be appreciated.

In short, Niche / target marketing is the key.

I think the "single most important factor in a successful web hosting business" is that you need an understanding of business.

It doesn't matter how good of a server admin you are, or how well you can design a site, or the prices of your plans. It's understanding your business. Who your clients are. And who you are.

Your luck :banana:

Not everyone who knows their business is going to be a success, and not everyone who's a success really knows their business. Hard work and being commited are very important, and absolutely neccessary, however, regardless of how committed you are, it doesn't guarantee you success.

(I seriously believe that getting lucky is a very big factor of becoming a success in the web hosting industry. You can do everything right and not become 'succcessful'.)

ok , a very good start indeed. Amswered by a master.

By 'understanding your business', you don't mean 'experience in the business' do you?

'understanding your business' can be interpreted a few different ways.

If i understand it right, you are telling me, to know who i will be serving, how, why etc. A business plan? A target market?

Originally posted by nickn
Your luck :banana:

Not everyone who knows their business is going to be a success, and not everyone who's a success really knows their business. Hard work and being commited are very important, and absolutely neccessary, however, regardless of how committed you are, it doesn't guarantee you success.

(I seriously believe that getting lucky is a very big factor of becoming a success in the web hosting industry. You can do everything right and not become 'succcessful'.)

unfortunately i have to strike out the 'luck' answer.

If you are trying to answer this question with a few qualities, like - hard work, prices, experience and luck, then you can use it.

But i only want to know of one THING, which can do it. You can't say "the single most important factor in web hosting success is LUCK'


So far i like better :

"the single most important factor in web hosting success is a target market', unless you convince me otherwise.

Experience is something which can only be gain through time while knowing the industry to me means doing your homework in researching your industry, your competitors, your customers and understanding what your customer needs and want. Basically do a Business Plan.

Dedicated and knowlegable staff is a big help.

Originally posted by jonnie
What is the single most important factor in becoming a successful web hosting business.
Determination/dedication/vision.

Originally posted by jonnie
unfortunately i have to strike out the 'luck' answer.
I disagree, I believe in LUCK.

Laboring Under Correct Knowledge. :D

But, which is the single most important factor? :)

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
But, which is the single most important factor? :)

Probably the most elusive element of all, the element "X" which makes the difference between making IT and failing :D.

Different people will have different opinions. I am quickly reallising that it is actually difficult to not combine a few 'important things'.

Let's keep going. 'The single most important thing' i guess means, a successful web hosting business cannot be done without it?

So far:

1. Can you create a successful web host without a business plan.

Probably yes. I'm sure they are people who started on the fly, without long and formal business plans.

2. Can you create a successful web host without good staff.

Probably not. How big can you get by yourself?

3. Can you create a successful web host without luck.

Probably yes. It might take longer, but i think so.

4. Can you create a successful web host without a target market.

Probably yes, but for how long???.

5. Can you create a successful web host without hard work.

Probably Not!

6. Can you create a successful web host without vision.

Probably Not!

Hmmm, Agree or not? keep them coming guys.

Originally posted by Aussie Bob
Determination/dedication/vision.

See....You can have determination, dedication and vision..and still not be guaranteed success. :)

To be honest, the single most important factor in the web hosting business or any business is:

Never Give Up
Never Give Up
Never Never Never Give Up

It also applies to your personal life as well.

Marketing.

I know you're thinking 'value, good team, strong business model, good business knowledge, etc..'. The dirty truth is that we've seen the most successful (let's remember this is measured in terms of $$ not popularity) companies lack much of the above listed, but what they do not lack is marketing strength.

I'm a terrible marketer, which is why we rely on the kind words of many of our clients to spur new business :D

Being successfull comes from

1) Have a vision
2) Implementing your vision
3) Setting goals for short term and long term
4) Have excellent customer service along competitve prices
5) Adding value to customers by different services, promotions and personalising the customer service experience.
6) Being dedicated to your business and customers
7) Hanging in when the times are bad and sales are weak
8) Being consistent and applying due diligence to your responsibilities towards your customers and business.
9) Having a plan to market your services to a niche and to get money you will have to spend money.

After this list, i believe the single most important factor is the type of customer service your provide and the relationship you build with the customers.. People will pay a premium if you are always there to support them, if they have a personal touch with you.

Originally posted by jonnie
What is the single most important factor in becoming a successful web hosting business.
There is no one ingredient to building a successful webhosting business. If there was, I'd bottle it and sell it! :D

A hosting business is like a cake, and has many ingredients. You need to get all the ingredients right, if you want the cake to turn out great. It takes time patience and great skill to put all the ingredients together and get a great result. There's also an ingredient of luck in there too, imo. :)

It depends on to whom the question is directed. For example, mammas boy Chris Faulkner and owner of CI Host might proclaim having a mommy that's a lawyer is a great benefit for success.

When imminent failure is on the horizon due to poor business practices one should threaten and pursue lawsuits to intimidate and squeeze out the competition would be his words of wisdom.

Even if my reply gets deleted it was worth my time to write. :emlaugh:

I agree -- It takes many things to run a webhosting business, theres not just ONE most important thing. What aspect you work most on is what makes you different from your competetors. To be successful you have to be different. What if there were 100 hosts identical to you, same prices, same support, same everything, your chances of success go down. However, lets say you want to be different then the rest and offer a superior support staff, or you want to have the fastest servers. The difference from the crowd is what makes you successful.

to z280 hosting....

i like your thinking. Also i like the fact you have a slogan:

"never oversold" If you bring reseller services in and keep your promise, i will think about you very seriously.

ok everybody seems to think that they are many factors which create and successful hosting company. I agree entirely.

But still let's get down to replies, stating one factor that is MORE important, not the only one, but more important then others. One 'factor' surely has to lead the way in everybodies mind, even though it might be different in peoples mind. Mine is,

"Keeping your promise to your customers"

by this i mean, if your website says , 24x7 support, keep it going.

If it says, fast servers, keep them fast. Whatever it is, keep it.

:D :D

While there is some very interesting comments in this thread, the question I have is what defines success? Is a company considered successful simply because they have 10,000 clients? What if they SPAM'd lied, stole and cheated to get those clients? Still a success?

On the other hand, what about the host that doesn't want to get anywhere near 10,000 clients? What if a host only wants a dozen servers and makes a 6 figure salary from that? Would they not be considered a success as well?

Trying to nail down the most important aspect of a successful business when you haven't defined success is like asking: "What's the best method to get to the beach?"

For me it might be walking, for someone in the mid-western US I don't think that would be a good option...;)

I like dunnaway's response about never giving up - persistence is vital to running a successful hosting company. Also I always appreciate Aussie Bob's infinite wisdom and sure would like to have the recipe for that hosting cake :)

I did a week long exercise last summer with our entire staff on this very issue. We brainstormed for a solid week with charts on the walls, customer surveys and the works to determine what was the most important for our hosting business. Specifically, we were looking for core values that were commonly lacking in other hosting companies and how we can use these as the cornerstone for our customer service program. Like Bob says, it is a mixture of many ingredients but we were able to narrow it down to just three ingredients which I will list below in order of importance.

1. Integrity - Never lie to the customer, your co-workers, or yourself. Be honest in all that you do. Practice integrity as a way of life and it will return big results for you personally and also the company.

2. Reliability - Mean and do what you say you are going to do. This extends beyond integrity into dependability and performance. The network and servers must be maintained proactively as a preventative measure for three vital areas (security, reliability, performance). These three will provide the customer with assurance that they have made the right choice.

3. Understanding - Actively listen to the customer and also to staff so you can understand their needs and desires. But don’t stop with just listening. Use what you are hearing and put it into practice. It does no one any good if you understand, yet take no action based on that understanding. Take the time to build relationships through understanding and you will gain a customer for life.

I would be interested in others experiences as well and appreciate your starting this post

Best Wishes for a Net Success!

well .. i'm in that business since 38 months now, i do not belive in Luck like you Jonnie, but really during this period i did not find a touchable and trusted reason of success or failures, you can get users for no reasons, and you can loose users for no reason too, sometimes a small offer give you a wealth and some real good offer give you nothing.

some times huge advertising campaign return no sales and some times a small site give you what you do not expect.

what i can say that the reasons is changed by time and the meaning of success is depend of the age of host, if you are new host then the success is to get wave of new sales, after 1 year the success is to make users renew, after 3 years success is to keep users who want to move because they stayed with you for long time.

Profitability! Without it, you won't be in business.

Having decent funding when you start off doesn't hurt either. I'm not really talking about 10s of thousands of dollars, but unless you set out to do this part-time or live in your mother's basement, in order to fully commit to the business, you have to understand that for some time you won't be making any money to support yourself.

Luck and determination are another two important factors. Especially in the beginning, there'll be plenty of times when you'll feel like giving up, as things never worked out as you planned.

And finally, you need to understand the industry, have some previous business experience, and be creative in terms of coming up with new ways to market yourself.

Boris

Interesting thread.

Certainly a difficult question to address, if possible at all. As many have stated, there is no single most important factor - there are several. But one that I see has not really been touched on is open, honest and prompt communication with the customer.

Take an example of 100 web hosting companies all providing identical plans, identical pricing, identical server specs. All things being equal, the one that has the best, most efficient, most accessible and most responsive lines of communication with the customer will ultimately be the most successful.

I recall reading threads on many occasions about Aussie Bob (when he was at the helm at HTTPme) in which a server was down, yet at all times his customers had open and immediate access to updates, information, communication. Web hosting is a service industry. And the Net being what it is, things will occasionally go wrong. The manner in which a host handles the crises as they arise will very much dictate the company's success.

Don't ever leave the customer hanging ,not knowing what is going on, and you will develop a loyal customer base that stands by you and refers many new customers your way.

Vito

Sucess = Someone's Opionion.

any ways i think that it would require for you to have satisified customers a good niche market a good USP (Unique Selling Point), Happy Customers, Lots of happy customers ohh and did i forget to mention Tons of Happy Customers

Thanks
- James

The most important in any business is giving your customers what they they are paying for. Serviceability is the keyword here.

If we do not have the ability to see clearly, the road to success, then perhaps our ability to see has something to do with fear?

It goes with out saying that in order for a business to succeed, you have to know what you are doing.

However, fearlessly traveling the road to success is much easier to accomplish with a clear vision of where we are going.

Here is how I see it:

Advertising is the most significant part of business.

The great thing about web hosting is the money that keeps coming in from your clients....unlike products that you only sell once.

This gives you the ability to have a flexible advertising budget that you can amortize over what ever length of time you want.

For example, lets say you spend $20 in advertising to gain one new client that gives you a profit of $5/month. You have to invest $20 out of your pocket, and then wait for it to return over the next 4 months. Or you could increase your investment to $60 for that new client and wait a year! Either way, after that new client pays back your advertising investment, you're left with money flowing into your bank account.

Is there such a thing as investing too much money into advertising. Not really. Only if your rate of return on investment(ROI) does not make sense. In this case, simply change your advertising scheme.

The sky is the limit as far as spending money on advertising. If you have one million dollars to put into advertising...do it!(provided you have tested the advertising and know the ROI).

Advertising is the most significant part of business.

It is water for the plant.

It is fuel for the engine.

Instead of getting frustrated with business, keep it in perspective.

Be deliberate in determining your ROI.
Be deliberate in deciding how long you are willing to wait for your investment to return.
Relax! If an advertising scheme fails....create a new one.

And don't forget to write off all that advertising next year at TAX time.

No Advertising?....No Business!

Good bye fear...hello clear road to success! ;)

_Andy

Originally posted by SoftWareRevue
I think the "single most important factor in a successful web hosting business" is that you need an understanding of business.

It doesn't matter how good of a server admin you are, or how well you can design a site, or the prices of your plans. It's understanding your business. Who your clients are. And who you are. Bravo! Cheers! Hooray! ding ding ding!
Can't say it any better than this. Almost anyone with any tech sense at all can setup a server, throw a contol panel on it, sell at just over cost, and call themselves a hosting company. Not much to it. The "key" is doing all of this in such a way to maximize your potential; whether that is monetary or some other lofty goal.

- John C.

I guess I look at it in a slightly different perspective. Everyone I have read here has touched the outskirts but not said what I believe is the single most important factor:

CUSTOMER SERVICE

This is communicating with your customers, keeping your promises, taking care of servers, all of it.

The customers pay the bills, the customers refer other customers, etc... They are the true bottom line of any company and if you take care of them, then you can succeed.

If the customer is happy then everything is good. A customer can even be unhappy if you are communicating with them and letting them know what is going on because when everything is said and done that communication comes back to make the customer happy again if you communicate and do what you say.

In my opinion it's all about the customer as they are my boss and who pays my bills.

HARD WORK and DETERMINATION. There's no substitute for it. Technical skills, business aptitude, and a plethora of other factors will help determine if you're successful, but that stuff's all useless if you don't know how to work hard. I do believe in the adage "work smarter not harder", but that doesn't mean sitting around thinking of ways you can make money while putting in minimal effort. Unless you're the one-in-a-million person who gets lucky, you will have to work hard to be successful. The sooner you accept the fact that you're not the one lucky person, the better. :)

That reminds me of the two hour a day web hosts. :D

I agree you have to put in the time and effort, but I also believe this falls under customer service because if you aren't putting in the time and effort you aren't servicing your customers.

Larry and Eric, Looks like you are both like me tonight. Up late working. Like I told our CTO when he came on board, there are only 24 hours in a day, but then there are nights. :)

Agreed, hard work and determination (if they don't kill you) will pay off.

Best Wishes to you both!