Are we doomed?

[DonHouston]

Ok, I have seen the stories on most of the forums that deal with the hosting industry. And we are struggling so I am curious if this is the problem. We could be considered a bargain company. But I have never felt like not helping someone because someone pays a small amount. In fact I believe in the Sam Walton Idea, meaning I listen to customers and suggestions to make our company better. Now I am not going to say we go out and get everything a client may ask for, some stuff we just feel are not a good idea at this point, but we do look at all the requests that come in. I have always prided my self in customer service and I am a firm believer in treat others the way you want to be treated.

With all this being said, why are we still having problems. I mean I am not here to say this company or that company is bad, I never have and never will. I said this once in this industry, most hosts communicate on the forums and I am sure some of the companies have become friends. So I am not going to bad mouth a fellow entrepreneur. For the companies that put the bad taste in peoples mouth, well like everything you have those who are interested in money and thats it. But I am not money driven. Now I am not saying that I would not like to be able to make this company support myself, hell thats what we are in business for. What I mean by saying money driven is I know that a client pays for a service. And I will do my best to provide the best service possible. So what can I do to try to survive? I am open to suggestions and comments and if your are a client looking for service and your reading this, What do you look for. I would really like to hear your opinions on this.

Thanks

Don

 

[webfreak08]

How long have you been in business?

Are you an LLC or corporation?

Do you have a business plan?

Do you have experience running a business?

Could your domain or website give a potential customer the wrong impression?

Does your company blend in with the others or does it have something unique making it able to survive in a cutthroat business?

How much have you invested in your company and do you see unending losses or even a little bit of profit?

Do you have a partner? a lawyer? an accountant? employees?

Is web hosting something that you enjoy? Are you constantly working on this business staying up for days without sleep? Or, do you think that the business should just "take off over night" and whine that it's too hard or too much to actually make the business succeed?

 

[DonHouston]

Are you an LLC or corporation? Not sure what the owner has, I am not the owner

Do you have a business plan? Yes

Do you have experience running a business? Yes

Could your domain or website give a potential customer the wrong impression? Not that I know of: domain name http://www.urlhost.net

Does your company blend in with the others or does it have something unique making it able to survive in a cutthroat business? We offer a build a plan

How much have you invested in your company and do you see unending losses or even a little bit of profit? Again I do no know this

Do you have a partner? a lawyer? an accountant? employees? I am an employee, I know the owner and I have a manager

Is web hosting something that you enjoy? Are you constantly working on this business staying up for days without sleep? Or, do you think that the business should just "take off over night" and whine that it's too hard or too much to actually make the business succeed?.


Been working on this for 2 years and I know that we want to spend the time to it. Not sure how much is invested. I am on call so if we go down I am here all the time on messeger. I love Webhosting.

I have no other idea on the information you asked.

 

[alemcherry]

hmm .. a pretty long list of question answers, now what ??

Honestly, I feel you need to go out of your role as a host, initially. You may have to help out your customers and build a reputation. Something like a liquidweb has done. You may have to invest good money and efforts, without worrying about the losses. It may take 3-4 years to break even, you must be prepared for losses till that point of time.

It is a tough industry, only way to succeed is to build a very god reputation and attend to every customer request with lot of care. Even if you are saying no - you must convince th cusotmer that it is out of your scope. good luck.

 

[Harry]

The hosting industry is one of the toughest area's on the net now. Back 4-5 years ago, it would have been pretty good to get into or establish a name. These days however, there are TONS of firms, which drives too much competition. Thus, it forces either firms to merge, sell out or shut down. Some firms just break even and live that way. Personally, unless you have a great business plan and/or have a audience already, its going to be tough out there. One reason why I've left my own hosting firm and moved on to other plans.

 

[ldcdc]

The hosting industry is one of the toughest area's on the net now.

IMO, there's plenty of room for new hosts willing and able to offer good, reliable hosting, complemented by fast, knowledgeable customer support. There's a lot of confusion among web hosting consumers, but in time they will learn the value of great hosting, and that they need to look beyond the numbers.

 

[GnomeyNewt]

Even if you are saying no - you must convince th cusotmer that it is out of your scope. good luck.

:thumbsup: This is so true! If you say no, tell them and convince them why you can't do it. I know a lot of people that switch host because when they were told no, it seemed like a slap in the face instead of a out-of-my-hosts-scope sort of thing.

There is room in the hosting industry. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it, but you must find your niche market and target them. You can't expect to come into a saturated market and target all types of people. I think there is a need for more specialized hosting companies, so if your good at working with a certain application or providing a certain service, focus on it and built it up further.

And like PP said, you really need to stick to it. Its not a get rich sort of business by any means.

 

[ArtyCrow]

There is room in the hosting industry. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it, but you must find your niche market and target them. You can't expect to come into a saturated market and target all types of people. I think there is a need for more specialized hosting companies, so if your good at working with a certain application or providing a certain service, focus on it and built it up further.

That, I believe is the #1 differentiator for new companies coming into the market.....