The Internet is up 24/7. Site owners expect their websites to be up 24/7. And if they aren’t, they’ll call their web hosts to complain; that’s you, and you might find yourself working 24/7 just to keep up with your customers’ needs. But that’s just the most obvious manifestation of the problem with being your own boss. The work never stops.
It isn’t just customers either. If you’re a reseller web host, you’re dealing with the company from whom you’re buying your hosting space. If you aren’t, you’re buying your own equipment and dealing with suppliers, whose workers and products may or may not be reliable. You also have to spend time promoting your business, which involves a lot more than just slapping up a web site.
In fact, the number of skills you need to operate your own company is staggering. You are your own salesman, marketer, bookkeeper, trainer, IT person (particularly important when you’re a web host), website designer, purchaser, quality control person, customer support, and on and on. If you are missing any of these skills, you have to acquire them yourself by taking the time to read books, attend classes, or do whatever it takes. Your other option is to hire someone with these skills, either as a full-time employee or as a contractor.
If not having the right skill set is one reason that many web hosting businesses fail, another reason is time management. Let’s face it, you can’t be available to your customers every single moment; you have to sleep sometime. Don’t assume you won’t get a phone call at three in the morning from one of your customers with an issue. It’s not unusual to put 15 hours a day into your business, and it’s unlikely that you’ll be at the top of your form the entire time. If you’re not naturally well-organized, you can look at time management as another skill you must learn before starting your own business, whether it’s web hosting or another field.
Of course, this feeds right back into the point that there’s so much to do when you’re running your own business. You want to refine your business plan and grow your business, but when you’re caught up in daily activities it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. How can you work on maximizing your growth when five customers are screaming at you because they can’t get to their sites to update them, the new server hasn’t been set up yet, your customer support person is down with the flu, the firm handling your web connection has you on hold, some of your bills are overdue because some of your customers are late with their payments, and your pay-per-click advertising campaign just ran out of money for the month? Sure, that’s overly dramatic, but you probably get my point.
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