Poll: Business Revenue

Ok I will share - a bit - we are not that big but it seems we are bigger then most here -

I started in 2005 and got a server right away before I even had 1 customers and my server cost at that time was 800 a month - yes first year no real profit - big loss - but its the name of the game when you start a business.

after 1 year i had about maybe 100 customers and breaking even

year 2 i started selling dedicated servers and grew product offering etc

Year 3 - i now expanded and moved to Texas, and put servers in Texas for shared hosting, (with PEER1) in USA so had and resold servers in Carolina and Los Angles and also got a server in Canada - and put 1 shared hosting server in Canada. again expanded

Year 4 - Expand to the UK and London - expanded Toronto - revenue keeps growing, mostly business grade customers high demand

Year 5 (TODAY) space in lots of data centers, resell exchange and BES (as a reseller for now) The Toronto Co-location center has just doubled in size this month and space is selling out fast in it --

Future, We will be doing our own exchange and BES hosting
High end Business grade managed hosting with Brand name servers from HP, IBM and DELL available to all
Expand the London Data Center and look for Expansion into Australia data center in 2010.
We are building SaaS applications such as Rebelcrm.com and are selling hosted applications for a fee we will continue to expand that area
in 2010 Our plan is to allow and build a front end for resellers to be able to manage multiple cpanel accounts and plesk account from one interface and provision accounts in various data centers around the world.

i am not as successfull as i want to be yet, but i am on track and firmly believe i will get tehre

but my advice

Make a plan and work your plan -- here is what i do

my 5 point plan

1) Strategy make a plan where you fit, where you want to be and make sure it makes sense - do you want to be a discount host, business host, or high end managed hosting provider

2) Operations plan - once you have your strategy what will you need to get there - step 1, step 2 step 100 etc

3) HR plan - at some point you cant do it a lone - what people do you need, how do you incorporate them into your strategy and operations plan

4) Financial plan - you will need money, how will you spend it, where will you get it - make room for errors, crunch the numbers and then crunch it again -

5) Communication -- Endless communications of all elements - tell everyone your plan, your mission statement, what you want to do and how you want to do

hopefully, that helps small hosts get bigger
 
Damn...This thread went places and I didn't even see it. Plus, my plan to get ahead of Steve on the weekend failed because he was here this weekend. Oh Well!

Web Hosting Talk to be quiet frankly ticks me off. It's not just the forum, its the company as a whole. They have pretty much a monopoly on communication to the masses and if they want to cut you out, they will.

There is a lot of kids who do not have a clue there and there is also a lot of people who are quick to judge. For example, there was a thread there last night about someone going oh x company is to expensive, they must be rolling in the profits. I went OFFF. Everyone has their business plan and everyone has to wright profits.

They were a smaller firm who essientially was trying to defer people signing up from this company. Well when you pay your techs **** or outsource them, its really is to provide sub par service at a sub par price.

When I come to Hosting Discussion, its like one big family. The 20 to 30 of us who are here literally know each other and talk with each other. There is personallities behind the usernames.
 
Yep, that is why HD will always be my favorite forum. I rarely post on WHT. I just post my ad then come here to chat. I feel safe here. Theres no fear of getting judged, yelled at, made fun of, etc.

It's just a shame that this place has 13k+ members, but only 25-50 of that number is really active. But, I am sure HD will become even more active as time goes on.
 
romes said:
Yep, that is why HD will always be my favorite forum. I rarely post on WHT. I just post my ad then come here to chat. I feel safe here. Theres no fear of getting judged, yelled at, made fun of, etc.

It's just a shame that this place has 13k+ members, but only 25-50 of that number is really active. But, I am sure HD will become even more active as time goes on.
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I am ok with 25 - 50 active members. I know all of them. hehe I like Hosting Discussion because the members are more vetran and there are intelligant useful conversations. Also, I have noticed most of the people here, understand what the true cost of providing hosting and it doesn't start with a $0.99.
 
I also do not like WHT - the mods are not the sharpest, i think they favour their friends. Those guys cant secure anything on the forum and some people on that forum go out of their way to criticize instead of help each other - I don't have as much time on forums as i used to - but thisHD is one of my favorites. - i am sorry i am not one of the 25 regulars - 50 Regulars - but i do get on when i can - and try to add value to the people
hopefully i can find the time to do more of it!!
 
1maverick said:
I also do not like WHT - the mods are not the sharpest, i think they favour their friends. Those guys cant secure anything on the forum and some people on that forum go out of their way to criticize instead of help each other - I don't have as much time on forums as i used to - but thisHD is one of my favorites. - i am sorry i am not one of the 25 regulars - 50 Regulars - but i do get on when i can - and try to add value to the people
hopefully i can find the time to do more of it!!
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You should join us more often. I have a couple friends who are mods over at WHT. That still does not lesson my hatred for that company.
 
Yeah, people now-a-days are tricked into believing $0.99/m plans, unlimited plans, and just rediculous oversold plans. I know this will sound rude to some of the people that read this but it is just common sense to know a package is not right.

300GB space, 1TB bandwidth $3.99 (This is not right)

Unlimited space and bandwidth (This is not right)

5GB space, 15GG bandwidth $0.99 (This is not right)

I see people on forums ask is unlimited really true...What planet are they from? When I first needed a website and saw ads for unlimited space and bandwidth I just knew those packages were wrong. And back then I had no knowledge of servers and what they could handle (space/bandwidth wise)

It makes me really mad to see people ask such questions like that. But, I would never insult them, laugh at them, or judge them becuase they do not know or don't care to try and use their brain. I help them, post useful information and guide them to a host that is right for them. Some take the advice and live happily ever after; some ignore it and get screwed and come back asking for another bad host.


Ahh...that felt good to let all that out. Anyone else need to vent? lol
 
romes said:
Yeah, people now-a-days are tricked into believing $0.99/m plans, unlimited plans, and just rediculous oversold plans. I know this will sound rude to some of the people that read this but it is just common sense to know a package is not right.

300GB space, 1TB bandwidth $3.99 (This is not right)

Unlimited space and bandwidth (This is not right)

5GB space, 15GG bandwidth $0.99 (This is not right)

I see people on forums ask is unlimited really true...What planet are they from? When I first needed a website and saw ads for unlimited space and bandwidth I just knew those packages were wrong. And back then I had no knowledge of servers and what they could handle (space/bandwidth wise)

It makes me really mad to see people ask such questions like that. But, I would never insult them, laugh at them, or judge them becuase they do not know or don't care to try and use their brain. I help them, post useful information and guide them to a host that is right for them. Some take the advice and live happily ever after; some ignore it and get screwed and come back asking for another bad host.


Ahh...that felt good to let all that out. Anyone else need to vent? lol
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nice...when people demand lower pricing, there is always someone to provide it to them. I was explaing to someone the other day that sure you can find a lot of cheap people who want the world for free; however, your business long runw ill most likely hurt from it.

Cheap clients are the first ones to jump when something goes wrong, there is a lower price. They have been known to demand more from staff and tend to abuse the staff. While there is exceptions to the rule, I believe in 99% of the cases sterotypes are true. I have clients who spend $2 to $4k per month with me and I never hear anything from them. In the past, I had clients who spent $0.99 in assumed that they should have everything.

Its a mind set thing.
 
Yeah, it is. When clients begin to get cocky and tell my staff or I that they will leave and actually list the other company I just tell they have till the end of the month to pack up and go.

Clients who respect my staff, company, and I will get a lot of respect back. Clients who have been with me since I was 15 are what I call loyal clients. If they can't pay their bill I will give them a month to pay it back + their current month, they need more space/bandwidth I will sometimes give it to them for free.

Their are good clients, and bad clients. You can't be in this business and not come across a bad client...lol sooner or later they pop up :P
 
romes said:
Yeah, it is. When clients begin to get cocky and tell my staff or I that they will leave and actually list the other company I just tell they have till the end of the month to pack up and go.
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I would be careful here and talk to the client as to why he thinks of leaving the company. If they talk about the price, then if you cannot give them the price they are asking, a lot of times you can actually still retain them by explaining why you charge what you charge, or offering them something that will complement their service. Clients, if treated properly, will only appreciate you asking them about their decisions and wanting to try harder. It'll make them feel truly valued.

It is hard to find a new client, so I am all for client retention practice. Telecommunication companies spend millions a year on retention services, small gifts, bonuses, discounts and special treats for their clients. The hosting marketplace is too busy to afford losing clients.
 
Every few months I get a client who thinks he can get everything he wants for the price he wants. I have a price standard and when people want their price per month below that I tell them anything below the standard will lower quality (service and support). My standard is different for each area.

Also, Art I understand where your coming from but I am talking about a client who doesnt care and just wants you to lower your prices to suit them. I will do everything I can to keep a client. I help them with billing solutions, packages, etc. It is hard to get a new client so keeping your current ones are important. I am always professional, and polite when I talk to them.

Anyways, we all had to deal with a bad client once or twice in our years in this industry.
 
Artashes said:
I would be careful here and talk to the client as to why he thinks of leaving the company. If they talk about the price, then if you cannot give them the price they are asking, a lot of times you can actually still retain them by explaining why you charge what you charge, or offering them something that will complement their service. Clients, if treated properly, will only appreciate you asking them about their decisions and wanting to try harder. It'll make them feel truly valued.

It is hard to find a new client, so I am all for client retention practice. Telecommunication companies spend millions a year on retention services, small gifts, bonuses, discounts and special treats for their clients. The hosting marketplace is too busy to afford losing clients.
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You should tell Charter Communications that. They are in bankruptcy proceedings and as a customer they still don't care about me. Even though I pay them almost $400/month with business and home lines.

While I 90% agree with you, there are customers who just hinder the overall performance of staff. They abuse staff, they want ridiculous custom jobs or installs, etc. While I never like to see clients go, you cannot lose money on clients either. There is something to be said about companies who know their client base well enough thyey are willing to fire bad customers, you have to fire bad customers or they will drain your company.
 
Wow, you guys are really an inspiration ^^ I used to run quite a successful free host that was later sold. But it's still nice to read about the industry. :)
 
Zachary McClung said:
While I 90% agree with you, there are customers who just hinder the overall performance of staff. They abuse staff, they want ridiculous custom jobs or installs, etc. While I never like to see clients go, you cannot lose money on clients either. There is something to be said about companies who know their client base well enough thyey are willing to fire bad customers, you have to fire bad customers or they will drain your company.
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Exactly Zach :)
 
Yeah, keeping only good ones makes your life easier and keeps your services up-to par. Right now, I feel lucky since I have good clients. I know most of them by first name which gives an added touch to my services. I rarely get tickets now-a-days which really makes me happy lol
 
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