Steps to setup a hosting business.

[Kirtan]

Ok. Here i came with a stupid question. What are the steps in setting up a hositng business. I have already signed up for a resellers a/c and i am in develping a site for hosting. how can i make visitors to register domain online hosting. eNom a/c details are very confusing. Any help will be greately appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[ACENET-Jason]

Billing software, helpdesk, business plan...there's a pretty big list if you are doing it right. There are lots of helpful suggestions on here. Do some reading and you'll have more ideas than you know what to do with.

 

[prolixity]

hosting software of choice ( ie billing software cpanel etc) and a basic plan of what your going to do

 

[Dev4vip]

Here's the 10 steps that i followed when i 1st got in to this business, and im sharing it with you since it really worked for me

Step 1: Learn the basics
Step 2: Learn about various reseller opportunities
Step 3: Get started with a business plan
Step 4: Sign up for the service
Step 5: Build your own website
Step 6: Set up your backend and hosting plans
Step 7: Market your services
Step 8: Support your customers
Step 9: Get advanced techniques and advice
Step 10: Sell your business using all the sales and promo tactics

Good luck :thumbsup:

 

[inworx]

Well, having a billing system if you have less than 5 clients isnt helpful as you can do manual billing as well. But a helpdesk is SURELY needed(Like osticket, cerberus helpdesk etc.)

The website needs to be professional and eye catching. You must be on a speedy server as well. Think what the visitors will assume when they would see your site loading in few mins? That surely annoys everyone, not just the potential buyers.

ALso, DO NOT OVERSELL. Never do this, as it'll bring more customers but when they'll go, you'll see them going away with lots of negative feedbacks about your company. So, thats definitely not what we need for a newly started company. Isnt it?

 

[ldcdc]

ALso, DO NOT OVERSELL. Never do this, as it'll bring more customers but when they'll go, you'll see them going away with lots of negative feedbacks about your company.

It's not that cut and dry. Overselling can be employed as long as it is properly managed. "No overselling" is not a sure-fire way to stable hosting, and overselling is not a sure-fire way to disaster.

 

[.amaZe]

Plan out everything, and have a partner that can help. Starting a hosting company, takes a good amount of money to start up.

Expenses..
1. Server (decent one, preferably a dedicated)
2. Domain
3. Design
4. Helpdesk
5. billing software

Most of those expenses are paid monthly, unless you use a different cycle.

 

[rider]

Step 7: Market your services

The most impotant step. I kept in mind idea to be web hoster, but it is quite difficult to be nowdays. There are plenty of webhosting companies over there. And most of them offer lots of space and bandwidth for 1-3 USD

 

[chrisj383]

1. Site (the most important thing)
2. Billing software (theres lots to choose from but be carfull)
3. Helpdesk software (sometimes it's included in the billing software
4. Live chat support (do a search on google there's loads out there)
5. Domain name reseller account prev eNOM (awbs give you a free enom account)
6. Some good designed banners
7. The ability to think up new ideas and promotions
8. The ability to write a decent post on all the hosting forums
9. The ability to undercut any webhost that gets in your way (for new start ups this is difficult because you have to meet your expense's.
10. Financial backing (make a good business plan and take it to the banks)

Chris

 

[KiranHost]

Just a word of caution, the hosting business isn't a get-rich-quick scheme. It'll take hard work to bring it up with thousands of other all the hosts around. And by hard work I mean putting 15+ man hours into it per day. Good luck!

 

[SagoRyan]

When you are starting, you also should consider if you want managed or unmanaged support, if you're having your server hosted outside your own grasp. Unmanaged is a great way to learn things, as you're the one doing everything. This does include any of those hard lessons, as with security issues. Going the managed route, it'll cost you more, but you have that safety net you can use if you do get in over your head. But if you do go managed, make sure you don't rely on your host completely; if you don't know your own server, things can get overwhelming when an issue occurs.

 

[proweb2006]

MANY options

After you get you rhosting or server or whatever route started with (suggest a dedicated server) then depends on you skill level. The MOST important thing is to provide what you said and to take care of you clients (offer good support). There are alot of backend scripts n the market that combine billing, support, FAQ and all the backend stuff into one interface. WHMCS is a fairly simple one that will do most of what you'll probably need though I liked AWBS much better cause had more functions (harder to learn though of course). There are many more Im sure. I tested PHPcoin, didnt care for that at all, tried AccountLab SO-So but if want or going to sell dedicated servers and not just hosting accountlab is no good. I tried a few and now I am back to doing some manual and some through a basic CMS system now with no lease or high cost for the license.

 

[yphost.com]

What you basically need is a billing software that will automate everything including signups,
WHMCS is the best currently
we have been using it at yphost.com since a few years and we have never had a problem