I was wondering about some good methods for getting my name out there in my local community. I have business cards, t-shirts for my family and friends are being printed as we speak, inquiring into the local chamber of commerce and a few other things.

What am I missing? I feel like I'm not doing enough in the marketing department.


Also, as far as buying clients, What am I looking to pay for them? I have not a clue as where to start on price but I might be interested in this route. Can anyone provide ballpark figures?

Thanks

P.S. I'm designing my own billing software to sell, but in the mean time, I'm considering getting WHMCS, I'd prefer to buy an owned license (I hate monthly payments). You guys think it would be best to buy it used? Or just suck it up and go monthly?

You missing one important point - it's will take TIME, plenty of TIME in local communities before you get some (solid) response. I'm talking about years of marketing efforts...

About buying customers - I would be pretty careful with that, if you plan to buy clients from LOCAL market (same city/county) - they can be very attached to OLD owner / OLD reps and they will NOT going to show you much loyalty after "switch". I seen that pretty much in aquiring small "local" providers.

Well the clients I'm interested in acquiring will be online to suppliment locals.

Slow down there Speed Racer! It takes time and it won't happen over night. Wait and see what pans out and what doesn't then go from there. Buying clients is something that is a bigger investment and you should work on development of your company before taking over for someone else.

I was wondering about some good methods for getting my name out there in my local community. I have business cards, t-shirts for my family and friends are being printed as we speak, inquiring into the local chamber of commerce and a few other things.

What am I missing? I feel like I'm not doing enough in the marketing department.


Also, as far as buying clients, What am I looking to pay for them? I have not a clue as where to start on price but I might be interested in this route. Can anyone provide ballpark figures?

Thanks

P.S. I'm designing my own billing software to sell, but in the mean time, I'm considering getting WHMCS, I'd prefer to buy an owned license (I hate monthly payments). You guys think it would be best to buy it used? Or just suck it up and go monthly?


Don't discount online marketing. Sure, more competitive, but it does work. Consider a referral program or affiliate program to help built some word of mouth. But don't put all your eggs into one basket (any basket.)

Regarding billing software, check out Ubersmith.com. Good stuff, we've used it for years under very heavy load and are satisfied.

I was talking with chris on MSN. He is going steady.. And i headed him at WHMCS!

The thing with any marketing is it will take time (like steven-v mentioned).
Regarding buying clients i would say its a risky proposition. But if need be try to take over a competitor who is smaller. Again this is risky.
Try online marketing, Special migration prices, special discounts on holidays/festivals (4th of july commin up ppl :P ). These might eat up profits for a month or two but they will pick up as time goes by.
There is no marketing which produces results instantly and there is no marketing which fails.

Well the clients I'm interested in acquiring will be online to suppliment locals.

Buying clients is not the main issue, the main issue would be to be able to support these clients so they would not cancel after the purchase. If you will be able to support your clients after purchasing them and you have a budget available for the purchase then this might be an option for you.

I would recommend getting a solid client base from your local market prior to purchasing clients.

If you do choose to buy clients sooner rather than later, consider purchasing small batches, and as mentioned above, please ensure that you have adequate resources in place to support these new clients.

Also, it doesn't hurt to contact each client individually to discuss any concerns they may have regarding the change. It is recommended to do this prior to moving their sites(if that is part of your plan) to ensure that they do not experience downtime at a crucial moment. It just helps to create sense loyalty that most clients involved in a purchase will not have towards the new host.

You should be looking at 12-ish months of revenue as a purchase price. this is a general rule and please note the "ish". It can vary quite a bit depending on a lot of factors. this is one reason it is best to be established before purchasing clients, as you will have more experience to draw from when determining value. Also, many host will not sell clients to a startup, but many will.

Hope this helps.

Local clients are great. They'll be happy to have a face behind the otherwise anonymous hosting company. They'll be happy to have you design (or subcontract) their sites. They are less likely to be looking for ridiculous package sizes for pennies. They are likely to be loyal.

We have allot of Local clients, we wrote to local businesses offering our services, not just web hosting..

On top of that we bought about 150 UK hosting customers from various people - not all high earners, it was just to build our portfolio.

We now get allot of referrals which brings in quite a bit of serious business here and there...