Hey all:

I am in final stages of business plan to start my own hosting business + custom website designs + do-it-yourself website builder. Just need suggestions that what I am doing is right or not.

I have bach and masters degree in CS. I have good network related programming experience in C/C++ VB and ASP (though I wont be coding anything myself now). I will be hiring team of around 15 people (including designers, coders, tech team etc).

I am not expecting any good profit for one whole year from this business.

We are already hosting/managing 15+ websites for our other business. I am into online business for last 4 years. We have our own merchant account (but we also use 2CO).

Btw, I am in Pakistan, salaries are not that high here. I have initial cash of around $120,000/= (To cover 7 months overheads...like office rent, employees salaries, advertisment chagrges, server fees etc).

For Advertisment, we will use Adwords and physical ads in tech related mags in US. We will also be using SEO, as we already have our SEO team.

As far as I know, support will be main factor for business success. We will have 24/7 support in three forms: Toll-Free phone support, live help and ticketing system.

Initially we will be offering only Windows hosting. For Control Panel I have decided to go with Plesk Unlimited + Power Pack.

Will use ENOM API for domain registration/management.

Initially we will get only one dedicated server with full data-backup support. Specs will be somewat:

2 x 3.0GHz Processors
2 x 2MB Cache
2GB ECC DDRII 677 RAM
2 x 120GB SATA HDD
2000GB Public Bandwidth
100 Mbps Switch
5 Public IP Addresses
Plesk Unlimited + Power Pack
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Std
Microsoft - SQL Workgroup 2005
250GB Backup Support

I have still not decided which service should I use for dedicated sever. SoftLayer rates are very good. Are they reliable? Howz Godady? Their rate are high though. Any suggestions for dedicated server provider?

Thats it. I am sure that I have missed many thing, thats why I am here :) Any help will be appreciated.

I found these forums very helpfull.


Regards,
:)

PS: For billing we will most probably make our own system.

GoDaddy is horrible for anything except domains.

SoftLayer is very good. You won't go wrong with them.

Ya GoDaddy should stick to domains. We have a couple systems at SoftLayer and have no problems at all. Quick response times to tickets, and the user control panel is awesome.

SoftLayer was formed by a bunch of former ThePlanet management, so they know what they're doing.

Okie dokie..... I will stay away from GoDaddy.......

Thanks :)

For that I would try cari.net.

I have still not decided which service should I use for dedicated sever. SoftLayer rates are very good. Are they reliable? Howz Godady? Their rate are high though. Any suggestions for dedicated server provider?

Go with SoftLayer, GoDaddy cannot compare, read reviews on their web hosting service.

I will be hiring team of around 15 people (including designers, coders, tech team etc).

For a new business, I am not sure why you would need 15 people. You can hire more staff as your client base grows, but start with 2-3 staff members for sales/billing/support. Do not waste money on hiring anyone you will not need to begin with.

Softlayer is great as is LayeredTech.

thank all...


Can I just ditch Plesk and idea of making own billing/domain management panel and instead just get HostingController, Helm or AWBS?

All three can be inetgreted with 2CO and Enom for full automation. Or do i still need Plesk in addition to these softwares?

Regards,

Your have already beaten the toughest obsticle in getting a webhost started ! 120k should if handled right get you to a few hundred k a year in sales in 1-2 years. Congrads, and good luck!

wow, you're the first person on here that i've seen when they're starting a business that actually knows what they're doing.
The whole "not expecting profit for one year" is really smart....
Is there any reason you dont want a reseller package to start off with? Even if its a big reseller package, the investment goes down dramatically, making it easier for you to catch up with your investment

With the amount you have available, why are you hiring 15 workers but sticking with 2CO for transactions?

I'm hoping that with $120k in funds, you will be aiming for a business that can pay back that initial funding, especially if it's in the form of a loan. A merchant account will be beneficial for you even though it may have monthly fees, above $1k/month or so you will benefit by not using 2CO.

You have mentioned a LOT of how you plan to setup a proper company however you haven't planned out how you will get clients and revenue.

Most companies in the late 90's and early 2000 failed simply because they did exactly what you seem to be doing. You are setting things up however you don't seem to be focusing on getting clients. Hiring people, opening an office, etc. are all things that should fall into place. Start small and show evidence that you can bring in clients and revenue for the business.

If you are stuck on spending lots of money, start off with half the staff you planned and spend the money on a good IT Consultant. They may charge one or two hundred US dollars per hour, but they will help you properly start your company and get these clients you need in order to run a business.

Sorry if I sound discouraging, but you really need to be sure that this $120k will be worth even trying to start a hosting business with. Something money won't get you is a reputation of excellent that others have by being in the business for years and an established and matured business that is able to provide what customers need.

There are too many times when putting large amounts of money will not really help a business and might be better off in investment accounts even as simple as a high interest savings accounts.

If you need any other help, I can help you out.
You can contact me on MSN Messenger (asim@asim-s.com), or AIM (pureFlamezz).

Since I am also from Pakistan, you may benefit from me. ;)

wow, you're the first person on here that i've seen when they're starting a business that actually knows what they're doing.
The whole "not expecting profit for one year" is really smart....
Is there any reason you dont want a reseller package to start off with? Even if its a big reseller package, the investment goes down dramatically, making it easier for you to catch up with your investment

Reason for not going with Resller is that we will not have total control over support and servers....I mean our support will actually depend on our provider.

We need everything under our control.....i know its not that easy.....and we WILL make mistakes......but I am hopefull that everything will be streamlined after 1 yr.


Regards,
:)

With the amount you have available, why are you hiring 15 workers but sticking with 2CO for transactions?

I'm hoping that with $120k in funds, you will be aiming for a business that can pay back that initial funding, especially if it's in the form of a loan. A merchant account will be beneficial for you even though it may have monthly fees, above $1k/month or so you will benefit by not using 2CO.

You have mentioned a LOT of how you plan to setup a proper company however you haven't planned out how you will get clients and revenue.

Most companies in the late 90's and early 2000 failed simply because they did exactly what you seem to be doing. You are setting things up however you don't seem to be focusing on getting clients. Hiring people, opening an office, etc. are all things that should fall into place. Start small and show evidence that you can bring in clients and revenue for the business.

If you are stuck on spending lots of money, start off with half the staff you planned and spend the money on a good IT Consultant. They may charge one or two hundred US dollars per hour, but they will help you properly start your company and get these clients you need in order to run a business.

Sorry if I sound discouraging, but you really need to be sure that this $120k will be worth even trying to start a hosting business with. Something money won't get you is a reputation of excellent that others have by being in the business for years and an established and matured business that is able to provide what customers need.

There are too many times when putting large amounts of money will not really help a business and might be better off in investment accounts even as simple as a high interest savings accounts.


We will be using 2CO as backup payment processor, thats why we need 2CO integration support.

My most staff will be realted to custom website design and support.

To get clients initially we really cannot do anything except for full fledge advertisment (Google, Overture and Print Ads in well know magazines). Our main expense will be realted to advertisment..... actually I believe in advertisment....and I believe it will pay us in future.

I have set aside $120K for this venture........but this doest mean that I will be spending money blindly......coz i know how i have earned it :) I will not spend even $100 for any useless thing.......and if required, I can even cut down initial team. So lets see.....my plan is almost final.




Regards,
:)

Hello,

You don't need 15 people from the beginning. You're wasting money going with 15 people from the beginning. In the beginning you need 1 support person that can cover each 8 hour shift (3 techs) or an outsourced support company, 1 programmer & 1 designer + you. That's only 6 people. There's no need for such a large number of people.