There’s a popular saying that goes, “You can do anything you set your mind to” which could be translated as “stay focused on a particular endeavor and you will conquer it”. What this quote and many others like it does not prepare you for in the business world is the numerous unavoidable pitfalls that could distract your “mind” along the way.

As much as I had hoped the content of this post could be tied to a recent success from a certain endeavor, this actually isn’t the case. Sorry to disappoint my readers, but hey, there are a few takeaways that may be applicable to your business as well so keep reading.

So after 3 steady years of successfully registering businesses and personal brands on the internet’s domain, I decided to pull the plug on the web hosting solution called HostPadi™ which I offered my small to mid-sized clients.

My decision to shut HostPadi™ down was based on a few factors I wish I considered critically at the early stages of its setup. Nevertheless, I gained relevant knowledge about the hosting business as well as valuable experience serving various types of clients over the years. I thought it’d be interesting to share some learnings and factors worth considering at an early stage for entrepreneurs and techies like myself looking to launch similar service like HostPadi™.

1. Focus on your Business
In the world of buying and selling hosting plans, time is literally money – especially if your model is to resell hosting plans. Take some time out to carve out your pricing strategy, conduct the necessary cost-benefit analysis on each plan and map out revenue projections over the next 2-3 years. More importantly, identify your ideal client and carve out a strategy to reach them. Being partially committed to this business would imply that you are willing to throw money to the wind as your revenue model is most likely to be a term-based one. A general understanding of the technical bits in the world of web hosting would go a long way and allows you key to keep an eye on the business as you progress.

2. Build your Brand
Once you have identified your ideal customer and why you exist as a business, the next step would be to build your brand and develop a clear below-the-line marketing strategy to reach your potential clients. So, here I was with a service that many businesses needed but wasn’t actively taking advantage of that. Your next steps are crucial from this point. Design and launch an attractive landing page to showcase your offerings, set up a social media presence to promote your services, interact and monitor conversations with potential customers, build a database of clients that would be interested in your product and you are halfway there.

3. Offer much more
As a new business looking to compete with other established brands such as whogohost, smartweb, Qserver, to name a few, one good way to differentiate your brand would be to offer unique features and programs that your clients could also benefit from. Over the years, I observed that 90% of my clients focused only on setting up websites/professional emails for their businesses and never sought to know what other value could be added. I missed out on the opportunity to include the other marketing services I offered at the time such as Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Advertising, etc, as well as offer training programs for these clients to prepare them on their journey to scale their business online.

These factors and many more should be considered on your journey to kickstarting that web hosting business and make some extra bucks. From my personal experience, I believe more than ever that with the right resources and attention from the very beginning, HostPadi™ would’ve established itself as a viable competitor in its niche, serving a fraction of the numerous businesses that are looking to establish a web presence for their brand.

For one thing, I loved the name a lot – HostPadi™ – It was that ideal product that felt most comfortable on the shelf. Let me know what business lessons you have learned over the years and how it has shaped your growth.