HostEntrepreneur

If you’re a webhost and have less than 10 employees, you may be eligible for Microsoft’s WebsiteSpark Program, http://www.microsoft.com/web/websitespark/. If you’ve been in the hosting business a long time, you might remember Microsoft’s Certified Hosting Partner’s program, where MS provided some support and leads for customers. This one appears to be the new incarnation of that program. 

You get software:  Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (or R2 if available) Web Edition plus SQL Server 2008Web Edition… so you’ll actually be in license compliance, something I bet most small Windows hosts are not. You also get Visual Studio Pro, Expression Studio 2 (or 3) or Expression Web 2 (or 3) to design and develop websites. 

Plus you get Support and Training from Microsoft and the network partners, and best of all, sometime in the future you’ll get “Visibility & Opportunities” – meaning probably a directory or providers and sales leads.

You can be in the program for up to 3 years, but one thing to note,  a $100 fee is due at exit. So it’s not totally free, but pretty dang close.

HostEntrepreneur.com has been getting a pretty decent response and we want to keep the drive alive. The past several days have been very busy for me – new ad coming out in Ping! magazine with the next issue, lots of work to do, as well as some personal development plans all underway.

I’ve mentioned this before and had several people express interest but not follow through, so I’m putting it back out there… if you would like to write for http://HostEntrepreneur.com/  we would love to hear from you. We’re looking for business and technical writers who love to share with and teach others about the industry.  There is a bit of small monetary compensation as we do require exclusive content. Plus you also get an “About the author” section, where you can also put a link back to your site (even if it competes with one of ours … this site is about teaching and helping others, all are welcome).  So if you’re interested register here, so you can send me a message…

And rest assured we’ll be returning to our “regularly scheduled programming” shortly.

The Visa Busines Network,  , is on Facebook… and for a limited time they are giving away $100 Facebook ad credits just for signing up! It’s a simple 3 step process.

1. Signup with a simple basic info form – name, email, create a password, etc. and click the link in the email to confirm the account
2. Request an ad credit… It’s 1 click! And they email you a coupon link.
3. Redeem the credit by clicking the link in the email and creating your ad and facebook account (if you don’t have one already).

A credit card will be required to sign up for the ad program, but does not have to be Visa (I tried a MasterCard just to check). The credit is instantly applied to… Just remember to shutdown the ad after the credit runs out to not get charged. And set a daily limit in case you forget. But don’t forget – go set a google calendar reminder or something. BTW, ads can be per click or per impression.

Get started here:  http://www.visabusinessnetwork.com/    You should see the ad on the first page there… if not use this link:  http://apps.facebook.com/visabusiness/adcredit/step1

I know you’ve worked hard to get your Google positioning where you’d like, or are in the process of attempting to do so… time to start re-doing it. Google has announced “caffeine” their new search engine technology. You can play with caffeine at http://www2.sandbox.google.com/  and there’s a cool tool that let’s you compare the existing results to the new engine’s results at http://www.comparecaffeine.com/

Google’s Matt Cutts had this to say

“The new infrastructure sits ‘under the hood’ of Google’s search engine, which means that most users won’t notice a difference in search results. But web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.”

Part of the revision is said to address the growing implications of social networks on search results. Supposedly it is also faster. Come claim twice as fast. I personally never really had an issue with Google’s speed. I suspect speed matters more to Google themselves as more efficient typically means less hardware required. Less hardware means less expense in capital as well as operation, administration, etc. down the line. That means more money is Google’s pockets. So I could see how they would want that…

On this installment of “Step 1a – Write a Business Plan”, we’re going to look at what a Business Plan is exactly… I’m sure everyone has heard of one, but how many of us have written one before. I’m sure there’s a few of us, but I bet the vast majority of people looking to get into webhosting for the first time are starting it as a side business. They have probably never written one before, and many probably have never seen one either.

So here’s an overview of the parts of a Business Plan.

• Executive Summary -  THE most important part of the plan. Who you are, what you do, and where you are and where you are going at a high level overview written in everyday terms.
• Market Analysis - A description of the industry including size and target market, growth rates, etc.
• Company Description -Another high level description but in more detail than the executive summary, this time specifically about your business and what needs you’re going to meet, and who the target is for those needs.
• Organization & Management – Profiles of the key players in your organization and the roles they will be taking on. Also should detail the overall structure and how those players fit together.
• Marketing & Sales Management – Descriptions of sales force, management, and how they will go about getting business.
• Service or Product Line -What you will be selling and how you will distinguish yourself product/service-wise.
• Funding -  Regardless of if you are requesting funding, this is where you will say how much you need and/or have, and for what it will be used for…
• Financials – Historical and Prospective financial data. One of the later sections to complete.
• Appendix – All the extra stuff that will be needed based on what you’re going to do with the plan. For example, if you are requesting money from a bank, etc., they will want credit information and resume’s on key management.

Today’s was only an overview of what each section encompasses. Begin to read over them and start thinking about each section, and start making notes or outlines for each section.  Next week, we’ll start going into each section one by one and get down and dirty with it.

Last Week: http://hostentrepreneur.com/2009/08/13/step-1a-write-a-business-plan-part-1/
Next Week:  Coming soon…

2For Tuesday ( a bonus post )

I’m sure you’ve all seen them. They’re all over the web, twitter, and every other imaginable outlet they can get into…  “10 Best Webhosts”. Every one I have looked at shows pretty much the same hosts over and over, or at least several of the same. But if you go do your research at an indepenent site, such as http://www.WebHostingTalk.com/, then you will find that several of these “best hosts” have absolutely horrendous reputations and wouldn’t be touched with a 10 foot pole by most people “in the know”.

So how did they get on a “10 Best” list? Simple, they paid for it. Not directly usually… No they offer affiliate programs where affiliate sites get paid to either send traffic their way, or if the traffic produces a sale.  Not very honest is it?  Oh don’t get me wrong… There’s nothing wrong with running an affiliate program. My problem is with the “10 Best” sites. What they’re doing is simply recommending hosts based on how much they are getting paid to say that they’re “best”. To me that equates to nothing but lying, plain and simple. By creating this “10 Best” site you are implying that you tested them, and that there’s some methodology to coming up with what is “best”… but the only methodology involved is how much money the affiliate program is putting into your pocket. To me you are nothing but bottom feeding scum… IF you are going to do one of these lists, at least be honest about it. Call it the “10 best paying webhosts”.

Included in the new list of the 500 fastest growing private companies are many technology and internet business. But we wanted to point out that at # 239 is HostGator.com with 896.4% increase! Hostgator is not new to the list either… This just goes to show that it is possible to build the webhosting business by defining your services well, and taking care of your customers. Congratulations to HostGator – Keep up the good work!

Today I’m pointing you towards something a little lighter than yesterday’s Part 1 of writing a business plan … One of the feature of today’s subject,  http://www.webhostingshow.com is a podcast by and about webhosting by Mitch Keeler – the self proclaimed “rock star of web hosting industry.”   This 15 minute-ish podcast is worth a listen…  With upwards of a half dozen topics per show, there’s always something you’ll find useful.  It’s worth an hour out of your life each month… listen and learn something.

Don’t even think about starting your webhosting business without a business plan. This is step 1A… I say 1A, because you’ve probably already decided to do start haven’t you?  That was step 1. So now the “real fun” starts.

Overview of a Business Plan

First, what is a business plan?  It is a written description all of the financial, operational and managerial aspects of starting and running a business.  Notice the words I bolded – “written description” … you MUST write it down. Having it in your head does not count. A simple test for it being well written is if you handed it to a person with a reasonable knowledge of business (not necessarily this business but business in general), could they take that plan and implement it. That’s not to say they will have the technical, managerial and/or marketing expertise to do so, but they will be able to identify those needs precisely enough to seek those who do and oversee their functions.

Why write a business? According to Paul Fagan, managing director of ActionCOACH, if you don’t have a business plan there is an 80% chance your new company will not survive the first 5 years.  That’s not very optimisitic. If you don’t want your new dream job to turn into a nightmare (and it can quickly), you need to plan.

Who is the business plan for?  First it’s for YOU! Next it’s for the bank, investors, etc. and other involved parties. It is primarily an internal document that guides the operation of the company. It is a playbook… it should be able to tell the players (you and your team) what to do next to get to goal X.

When do you write the business plan? I can’t stress this enough… you should have a well defined written business plan in place BEFORE you start your business. This is a must if you want to give it every opportunity to grow. That is not to say that if you are already open for business and you don’t have one, you shouldn’t write it. You should!  It should become a top priority – right up there with taking care of customers.

How do you write a business plan?   Well… this was part 1… I can’t put everything into part 1 can I?  We’re going to move on to part 2 next with what the components of a business plan include, and then each successive part will detail each section of a plan. I’m doing this on purpose (not only to make you come back), but I want you to think about what you’re doing and not throw together something just to be able to say you have one.

Coming soon: Part 2 — Essential Components of a Business Plan