Hello, my name is ilan im kinda new here,
few days ago i bought 50% of hosting company that located in germany,
the company offers webhosting and webdesign solutions, it got about 40 costumers.

the truth is that the company is at the wrost situation it's been from the start.

what are the steps for re build ur buisness?

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the truth is that the company is at the wrost situation it's been from the start.Did you know this before you purchased half of it? If so, what was your reasoning behind making the purchase anyway?

If not, what steps did you take to research your purchase before you made it?

1. I made my re search before i bought my share i bought 50% at the company,
the company located in germeny and my friend bought the other 50%.
from re search we made we saw the comapny in bad shape but it was like a dream for us to get into this buisness ,

my partner lives in germeny i live in israel i just realesed from army and this purchase didnt cost us 2 much, we can sit and think about 2 option:

1. To find a way or someone to guide us untill we can continue alone.

2. To close the company , loss our cheap investment and close the Dream.

we still think we can save the comapny by running it from start and to fix everything, the prices were very low, the domain was given for free and now we waited few months from the point we start we didnt sold any new packages cause we want to know where we going to before we sell and then need to stay.

we have 0 costumers untill we go to the point we be sure we run it well.

the site will be translated to German, Hebrew , English and out payment mathods are paypal, wire trensfer and bank trensfer and WU aswell...

i have all server info just need to sit few days with someone that been in this situation and succeed to rehabilitate.

hope u can help us, and if not thanks for the information anyway,

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Well i have never been in that situation.. but you mention that you have 40 customers which is a good clientbase.. My opinion is to rebuilt everything from scratch so as existent customers see the major and better change, and also new customers (or those who have but experience) to start reconsider a cooperation..

if you knew the business was in a bad state from the start you should have worked out a way to repair it before you purchased it. that doesnt seem like a good decision.

Have you though on start with a brand new name? New name, new era.

I don't think that it's reasonable to try to explain how to turn the business around without knowing more about why it's in a bad place. I'm not saying that you have to explain everything about it that could be improved but it's harder to give advice without having more of a background into the history of the business.

With that being said, D3m0n is probably right on the money. Take what you're not liking about the business, scrap it and recreate it. If you don't like the Web site, make a new one. If you don't like the billing procedures, re-establish a new set of plans.

Bill

First of all thanks all for the information , and all quick answers.

for the guy who asked me why i bought i mentioned my reason and i didnt had many days to decide it was cheap and quick decision and im here to learn how to rebuild it.

I like this buisness and i guess this is the reason u guyz are here aswell and i would like to get as much information as possible to "rebuild" it.

I now started from scretch i got all information needed to myself i do not know what are the info u are looking for to help me, if possible ask me and ill give.

I already built a new site + got connected to a friend who running a game servers.

my first step is to rebuild the packages in a way i could earn some cash and second is to build like a buisness plan in order to continue this buisness growing in the future.

would like more information from people who been and those who didnt been in this situation, if possible then i have personall info to connect if not i dont care to get help over here.

thanks and good day,

anyway ill be very thankfull if someone can contact me and help me
to rebuild the packages for my server.

thanks and good weekend

Do you have any kind of a business plan? If not, get one hammered out before you go forward. You should have one regardless of whether or not the company is in sad shape or great shape. Follow your business plan and it will lead you in the right direction.

In other words, you don't need to know specifically how to fix this company - you just need to know how to properly run a hosting company. If you don't have any clue how to properly run a hosting company, then you should probably just cut your losses and run.

--Tina

I've always been told and learned from experience the best way to find is advice or get feedback is the person who uses it most. Have you tried contacting your 40 clients and asking them of the pros and cons? I would send out a newsletter find out what they would like change and things that they like. If its something you all agree on then change it or scrap it.

As much as i know most of the clients that were connected there came bacause the last owner gave domains for free with no charge, and they dont really using the webspace beside 2-3 users.

i stopped all of this and for now im looking for someone that can look on my server properties and can assume how much i should sell each package that i could at least get my invesment back and from there to grow, as i said i just released from army not much money and this deal wasnt so expernsive, im not here to earn cash first i want to learn the buisness and because i like it and before i went to army it was like a dream for me.

about a buisness plan , well i had one was going with it for a period of time and didnt go well im just trying to clean my head up and see how can i build a new plan that from the cash ill make i will grow up and buy more space and supply move services.

thanks u all for the inforamtion still need help in the buisness plan and deciding what would be the right packages and prices.

thanks and have a nice weekend , waiting to hear from u.

So they really have no reason to keep a hosting account with you if the reason they stayed is for the domain name. I can't see why anyone would choose to stay.

we have 0 costumers untill we go to the point we be sure we run it well.

I now started from scretch i got all information needed to myself i do not know what are the info u are looking for to help me, if possible ask me and ill give.

I already built a new site + got connected to a friend who running a game servers.

As much as i know most of the clients that were connected there came bacause the last owner gave domains for free with no charge, and they dont really using the webspace beside 2-3 users.

i stopped all of this and for now im looking for someone that can look on my server properties and can assume how much i should sell each package that i could at least get my invesment back


It's not all clear, but it almost sounds like you basically bought a business with a bad reputation and hardly any paying customers (and do you even have those customers anymore?), then redid the whole site and are planning on changing it to a higher fee business model (a good idea).

While buying the business was probably not the best idea (without knowing the exact details, on the surface it looks like you got a bad deal), my suggestion would be to literally start fresh and dissolve the old business, and start a new one, using the resources (such as the dedicated server(s) the business had from the sounds of it) you purchased. Just evaluate how much those resources will take to continue to run versus what you are pushing to make off accounts to see if it even makes sense to keep those.

My biggest suggestion is to really evaluate how much your monthly costs are from the business you took over, and how much you think you can reasonably make off accounts, and make the hard decision of run with it, or get rid of it (and start with something less risky like a reseller account).

I don't like to judge here. But I think you made a very bad decision to buy the company especially since it is in another country. I thing starting a brand new company would have been easier and more financially feasible. But that’s just my thoughts.

Listen guyz, im not here to be judged for the bad decision i make or to cry and cancel all plans... im here to at least make some effort in learning from people who were in this situation before and succeed to get out of it.

at the moment i really need help personally and in building packages in a way that i could earn in the future.

Do you still have the 40 clients that came with the business? If all 40 of those clients renewed for the next year, what portion of the companies expenses would they pay?

at the moment i dont have 40 about 15 and i dont want to sell them again without knowing exactly what price i should offer and what kind of support i can give to them.

im trying to clean everything and drew a straight line before going on..

If I were in your shoes I would look at it as if you were building the business from the ground up. I would look at the expenses and see what can be cut. Do you need a dedicated server? A reseller account or VPS might work for you and save you some money. Figure out what size plans you are going to offer.then figure how many of each plan you can put on your server/VPS/reseller account to fill iy up with that secific plan. Divide the cost of the server/VPS/reseller by that number and that is what each plan will cost you. Add your profit margin on each plan and that is what you charge. Please not when I saythe cost of the server/VPS/reseller account, you need to include the associated charges such as billing software and any other expenses you have.

Hi Cohen,

Forget plans, costs and anything right now and just focus on the clients. If you have 15, just contact them one by one. Ensure they see you as technically competent. Get them impressed, try to know if they are satisfied and if not get them a deal that satisfies them.

Once you have secured your revenue, calculate what you can afford and get a proper reseller plan, which obviusly should be less than your revenue. And cut down any other expense.

Once you have cleaned your balance, then you can look at the website, plan ahead, try to find a niche... etc.

But first secure customer satisfaction and then clean up the P/L.

my 5 cents

Q

One of the problems with this thread is that there are no exact way to build up a business, there are no guides.

Everyone is different, everyone offers something different to their business.

You need to find something that you can offer your customers which will differ or be better than your competitors and take it forward.

It's really, really really easy for a person to open a business. It's not easy for a person to keep that business running successfully, a business plan would help that!

Hey guyz,

thanks for all the information i believed i learned few new things.

if there are any specific books u advised to read tell me and if there is anyone
think he can guide me online and give me more tips he can email me,


thanks for the support and the help of each one of u.

good night, and ill hope i will hear , and tell u good results in the future

I'd say the first place to start is here - read through a lot of the old threads in this forum, there are a lot of people asking the same question you need answered. You may not like the replies as there is no "do this and it'll be ok" answer to give.

The other place to look in is the Running a Web Hosting Business Tutorials (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=94) forum. There are 2 excellent threads there that are perfect for you.

Good luck though, and welcome to WHT.

New name, new prices, new structure.

Dougy,

I think that's a bit much. At any rate, I'll try to help. About 2 years ago I was in a similar situation. A provider known as 'Fused Network' was going under, their clientele was jumping ship left & right and I was given the option of taking over the name / brand.

By the time I had arranged control of the brand, literally 100% of the clientbase had exited and been given refunds on their remaining terms so my situation is quite a bit different.

I entered into the 'arena' per se, without any clientele to manage at the time. However there was an awful lot of 'damage control' that still had to be done. The first step is taking care of any outstanding issues: Be active in seeking out existing problems with clients.

Contact them, call them, get in touch -- find out if there is anything at all you can do to assist them. Extend a warm, welcoming hand.

Secondly, ensure they're aware that you're 'taking over' & that things will only be improving daily with you & your team in control. Make this very clear to them.

Thirdly, overhaul! Overhaul the site, plans & offerings to fit into your plans. Learn a bit more before making too many changes just yet. With a brand, pricing structure & offerings that fit your 'personality' you'll have more desire to continue building.

Remember, one of your greatest sources of information is going to be the existing clients. Find out what they like, find out what their needs are and move on.

You'll do quite fine as long as you keep your clients in mind :)
Adieu & God bless!

As David said, find the customers problems, be sure to let them know you care, and want to fix all problems and unresolved issues. The customers need to know that you care about them, and that you're different than the previous owner(s).

On the businesses website, make sure you announce that its under new ownership, and that things will be done differently.

Hello,
You say that the old owner gave away to much space / bandwidth for a low price. Please tell us what your prices are and how much space/ bandwidth is offered for that price.
You also talk about server(s). Do you have dedicated, managed, VPS , reseller or what kind of servers and how many? Where are they located.
Why did the other 25 clients left after you took over? Didn't they agreed to renew the packages or you didn't provided that packages any longer?

I am asking this questions in order to look at a bigger picture and to see how we can help you.