starting up a webcompany

[captain_sHiFTy]

me and my friend have decided to start up a webcompany. He's a really good graphics artist and photographer, and im more into the coding side.

Does anybody have any tips on starting up a web company, or getting a few good contracts to start off?

or better yet...anybody have a project they want built? (we live in the vancouver, canada area)

 

[nemisys]

starting a web company is pretty vague. First you need to be clear about the services you offer and naturally, get up a website displaying your ability and why you are better/different then the hundreds of other companies doing the same thing.

Also, are you just doing design or a total web solution (i.e. hosting, e-commerce, promotions, etc etc)? If the latter, you might consider reselling the services of an established provider. The provider will typically give you a reseller's discount and you can mark up however you choose. This gives you the advantage of having minimal overhead costs while you establish a brand name and portfolio.

-nemi

 

[captain_sHiFTy]

we were planning on starting with design to start, as thats where our expertise and current budget allows, then adding webhosting etc to our list once we have enough business to pay for the bandwidth and machine price.

the reseller sounds intriguing though. could you elaborate on that a bit? or tell me somewhere i could go to find out about it?

 

[drunkmonkey]

we were planning on starting with design to start, as thats where our expertise and current budget allows, then adding webhosting etc to our list once we have enough business to pay for the bandwidth and machine price.

the reseller sounds intriguing though. could you elaborate on that a bit? or tell me somewhere i could go to find out about it?

Many hosting comanies sell you a reseller account which for example gets you:
Lots of space and transfer
Web Host Manager Software (manages client accounts)
Client CPanel Installations (what clients use for management)

If you do anything where you are handling other people's money (for instance, one of your clients sells socks) you should REALLY step up your security and do the job professionally. Especially if you are coding the actual customer management software that may for instance store credit card numbers in an SQL database. Make sure you get someone who nows about computer security to help you out if you need it.

If you IM me @ DisturbedMoogle0 on AIM I can hook you up with a friend that did this.

 

[nemisys]

i have worked for variosu web hosting companies and they all offered reseller accounts. This typically means that the company has a hosting package they sell retail. Instead of relying totally on their sales people, the also offer a reseller account which is typically just a discounted retail account. Some companies have quota you need to mee in order to sustain the discounted rate; like 10 sites a year or something.

In the end, you are acting as a store front for the companies services. They maintain all the servers and security.

The other way to go about it is to collocate a server which involves you placing a server in a hosting facility. This will typically require you to manage it as well as maintain security and can be more expensive.

The third solution is a managed collocation where you basically "rent" a whole server from the hosting company and they manage security and administration.

 

[captain_sHiFTy]

how much can you typically charge for different kinds of websites/hosting?

 

[nemisys]

all depends on services you offer. There is a very wide variation of services and prices.

For you, it sounds like web hosting would be mor eof a value added service.

Somethign along the lines of "we can design your site as well as provide hosting services" type thing. In this scenario, design/coding is your primary product and the hosting just provides a value by simplifying the process for the customer.

Ideally, you might do something along the lines of:

-Domain Registration (around $10)
-Hosting (can be as low as $3 to a whole lot per month based on needs)
-SSL for ecommerce (roughly $100-150 last i did anything with it)
-and design (you decide the cost of this)

In this scenario, the design/coding is the only thing you really need to worry abuot. Everything else is done by third parties. You get to do what you want, provide added services, and reduce your adminstrative burden. This only adds some paper work to your overall process.

In the end, once you have established a reasonable customer base (maybe a few hundred) you can go to collocation scenario. On top of this, any of the Value added services can be sold a la carte as well.

Once you reach a moderate level of success you ar presented with the idea of sellign your customer base off to a larger provider or continueing the colo scenario til you can one day afford your own facility.

The only thing to bear in mind is that web hosting in particular has become a commodity service and as a result, profit margins are extremely small. The creative service of design is more lucrative, but there is a lot of competition. Customer service and loyalty are key. Your best advertisement will be your customers.

Also, this is just from my experiece working for a coule different web hosting providers as a network engineer. There are plenty of people who have worked on the other side of the fence (reseller for example) that may have other pointers.

 

[captain_sHiFTy]

thanks so much for the information . im SO looking forward to showing my parents that being on my computer all the time will actually benefit my future and isnt just being lazy.

By "you decide" the amount to charge for design, what is a reasonable amount? ive heard my friends designing sites and charging anywhere between a few hundred to tens of thousands for a site.

what sort of features tend to change the charge most? (such as i've noticed designers somewhere around $10.000 more for an online store, etc)

 

[Roof Jumper]

im SO looking forward to showing my parents that being on my computer all the time will actually benefit my future and isnt just being lazy.

well, I have a friend right now who is porting this one grammar companies software to JAVA so they can have it as an applet. He is getting paid a fair sum of dough(~500 dollars for a pretty easy C++ -> Java), but he haggled 1 year exclusive rights to the port to sell as he pleases.

this friend also made a couple hundred dollars making a student management app for his school, so I can say that computers definately have a use

 

[drunkmonkey]

this friend also made a couple hundred dollars making a student management app for his school, so I can say that computers definately have a use

I try to help out with my schools network and tried to make software to help a teacher manage his lab and they wouldn't let him use it because they are soooo scared of hackers and somehow my software will also grind the entire network to a halt, lol.

Yes computers can make you very good money in spare time. I just made $100 and a epson photo printer w/ 3 ink cartridges for super easy work in 2 places that wasn't over 7hours (the photo printer was pretty much new but the person also needed a wide paper printer[which ended up doing a better job than the photo one] so i scored a $100-200 printer + ink yay)(~$21 per hour [including the printer] and I'm 16 :-D). I also help a friend with php for his web hosting company and get 1gb/28gbtransfer for 1-3hrs a month of work which i would probably do for fun:-D

 

[Roof Jumper]

Sad thing is, you can make more money working for yourself in the computer industry than getting hired by someone else right now if you know where the market is. For example, my area is building up(russellvile,AR), so there are actually a few people that started their own web dev companies to support the local area and are making 60k a year without having been to college and are 19 and 20 years old respectively. which is pretty good considering the median income here is roughly 22000 dollars.

 

[d0z]

For webcompany, what kind of scripting language is good to start with?

php is very fast to develop. jsp/java is very extensible. I don;t know about .NET.

 

[macklin01]

Sounds very interesting!

Let me reiterate earlier calls for good security. You need to be sure that you absolutely know what you're doing with security. And I mean in depth. (I've seen networks run by competent people get hacked in a bad way, e.g., root hacked, SSH shell replaced, sensitive data compromised, research lab shut down for weeks.) If you're responsible for some company's e-commerce or management of private / customer data, then you will be liable (legally, financially) to a very large extent if anything goes wrong.

You'll definitely want to speak with some attorneys and determine what your potential risks and liabilities are. Also, you'll probably want to look into some sort of liability insurance for your company that's tailored towards these types of risks. If you freelance it as an individual or as partners (and not as a corporation), know that your personal assets are fair game in any legal proceedings.

This is definitely not something to be taken lightly. Just a heads-up. Good luck! -- Paul