Advice for Hosting business in the DR

[skiller]

Hello

I would like to see what do you think about a Hosting business here in the DR and also to give services to Caribbean area, but with servers based on the US.

First offering Shared, Resellers Accounts, VPS Servers and Dedicated servers. Servers would be our own colocated in a Data Center in the US.

The Business site would be in English and Spanish and payment options: Credit Card, Wire Transfer or personal payment option in our office in Santiago, also support for the services in spanish and english.

Services would include hosting, domain names, SSL certificates, Network Solutions, Web Design and programming.
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Questions

1- What do you think of this type of business here?
2- Any info about this market on the DR?
3- What about competition of same type of business?
4- Recommended advertising options
5- Tax or legal matters that this could bring
6- Any suggestions would be appreciated

Well that's all i'm considering this business seriously and to have a good investement on it, that's because i had some experience on hosting and stuff related, but first i want to see what do you think about it.

Thanks.

 

[Chris]

There are two sides to a business. The one side is what you sell and the other side is who you sell it to. Where and how are you intending to find customers? That should be the first question that you answer. And secondly, why should those customers buy from you?

 

[Robert]

The Internet is full of Latin sites selling hosting as first level providers or re-sellers. Hosting is cheap and peering for cheap hosts is getting better.
Your entering a tough market. Your edge will need to be service and being locally based.

Your NOC expenses will be in US$ and your income in RD$. I hope you have some good margins!

I see collecting money as your #1 problem.
If you can overcome that, you stand a chance.

I do not know of anyone else that is offering a similar service in the DR.

We are locally based (Santo Domingo) and lease 2 servers in the USA (Planet).

Would we use you?

No way! Just thinking of putting DR1 in the hands of locally based techs gives me a stomach ulcer

But hey, good luck, if you get off the ground and offer a re-sellers program, I can always help you out.

 

[skiller]

There are two sides to a business. The one side is what you sell and the other side is who you sell it to. Where and how are you intending to find customers? That should be the first question that you answer. And secondly, why should those customers buy from you?

Well customers are various ways to find, advertising, contacts from various known companies, offering your services to companies and of course word of mouth.

But the main thing is that i think that giving customers good support and great service can bring to your company more attention from other customers, offering REAL stuff (do not oversell space) can make a good reputation are essential for a business also giving guarantees to clients and make him know that you are there for him. Of course not all companies do this.

Tha main market will be business, organizations, professionals and personal hosting.

I said before the main focus would be DR and Caribbean but if a customer from the US for ex: wants hosting i wouldn't say no, but i wouldn't say no if i have the way to give him true support and guarantees for him. So like you may see Hosting can be a very large market.

Your NOC expenses will be in US$ and your income in RD$. I hope you have some good margins!

I see collecting money as your #1 problem.
If you can overcome that, you stand a chance.

Well that's true i have been thinking about it and i should say that i have thought that the best way is to be based on US$, because apart from income in RD$ the Dominican Peso is to risky let's say Currency devaluation.

No way! Just thinking of putting DR1 in the hands of locally based techs gives me a stomach ulcer

But hey, good luck, if you get off the ground and offer a re-sellers program, I can always help you out.

Well i understand completely what you think about locally based techs i have had bad experiences here with techs in the past, sometimes we are the kinds of person who does like to manage or do things on our own, thats what happens with people like you and me. I said this because i'm that way too.

I know this is usually because of reputation of people that takes the business like a game, but i think someone must start and try to change things a bit. Well i will give a try to this and see what happens i know i will start not big, but hey we born small and in the time we go growing.

Thanks for your replys and help, you're very good people