Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Offering designs as well as Hosting

[Refuzion]

Hello,
My latest business venture is offering hosting to local businesses in the Uk. I'm getting a very good ROI on sending letters to businesses but recently I have been getting more potential clients asking about a website design for a one time fee, then being billed yearly for their hosting.

Now, my design skills are very limited and as of yet, my business isn't doing well enough to hire a any staff. So in your opinion, would I be better off leaving this well laone until I can afford to hire a designer, or contracting the work out to a designer.

My only worries about the later are:
a) Me giving a deadline to the client for the design, then it not being met by the designer.
b) The designer submiting unacceptable work; leading to a unhappy client.

I am slowly building up a good reputation so both of these would be damaging to my business.

Any help would be appriciated.
Steve Smith

[Jamie Harrop]

Steve, my best advice would be to simply advise your customers to get in touch with 'X Web development company', and let the company deal with the Web development side of things, rather than you having to give designers deadlines etc. Let the designer give the deadline direct to the customer.

To combat worry 'b', simply use a designer/Web design firm that you trust.

[VolkNet]

Outsource it to a website such as elance and then charge a certain % over that amount

Check user ratings and such.

[freehtml]

Our company is in fact having this suituation in the past, there will always be some customer or email/call to ask about web design packages.

Now that we had partner ourself with another web development company, all such request is diverted to them.

In addition we are also coming a one-stop service solution in order to help business to maintain their site content as well as promoting thier online presence.

[mikeym]

I would think that it would be best not to mix web design and web hosting, unless you have a dedicated designer on your team, who is held accountable for all design-related tasks, and is not given a lot of hosting work to do. That's just my opinion, because given the two, one would probably take priority to a person, and could lead to missing deadlines as you've mentioned.

I think the best way to do this with a small company, is as VolkNet said, outsource it. It would probably be beneficial to establish a good relationship with a design firm, and use them for all your work, and getting a certain percentage for their work. If you're worried about deadlines, I would suggest using contracts, you could probably get by with having your lawyer draft up one, and then modifying it for each project. But of course, it would always be best to have a lawyer draft it up all the time, although that would probably take away all of your profit from the design.

Personally, I wouldn't offer these two services, I just don't think they mix well. Since you're dealing with local businesses though, it may be a different story. Just make sure you're prepared to handle this side of your business if you want to get into it.

[ericabiz]

There are plenty of web design companies out there starving for work. Set up an agreement with one where you get a percentage of the fees they charge. We generally ask for 10-15% referral fees on a job, which most designers are grateful to pay. You'll probably find you get the web hosting for those customers as well, which means more income for you!

[Kiamori]

Find a design firm willing to give you a % of any work you send them preferable one that hosts with you or hire/contract a designer.

[Refuzion]

Thanks for your time people, some good replies here.

Like I said, my main worry about outsourcing the design work would be deadlines. I'd say 60-70% of my clients come from word of motuh so image is VERY important to my company.

Any suggests were I could source some realiable designers? Pircing isn't that important as my customers are paying high prices on the hosting side of things for a good service (roughly £5 per gig of bandwith) so I'm more interested in quality.

Thanks again, Steve.

[Jamie Harrop]

You could always advertise in the advertising forums, Steve, explaining you are looking for reputable design firms to contact you. Give them a little interrogation session, and decide who is the best fit. You are guaranteed to receive a number of people who charge $10 for a 5 page Website, but I'm sure a number of decent companies will get in touch as well.

The other, more reliable way, would be to use a local firm.

[Kiamori]

I would try and fine a local design firm, they are going to be easier to keep in line with being on time and communication. If you can't do that make sure you look at portfolio and see if they fit the class of host that you are.

[promo2go]

I think offering designs and hosting to business would be better then offering hosting...

maybe its just me!

[Refuzion]

I've tried searching for a local design company but I'm not having much luck. They all seem to be offering few basic designs, which (shall we say) arn't offering much value for money.

Promo2go - I'm finding roughly 80% off the people who contact me looking for a design do NOT end up purchasing hosting from me.

[Jamie Harrop]

If your not having much look with local companies Steve, I think your next move would be to associate yourself with a reputable company online. My best advise would be to post in the advertising forums here, asking for professional design companies to contact you. As I have said in the past, give them all a little 'interrogation', and come to a conclusion of who you would like to work with.

[Refuzion]

Originally posted by Equentity - Jamie
If your not having much look with local companies Steve, I think your next move would be to associate yourself with a reputable company online. My best advise would be to post in the advertising forums here, asking for professional design companies to contact you. As I have said in the past, give them all a little 'interrogation', and come to a conclusion of who you would like to work with.

I'm going to work through a list of requirements Jamie. Hopefully it'll be posted within a day or so.

[Jamie Harrop]

Great! Good luck Steve. A sound piece of advice... we have kiddie Web hosts (not necessarily kids, more so companies that are run at a very poor level), what you must remember, is the fact we also have kiddie Web development firms.

Don't be fooled in to choosing one of these firms, I will guarantee that a decent number of them will contact you. Do plenty of research on all the companies that contact you.

My best advice would be to have companies call you, as the only means of contact. 95% of kiddie firms won't call you, they haven't got that experience. Then simply discard any firms that contact you via email or PM etc, and make this known in your post. Go out of your way to say something along the lines of "Only contact via phone will be taken seriously, all emails and PM's, and any form of contact apart from phone, unless stated by me to you personally, will be discarded".

Hope that helps.