Let's make a list of all the things you need to do to start a web hosting business.

First on the list: deciding that I want to start a web hosting business. =P

Let's pick our brains a little. What's next?


JP

The next thing you need before you acquire anything else is a business plan. You business plan will be your checklist of things you need as well.

Also, decid if you want to be a webhost to create a real business or if you are only doing it on summer vacation while your not in school.

make sure uve got the funds and what route you wanna take to begin with: dedicated or reseller

Business Plan -- excellent step.

The business plan will outline, of course, the framework of the business, marketing strategies, financial details, etc.

What it will also outline are the necessary things one must acquire or put together, technically speaking, to get a web hosting service running -- I guess this is where I was going with it.

i.e. from a reseller standpoint -- choosing a service provider, necessary software and tools, etc.


JP

You will need to figure out quite a few things in your business plan.

To start with - you need to figure out your target niche and what you will do to differentiate your service from your defined competition (sales).

Then, you need to figure out how you will promote and reach these people (marketing).

Then you need to determine how you will setup accounts, handling the billing and payment processing as well as the recurring billings and/or invoices. (operations & finance)

Lastly, you need to have a solid plan in place for the ongoing maintenance and support for your customers. (support)

This is of course a very, very, very brief outline but it addresses a few of the most key items. You need to make sure that you are capitalized sufficiently to undertake all of the above and that you have some buffer room in place in case it takes longer than you expect to get things rolling at full speed.

This was the process we used to create ForceHost as a subsidary of ForcePC.

1) Initial Planning & Discussion among partners.
2) Initial Business Plan.
3) Startup fund calculations.
4) Operational agreement signed by all Partners, lawyers present.
5) Business registration.
6) Zone registration (With Township)
7) Business Bank account.
8) Domain.
9) Initial Server.
10) Website.
11) Promotion.

etc etc. The entire process we took was about 6 months of planning before execution.

The hardest part in my opinion is comming up with the name and market. After that, it's all downhill.

Some of the key features you will need is.
DBA or incorporation papers
Merchant Account
Domain
initial hardware
connectivity and space
website
Legal documents, TOS, AUP, domain agreements
software - web control panel, billing, support
Domain account, api intergration (i.e tucows)

A lot of company's skip this and that as they start up, but that's the general flow of what you need to do. To get to the end, your looking at a couple grand to fire it up. You can skip some cost by reselling, but be carefull of who you work with as the wrong upstream can break a small hosting company.

I almost forgot, after you've got a hosting company then you have to market and sell it.

Keep money aside for advertising, and plan on spending some PR time in forums and on the phone. Make sure to print up business cards, and give them to everyone for anything. When I need to give someone my phone number, I don't write it down I give them a card, even if they aren't interested in hosting.

Another consideration is tech time and server administration. Make sure you have backups planned in advance and staff to manage what your doing. If you wait until a server is down, your going to take a big hit if you can't have it back online immediatly.

Sometimes its actually better to spend more money up front on managed servers with a reputable company. It's cheaper than staffing.

It's easier to screw up a hosting company and earn a bad name than make it. Just read WHT ;)

-Business Plan

-Post on Forums (I.E. WHT)

WHT has thaught me a lot. So I think WHT is a very big resource for both beginners and advanced people in the hosting business.

My very first top checklist would be:

To see whether we have the sufficient finance, minimal skills and knowledge/experience in server management (if you want to get into dedicated market straight away) or in using control panel software (if you want to start as a reseller).

Once the above is checked, then the other checklists follow after.
Also, make sure you have a solid short term and long term plans (maybe in the next 3-5 years time or so) included in your business plans.

Cheers!

Originally posted by mattwade
The next thing you need before you acquire anything else is a business plan. You business plan will be your checklist of things you need as well.
I couldn't agree more. After writing a business plan for a potential web hosting business I decided it wasn't for me...until I have the ability to dedicate myself to the business fulltime.

.until I have the ability to dedicate myself to the business fulltime.

If your not already in business for yourself in some market or service, then trying to run a hosting company probably will become more than it's worth very fast.

Nothing like comming home from working all day, only to work all night answering support tickets and help requests. Your company should be you all day work. Not to mention, what do you do when one of your machines is down in the middle of the day, or 3 am?

I've seen people do both, and most of the time they either fail miserably or end up working non stop for very little extra cash.

i am at school so I can't really dedicate myself to helping out customers, supervising techs and admins, sorting out server issues and keeping the books while at school... if I did start a webhosting business now I would not be able to fulfil the expectations I set of myself in the draft business plan: to be available for customers, to dedicate time to company and servers etc...

Good man, we should all watch out after your graduation :)

Yeah, well I am probably not going to start a hosting business. I have other ideas also...

Out of everything I've done, hosting is probably the most enjoyable for me. But, real estate investments and maintenence is looking promising financially.