I have been browsing the forums and i have seen many members have their own hosting companies and i was thinking with all the competition and other factors is your company paying off and is everyhting going to plan as you orignally planed when you started out?.
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I bet all put in alot of time bettering their companies and no doubt the cost of running your company is alot especially if you pay for a dedicated server.
Just wondering all feedback appreciated

It's expensive, and requires a massive ammount of time, and a iron resolve to see things through. I've been hosting websites for 7months, and I have just turned a monthly profit, let alone gaining back my investment.
There's a lot of competition, but it's all healthy, and good natured. Veryu few companies get nasty about things.

Does any company every actually go to plan? I very much doubt any company goes exactly as it was planned. That does not mean it is not successful of course. :)

No, I doubt many companies go exactly to plan, there are things people can't predict. But many do. My friend gave me a groth goal for his business, and he's outmatched it :)

When I started my first company, I was hoping (not planning as things are unsuspected) to have things pay for itself in 6 months. With luck, everything paid for itself in the first month. Only advertising that was ever done was via word of mouth. From then on, everything went uphill and in about 6 months or so, I was made a good offer :)

I dont think any business every goes to plan, if it does then they are very lucky.

We didnt actually start out looking for new customers, as my partners and I were mainly hosting friends sites and about 20 of our own. We only recently began advertising in the last month or so in an attempt to gain more clients, but we have been up and running for over 2 years. We have a designer that sends customers to us if they need hosting and we give them a discount rate for coming through him and vice versa. The only plan we had was to always keep things friendly and be as stable as we can, so that customers will have no need for our support services, thus far we have done so ( I have received 2 support issues in the last 6 months).

Has Hostime gone to plan? Not a bit. Not in web site design. Not in customer numbers. We've invested more than we wanted. We've spent to much time doing market research. And google hardly returns a result on our website.

Hi!
Eh?? Plan??? What plan??? <giggle>

Oay. Well...let me put it this way. In December, when it was started, just considering the complexity factor..it was a 7. Tough..a lot of work...doable. Now..umm...it's a 47.

It's not a job! it's a adventure! Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Ok..let me get back to it. Answer to your question: No. Not in the least. It is still doable, tho. Maybe. :)

Bryon

Started 1.5 years ago and i am profiting on each server.

Mine never seem to go to plan , when I was thinking of concentrating on virtual hosting, the dedicated servers boom. When I am planning to enlarge our colocation services, the virtual hosting boom. So nowadays I dun plan and just work at the one who boom

What, no business plan Nazis in this thread?

Originally posted by boonchuan
Mine never seem to go to plan , when I was thinking of concentrating on virtual hosting, the dedicated servers boom. When I am planning to enlarge our colocation services, the virtual hosting boom. So nowadays I dun plan and just work at the one who boom
Just go with the fro, bro. :D

Originally posted by Naz.A
I have been browsing the forums and i have seen many members have their own hosting companies and i was thinking with all the competition and other factors is your company paying off and is everyhting going to plan as you orignally planed when you started out?.
I'm starting my second hosting venture now :smokin: and I tell you this, it's fun and exciting putting all the pieces together. I have the advantage of starting this venture with my accumulated knowledge of 3 years in the biz, so there's no guesswork this time around. You have the model totally nailed.

I've planned everything with meticulous detail (picture Bob the mad Scientist) but there's still an unknown element out there, in how well my venture will be received by the Aussie public. I believe it will be a hit, but that's still an unknown element. :)

Hey aussie bob... when you sold httpme, you had to sign a noncompete thing didn't you? If you did, when does it end, and when will your new host launch?

I remember you mentioned tv ads on a local station... how are they going? (In production?)

Thanks!

we are thinking to open hosting business, but there is very low profit and high risk.

My business plan today is nothing like it was when I started and I doubt it will be much like it is today 6 months from now.

That all said my business has grown a lot larger than I thought it would when I started.

I read a book once named.. " Want to make God laugh? Show him your business plan." it was written by the former CEO of BurgerKing.
A business plan is only as good as the day it is written on, every day you have to hook shuck duck and cruve to stay in business. If you stick to your business plan no matter what then you are going to fail. A business plan is a goal, one you can use to gauge your success against but something you have to change on a regular basis as the tide changes.

Plus there are more bad plans than good ones written everyday ones that miss key assumptions and fail to take into account real world situations.

Originally posted by kelvinklay
we are thinking to open hosting business, but there is very low profit and high risk.

disagree. 99% of business are already overcrowed and very low profit but people still and able to make profit.

Google, for example are late in the search engine game. there are already ton of search portal out there but Google did it differently. they use their own search technology and focus on search rather "sticky" portal like Yahoo, Excite and MSN did. guess what, all other search engine are pretty much die out. only Yahoo, MSN and Google still get used by million and Google is leading the pack.

they follow their own unique business plan and do not follow other who are in the same industry. if my memory is correct...Yahoo was the one who come up with "sticky" portal biz plan to sell ad by keeping eyeballs stick on their site as long as they can. Google use a simple interface for searching and sold ad according to what user search.

whare are all the other search engine who follow Yahoo lead now? Altavista, webcrawler, excite, lycos...etc. are pretty much dead.

you can still make money in crowed market...you just need to do it better than other.

my two cents. 60minute's report on Google is truly an inspriation.

Originally posted by whatever
Hey aussie bob... when you sold httpme, you had to sign a noncompete thing didn't you?
Yep, but I'm fine with what this venture is doing.
I remember you mentioned tv ads on a local station... how are they going? (In production?)
Got some chap doing some preliminary stuff now. I have my site mascot, and want to do a cartoon type ad. We'll see how it goes. Might be starting with radio. That would be easier, cheaper and quicker. :)

What your doing now Bob sounds a lot like what my business plan was when I moved to the Gold Coast.

I talked to the Radio stations and had ads all lined up and ready to go when I changed directions at the last minute. I still think it is a viable plan and one that will succeded if done correctly. I will watch with interest at your success in the new venture and wish you all the luck.

Thanks Monte. :)

Nothing in life is certian, and there's risk to everything, but I'll do everything I can do to increase my chances of success. The odds are in my favor. :cool:

http://www.debatabase.org/details.asp?topicID=77

Under the pros column, second box down, "At 16 you can get a job and pay taxes"

That should mean that you don't pay taxes until you're 16!

EDIT: IGNORE THIS POST - WRONG FORUM.