Closing up the business advice

M

maritimer

New member
Due to financial restrictions, and the unsociable hours reselling brings I have decided to call it a day.

I`ve been at this a year, and in all honesty it has been extremely hard selling. I won`t kid myself when I say it was harder than I expected. The market is so saturated with competition.

I have been constantly putting in money, with little if any return and cannot continue on this path. I have alway remained a small outfit, with most of my clients from the local area.

I decided to give it a month before shutting up shop. I could do with some advice about how to deal what clients I have left. I owe it to them to at least give them a heads up on the situation. Most of the clients were given a year of hosting by myself, as part of a deal when I offered a website design package.

Some of them have a few months left of prepaid hosting, but due to the finanical mess this has gotten me into, refunding them is going to be tough which leaves me feeling bad for them.

I would be more than happy to help them in any way I can with moving to new providers, providing them with backups etc.

I really haven`t got a clue where to start, but I need to get something in motion asap. I have never been in this situation so this is all new for me.

Thankyou.
 
Maritimer, your best bet would probably be to sell your clients.
Depending on what they are paying you could either make a small profit or at the very least find a host who will pick them up and maintain their accounts until the next billing period.
 
I will add that I respect the fact that you are thinking of your clients.

Too many "hosts" just quit and leave their clients hanging with no site.
 
We have had hosting providers who are 'closing up shop' approach us and offer to give us their customers in exchange for helping them move over...

Why not approach a reputable host and make them a similar offer. That way.. your cusotmers will be happy, and you won't feel like you left them in the lurch.
 
maritimer,
Sorry with your bad luck in this industry however you are right it's very hard; many people find it hard in this industry and some people won't admit it to keep up straight face. I have all the respect for you thinking of your customers; like Blue said most people take a run.

However you can try and sell your customers; and you should be able to make some money from it.
 
I only have a handful of clients left, but they are still clients none the less and my responsibility.

To be honest, I wasn`t too concerned about making a few bucks from selling them but of course if I could make something it would at least make me smile!!

I was more concerned in general, with finding them a good home and somewhere that would take them in and see the term out. If the clients are happy with them and wish to renew, then that`s their concern.

My biggest concern, making sure they continue get the hosting they paid for. As I said, a few still have remaining months left which they paid for.

I`ll speak with a few of the providers and see what I can find. I`m worried about handing them over to fly by night or summer job companies.

Thanks for the advice.
 
As I am cleaning my hands of the whole site, domain and clients (it`s a complete hosting package). Would I be making a mistake if I auctioned/sold the whole thing?

My big concern as always is my clients. I think of them as my friends, despite the fact I have never met any of them!

If I could get some advice about selling or auctioning I would appreciate that too :)
 
Private low key sales are always the best for clients in any business of our size.

If you decide to sell on ebay or other area you risk the fact a client might see and become upset. People do not like change and I am one of them!

That's just my 2 cents, I'm no expert on the matter in the hosting field.
 
I would never auction them on ebay or any other online auction scheme. I was referring to forum offer sections. I`ve seen auctions run in them before.
 
maritimer said:
As I am cleaning my hands of the whole site, domain and clients (it`s a complete hosting package). Would I be making a mistake if I auctioned/sold the whole thing?

My big concern as always is my clients. I think of them as my friends, despite the fact I have never met any of them!

If I could get some advice about selling or auctioning I would appreciate that too :)
Click to expand...


I wouldn't say it would be a "mistake" to auction the whole package, but you would be limiting your buyers.
There is a certain market for a turnkey hosting business but most sales come in the way of client purchases.

If your domain is doing some sort of traffic it may add value to the sale.
 
maritimer said:
As I am cleaning my hands of the whole site, domain and clients (it`s a complete hosting package). Would I be making a mistake if I auctioned/sold the whole thing?

My big concern as always is my clients. I think of them as my friends, despite the fact I have never met any of them!

If I could get some advice about selling or auctioning I would appreciate that too :)
Click to expand...
If you offer the 'whole package' as a turn-key sale, then you're really limiting the potential buyers to those who are just starting out and want to buy a new domain name and website, etc....

.. which might not be best for your clients since they risk suffering with the new host who perhaps might not know what he/she is doing.

Your best bet, if you want what is "best" for your clients.. is to sell to a reputable existing host who will provide service to them for whatever term they have already paid, etc...

Try the offers and requests forums here, or the ones over at webhostingtalk.com and you'll find plenty of similar sales. I'd say "on average" you can ask for 6 month profit.

Good luck!
 
If you are concerned about your customers you should try and find a good host to take them off your hands for you even if you don't make any money off it. I personally would avoid selling them to the highest bidder unless you are dealing with hosting companies that have been around for a minimum of a year.
 
Well I'd say it's pretty easy to sell even the smallest host people will buy pretty much any host that has clients and a website. Of course how reliable they are who knows

Of course the second option is to always recommend them to another host and that host may honor their current hosting accounts if you work something out with them.

Just a matter of research either way good luck with whatever path you choose
 
I agree with other replies to the post. The ethical thing to do is to sell your clients to another hosting provider so that they are not left alone with a non-working web site.

However, on the other hand, this is a risk for web hosts who can consider buying your customers. You should prepare a good customer report that you can use for persuading interested web hosts.

Recommending them other hosts or refunding their money can be other options.
 
maritimer, I'm sorry to hear that you are quitting the business - with your very commendable ethic and thoughts for your clients, the hosting industry is taking a real loss. On the other hand, you do need to know when to call it a day: past a certain point, your life starts going out of balance, and it gets harder to provide the high level of service that drew your clients to you. They're less happy, you're definitely less happy...it becomes a lose-lose situation.

I'd like to hear your experiences in finding your customers new homes, if you're interested in sharing.

Best of luck to you wherever you go, whatever you do.
 
We aquired a small host a few months ago in a samiliar situation. Went very well. Well on our end at least. The person had zero records and it made it very hard on our end but we put some time into it and saved the users a lot of grief.

The key is to get someone who is real good at doing conversions and handling these things in the past. Otherwise you may wind up in a larger mess than you started with.
 
PS I agree that EBAY is no place to sell a hosting company. 90% of the people bidding don't know what they are bidding on. And clients definitely wouldn't appreciate being handed off to some one that doesn't know what they are doing.

Find a company that offers support equal to what you did or more. That may means a lower sale price. But its your duty to support those users.
 
This isn't the place to solicite business, Galaxy-Hosts.

Everyone who posted into this thread is likely to "want" his clients and could likely provide a great home. :)

If you're looking to purchase clients, there are advertisements in the ads forums.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum supporters

Members recently online

Total: 10

Forum statistics

Threads
80,971
Messages
248,524
Members
20,685
Latest member
mikstrahost
Top