Im just wondeirng how many people "live" of the hosting industry.

I myself am running my company on the side while i get various qualifications in the computing sector, then i intend to live off the money i make from my business.

how many people are actually living of theirs?

Your thoughts would also be nice ;)

i'm guessing probably 80% of people here run hosting biz as hobby/side biz.

only few here live off as living...

i'm running it as side biz as long as it pay for itself. i'm not complaining.

Those people who are motivated by security needs a regular job or regular business to meet their basic needs and feel secure, on other hand most of the people want freedom and seek to convert a full time job or work to a part-time job or work, I think these people fail more often but they can be successful in long run also.

Just to add - Regular Job can end in a heartbeat :) So personally, I don't think there is a huge difference between working for somebody or for yourself in terms of loosing your position.

People that work for themselves tend to work harder since it depends on their success and ability to make a living.

Working for yourself is definitely a way to go - IF you're 100% confident in yourself and in the product/service you're offering.

Worst case scenario? You can always work for somebody else. So guess what? It's not that terrible at all, assuming you're doing what you're most passionate about.

I dropped out of lawschool for webhosting... And it was a good decision. I am doing it full time now.

Right, My dad was always saying " You can work for someone else and when you die to leave nothing behind you OR you could work for yourself and when you die you leave a prosperous business for your kids" I realise he is right. He has seen many dowturn in his life... but that business is still going on with much Prosperity.

Full time. But I program and host.

Originally posted by ICALIV
Just to add - Regular Job can end in a heartbeat :) So personally, I don't think there is a huge difference between working for somebody or for yourself in terms of loosing your position.


I have seen web hosting companies end/dissapear overnight.


Originally posted by thisisnoneofyourb
I dropped out of lawschool for webhosting... And it was a good decision. I am doing it full time now.

Thats interesting. I know corporate lawyers that are making in the ball park of $500,000 per year. Some how I doubt you are making more than a fraction of that doing web hosting... However, I guess if you are more happy with web hosting than being a lawyer, than so be it. Just hope that the foundation you have is strong enough for the long term.

Is it my main job?

No, second job and source of income.

Do I spend full-time amount of hours?

Yes.

Originally posted by Josh Stein
I have seen web hosting companies end/dissapear overnight.

And I've seen people getting fired the same day they were hired. Your point is?

I live solely off website hosting/design.

(I have no choice ... all the good jobs start before I 'get up' in the morning ;-)

Web Hosting has been my full-time dedication since February 29th of 2004. We of course offer other supplimental services as natural extensions to the hosting business, to bolster the bottom line, but honestly, I can't say I don't enjoy my days. All 24 hours of each and every one of them.

:)

I ran a hosting biz full time 5 years ago and after selling it went back into full time employment. Two years later i'm leaving full time employment and going back into full time hosting! Just can't keep away...

justin

Originally posted by Josh Stein
I have seen web hosting companies end/dissapear overnight.




Thats interesting. I know corporate lawyers that are making in the ball park of $500,000 per year. Some how I doubt you are making more than a fraction of that doing web hosting... However, I guess if you are more happy with web hosting than being a lawyer, than so be it. Just hope that the foundation you have is strong enough for the long term.

An average lawyer in my country makes less than half as much money as I make. The 500k per year guys are not average lawyers. It is like out of 500 students you have to be the best and then out of 500 of these best students you have to be the best again and then your daddy needs connections. Then you have a 1% chance to get the 500k per year job. An average lawyer is either unemployed or making around 35k per year - tax here. Perfect students make like 90k -40% tax in the first year. I am making more than that after only 1.5 years in the hosting business. There is a hire and fire strategy where they employ three lawyers and keep the best of them. The other two get fired and can go hang themselves because noone is going to take you if you haven`t been good enough in your first job. Manager lawyers of the largest law firms make around 250k - tax here. And I expect to have 8 times as many clients at the end of 2006 than I am having at this time so I am even going to make much more eventhough I do already make more money than an average lawyer in this country.

Do not forget that the USA are not the world. In almost all other countries even the top managers of large banks make less than around 500k per year.