What's the recommended business plan in web designing business (based in the UK)?


1

I've been searching for the one-stop answer for quite sometime but coudn't find any verdict what is the best option to run a web design business which minimise the risks and making both parties: me and the clients are happy as mush as possible. My questions are:

  1. Should I have a reseller hosting plan is the best bet? I am afraid of 3 predictable problems that might come:
    • Reseller hosting plan/month is more expensive than normal hosting plan. I don't know how it will be going in the future, been trying to keep an investment lowest as possible in the beginning.
    • If I had one, my clients will have the access to their cPanel/account which might ruin my work if they mess up things in there.
    • They could call me up 24/7.
  2. If I provide them the host, register the domain name for them, both are in a specific period and they have to renew after that period has expired. In this case scenario, who will have the rights of the website's ownership? Do I have to hand over my work to them when finished? How do you it?
  3. What I'll have in mind is I'll have the price packages in web design which including hosting plan for clients to choose from, they pay me the money, when finished I keep hold of the ownership for one year during this time the clients have to pay me extra for editing the content, if they want to have their own site in control and leave for good, they also have to pay me extra. What do you think?

Web Design

asked Nov 1 '11 at 02:27
Blank
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39 points

1 Answer


1

Multiple questions, so here are my answers:

  1. a - it is more expensive but you only need a couple of clients to recoup the cost, and you have lots of capacity for more clients
  2. b - not necessarily true, each domain usually gets their own cpanel with only access for their own domain so they shouldn't impact any other sites hosted on the same account. The drawback of cpanel is that is can confuse non technical users so be mindful of that
  3. c - only if you provide that as part of your service, people who need 24/7 coverage are unlikely to be buying hosting on shared account, if they think they need this from you charge extra for it
  4. Depends on how you draw up your contract/terms when quoting the client. A good option is to either build in a fee to the original quote or stipulate a fee in your terms for the work involved for you when a client leaves your service (e.g ftp files, start domain transfer from your host). You don't really need to handover stuff per se, just make it clear to the client that you can provide that service should they wish to take their business elsewhere.
  5. Yep similar to previous question. Quote the client for yearly/monthly hosting as a separate line item when they engage you, it is often prudent to ask for hosting fees up front in some way as with most invoices payments can easily slip to 60-90 days after invoice.
answered Nov 1 '11 at 18:08
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Lloyd S
1,292 points

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