I'm still trying, but how long did it take you?

well shared hosting took me 7 months. vps hosting took me 3 weeks. depends on how well you advertise and if you do unlimited or not.

I am right now at the break even point. It took me about 5 months to hit it.

About 4 months in.

break even..? i'd say 3 mths...yeap..that pretty much does it. maybe coz i'm on a reseller account. :)

Took me about 2 mths on a reseller from HostGator, decided it wasn't for me ;)

Hmmm shared hosting would have broken even in under 2 months, but before then we started investing into dedicated servers and VPS.
So in total think it was about 5 months, although any money that comes in I normally invest into something else before it could be classed as profit :)

When i did shared hosting it was around 5 months. VPS hosting for me was around the 2 month mark.

Some places I have worked with recently (new start ups) took about 6 months to break even. One was colocating a single used server they got for about $300 - it was very cost efficient for a dual CPU box for them. They filled it and were making quite a bit of money until they scaled to another server, and they just keep growing.

Shared hosting two months; move to dedicated servers...zero (had already "broken even" when I decided to make the move, just had smaller profits). I've recently gone back to "loss", but I don't regret the circumstances.

Time to ramp up my marketing skills - everything previously was done word-of-mouth and my own minor networking skills, no actual advertising campaigns.

The quicker you learn to sell and market, the quicker you will make money and can have higher average MRC

First month for me... I just knew the right people :)

Very interesting, I do most of my work locally, I've been profiting, but I imagine going out completely on my own would be different. I've also helped a few smaller online partners and now moving out on my own. You could say I'm on par since I'll be gaining a few clients from my previous work.

It took us about 1 year. However, we bought out several existing companies upon our start.

It took us about 1 year. However, we bought out several existing companies upon our start.

How did the buying other companies strategy work for you?

I'm curious to find out how did buying other companies help you or if it didn't?
Was it advantageous?
Or was it more of a burden?

I'm curious to find out how did buying other companies help you or if it didn't?
Was it advantageous?
Or was it more of a burden?

I would not say it was a burden. However, after several experience in buying out existing companies, I must say expect somewhere around 5-10% of the purchased customers to not re-new.

Not renewing because of knowing that the owner changed?
Or were their other reasons.

I would not say it was a burden. However, after several experience in buying out existing companies, I must say expect somewhere around 5-10% of the purchased customers to not re-new.

That's actually not a bad attrition rate at all.

I've just broke even within this hour, then spent it all on more WHM addons. :)

Looking back, it took us about 3 weeks to break even. We had a little help from some existing accounts that the web design side of our business brought in.

Strangly enough it took us 1 week to hit break even due to us being the only company now that offers DigiChat hosting scince Digi-Net declared bankruptcy in 2004...

I'm still trying, but how long did it take you?

35 minutes give-or-take, it was right at the end of the first 30 minute meeting :)

after several experience in buying out existing companies, I must say expect somewhere around 5-10% of the purchased customers to not re-new.

we're running at a 3.7% "loss" average across 8 acquistions in 2008, but incorporate at 10% non-renewal

this year we're simply seeing long-term customers (4years+) just not renewing domains or bothering with websites - as budgets get cut more use of free/in-house services and subdomains ...

It took me about 2 months but only because I merged with another company who offered free hosting.

It takes a lot of time and effort since your competing with everyone else out there

3 weeks, 1 week, 2 months. You guys must've been working hard. How much of your budget went into advertising? Just curious, also where did you guys advertise at?

To be honest I didn't spend any money on adverts. There are so many forums out there like digital point and webhostdir that you really don't need to pay anything for advert. If your a small company its best in my opinion to stay out of paying for adverts until you have grown a little

Thanks for the well rounded advice. Yes my company is fairly small but we are diligent in our work and will provide what is needed and supported by our services.
I'll try a little of both.
I believe word of mouth would be the best advertisement, along with verified comments from clients themselves.

Exactly, a little hard work goes a long way XP

Strangly enough it took us 1 week to hit break even due to us being the only company now that offers DigiChat hosting scince Digi-Net declared bankruptcy in 2004...

its cool that you brought it back with other stuff to. must be risky to start a buisness where one failed

1st month
Niche market, lots of free tools for video delivery for clients to use
Higher capacity on accounts, good choices of domain names

About three weeks. But our startup costs were low, just a reseller account. As we grew we have been able to add VPS and servers since.

While we're not a web hosting company, it did take us about 6 months to break-even.