Here's my scenario, I look forward to your observations.

For the past year, actually a bit over a year, I have been reselling OLM's RSE plans (currently I'm level 3 with 30 clients). For those of you not familiar with this, it is a virtual private server, meaning I have root access, but OLM handles all my customers support.

It has been over a year, and every month I lose a small amount of money. I'm having a great time with this, but I would like to begin to at least break even.

It should also be noted I only do this part time (thank goodness).

What should I do?

Find a cheaper plan? I have found many thanks to this place, but I have concerns about some of them. Also what about support? I can handle probably 99% of my clients problems, but what about the 1% I cannot?

I don't think raising my prices are the answer, but maybe gaining more clients is. I have relied on word of mouth so far, maybe I should pursue some advertising?

What are your thoughts?

Maybe you could check out the Bulk Reseller type plans. I assume you have to purchase your client's hosting accounts 1 at a time and then resell them?

If you have 30 clients and are losing money then something is not right with you business plan. You do have one don't you?

I agree with Bob look at a bulk reseller plan. In most plans you handle the support for your clients and the host handles support for you. That means if you run across a problem you can't handle your host should be able to help you out.

Yeah, if its to the point where with every client you get, it's putting you more in the whole, thats very bad. :D

I'd recommend going with a cheaper package or going bulk.

do you study wushu, sifu hall?

I also agree that you should go bulk. And as fr the 1% of questions you cannot handle, then you can email your reseller host and they will help you out. Or at least they should help u out

I would also speak to the reseller company about handerling support to the clients. Or you could even outsorce your support - a few companys now do this however, i wouldnt really recommend it from what i've heard about a couple of them.. Try and go somewhere flexable where you will be able to "cut a deal" so that the company handles support just like OLM are currently doing.

Craig

Just a quick suggestion, why not try someone like bobcares.com who will handle support for you.

I think bobcares would be too expensive expecally if he is loosing money.. Something is seriously wrong with either your hosting plans or your business plan.. To tell you the truth when I had 30 customers on a reseller plan is when I made the move to my own dedicated which after setup fee and first month I was still barely making a positive cash flow.. IF you are looking for new reseller plans here is the best place to start.. I would highly suggest going with a host that has been around and that has a good rep on here.. a couple I would suggest would be www.site5.com www.futurequest.com or www.mchost.com seem to all have pretty reputable names around here.. they are a little more expensive than some of the offer you will see around but personally I think it's worth a little extra $$$ to get that peice of mind.. Good luck

I would recommend colocation. This can be more cost effective for you. At first you would have to buy a server but the cost would probably be less in the long run considering how many clients you can put one one server.


Definately review your pricing structure also - sometimes offering packages that are priced too low don't take in consideration the reseller plan costs, the support costs, domain costs, credit card transaction fees - etc..

Without knowing the needs of the customers, we can only take a shot in the dark here-

But I am betting that if you got yourself a nice little reseller account somewhere like Dixiesys.com and transfer everyone there, you would easily be in the profit zone.

I resell there with them and they do take care of the items that you can't do. You just bill them and let the guys behind the scenes work on the servers.

It's easy when you are this small, and easily pays for itself, if not a bit extra.

Enjoy!
-WC-