Today my former parner, 'Michael M.' (aka "chezowan" on here) gave me the key to running the company solo. I was unpleased with Mike's performance as a CEO, as he never wanted to advertise now grow as a webhost. He finally succumbed to giving me the company. So now its me, myself and I. Any suggestions as I plan to go solo?

dubs, I guess the suggestion is: do all the things you wanted to do while running the company with a partner.

All the best in business. I'm sure you can do a great job solo or not.

I've been running ExonNet solo for two years. I get help to cover support when I'm going out of the area and won't be able to answer support E-mails.

With a smaller company it's not as hard as you think.

Yeah, ive still got some big plans for advertising though so I an become as big as maybe ANM or DIY someday.

Newport has around 6 people on the support team not including Billing, Accountants, Collections, System Admins, and all of the internal stuff. Sometimes running a company by yourself can be difficult. It can be done by yourself but it's very challenging.

Yes, we are still growing, and as we get bigger, so will the staff. I have already hired a personal buddy of mine to help with the support and account activation etc. Its working out nicely, and hopefully this hosting business will too.

Yep, go with Artashe's suggestion. Maybe simply write down some of the things that you didn't like what the previous owner did, create a checklist of some sort, and complete them.

Just make sure you can afford to do all this upgrading as a company, rather then jump into it with a blindfold over your head. Try to take into account how much everything will cost so you don't get into financial trouble, running a business can be very overwhelming and stressful.

Good Luck!

I'm going solo myself with hosting. I've done it before and I made the mistake of merging with a partner which left me doing all the work. I was the one who got to stay up until 2-3 AM when the server went down to fix things or get on the horn to the outsourced support techs.

Going solo isn't hard if you go about it the right way. I worked briefly for one guy who went solo for nearly 3 years. I did a little math and if all of his clients were on the cheapest plan he'd be pulling in $60k (this factoring in overhead and all). Needless to say, if you factor in the two more expensive plans he's probably doing quite well at $80k/year roughly and quite possibly more. It was a niche market but it's a goal to strive for something like his business. I think he proves it's possible to succeed with the right efforts.

That being said, I tend to do better on my own. I pay support when I need the extra hours and I don't advertise that I offer 24/7 support. However, be ready to get up in an emergency. It's a good idea to have some method of emergency contact. Other than that, just try and get a plan down so you know where you are going.

Dubs I'm sure you could pull through just make sure that you're tracking you finances very well.

I agree with everyone else that has posted in this thread. It can be done. I do have some techs to help so it is a better situation, but it was not always that way. Good luck and hope it works for you.

TheNetCode

Thats true dedication and commitment is the key, Even if there is two of you, Sometime its good to be able to work alone, other its not.
Good luck with your venture.

I just wanted to add that, whatever you do, please do not get side track with work. It's very easy to ponder off after the missing "of a partner"...

Good luck and wish you the best.

Heh you should know. Your company is complete BS and a one man team. For everyone who thinks Im just flaming him, you should know how he runs his company. Yes this is my first post, but not my last. You dont have a 6 man support crew, every number on your 800 number went directly to you... All support emails came from your email address, so did billing, and everything. Nice try though

Randy, please try to keep this thread on topic.

While you are free to have your own opinions of course, dubs' thread is really not the place to express your opinions regarding a completely different company than the one in question.

Sorry about that but he really pisses me off, and I feel sorry for any customer who he screwed over. Sorry again.