Tips for starting hosting company

[Gxdfather]

Before I start this thread, please know I am not looking to make a "Cheap summer host" kind of thing. I am looking at starting a legitimate business. Me and my business partner are currently looking for local colocation space in Atlanta, GA as well as office space in a co-working office building. We will also be starting with an LLC with intentions on switching to incorporation further down the line.

I have worked with hosts in the past and in high school used to build up hosting businesses and sell them (not on the scale I am planning this time). We are also looking to incorporate our business within the Ethereum Blockchain.

I want to offer Web Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, VPS Hosting, BaaS, Game Server Hosting, VoIP Hosting, etc. I am also currently reviewing applications for a team of around 5 staff members, working local in our offices once we aquire them.

I just want to know if you guys, Experienced Business Owners Especially, have any advice for growing my business once we launch and working towards success. Budget is not an issue as I am looking at investing $50k into my business at launch and will be able to afford to invest more if it comes to that.

 

[Gxdfather]

If you have $50,000 to spend on a server host then take this advice:

Don't ask the clowns on MC-Market where to spend your money.
These are mine men, not financial advisers or generally real businessmen.

Not asking MCM where to spend my money. I am asking if anyone has some tips. This isn't the only place I've asked, but I prefer to do as much research as possible when getting into a business venture.

 

[kev626]

Don’t.

 

[Jay_H]

Before I start this thread, please know I am not looking to make a "Cheap summer host" kind of thing. I am looking at starting a legitimate business. Me and my business partner are currently looking for local colocation space in Atlanta, GA as well as office space in a co-working office building. We will also be starting with an LLC with intentions on switching to incorporation further down the line.

I have worked with hosts in the past and in high school used to build up hosting businesses and sell them (not on the scale I am planning this time). We are also looking to incorporate our business within the Ethereum Blockchain.

I want to offer Web Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, VPS Hosting, BaaS, Game Server Hosting, VoIP Hosting, etc. I am also currently reviewing applications for a team of around 5 staff members, working local in our offices once we aquire them.

I just want to know if you guys, Experienced Business Owners Especially, have any advice for growing my business once we launch and working towards success. Budget is not an issue as I am looking at investing $50k into my business at launch and will be able to afford to invest more if it comes to that.

Add me on discord, let's have a chat - @Jay_H#1248

Many Thanks
Jay

 

[Gxdfather]

First off decide , are you going to own or rent your hardware?

If you're going to rent, how will you offer competitive pricing? Will your pricing be better than other hosts? Because you'll be working with the same hardware and limitations as many other hosts, how will you stand out?

If you're going to own your hardware, then it's quite different, as your baseline is drastically lowered to colo costs. If you're owning your hardware, then what will make you different? Will you be cheaper than the competitor? Will you have better hardware? Or will you simply have more features?
Your key goal needs to be to figure out, how will you be different or better than the competitors?

Personally, I'd advise that If you're looking to start a MC host you need to pick which niche will you serve - the people with money and a player base who's priority is a great experience for their players? Or the broke kids who want a host that just works, and is as cheap as possible? Both require very different hardware and want different things.

I think if you had read my thread more carefully you would understand that I am planning on using owned hardware as I said we are looking for local co-location space. And I'm not planning on creating a "MC Host" specifically, tbh I'm not 100% sure im even going to offer game server hosting, it's just something I'm looking into.

 

[Gxdfather]

If you think you're the only person that's asked this question on mc-market you're dead wrong. My advice is valid and stands regardless.

If you actually read my thread, all your questions were basically answered. If I was going to be running some bullshit cheap host, why would I be investing $50k into it, why would I be looking for office space and working on becoming a legitimate business entity? Why would I hire people for an actual salary? If I was trying to serve a bunch of broke people i'd make it a one man operating, rent crappy hardware, and do it out of my house without registering my company.

 

[GKLennie]

20% of monthly income, make it goto advertising.

 

[Gxdfather]

Here's a tip - Remain calm and professional.

Here's a tip - Read the contents of a thread before replying.

 

[rexs123]

There are a lot of things you can do in the hosting space.

I would highly recommend if going to hosting to avoid resellers. As you've made clear this is something you really wanna invest in to.

- Build a reputation, online and in person.
- Shameless plug; but having a good website makes a lot of difference in user retention and SEO. Don't settle for some template from ThemeForest.
- A good logo that will make your brand stand out.
A name that's; 1. Easy to remember, 2. That's clean enough for some positive SEO
- Work with your team. *Biggest downfall I've seen ever was due to poor inner-team relationships. Avoid having it be the owner to single employee communication, setup chain of command and delegate.
- Competitive pricing, but avoid $1/GB<. it's unreasonable and is only possible if you are overselling or legitimately losing money.
- Web hosting is going to be your hardest task at the moment. cPanel's new pricing. Google for more information here. (I ain't about it personally.)
- VoIP Hosting is a challenge in today's market. But that being said discord bot hosting & small application hosting that's easy to manage (with a control panel, and minimal setup required) Can be quite profitable.
- Hardware. Good proper hardware can be a game changer; doesn't have to be owned right away. But you can definitely set yourself up to be there.
- A nice control panel that isn't laggy, blocky, and has good features. Don't settle for the pre-made solutions that exist. It's getting stale. Everyone uses them. Starting out with this is fine 100% but don't lock in too hard.

Just to be clear, I'm not speaking out of my ass, I used to own and run SnowStormServers but was brought to transfer of ownership due to personal health reasons.
I currently run a private hosting business with over 50 clients, as well as I am a freelance Web developer.

I do not post often on the MC Market. That being said I hope you do succeed so this post was not a wasted effort.

Good luck,
Rexs123

Feel free to add me on discord if you have any further questions;
rexs123#1338

 

[Sloth]

So the most important thing you want to ensure when starting a hosting business is that you have a fail safe. In the event there is a data breach you need to keep a baseball bat close to the servers so that you can smash them when necessary.