IMO there are no weekends in the hosting business. Servers never wait till Monday morning to go down, and many new orders are placed Friday-Sunday night..
I'd like to know how many others are working for their customer 24/7 the way I am?

I am with you on that one - However all of our machines have a ready standby incase of failure that is booted up.

We were having awful problems a few years back when we wern't running our own hardware or used cheap hardware.

We now own all of our equipment and cables so we know exactly what happens and to have the setup as reliable as it should be all the machines have DRAC cards too.

Perhaps my standards are a bit too high. I guess I mite take another position on this issue if I had a life outside hosting

siforek, if I can give you any advice at all, it would be....

DO NOT make your business your life. It will have an effect on your entire life. You'll miss things that you didn't want to. The best thing to do is make a clear schedule, and stick to it.

Get a cell phone with txt messaging, and set up your systems to txt you if a server fails, or if an order comes in, etc. This way you can enjoy your life while taking care of business, and make sure you post your hours of operation clearly on your website, listing any hours outside of that as "Emergency only".

You'd be surprised at how many customers don't really care about 24/7 service. They're a little more patient than that. As long as you're there when they really need you you're good. Listing hours as "emergency hours" will also afford you the compassion, and understanding of your users when they contact you during those hours. They'll understand if the call was forwarded to your cell, and appreciate hearing the Wal-Mart shoppers in the background, knowing that you're there for them even while you're shopping.

The thing is though, live your life. Hosting is your profession. Besides, what good is making all that money if you never take time to spend any?

What's a DRAC card?

I was joking. I have a life. And as you mentioned, I have my mobile on me at all times.

You're like millions of other small business owners - putting in countless hours to be successful. We offer 24/7/365 phone support - but we've been around for eight years and have grown to a full staff supporting three data centers. Times are tough - I salute you for your devotion to your clients. The best to you going forward.

- Steve

Hosting is 24x7x365, and it HAS to be, but it doesn't mean that YOU have to be. For many years I was very much involved in every aspect of the company. Over time, more responsibility was delegated to other staff, but I'm still the "go to guy" when it comes to some issues.

That being said, as a small business starting out, you WILL put in 20+ hours a day, and you will work up to 8 days per week (we're always short a day each week)

Customers NEED fast replies (many will settle for within 4 hours as long as it wasn't a server/site down type issue).

One of the biggest advantages (and drawbacks) in hosting is that you're a world wide retailer. More than 30% of our business is from other continents. Europe takes about 20% of our busienss, and Australia takes about 10%. Our biggest market is still the United states but only 60% of that is mainland US.

Starting out is tough, but worth it if you can pull it off correctly. Nobody will ever run your business as you want it to run, and nobody will ever be as devoted to it as you are, BUT you HAVE to give others a chance. You'd be surprised just how committed some staff are to the success of the business - even more so whe you offer stock options or a share in proffits (or bonuses).

I took the approach of it rules my life - now as this is my full time job i care about my business and spend as much time as needed on it and that is what makes me happy

One thing you have to be careful of, and keep in mind that life, like many other things will change. You will not always be able to make your business your life.

For example, when you settle down, have children, etc (if that is in your future), sometimes the transition from "work = life" to "family = life" is a tough one.

Agreed. the transition needs to be planned out, conducted slowly.

If only it worked that way. Sometimes children are unplanned, and that changes priorities overnight.