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Thread: Time consuming?

  1. #1

    Time consuming?

    Hi all,

    I have recently setup my own web hosting company, and although I did some research before I did want to ask your opinions on a certain matter.

    I am starting my final year at University, which obviously requires alot of my time to be taken up with coursework and research but would it still be possible to run a web hosting company? as well as providing a good amount of support to the customers if need be?

    Thanks,
    James

  2. #2
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    Welcome to WHT James. I would think more time is required for you to get your initial clients than to actually support them. Getting the clients initially will be hard and is certainly time consuming.

    I suppose you can do this while doing your study, you only need to dedicated a full time work when you reach around 700 clients or so.

    When you have below than 100 clients, you can certainly do this while studying.
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  3. #3
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    Do you have anyone else involved, to share the responsibility? If not then I would strongly suggest outsourcing Support to a reputable provider, as your University commitments will make 24/7 support difficult.

    Realistically running a very small hosting operation will not take up a vast amount of your time, but as you would expect the bigger the business gets the more time and effort involved. Given your position, ie University, I would build in an exit strategy so that if your business does get larger than you can comfortably handle you can sell up or hand over to a company more able to handle the strain. I cannot imagine a worse situation to be in than being unable to give your clients the level of service they are paying for.

    Best of luck with your education and your new venture James!
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  4. #4
    hertzwebsolutions, when you say outsourcing the support to a reputable provider what do you mean? I am using a reseller package from a very well known provider so it is very rare to have an issue with the actual servers.

  5. #5
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    Hardware wise, perhaps. I'm not sure what timezone you're in but as an example - If a client needs help with their site, urgently, at 3 or 4am, and you're not able to get to them until 7 or 8am; I know many of my clients would be disappointed. Alternatively, if you are busy with your studies and are unable to make it online then you need someone to take on the tickets/emails asking for help.

    Of course if you're hosting friends, or family etc you should be fine anyway and can ignore what I've said!
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  6. #6
    Ah I see, well I can understand that clients would absolutely become frustrated. Would you agree that you do not always have to provide a telephone number as a support line, as this too may be time consuming, and there will be times when I might be unavaliable due to being in lectures etc.

  7. #7
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    Absolutely, we do not provide telephone support to our clients - only support tickets and emails, but as I say there does have to be someone there to write a response.

    I'm sure you'll be fine, just keep it small and if things get too big don't be afraid to ask for help!
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  8. #8
    Thank you very much for your help! There was one last question and that was to do with payment. At the moment I am unable to provide any sort of straight debit/credit card transaction system to clients, only Google Checkout and PayPal.

    Would this put potential clients off?

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by TinyHosting View Post
    Thank you very much for your help! There was one last question and that was to do with payment. At the moment I am unable to provide any sort of straight debit/credit card transaction system to clients, only Google Checkout and PayPal.

    Would this put potential clients off?
    Personally experience, yes and no. It depends entirely on the client, some won't want to use Paypal or Google Checkout and others will avoid companies which do not offer one or the other... You're covering a good range of cards using Paypal and Google Checkout, I wouldn't worry about it.
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  10. #10
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    I feel that a solution to customer support that you can fall back to is important. There may be periods of time when your schedule might be hectic, and this hosting venture will be a distraction you simply cannot make time for. Customers may need and deserver the service they paid for nevertheless.

    Maybe a reseller account with included end user support would be a good idea.

  11. #11
    Join Date
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    Customers always like to have more then 1 option available for payment, so I think you might want to spend a bit more time on that and have other options available.
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  12. #12
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    Honestly, it's going to be extremely hard. With your last year of college your gong to have so much to get ready and prep for. Running your own hosting company is going to be an extreme challenge but it could be done. Keep in mind this last year of college you will never get back. I remember my last year which flew by but it held alot of wonderful memories. I would hate to see you regret not spending more time with school, friends or getting involved with other activities because of your hosting company. Your young and enjoy being young - you will have to get a job / career soon enough. Best of luck.
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  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by The-Pixel View Post
    Honestly, it's going to be extremely hard. With your last year of college your gong to have so much to get ready and prep for. Running your own hosting company is going to be an extreme challenge but it could be done. Keep in mind this last year of college you will never get back. I remember my last year which flew by but it held alot of wonderful memories. I would hate to see you regret not spending more time with school, friends or getting involved with other activities because of your hosting company. Your young and enjoy being young - you will have to get a job / career soon enough. Best of luck.
    I agree. Since it is your last year James, I would focus on school and friends. The web hosting industry will still be around in a year so stressing yourself out to keep afloat seems unnecessary. Whatever you choose, I wish you the best of luck. You seem pretty ambitious so I am sure you will succeed.
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  14. #14
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    I remember my last year which flew by but it held alot of wonderful memories.
    I feel the same way. Enjoying your age and specific activities is a great advice.

  15. #15
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    i would start it if i were you, having you first clients and company will be something you will not forget, you wont need much time, if you set it up well, you can give support anywhere you are at, don't get to much clients this year xD.

    Good Luck

  16. #16
    You could always outsource when it becomes a problem. It really doesnt take that much time to manage. After about 500 clients is when you will start to notice you wont have enough time to study and develop your web hosting business. When that happens, you can always unload your work to an outsourcing company for cheap. Some reseller hosts even offer end user support which is a really sweet option IMO.

    As long as you can keep your server up and running smoothly, your support requests will be minimal - most of which can be answered in a sentence or two.
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