As the topic says, im curious to see how many employees your companies have.....

My company is branched all over the world! We have in house and remote staff. For our Delaware branch, our staff number is about 11 (that includes Sales/Support and Billing staff). When I first started (When I was about 12) I have one other person helping me, and worked out just fine :D.

Cheers,
-- Tim

Impressive!, so how long have you been running that company?

Well, its been quite some time :D!! I'd say its been a bit over 7+ years.

What Yash said below; I'd really like to know that. I never really did the math on my employees :). Due to a recent partnership, we are starting from a clean slate so I really can't do the math right now :)

im curious to see how many employees your companies have.....

what makes you so curious? :)

What would be of more value is the customers per staff member ratio. I'd be interested to know what ratios companies have here.

Im curious because im just starting out and i wana get a feel of what im up against.

What you are up against, in terms of competition?

Thats right.

Just let people answer the question. If you dont have any employees than don't respond. If you would like to let me know (i think it is interseting) than reply!

5 Employees... we are a new host :).

We have about 11 employees....our company has been in business since 2004.

40+ and growing :)

40+ and growing :)
That must be work to keep track of.
Very impressive.

Also, the people whom are new and have like 5 customers. I think that is very cool because they are ready for growth. (for me it would be alittle to expensive so I am waiting for things to take off to add staff.) ;-)

All staff are working voluntary at the moment. In the future employees will be paid :).

None but there are three other partners involved so the company has 4 total.

KGIII

We are a very new company and currently have 4 staff members. We hope to be expanding more very soon!

How many employees do you have?

Not enough! :P

Seriously though, it depends what you consider employees or contract workers, etc. Some people might mix both and give inflated numbers.

How many employees do you have?

Not enough! :P

Seriously though, it depends what you consider employees or contract workers, etc. Some people might mix both and give inflated numbers.

I consider anyone you pay on a monthly basis an employee :P

Seriously though, it depends what you consider employees or contract workers, etc. Some people might mix both and give inflated numbers.

Exactly, and I'd say that has been happening.

I consider an employee somebody who is full time and on the payroll. Somebody you pay a salary.

I don't consider somebody who is volunteering, or somebody you give $100 a month, etc. an employee. Same applies to contractors (ie: somebody who bills you for services rendered); they're not considered employees.

We only have 6 full time employee's but soon to grow.

Well, if you pay someone per ticket and they just work for you company I would maybe consder them an emplyee.. Wel, I dont think it really madders on exact numbers or what somone else considers an employee.

Well, if you pay someone per ticket and they just work for you company I would maybe consder them an emplyee.. Wel, I dont think it really madders on exact numbers or what somone else considers an employee.

How much do you usually pay support staff per ticket?

3 employees, all W2. One is Full time, 2 part time. Although one is soon to be full time.

How much do you usually pay support staff per ticket?
Well, that is not something I would share in the forum and I was not talking about me. I was just using an example.

Well, if you pay someone per ticket and they just work for you company I would maybe consder them an emplyee.. Wel, I dont think it really madders on exact numbers or what somone else considers an employee.

An employee is not a contracted worker.
An employee is someone who works full time for you, gets the benefits of an employee (a notification period before firing, maybe health insurace, etc) and files tax returns based on your monthly salary.

Honestly, I do find it upsetting that people are actually hiring people on a per ticket basis, and that too full-time. Either you are hiring a minor to do your work or someone who desparately needs a job. No one can possibly make enough money to sustain themselves off a per ticket based salary..

Also, hiring people at low pay levels over the internet, without a contract, without him providing you with a resume/working history, without even a telephonic interview.. i'd consider that quite risky and I can't believe some companies are actually doing that

When I was tlaking about a per ticket basis I was refering to the fact that alot of people probably counted those type of staff into the employee acount. I do not have staff that is payed on a per ticket basis.

I also agree that if you are going to run a company the right way you should pay the right price for the right type of services and employees. That is just my opinion and I was actually enjoying reading how many employees companies had. Before we got off track.

Just two employees. Literally a "mom and pop" shop.

Well, if you pay someone per ticket and they just work for you company I would maybe consder them an emplyee.. Wel, I dont think it really madders on exact numbers or what somone else considers an employee.

As others have said, that is legally not the case. If you claim a 1099er as an employee, you may not get penalties (in fact, you probably won't!), but if you do it the other way around, prepare to die by way of tax penalties. Muahahahhaha! :dgrin:

Okay, let's be serious.

I don't have any employees, because I don't yet have a company. But, I'm working on one. And, no, it's not hosting-related. :mad:

I'm getting sick of how much of a commodity hosting has become, to the point where almost every 12-year-old knows about it, and every other 12-year-old actually does it. And, unfortunately, they sometimes rip some of the competition apart with their $1.99/month fees for unlimited storage and transfer. They obviously don't care about making a nice, survivable income. They'd rather make a few bucks a month to pay off their reseller account, VPS, or in the best of cases, a real ... gasp ... dedicated server! Then, they can show all their friends just how successful they are, with a real business! And then, on their resumes and college applications, they can put down that they started a "successful" business at the young age of 12. I sure hope the universities catch on to this trend. Otherwise, it could be the end for people like me who did not really start up a hosting business. Soon, we'll be penalized because we didn't start up a hosting business. On the college apps in the next couple years, you'll be asked to tick a box for either "yes" or "no" to the question, "Did you start up a hosting business during your pre-teen or teenage years?" And, maybe, if you mark "no," you're automatically disqualified.

Bummer, eh? That's what capitalism does when kiddies who don't really have the desire to make a real, livable income enter the scene.

Where does that leave us enterprising people? Not in the hosting market, I'll tell you that much! :emlaugh:

I sure hope the universities catch on to this trend. Otherwise, it could be the end for people like me who did not really start up a hosting business. Soon, we'll be penalized because we didn't start up a hosting business. On the college apps in the next couple years, you'll be asked to tick a box for either "yes" or "no" to the question, "Did you start up a hosting business during your pre-teen or teenage years?" And, maybe, if you mark "no," you're automatically disqualified.



Haha :)
Seriously, most under-graduate schools are going to give a bigger weightage to academic record rather than what you mention.
Graduate schools (especially if you are doing an MBA) might look for some professional experience but I'm sure they'd see no relationship between a hobby and a professional working experience

The amount of 12 year olds that are starting hosting business's is VERY small. I am sure if you went around schools and did classroom surveys most kids would not even know what a hosting company is. If a 12 year old can actually be successful with their 1.99/month fees etc then good for them. If they can make enough and do a good job and get a dedicated server they are doing well. People would not be staying with them if they were so horrible. And yes if they did do that they could show all their friends. I bet none of their friends started an online business with and income etc. You are being totally unrealistic and sarcastic. Yes starting a hosting company has become a popular trend but by far it is not expected etc and I know you are being sarcastic. Even if "kiddies" don't want to make a real liveable income it would be amazing experience to have run a successful business at that age. And if you cannot compete in the hosting industry with these so called "kiddies" then there is something wrong. It leaves you enterprising people in the perfect position to be better then a lot of hosts and offer a quality service.

SniperDevil, that is funny. I had a good laugh reading your post since I recently went through the UC applications, and It wouldn't suprise me! Haha!

"How old were you when you started your first hosting business?"
"How old were you when you shut off all your $1.99 customers and opened up under a different name?"

lol

. . . Where does that leave us enterprising people? Not in the hosting market, I'll tell you that much! :emlaugh:
Good, one less host to contend with. :gthumb:

I'm getting sick of how much of a commodity hosting has become, to the point where almost every 12-year-old knows about it, and every other 12-year-old actually does it. And, unfortunately, they sometimes rip some of the competition apart with their $1.99/month fees for unlimited storage and transfer.

So what? Our hosting is backed by 20+ large companies who pay a premium to use our services, they recieve amazing support & high reliablility. The sites arnt complex and not hugley demanding but these businesses are!

$1.99 hosts pft! They couldnt handle nor fund a demanding client if they tried.

Well, I want to share my experience with you;

In the past I had one employee, and we have (both) a lot of work. When he was 6 month working for me, I dimissed? (sorry, I'm spanish, I'm sure it's not that, but it's the idea) him because he started to make another company in the time I pay for work for me, he started like a reseller without telling me nothing!! grgrgr!!!

Now, I have the 5% of the work I had in the past, with more customers and they are much more happy with the service. It's not comprenssive for me, but it's that.

And for the ask, my response It's: my company have no one employee and I'm going to stay alone as long as I can.

I don't really see the worth of knowing how many employees a 'competitor' of yours has. This is a number that's meaningless without the appropriate context in which it can be used. What are the overall revenues for the company? Gross profit, net profit, revenues per employee, customers per employee, etc. No one is going to disclose those types of numbers online, unless they are full of **** or complete idiots.

We average about 700 clients per full time on-site employee.

- John C.

We average about 700 clients per full time on-site employee.

- John C.

Amazing...... Could you explain this a bit more.....

Hmmm... let's see, each employee supports 700 clients...simple math of total clients hosted divided by number of employees employed...not sure what else to explain. ;)

- John C.

We have 2 full time (soon to be 3 as of June onwards), and 5 part time.

My business partner *is* full time in the sense he has a career until December, and he still puts in almost the same hours I do :)

It's modest, but it works for us :)

general question: how do you know that you need more empoyees? do you have some kind of measure wich tell you than the company need more hands? thanks.

general question: how do you know that you need more empoyees? do you have some kind of measure wich tell you than the company need more hands? thanks.


If you are a company that predicts well and tracks everything (finances, growth, revenues, expenses, cash flow), chances are you will know when you need another employee without anyone here telling you.

If you do not fit in the category that I mentioned above, then it will be when you are too busy and customers are getting angry at you for being slow at resolving issues.

Hmmm... let's see, each employee supports 700 clients...simple math of total clients hosted divided by number of employees employed...not sure what else to explain. ;)
Or is it 700 clients support 1 employee? :D

BTW, 700 clients to 1 support rep seems a tad high. You could reach that ratio as your client base matures and needs less support over time, I guess. There's a good example of economies of scale kicking in. :)

It can make perfect sense if you think about it. Depending on whether you offer a knowledge Database, guides to do simple tasks here and there, everything can be automated at a sense. It is feasibly possible for there to even be no employees but the owner and to have 700 clients, it would be hard but it is possible to do that and still have a good reputation for support because none of your clients would need any, usually they will come to you if it is a unique request or there is something wrong with the server but if you minus that then who the hell needs employees.

I think it depends what you do in all honesty. I played the web hosting game for a few years, ending last year, and now concentrating solidly in the game server industry we find the support is much more intense...how many employees just comes down to sooo many things, such as how much you are playing the employee (arguably pertaining to how effective he or she is), how motivated the employee is, what your base cost price line is (are you a 'cheap as chips' provider, middle of the road, or high cost, 'but we won't fanny you around' company).

Gosh, you could write an essay on this subject. It reminds me of my A-Level Organisational Psychology days! :D

More or less what I was talking about refers to web hosting itself, I don't have any experience in game servers so you are probably right from that perspective.

A lot of hosts seem to be overstaffed.

Although we have several staff there seems to be a number of smaller companies posting that they have 10+ or more staff...

I think its important to define a fulltime, paid member of staff as opposed to people posting who may have kids working their livechat for $10 a week.

I will honestly admit... I am definetly overstaffed ;). But as long as they get there pay and all works out... Whats wrong with that? :D

I totally agree with you there. I know somebody who is starting up their hosting company soon and he is starting out with 11 employees! Can you believe it? I mean anybody can provide 24 hour suppor themselves with 2 people, everytime I get on my computer I open up my live chat app and I can do my half and my employee over in India can then be on live chat when I'm not. I'm totally tired of these smaller overstaffed hosts.

I will honestly admit... I am definetly overstaffed ;). But as long as they get there pay and all works out... Whats wrong with that? :D

Because resource management is an important aspect of running a successful business?

Being so overstaffed is a waste of resource... that coule be better concentrated elsewhere in improving service and expanding your business.

I will honestly admit... I am definetly overstaffed . But as long as they get there pay and all works out... Whats wrong with that?


in a competitive world such as hosting, efficiency is important
If you are hiring 11 people in the US, and paying them around $40,000 per month and have only 500 clients.. I'd say that is quite inefficient and a waste of money. You could use that money elsewhere.

Exactly Yash!

I have a sneaky suspicion a lot of the smaller hosts who claim to have so many employee's probably dont have many/any official employee's on proper wages and compensation.

You see those types of hosts in the employment section of WHT saying "get free web hosting for support!"

Or is it 700 clients support 1 employee? :DI like that thought!
BTW, 700 clients to 1 support rep seems a tad high. You could reach that ratio as your client base matures and needs less support over time, I guess. There's a good example of economies of scale kicking in. :)Yes, it does help to have a mature hosting base, but more importantly, highly skilled and motivated employees combined with an information packed website/kb/tutorials and a reliable network can make this ratio work quite well in terms of employee compensation and customer loyalty.

I wouldn't recommend starting a hosting company with the 700:1 ratio. However, if your market is more business oriented, and you've got a great system in place, you can easily handle a ratio in this range and do it quite well. It isn't easy, and requires some "guru like" qualities in terms of managing and planning, but it can be done. :)

- John C.

I have a sneaky suspicion a lot of the smaller hosts who claim to have so many employee's probably dont have many/any official employee's on proper wages and compensation.

Of course, the trend I'm seen here at WHT is that people offer say $1 per ticket or maybe free hosting to take care of their support..
They end up having an entire support team for $100/month or even less, not realising how temporary and dangerous such an arrangement can be :(

It is dangerous, I agree. The smaller the host though the best option would be to pay by per ticket/chat. I mean they may recieve 1 ticket in one hour and 6 the other. The bigger hosts though recieving a lot more tickets and chats should opt to pay by the hour or even weekly because it is a continous operation with no sudden fluctuation on support calls depending on the hour.

Of course, the trend I'm seen here at WHT is that people offer say $1 per ticket or maybe free hosting to take care of their support..
They end up having an entire support team for $100/month or even less, not realising how temporary and dangerous such an arrangement can be :(

Trust is of course the other thing that some of these hosts may be overlooking.

From a security point of view, low paid temporary workers having access to systems is a big NO NO in my book.

It took us 6 months to recruit our last system administrator purely because we needed a reliable, trustworthy and motivated employee looking for fulltime work.

There were too many casual admin's who werent interested in a career path - something I just cant trust with access to our servers.

I like that thought!
I wouldn't recommend starting a hosting company with the 700:1 ratio. However, if your market is more business oriented, and you've got a great system in place, you can easily handle a ratio in this range and do it quite well. It isn't easy, and requires some "guru like" qualities in terms of managing and planning, but it can be done. :)


I think 700:1 is a very good ratio for any business model, and kudos to any manager that has been able to balance good response times with that sort of ratio.

I personally am struggling to reach that sort of ratio, due to the fact Live Chat support is a heavy burden on the support team. However with time, growth and efficienct planning, I certainly think its possible.

I like that thought!
Yes, it does help to have a mature hosting base, but more importantly, highly skilled and motivated employees combined with an information packed website/kb/tutorials and a reliable network can make this ratio work quite well in terms of employee compensation and customer loyalty.

I wouldn't recommend starting a hosting company with the 700:1 ratio. However, if your market is more business oriented, and you've got a great system in place, you can easily handle a ratio in this range and do it quite well. It isn't easy, and requires some "guru like" qualities in terms of managing and planning, but it can be done. :)

- John C.

Try 4000:1 on a daily basis.
:bawling:

Although to be 'honest' it's 1000:1 but certainly doesn't feel that way based on the ticket response distribution.

I won't get into names though. It's entirely all too stressful and most likely will not continue much further though. I need a nap on a beach in Florida.

Regarding livechat/phones: They definitely increase the burden 10-fold, phones aren't so bad as it's 1 on 1 but if you're the sole representative on supporting a relatively large customerbase and something does flop (or even during non-emergency times) it's hectic espescially in livechat.

Livechat is the devil. Someone abolish it immediately.

It took us 6 months to recruit our last system administrator purely because we needed a reliable, trustworthy and motivated employee looking for fulltime work.


Certainly, my top two system administrators have been working for me close to 2 years, and both were found after digging through lots of resumes and interviews.

they are probably the two most dedicated people in my team. With the rest of the admins (which consists of level2 and level1 admins), they can take care of any sort of crisis/failure that hits the company, whether I'm around or not.

But any good team demands good compensation and perks. I have my team covered with a health insurance policy, and many of them are getting good raises and are paid pretty top salaries. I can't imagine getting people more efficient for anything lesser than what I pay, let alone on a $1 per ticket basis.
Infact, one of my team members is getting a paid vacation to Las Vegas.

It just baffles me when I see threads like this. The value of a good administrator and the sort of salaries/perks they demand isn't realised on this thread

We have a staff of people from all over the world. They are temporary though. They wear out fast. we get them by the barrel from a container ship in San Pedro. I don't ask any questions. It's all cash and carry.

We have a staff of people from all over the world. They are temporary though. They wear out fast. we get them by the barrel from a container ship in San Pedro. I don't ask any questions. It's all cash and carry.

To be honest with the fact that you're in LA, I wouldn't doubt it for a second. :)
:smash:

WOW. I like your website datapimp.com

You have a very interesting philosophy

I also agree that the falue of a good support employee has really been hurt. But, over time it will balance itself out. (I hope)

I have 1 employee on staff, but 7 managing servers, and who handle all my tech stuff, they're based at the datacenter which I operate in - I hire them on a month-to-month basis, so you could say I employ them.

Just me, although with the amount of work I have to do I will certainly be looking to employ an in-house staff.

18 offices worldwide 6 per office, 12 more offices opening by december

18 offices worldwide 6 per office, 12 more offices opening by december

yeaaaaaa.... ok
congrats

18 offices worldwide 6 per office, 12 more offices opening by december
Your target market local customers? Why not have a central hub?
Well..
With that aside congrats.. hope it all goes smoothly.

18 offices worldwide 6 per office, 12 more offices opening by decemberYou'll certainly blow through that half million in investment capital in a month paying all those salaries for your "startup". ;)

Now if these offices are franchises independently run and paying themselves, then they are not really employees.

- John C.
(10 offices in each state, 10 employees per office, and that's just the US!) :D

I don't have employees..if you say that employees are legally contracted..

As I start this company with other 3 guys who helps me with Support.
Also I have a guy who is helping me with server manage, a lawyer (it's always good to have one :)) and I have a team of 5 designers helping me with custom designs and templates...but they're not working full for me as they work for comission basis.

basically I have 10 workers...but employees, I don't have one

Well really depends on the type of business you run. Of course if you have 500 clients that only pay $9.95 or less you would not have 11 employees. Though if you run a business for business people and have 500 clients paying $200.00 per month to keep the site up and have support staff on hand to help them at any time then it would be worth it.


in a competitive world such as hosting, efficiency is important
If you are hiring 11 people in the US, and paying them around $40,000 per month and have only 500 clients.. I'd say that is quite inefficient and a waste of money. You could use that money elsewhere.

(10 offices in each state, 10 employees per office, and that's just the US!) :D
:smash:
JohnCrowley

Getting the hammer from Ausie Bob.
If he gets the hammer than so does
:smash:
SprintMedia

My hammer was for being sarcastic though. ;)

- John C.

:-) I did not catch the sarcasim.. Mine was about play fullness.

Well, no paid employees yet. Two owners and a revolving "staff" of 3-5 volunteers at the moment.

My hammer was for being sarcastic though. ;)

- John C.

For a moment I honestly wasn't sure if you were being serious or funny!

I really don't know why some companies cherish a high people count. People cost money, and in web hosting if you get good people and have good systems in place, you can scale pretty far with a handful of staff.

To be honest with the fact that you're in LA, I wouldn't doubt it for a second.Don't hate me because I'm beautiful!

Painfully fractured grammar aside, I hear what you're saying. Los Angeles is such an obviously inferior place. I can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to live here. It's horrible.

Stay away everyone! Do not move to Los Angeles!

Please.

Stay away. It's awful here.

Really.

For a moment I honestly wasn't sure if you were being serious or funny! My endling tag lines are often an attempt at humor. :D

I really don't know why some companies cherish a high people count. People cost money, and in web hosting if you get good people and have good systems in place, you can scale pretty far with a handful of staff.So true! Yes, we are a small staff as well (3 full time on-site employees), but can manage 3000 or so domains and around 100 servers.

- John C.

BTW, 700 clients to 1 support rep seems a tad high. You could reach that ratio as your client base matures and needs less support over time, I guess. There's a good example of economies of scale kicking in. :)


Nah, when we were running full swing prior to last April (*cough*) we had 4 full time onsite employees and 1 part-timer (1 admin, 2 tech support, 1 part-time billing...and me) to manage around 5000 clients/20,000 or so hosted accounts. It wasn't hectic and we had very few complaints. Heck, there were times when we were actually bored! :D

Efficiency is the key.

--Tina

Myself, a designer, a sysadmin. Been doing local design/hosting since 1996.