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  1. #26
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
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    24,027
    I took regular vacations, but I was never too far away from the action. I'd take the laptop and get connected at whatever accomadation I was staying at. Sometimes I'd just tell the mrs that I need a few days down on the coast, alone, so I pack the laptop and jump in the car, and off I go. I'd then drive around the Coast looking for a new beachfront building to stay in. I love waking up to the sound of the waves crashing, and the view of the ocean is so soothing.
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  2. #27
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    UK
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    I take what people are saying but on the flip side after 18 months I needed a holiday. If you get to that point where you just need to take a break then you must just find it in yourself to trust someone and go recharge your own batteries

    Rus
    Russ Foster - Industry Curmudgeon
    Freelance Sysadmin for Hire - email vaserv@gmail.com

  3. #28
    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    QLD, Australia
    Posts
    285

    Re: CEOs on Vacation

    Originally posted by UniServe Hosting
    If so, who watches over your business. If you have a partner I guess that's a different story. However, I was wondering how some people out there who have a business are able to just take a beak for themselves and leave work alone while your overseas say in greece, cyprus etc.
    If the CEOs business has employees OR contracts services out to a support desk group they often contact those parties and request for them to take up the slack. Often this is accompanied by an increase in the amount they're paid while they're away.

    For instance, a 3 day weekend away for me cost $200 extra.

    But hey, that's the cost of business and the wine tasting sure was relaxing.

    Stuart
    Biza•io - Digital Wealth Management
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  4. #29
    I got a suprise valentine holiday to Paris for 2 weeks last February.

    Luckily I have a great business Partner, but like everybody else has said it is danm near impossible to let go!

    Although I have every faith in my business partner, and he could run the business perfectly while I was on a holiday its almost impossible to let go and if you take your phone impossible. I found that I was taking it just in case anything happened but then ended up checking my e-mails every four or five hours.

    Then we had to take regular stops to check the website, support desk and e-mails again . . . I must have spent about 20 euros in cyber cafes, I should just have taken a laptop!

    Suffice it to say you never really leave your business, you get so use to checking and running everything its really hard to just turn over your tasks to someone else for a few days. Especially if you put the time into it and take pride in it.
    Andrew Thomas
    JAB Web Solutions | Shared Hosting | Reseller Hosting
    e : andrew@jabwebsolutions.co.uk
    t: 0800 043 0 153

  5. #30
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    292
    Hello Everyone,

    I have read through all the posts and took everything you have all said into consideration. To me, I believe this thread became rather interesting and useful as it's good to know what routes others take when they want a break. However, for sure I would not want to go to greece with my gf and fire up the laptop and start working. That would defeat the entire purpose of the vacation along with the alone time with the two of us.

    I can trust my partner to take care of everything, nevertheless, I suppose to hire some staff, train them well, create some monkey documents which specifies what to do step by step would also be a wise decision. I'll look into hiring two staff members with time as things progress. Thanks again for all the wonderful information and input along with some interesting stories .

    Regards,

    Matthew

  6. #31
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    210
    I run my business myself day to day but when it comes to holiday time you need to be able to cut yourself off and relax. If I'm staying in the country I'll always make sure there's a computer nearby or take my laptop but that's usually as far as it goes.

    I went to Magaluff last summer for a week and left a good friend in charge of the billing and another in charge of technical support. Obviously I paid them for their time, and kept in touch by phone but I generally left them to it. Most billing enquiries could be postphoned until I returned, some of them I could direct answers over the phone.

    One of them has his own hosting business as well, so is quite capable of the technical questions.

    It's all about trust really. I'm lucky enough to have some talented friends and I trust them.

    This year I'm hoping to get an outsourced company in to take the bulk of the work load away, but that's only down to my business having grown considerably since last year and its getting to the point where I need to outsource some of the workload anyway!

    Key points:
    Don't just leave everything and hope for the best
    Find somone you trust
    Get them to text you if there's any problems but leave your phone in the hotel room whenever possible
    RELAX

    HTH

  7. #32
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Posts
    290
    Interesting post as I am currently away right now, here is what I do:

    I bring my cellphone and I bring my laptop and make sure I dont
    go somewhere where I cant atleast have cellphone reception.

    Our company is me, which basically does most 2nd level tech stuff and hardware things. One sales/marketing droid and a fulltime tech support guy. Works out quite nicely.

    I set aside about two hours each day to come online and do some work.
    Basically one has to accept the fact that in this business you cannot take too much time off. You can go places if you bring your phone and have a laptop ready and can be online with an hour or two warnings.
    But, once you accept that and plan around that it's not bad at all.

  8. #33
    Did I miss something? I would really not want to host my sites and my clients sites with a one-man shop. People need vacations. And a company needs employees to take care of the company

    I understand that businesses need to start somewhere but if they never really get started, I would think they are doomed from the very beginning.

    Yes my hosting company is small but the owners are able to take a week off
    John

  9. #34
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    292
    Did I miss something? I would really not want to host my sites and my clients sites with a one-man shop.
    You didn't miss anything. The main purpose to this thread, was to get an insight on some CEO's of web hosting companies and how they go about taking their vacations.

    And a company needs employees to take care of the company
    No need to state the obvious. However, some employees may actually make things worse for a company. It's vital that the correct candidate is hired. Sorry, it's just that you come off rather egotistical in your post.

  10. #35
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    9,039
    You should set yourself up so that breaks and holidays arent a problem - thats why your a CEO

    After a year or two your hosting business should be in a position to run itself, with staff in place to manage most situation. Your job is then to stear and improve the product.

    I managed to take a 3 month holiday recently and there were no problems while I was gone
    Matt Wallis
    United Communications Limited
    High Performance Shared & Reseller | Managed VPS Cloud | Managed Dedicated
    UK www.unitedhosting.co.uk | US www.unitedhosting.com | Since 1998.

  11. #36
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    1,461
    Holidays ?? I would be quite happy if I got the ticket queue under 100 tickets right now...

  12. #37
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    292
    Hello UH-Matt,

    I totally agree with what you had to say. Where did you end up going for those three months? Also, I must admit, your site is pretty visually appealing.

    I've already hired a full-time web designer. The reason for this is, I want to offer web design with my hosting packages or even just web design alone. If there isn't much web design work to be done then he will be doing some tech support since he has a technical background.

    Luckily, I have a steady income and it's been like this for awhile **knock on wood** so I'm willing to dispense my money around for expansion when need be.


    I don't only want to have people working for my business so I may be away on vacation for 3, 4 or 5 months. What I want is to know that I am providing an income for ten, twenty or thirty familys and that i'm giving back to society.

    After a year or two your hosting business should be in a position to run itself, with staff in place to manage most situation. Your job is then to stear and improve the product.
    This is abosultely true. I suppose this is a rather personal question and you do not need to disclose such information, however, how many employes do you currently have?

    Thanks for your input.

  13. #38
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    9,039
    We have 4 permenant staff and some extra freelance basis help.

    I actually backpacked around South America for 3 months, occasionally checking on things in rare internet cafe's
    Matt Wallis
    United Communications Limited
    High Performance Shared & Reseller | Managed VPS Cloud | Managed Dedicated
    UK www.unitedhosting.co.uk | US www.unitedhosting.com | Since 1998.

  14. #39
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    EU - east side
    Posts
    21,920
    A 3 months holiday... That sounds excellent Matt!

    After a year or two your hosting business should be in a position to run itself, with staff in place to manage most situation. Your job is then to stear and improve the product.
    Working on your business instead of in your business. Very good advice Matt!

  15. #40
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Location
    Scotland, UK
    Posts
    2,688
    Our management team and the rest of our staff are more than capable of running the company when I am not around. In fact, they generally manage most of the day-to-day aspects of the business whether I am around or not.

    I think you also need to look at this from another angle. It is all well and good asking if the company will continue to function properly if you are away on holiday. However, what happens if you were to end up in hospital without any notice to your staff etc. Do you have procedures in place to handle that? Hopefully it will never happen, but when your livelihood depends on your business and you have hundreds if not thousands of other people depending on your service, then it is important to think about things like this.

    Being backed by an excellent team will be one of your strongest points in growing and managing your business. Remember, as the business grows you simply wont be able to micro-manage every support ticket that the company receives. Having scalable procedures and good staff in place to handle growth is key.

    Most importantly, when you are on holiday; enjoy yourself and get away from the company, so that when you come back to work, you feel regenerated and ready to get on with business.

    Good luck!

    - Chris

  16. #41
    In my experience, you're going to need some time each day, even if its only an hour, to keep things alive.

    I went to Hawaii for 2 weeks and basically left the company up to two support guys. Every morning I would wake up about 6 (8am where my guys were) and I'd go down to the little cafe with internet access, and make sure I was up to date on anything happening. I went back to my uncle's condo and slept for a few hours, and the rest of the day was mine. It seemed to work out - but make sure you have some good people backing you up.
    hostVentura
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  17. #42
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    1,053
    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    Holidays ?? I would be quite happy if I got the ticket queue under 100 tickets right now...
    Do you have a Knowledge base or FAQ setup? That might help in reducing the load by directing customers there to find solutions for some of the most common issues.

  18. #43
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    London, UK
    Posts
    9,039
    In my experience, you're going to need some time each day, even if its only an hour, to keep things alive.

    I went to Hawaii for 2 weeks and basically left the company up to two support guys.
    No no no. You DONT need time each day. If your on holiday you should be able to relax and NOT spend time each day checking on work.

    The problem you had is that you left things down to "two support guys". Just having tickets answered wont be enough. While your away you need to make sure some structure is in place so that somebody is covering what you usually do each day.
    Matt Wallis
    United Communications Limited
    High Performance Shared & Reseller | Managed VPS Cloud | Managed Dedicated
    UK www.unitedhosting.co.uk | US www.unitedhosting.com | Since 1998.

  19. #44
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    1,461
    >The problem you had is that you left things down to "two
    >support guys". Just having tickets answered wont be enough.
    >While your away you need to make sure some structure is in
    >place so that somebody is covering what you usually do each
    >day.

    Of the companies in this board how many do you think can afford to hire some sort of manager in addition to his support guys ?? I think most of the people here can`t. Don`t forget that 90% of all hosting companies have less than 500 customers.

  20. #45
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    24,027
    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    . . . Don`t forget that 90% of all hosting companies have less than 500 customers.
    Where did you get that data from?
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  21. #46
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    24,027
    Originally posted by UH-Matt
    I managed to take a 3 month holiday recently and there were no problems while I was gone
    Well I'm sure there were problems, when you were gone, but they were taken care of by staff and your partner etc. I seem to remember UH being a partnership with you and some other chap?
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  22. #47
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    1,461
    Originally posted by Aussie Bob
    Where did you get that data from?
    Guessed it from Webhosting.info's DNS ranking. Sure I know that many companies are using different domains for DNS but Webhosting.info does not recognize all the designer hosting companies that are using third party nameservers etc. I'd say it is even much more than 90% of all hosting companies that have less than 500 customers but I am quite sure that it must be at least 90%

  23. #48
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    San Francisco, CA
    Posts
    1,912
    There is a difference in leaving the team to a few support techs and leaving it to a well defined and qualified management.

    I'd be quite paranoid if I was on vacation and I left everything to 2 support techs. But I guess that is a pain start-up firms have to deal with.

    I am just one person in a well-defined management structure that we have setup for ourselves. I do overlook all major technical operations, but my role is easily compensated by our two (windows & linux) operation managers when I am not around. We thankfully also have a very experienced leader as our CEO who ensures operations are designed to run smoothly in all eventuallity.
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  24. #49
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    24,027
    Originally posted by thomas.smith
    . . . I'd say it is even much more than 90% of all hosting companies that have less than 500 customers but I am quite sure that it must be at least 90%
    IMO, it's probably 98%, but that's due to the proliferation of reseller hosts etc. The industry is so volatile and open, that noone really has a true picture etc.
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