Not simple. It'll take years of hard work, funding and long hours spent at the computer before it starts to become a true success - if it ever does.
About support. If you can't offer 24x7 support, don't say you can. A lot of hosts do this. Tell the clients what the REAL ticket reply time is, don't say 10 mins if it is gonna take 8 hours. You could always outsource support, or, if you have high capital, hire support teams.
^^ Note:
www.HostingZoom.com offer anonymous 24x7 support to your clients. But it all depends if their support is any good.
Get a good reseller package. Remember, if the parent host goes down, so do all your clients! Make sure that they offer you good support if you get stuck, and that they are reputable themselves.
www.Hostgator.com is pretty decent for U.S.
As for payment. Most resellers nowadays give you WHM (WebHostManager) which has it's own built in billing system and which can be set-up for instant account activation (great plus for clients, but watch out for fraud). Other payment gateways incude:
2CheckOut (
www.2checkout.com)
Worldpay (
www.worldpay.com /
www.worldpay.co.uk)
PayPal (
www.paypal.com /
www.paypal.co.uk)
iKobo (
www.ikobo.com)
In the beginning, they will not run themselves. No way! But, as you gain more funds, start getting into profit etc, you will be able to hire staff to help carry the load. Eventually, the staff will be running the business, while you just sit back in your big office, with the comfy chair and the nice secretary
lol!
The hosting market is saturated. There are loads of hosts out there - but, no matter how many hosting companies there is, there will always be a market for hosting as the Internet is always growing. Also, most of the hosts out there are just a group of 12-year old kids out to make a quick buck!
I would not recommend buying a template. It shows unprofessionalism (?) in my opinion. If you can't be bothered to get a professional site made (or make your own if your good), then it shows you don't have the dedication to the business to be different from loads of others. My opinion on templates!
Again, it'll be very hands on in the beginning. You'll be the one dealing with cliens, answering support tickets (unless you outsource), and setting up acounts (unless you do instant account activation). But, like before, in the end, it'll start to run itself and you can just sit back and overview the business, just getting stuck in on the most important matters.
You may want to consider what legal status your business will be. LLC? Sole Proprietorship? Partnership? I'd recommend LLC (Limited Liability Company). This is because, mainly, you have
Limited Liability, meaning that, if you get sued, only the company's assets can be taken, unlike in a sole proprietorship where it is
Unlimited Liability meaning that personal possessions (house, car etc.), can be taken if you get sued. However, all types have their advantages and disadvantages!
Finally, yes, clients will be difficult to get in the beginning. But, even with a low marketing budget, if you spend it correctly, you can get loads:
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Get business cards printed - £20 for 500
Get flyers printed - £80 for 250
A4 Letterheads - £100 for 1000
Search Engine Optimization from a professional company - £100 (approx.)
Register with popular forums and put links in your sig - £0
Word-of-mouth - £0
TOTAL ADVERTISEMENT BUDGET: £300
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And then you've got a pretty decent building block. Give out the business cards, put up the flyers. Maybe, you could even get a business who could do this and give them out as like a pack (business card and flyer).
To entice clients, you could even go to
www.CafePress.com and register. Then, make loads of mugs, t-shirts etc, and buy loads from them (put them at CafePress's prices so you don't make a profit, but they're cheap). Then, have ads on your site, "Purchase [package-name] for a 6 month contract and pick a prize" Then have in small print "Prizes include: mug, t-shirt etc".
That way, you get a 6 month client and advertising if he uses the mug, or wears the t-shirt etc! Hey, that's actually a pretty good campaign. I just thought of that, might use it now!
You could also go back to the pack idea and when they register, send them an entire welcome pack! Business card, flyer, t-shirt, mug etc! Just make sure it doesn't work
too well and make sure you have enough in stock to supply all client sign-ups!
You could even do competitions "Win a
free 2 months trial at [hosting company]" Or "Win a mug", "Win a t-shirt" etc. But make it a "client-only" competition and people may register just to enter the competition. Just another alley to maybe go down!
You may need fair size marketing budgets to do those things though. Like most other things, it all depends on your budget. Please note: I'm in the UK so all above prices are in UK Pounds Sterling.
I know you said you wanted short and to-the-point answers, but it's hard to give a half-decent guide to becoming a web host, in just a few sentences. Hopefully you read through my post and learnt a bit more.
Wow. All that and I haven't even started my company yet! Lol! Gotta apologize for the majorly long post though. If you do read it all, thanks! It's just that, there is lots to say about hosting!
Will.
