This question is for host that have been in business over 6 months. What is the number of your customers?

Thanks,
Peter

I'm suprised with the results so far. Almost 50% have less than 100 customers after 6 months in business. It seems a little low to me. What do you think?
And one more thing, please I need votes only from people doing hosting business over 6 months :D.

Thanks to all for the votes,
Peter

I am not very suprised. Web-hosting is not the easy get rich quick scheme a lot of people make it out to be. It is a time consuming business which is becomming quite crowded.

RFHost,

I am not very suprised. Web-hosting is not the easy get rich quick scheme a lot of people make it out to be. It is a time consuming business which is becomming quite crowded.

Do you think that the results are due to the fact that most of the new hosting companies invest small amount of money (sometimes $0) in advertising? Or maybe because 6 months is too short period for building serious customer base even if you advertise heavily?

Peter

50 customers are alot to look after in the first 6 months. I am sure that if you ask most of the new companys that are starting up they would all be very happy with 50 odd customers after there first 6 months or so in business.

I'd be surprised if anyone posted their actual figures to be honest, maybe I'm a little cynical but I certainly wouldn't...

What I will say though is that 50 customers in the first 6 months is not a lot to acheive.

We acheived 50+ in a lot lot shorter space of time than 6 months :)

Mat,

I'd be surprised if anyone posted their actual figures to be honest, maybe I'm a little cynical but I certainly wouldn't...
What makes you say that, this poll is anonymous isn't it?


What I will say though is that 50 customers in the first 6 months is not a lot to achieve


I agree with you, but what makes you company different than the majority of the companies having less than 100 customers after 6 months? Advertising? Low prices? Stable servers and good support can be factors for increasing the numbers of your customers after you find these first 50-100, right?

Peter

The poll is anonymous to an extent. But vBulletin can show who voted voted for which option in the admin section, and to be honest I don't particularly want others seeing where I voted.

We have done limited advertising, some on google, then posted a few specials in the special offers forum - I think these and our reputation (which was pretty good until we had an awful week of fork bomb attacks :rolleyes: ) carried quite a bit of weight.

I agree, stable servers and good support will cause customers to recommend you, which is always nice.

Matt,

I see what you're saying :D. Yes I'm sure that there are people out there that are trying to make it look harder than it is. I'm not saying that web hosting is a get rich quick scheme, but hey if you got less than 50 customers after 6 months then try something else :D

Peter

It's not how many clients you have after six months but it should be are you making a profit after six months? I only have 31 clients after two years but my profit is $600+ per month. I host local clients that pay a premium for me to go to their home/business to show them the basics of HTML(That's why I charge a decent setup fee). After one visit, the clients continue to pay a premium just in case they have a question and want personalized service. Most never contact me again unless they want a 2nd domain name, they want to add custom scripts, or they give me a referal. This isn't bad for maybe 4 hours work per month.

-Mike

$150 per hour ... yea not bad! I could live with it! ha ha ha!

A new hosting company is a lot of work and getting 100 is already a really good step. Those that voted <1000 are eighter big companies that don't bother to read the less then 6 months thing or a company that bought out a big company. When you start a new company you need to first get some clients. Then word of mouth gets around and then you start growing but probably not as rapidly as most people thing. Finding clients is extremly hard in the first few months. After that it gets a lot easier.

Originally posted by MrLister
Those that voted <1000 are eighter big companies that don't bother to read the less then 6 months thing...
Actually he asked for votes from companies who had been in business over six months. :)

Originally posted by Intelligent Hosting

Actually he asked for votes from companies who had been in business over six months. :)
If you ask me that is a real stupid question. A company that started 7 months ago will (always) have less customers then those who are doing webhosting for over 3 years!?

There are several factors that determine the size and rate of growth for a hosting company.

1) Reputation
2) Commitment
3) Funding

When VO was started we had 50 customers in just a few weeks, mostly due to the fact that I had already been around both WHT in the industry for a couple years while before that.

But you also have to show commitment to your customers, and then they will see that your really set in this goal to expand your hosting company and have confidence to recommend you to their friends.

Funding isn't as important as many people make it out to be, what is important is for you to know your limits and sculpt your growth around it. If you only have enough money for 2 servers to start with and you go and sell 3 servers worth of customers and try and cram them onto 2 servers, that hurts both your reputation and your customers confidence in you.

Always be committed to your customers, always know your limits, and accept it when you reach those limits, and you will be much better off.

Starhost,

If you ask me that is a real stupid question. A company that started 7 months ago will (always) have less customers then those who are doing webhosting for over 3 years!?

Your suggestion is not true(I'm not saying is stupid) :D. You can be in business for 5 years and to be really small (because you want it that way or because you don't have enough money to invest, you don't have programming/design/marketing skills...) and you can have 1000's of customers within a few weeks if you jump in the business with big bucks.

My question is not stupid at all. If you can understand it I'll explain it to you. I want to find out the lowest quantity of customers that you can have with min 6 months in business.
I found out the answers of a couple of different questions too, but it will be too complicated to try to explain them to you, that's why I'm finishing the post.

Take care,
Peter

I've seen several people say that you should start off slow... and not to expect many customers at first... even with a lot of advertising. Hmmm...

I haven't even opened my hosting business yet... the website isn't even up to the public yet. However, I've got over 25 paying customers just on my server and more coming every week...

Many are through word of mouth... as I have done no advertising. I expect when I actually start advertising my client base will rise to approximately 250-500 clients within 3-6 months.

I think it's very important that you treat your hosting business as just that... a business that you own. Promote it every way you can. Email signatures, shirts, business cards, thank you notes to current clients/customers, etc.

Ask customers if they're happy to refer you to friends... or offer them an incentive such as free hosting or a gift. Look at www.gopromos.com for some great ideas.

Well..

Dixiesys is 6 months and 2 weeks old. I had to answer > 1000

:D

Originally posted by Dixiesys
Dixiesys is 6 months and 2 weeks old. I had to answer > 1000

Congratulations!