Looking to start a webhosting business, advice?

Barbaross

I want to start a hosting company from a reseller, my friend has a large hosting company and i'm going to buy a reseller off of him until I profit enough to get a server from OVH, any tips before I jump into the vast expanse of webhosting?

DeluxeNames

I think you should be focused on being a customer centered hosting company, white glove service. Even offering phone support which many hosts don't do.

With GoDaddy, EIG and many other hosting companies providing bad support, I think it is a great opportunity for new hosts to come in a gain market share by providing quality support.

It is really good to focus on 'local' clients as you can charge more as you can offer a more personalised service, such as setting up their e-mail on site or even being at the end of the phone or occasional visits.

We found this very helpful, we didn't even have to sell our hosting as customers would want us to manage it as we were easy for them to get a hold of. Their old hosting was no where to be found when they had issues and clients didn't like raising tickets. They wanted someone to speak to who understood their needs, especially businesses. However when dealing with businesses you really need to be careful on what hosting you are using for them as business clients need reliable e-mail, so having a dedicated IP will always be useful. We also found that a lot of clients weren't too worried about the speed of their site as long as it worked and wasn't stupidly slow.

I would always recommend offering office 365 or G suite, it really is great as you can sync mail, calendar and have big mailboxes. It is also reliable for clients. I have seen some businesses only offer these services for email and will have a set price for hosting and then extra fees for the mailboxes.

Its all about finding your target audience, we also found that making links with website designers very useful as these guys/girls always sell the hosting with the site, so if you can give them a personalised service this is always helpful.

cloudmate

Till you're on Reseller, no worries for you. The day you go to purchase New Server, security is on you. An especially OVH, there is no support. I literally mean no support! but their services are awesome. For Management, try BoxBilling or something OpenSource but not WHMCS. There is a Market Monopoly ongoing! Plesk, cPanel, WHMCS are already acquired by Oakley Capital, so the next thing you don't need is price hikes!

DeluxeNames

@cloudmate said:
There is a Market Monopoly ongoing! Plesk, cPanel, WHMCS are already acquired by Oakley Capital, so the next thing you don't need is price hikes!

So true on the market monopoly on Hosting software! Great points.