Just a thought, but would it be recommended to say rent a server, hire a server admin company (say $100 p/m - ezsm.com) and a customer support company (outsourced) (say again, $100 - $200 p/m). That would leave me with much less work, i.e. billing and maybe a few other things?

What are the pros and cons of this method?

I don’t see any prob. as long as you have enough business so that you can pay server rend and support fees.

Well the benefits of having a good support company is that you actually get enough time to do other thing as you said billing and sales and need not to worry about tech issues, you may want to check if everything is all right few times a day.

But there are few things that you should remember when you hire Support Company.
#1 Do not expect the results the moment you give away the support. It’s an ongoing process and admin sitting out there needs some time to get the hang of your sales plans, your setup etc. so if you are not helping them out for some time the decision of Support Company may hurt your business.

#2 selecting the support company is a tricky job. You should select the vendor who matches your requirements the best. Only price should not be the criteria in this case as sooner or later you would be completely depending on them and your performance would be based upon how well they perform.

#3 you should be very clear about what process you want to outsource i.e. tech support , Pre-post sales , billing or phone support and evaluate your outsource support team based on each process you are outsourcing. Its not necessary that one who is great admin can also be a great per-post support agent.

I guess you should think about these things. Good luck.

Nice post UDS, thanks for the points, I'll definitely consider them.

Billing I would handle my self. Support and Admin you can outsource but I would handle the billing by myself unless you have a personal accountant.

Originally posted by gghosting
Billing I would handle my self. Support and Admin you can outsource but I would handle the billing by myself unless you have a personal accountant.

Yep, I wouldn't trust someone else with billing unless they're fully qualified.