I am just starting out, getting a reseller plan with 3 gigs of space. What should be my first steps besides getting a business plan finished? Like splitting up that small space and its pricing.

I have read the threads in the subforum, is there any other websites articles that can provide realy good info on how to get started?

Thanks,
Amirsan.

Calculate from how much you pay per month over that 3GB of space that you have.
Split and mark it up by a certain percentage then create the hosting plans.
There is no clear definate hosting plan scheme... Just try to tailor it to the small, medium and large customers and to your earnings too :)

Since you are on a reseller account, you have to offer only shared hosting plans. see if you can team up with your provider to offer things lkike resellers and dedicated servers to expand your options of service.
Because not all users want the same thing.

Cheers and good luck on your new venture :)

Let me tell you a little secret, webhosting is no easy feat. It takes dedication, many many hours infront of a computer with little or no sleep. You may have read about a host that only received his first customer after four months. The industry currently is flooded with "hosts" or people passing themselves off as hosts.

Their is no get rich quick scheme here and your unlikely to find it. I bet someone told you he has made X from webhosting. Webhosting is the "in" thing on the internet. Everyone and their mother is a webhost. People looking to make a quick buck is what gives this industry a bad name. Your 14 go and enjoy your life.

Well there is no harm him going to try out and get a little experience ;)

Because at 14 you CANNOT register a business let alone expand it. Not that I doubt you... but there are some engagements that requires you to be of a legal age to run a company....

Just become a sysadmin for another host or provide free service off your DSL connection (if your ISP allows it). This will gain you experience on how it's supposed to work. As for the money stuff, you might get paid if you are doing a good job.

Originally posted by excelblue
As for the money stuff, you might get paid if you are doing a good job.

Wow, is the web hosting employment market that bad? ;)

He was referring to an Out-Sourced type of support I think.

Prior to you getting your reseller account, you should develope you complete hosting plan. Make sure you have pricing setup, web page design, support system setup. Make sure you have business goals too.

No point in purchasing a reseller account now and spending 2-3 weeks getting everything prepared while paying for a useless reselelr account

ok, well this discussion was not opened to debate my age and why I should start this. I am going to start this, and I ask for anyone's expertise. :)

Do you guys know any good articles I should read? Ones that you read that helped you?

there would immediately be a lot of people to critize you if you let them know of your age.
Because most people at teenagehood are not really suited for starting a business let alone run it.

But even IF they are so called in adulthood, most still fumble.
Age is only a guage of how long you have walked this earth and not really a good tool to use for measuring Maturity and Experience.
If you are determined about something, go and do it.
( doesn't mean you have to be hasty, take sometime like 1 or 2 months and talk to people, read some books surf some internet ;) etc )
And after this period of time, you STILL want to do it, then its time to start getting down and dirty.

It took me a year of planning and revenue gathering to start off my own company. ( Maybe because I am getting old ;) )

Anyway as reply to your question theLocal library is a good place to start :)

This is a huge forum and I think you can find more information here than on any other website alone. One more thing you can see on this forum is that webhosting is a saturated market. There are THOUSANDS of hosting companies. If you want to get customers, you need to find a niche in the market. Remember that some niche markets are over saturated too. For example, there are probably thousands of "budget" hosts out there that do whatever they can to cut costs and offer cheap accounts.

I would try to avoid hunting for the low price segment of the market. It might look tempting as it is easier to get clients. But clients in that segment eventually create more problems for the unexperienced host. Eventually try to start locally with small businesses and gain experience before you try to get a lot of clients from the Internet.

Back in the day, I setup my first "hosting" web site when I was at the ripe old age of 15. I didn't get my first real customer from the Internet for a very, very long time. I had much better success selling web design services to local businesses and then also selling them hosting. Granted, success at 15 is a much different thing than success in the "real world". I was very content and happy to clear a few hundred a month at that age.

PS - Now that I'm 22, I have fanasties of putting it all up for sale and opening up a fruit stand in the tropics ;)

Now that I'm 22, I have fanasties of putting it all up for sale and opening up a fruit stand in the tropics

Me too :D But of course only if you throw in the fruit gals at the stand I would be with you all the way ;) LOL

LOL ... how about some nice dark dum and some dark women :0)

Because at 14 you CANNOT register a business Legally, [atleast in my state] you can register a company at ANY age. HOWEVER, I would recommend an LLC with a parent as a co-signer, which will be as close to legal as you can get.

Go back a few pages and read my post about SCORE, then contact your local one--best advice I can give!

Ok, well I have to tell that I am ignoring anyone who is mentioning any comment about my age or something of the matter.

Thanks for the other advice. I think I will go on my own from here on in, if someone has a good advice, please PM or email me. :)

congratulation Amirsan,
I apprecaite u for ur decesion....where there is will there is way I wish u success...
If you have less client is not problem but always try that once client come to u shud never ever leave ur service in other words try to hold ur customers by providing extra ordinary service hearing them very carefully.
I better suggest you to use some chat service like live person n better outsource that work n concentrate in ur business development plan insteading of waisting ur time dealing with small issues.....

Outsourcingwizard.com

thanks saurabh! I appreciate your support.

I will begin this business in a couple months, for now I will look for a job with another business to gain a bit experience and money, even save up for a good amount of resources. :)

I will still be 14 when I begin this, and I will prove that it is possible!

great keep it up...

I'm 15 and going to be doing the same in the near future