A random survey, just interested in the general feeling.

Honesty, appreciated. Poll is anonymous.

Thanks in advance for taking part!

My definition of "well" is manageable growth, profitability, positive cash flow, and low staff turn-over. Of course, a requisite to all of that is happy customers.

By my own definition, we're doing much better than we have in all previous years since the dot com bust (2000ish). Prior to 2000, we were doing excellently, but 2000 to June 2005 were hellish. What changed since June 2005? We raised prices, stopped focusing on cheap hosting, and improved our facility.

Just how well are we doing? Small growth that's not quite where I'd like it to be, profitable, and most months are cash flow positive. Staff turn-over has fallen dramatically since we raised our prices, but we also have fewer people on staff now than in years past.

Going very good here. Maybe a tad slower than I anticipated (hoped), but never the less, going well.

Cashflow is now at the point where all running costs are met, and there's just about enough for capital investments (buying servers etc) back into the business, to be made from cashflow, and not from external capital.

That's the first major hump, IMO, is being fully self sustainable with your running costs, and then not needing to pump $$ into the business from other capital, for capital outlay costs like equipment etc.

It's going alright. I wish I was growing faster but slow and steady often wins the race. That said I'm making plans to focus more on dedicated servers and allocating additional funds to marketing.

Slower growth than I would like but really about all I can handle at this time also.
Profits are excellent due to astute financial advice and sound money management from my partner/wife/CPA/business manager.
Business is way into the black and all equipment is owned and paid for.
Staff is happy.

Hope to jump start growth again once we get our new racks in place at the new Atlanta Nap and are able to start filling orders for new customers again.

. . . Profits are excellent due to astute financial advice and sound money management from my partner/wife/CPA/business manager.
Just curious :) what impact on profit can a CPA really have?

They're generally at the backend of the money flow, and it's more your (frontend) business model (plan pricing, server/staff costs etc) that determine the profit that's generated by the business.

Although I suppose more profits due to more effective tax management/minimisation strategies?

Oh you would be surprised she runs twenty different models on how we depreciate the assets, servers, switches, computers office equip etc.. She can looks at our capital expenditures and when is the best time to buy stuff for tax purposes, GST cost you name it.
Not only our normal business expenditures but the best way we do things like buy cars if they are bought in the company name and leased back etc..

She is worth her wait in gold to our business.

Yeah, good points. Lucky bugger you. I have to pay an arm and a leg to see my accountant and yours is a bit closer. :D

Yeah it is nice to be able to roll over in the middle of the night and say hey honey about that depreciation schedule on the new dual servers we bought last month.:beer:

Note:
She is worth her wait in gold to our business.

Should read She is worth her weight in gold to our business.

She is worth her wait in gold to our business.

Should read She is worth her weight in gold to our business.
Should say that again, just incase she reads this. :wavey:

I am sure she will at some point. She makes it a habit to look in here and see what I am saying. :wavey: Heya hon. :wavey:

Good results from the poll so far, lots of participation. For those of you who aren't that satisfied, what is it that is your largest hurdle/complication? Marketing, staffing, biz dev, support, capital required to effectively start?

Good thread.

Business is going good, profit is growing, client base strong.

Business is going fine, already running for more than 2 years now, getting more customers every month, can't complain :)

Growth is slow but steady. Having sold all my other brands and now focusing heavily on the local market, I'm seeing good results... again slow but steady!

For those of you who aren't that satisfied, what is it that is your largest hurdle/complication? Marketing, staffing, biz dev, support, capital required to effectively start?

Even though by some standards we're doing well, I'd say that I'm still not satisfied. I'd like to see better cash flow so I never have to inject outside funds, even if I do get those funds back just a few days later in most cases.

Our largest hurdle has been a combination of marketing and our underlying cost structure. Because we run our own facility, we don't have the benefit of sitting on-net to all the inexpensive bandwidth available in major metro areas. That has it's benefits, though, and we have taken full advantage of the positive aspects of our location. Then there's the cost of the facility (repairs, maintenance, upgrades) which does slow us down a bit when we have to expand. Because our underlying costs are higher than much of the competition that resells someone else's facility, our prices have to be that much higher for us to keep things in the black. Because our prices are higher, we have to work that much harder to show people our value proposition.

Even though by some standards we're doing well, I'd say that I'm still not satisfied. I'd like to see better cash flow so I never have to inject outside funds, even if I do get those funds back just a few days later in most cases.

I know exactly what you mean. I target higher budget clients and right now, I'm at a state where I have a decent profit on one power-server - and it's very difficult for me to think about expanding - each time a new expensive power server is rented, it's another headache and my profits would be gone until there are enough clients to cover the costs.

And it's very difficult as a self-employed working at the convienience of my own home to find the appropriate business partners to expand.. I found contacts established online mostly just die away quickly and are unreliable. I keep questioning what would be the best way to find the appropriate business partner...

This is where I'm slightly envious to those with their own equipments, working in the server admin's office - but I'd imagine there are plenty more, a whole world of headaches in running your own equipments, staff and network - compared to the root-access-via-ssh hosts.

But I just posted this thread out of curiosity of people's responses. Quite interesting.

For me the biggest problem with selling value is not having true 24x7 phone support. I have hired TouchSupport to do the tickets (the entire lot of > 40 a month!) but clients seem to want to call at strange hours. I guess I call places at strange hours too, but anyway, selling to people and not offering 24x7 phone support is a problem.

And I've never sold on price but I've been leaning towards lowering prices a bit to attract clients. I'm also currently contemplating doing the 24 month prepayment in exchange for super low prices. The question to any company thinking about this, including mine, is what are you going to do at month 18-24 when all that prepayment has been spent on test marketing, or whatever your poison is, and the server bills come. For that reason I like the month-to-month because every month is nice and steady.

What are your thoughts on doing a 24-month for ~50% of a monthly cost? I know we talk about it once a week, but is selling on price really stupid? We charge $18.95/mo right now and prospective clients seem to think that's expensive.

To give everyone a frame of reference, when I started in 1995, I paid $15/mo for http://my-host/~myname/ (a shell account) with 10 MB of space. I "upgraded" to pair and was paying super-high prices with them, too.

Our first package, the "Mega" was 150 MB for $29/mo and they sold at a rate of a few new signups a month with essentially no marketing. Of course then, like now, users only would use 5-10 MB each.

Business is good, our growth is where we want it, profit is good. I don't want much more staff to keep it simple, but in the end thats the managers worry. Our plans are going well and everything we wanted has been done. Now its time to start giving back to our customers as I consider them the share holders.

Never happy :) Although I think we are doing great.

I think the most significant problem I am facing is being outside the US.. Certain things could simply be handled better if I was closer to the action.
I do however plan to move to the US this summer which should take care of that :)

. . . I do however plan to move to the US this summer which should take care of that :)
That's a big step. Are you going for permanent citizenship in the US?

That's a big step. Are you going for permanent citizenship in the US?

I actually hold US citizenship.. I am actually trying to get permanent dual citizenship in India so I can move between easily :(

But I do think its my presence there would benefit our business. Right now, we are handicapped in some areas. I'm sure you know a few areas yourself AussieBob :)

. . . Right now, we are handicapped in some areas. I'm sure you know a few areas yourself AussieBob :)
I don't feel the slightest need to be working from LA, even though our servers are located there. But I do see some advantages of it, but the disadvantages of such a move far outweigh them.

We charge $18.95/mo right now and prospective clients seem to think that's expensive.

Increasing volume through lower prices is a slippery slope. Most businesses go out of business shortly after lowering prices, increasing volume, and raising wages to staff. You can't argue with those statistics.

I'm a recovering price slasher myself. I've been down that road and it isn't pretty. There is no pot of gold at the end of it. Just a pothole where your company used to be.

I don't feel the slightest need to be working from LA, even though our servers are located there. But I do see some advantages of it, but the disadvantages of such a move far outweigh them.

You have a large family, I do not :) So for me the move isn't a huge thing. But we plan to have more staff there... Tax, banking and credit related issues... Streamlining hardware delivery, etc..

January, February, and March were months of explosive growth for us. April and May has been much slower, but still steadily growing. The business is profitable, but all of the profit is being re-invested into infrastructure and advertising at the moment.

You have a large family, I do not :) So for me the move isn't a huge thing.
Yeah, that's so true. If I wasn't married with 6 children and had our own home etc, I'd probably be living and working in LA. But I've always had a lady on the scene, so I wouldn't have been single for long. :D

I have just started my new company but have a good knowledge of hosting. But host a fair number of customers to say it is less than 2 weeks old.

Chris

Yeah, that's so true. If I wasn't married with 6 children and had our own home etc, I'd probably be living and working in LA. But I've always had a lady on the scene, so I wouldn't have been single for long. :D

With six kids I do not know how you find the time to run such a tight ship. That alone must be a challenge.

With six kids I do not know how you find the time to run such a tight ship. That alone must be a challenge.

Yeah, I've always enjoyed his posts about keeping the two separate, yet not being too out of reach for the family. Good stuff :agree:

With six kids I do not know how you find the time to run such a tight ship. That alone must be a challenge.
It's a tough balance but my kids know that their daddy must work long hours. My oldest son is always hovering about the office, asking about how many new clients have signed up. He's got a head for business and numbers, and won't be long before he's working beside me. Every now and then my 2 oldest sons challenge me to some games of billiards, so there's enough time for some family time, whilst keeping a close eye on the business.

This is a business where you have a lot of freedom, so long as you're no more than 15 seconds away from your workstation. :)

This is a business where you have a lot of freedom, so long as you're no more than 15 seconds away from your workstation. :)

Very True!

...and after 10 years at it - THAT is starting to get old. The bad news for us small operations is that outsourced support won't cut the mustard in a disaster, so we always have to be close.

For me growth is quite slow at the moment, It was faster at the beginning but now its beginning to slow down - nothing really bad but I need to concentrate on marketing a bit more

For me growth is quite slow at the moment, It was faster at the beginning but now its beginning to slow down - nothing really bad but I need to concentrate on marketing a bit more

You're not alone - I've been feeling the same way. The problem is, marketing can easily get lost when you have IPower paying $100 per signup to affiliates for a $95/year hosting account.