Over time, the business gradually moves from the real world to the virtual world, where new vast opportunities open up. Today, there are already a decent number of ways to make money through the Internet, and you can get the most out of it if you open your own hosting. However, this is not entertainment, so the hosting should be taken very seriously, having understood all aspects and drawn up a detailed business plan. Otherwise, you risk just losing everything invested money.
What is hosting?
To answer the question: “How to open your own hosting?”, You need to understand what hosting is in general. To explain this is quite simple, because each person has already managed to visit many sites.
But these sites do not exist on their own - they are based somewhere on the Internet, and their hosting is based on various hosting services. Hosting is providing the client with a place on the server where he can create his own web page.
Most often, hosting already includes various additional services, such as a file server for storing data, an email service, and also databases.
Hosting as a type of service
If you are thinking about how to open your own hosting, then you need to understand that you are not just creating your own business - you will provide full-fledged services. Naturally, such matters as hardware, technical component, software and so on are important in this matter. It is worth noting that any company that is going to open its server is simply obliged to have high-quality equipment and everything related to the technical side of the issue.
Therefore, it is the quality of services that can play a decisive role in the competition. How you treat customers, what additional functions you provide for free, how you react to problems that arise, how you quickly fix them - all this will affect the popularity of your company and, accordingly, the number of your customers and their loyalty to you.
Two types of hosting rent
Of primary importance in deciding how to open your own hosting is determining the way in which you are going to open your business in this area.
The easiest and cheapest way is to rent a part of the server from a large hosting company. In this case, you become a reseller, spend a minimum of money and effort, but also get extremely limited opportunities.
The second way is to rent a whole server from a large hosting company. You will have to invest more, but at the same time you will get more authority, be able to install your own hardware and software, reboot your server and so on.
Hosting purchase
But if you decide to purchase your own hosting, so as not to depend on larger representatives, then you will have to spend significantly more money. But this is the only minus, because everything else is a solid plus: you can buy your hardware and software, arrange hosting at your discretion, and most importantly - you do not have to pay large amounts for rent.
Therefore, the purchase of hosting for permanent use seems the most reasonable solution in the long term.But such a thing will require more impressive preparation, so you need to become more familiar with what you will need in the future.
Company opening and business plan
It is unlikely that you will come up with the idea of buying a hosting as an individual, so the first step is to open your own company. You can register any form of enterprise at your discretion.
Much more important here is the business plan of the hosting company, under which you will need to calculate in detail what your money will be spent on. Given the fact that the opening and running of such a business will necessarily involve the use of high technology, you need to prepare for the acquisition of high-quality equipment, personnel who will serve it, and many other items of expenses.
There are enough nuances here that you should pay close attention to then avoid serious errors that can lead to adverse consequences. A well-designed business plan is the key to success of any enterprise, including a hosting company. It is also worth considering that before starting the activity you need to get all the documents.
Select the legal form and register an LLC or individual entrepreneur, as well as visit the tax office and add the company to the list of taxpayers. These are the main legal points that should not be forgotten for the official conduct of business. Without them, you will have to face fines.
Main expenses
Hosting as a business can bring impressive profits, but you need to wait and achieve it. Therefore, first you need to prepare for the fact that you are waiting for various investments that will not pay off right away.
First of all, you will have to spend money on registering an enterprise, since this process also costs money. Then you will need to choose an office that you will rent - here you can save money by choosing a small and inexpensive room if you do not plan to hire a lot of people in the staff.
However, how to open your server without the support of other specialists? Still, you will have to hire a few people, since you certainly won’t be able to do absolutely everything. It’s definitely not worth saving at this point, since the quality of the services you are going to provide will directly depend on the quality of your employees' work.
And the last of the most important cost items is the purchase of equipment. As with employees, it is not recommended to save on equipment, since the quality of your server will depend on it. In total, you will need to spend about two million rubles to successfully start doing business. The profitability of such projects is very high. For a year, the money turnover can reach sixty million, so you won’t have to wait long for the profit.
Definition of tariff plans
After you figure out all the costs, you will need to think about future income. You will receive them directly from customers purchasing seats on your server. Therefore, you need to determine the tariff plans that will operate in your company.
You can offer several tariffs that differ in price, depending on various conditions. The main condition, of course, is the amount of disk space allocated to the client - the more it is, the higher the rental cost. Also, the price is affected by the number of sites that a client can create by subscribing to a particular tariff.
Moreover, the dependence of these two indicators is indirect - someone can request 5 sites with a total disk space of 2 gigabytes, and someone needs only one site, but for it it needs 10 gigabytes of disk space. You can attract people to more expensive tariffs with various additional functions that are not available on cheap counterparts.
Marketing strategy
Do not count on the fact that you open your hosting, and customers will immediately run to you. Many entrepreneurs before you have already managed to start this business and have taken their places in the niche of this industry. Therefore, you will have to try to attract customers - you may even have to work at low prices first to somehow interest people in their services.
But still: how to start your server from scratch straight to a market full of experienced competitors? Naturally, you will need a well-developed marketing strategy. You will have to resort to various advertising methods in order to interest potential customers. Here absolutely all means are suitable - contextual advertising, SEO promotion, and viral advertising.
Nobody forbids the use of traditional marketing on billboards, message boards and so on. If you yourself are good at marketing, then an additional expense item will be excluded from your list. If not, then you will have to turn to specialists who will effectively conduct an advertising campaign, after which you will need to retain customers yourself - with the help of high-quality services and competent service.
Work for the future
Naturally, the story of how to open your own hosting does not end there - you still have a lot of work to do, where you may also need useful tips. To work for the future, you can open an affiliate program and a loyalty program that will provide an opportunity to attract more new customers and also retain old ones.
You will need to maintain your popularity, so you need a longer-term marketing strategy. Then you can already return the investments made in this business and start making profit from it, which, with the right approach, can turn out to be very decent.
