Disillusioned

[lostinlondon]

Hi All,

Long-time UKBF member, apologies for the 'cloak and dagger' approach but I'm posting from an alternative account so that I can get some impartial feedback without a worry that customers or suppliers may see my plight!

Basically? What am I doing with my life. I set up my first business when I was 16, hosting websites, and made a lot of money from it. I was the pride of my school for being such a 'bright young entrepreneur' and when I turned 17 was the only guy in my class to be able to buy himself a new car. At the time I was busy running the business all night every night, to 3 or 4am most evenings, working alongside my full-time position, and things ticked over nicely. Fast forward 10 years, and the bottom is falling out of hosting - what with many businesses moving to Facebook, and with google offering 10s of gigs of space for free, people just are not willing to pay that much for shared hosting any more. I'm now the wrong side of 25 and want to make a self-employed living for myself and my partner, so I'm looking to play to some of my other strengths, but it just seems these days that every time I research an avenue of business that I'd be suited to I turn up the same old result; "there used to be money in it but not any more" - I won't bore you with a list of my talents that now relate to "businesses in decline" but even my old faithful fallback of IT support (I've been using a computer since I was 3, building them since 12) that I've always kept as my emergency "need cash now" backup plan now seems under threat, with qualified techies 10 a penny and IT equipment becoming cheaper and more 'throwaway' by the day; there's a big shift to mobile technology and tablets now that is out of my scope of knowledge and qualifications.

Is anybody out there feeling the same way? Anybody have some words of encouragement? Some success stories, some advice for a disillusioned entrepreneur who's now seriously thinking of 'getting a proper job'? (which would be another story - because where are the high paying 'proper jobs' these days anyway!) In business at least, where's the money these days? I know people are making it - I see them daily in the skyscrapers of London driving the 13 reg Porches - I'm not after making a million, I'd just like to be able to live comfortably.

Let me know your thoughts guys, I'd love to hear from you.

L.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Well if you lifted up your head you may see more opertunities than walking around looking at the gutter

Why listen to others, every new person who wanted to start a cafe or restaurant was told there is no money in it loads of comopertition dont be stupid with your money

Ever seen what the top restaurant people earn, the same story all over be the best or most inovative and you stand a good chance of beating the oposition. You must have known you would not beat Fasthosts and the like years ago without massive investment so it's not news is it

If you look around long enough you will spot a opening that you can use to start again or a way to change what you have now to make it the best in 2014-15

Good luck and go for it and sod the doubters

 

[WilkoWilko]

Im struggling myself, so dont take my words as being right. But have you tried upselling?

If you already have customers, in thier eyes you must be seen as some kind of IT/website specialist. So why not try selling additional services to them like SEO, Website Design and internet marketing. Its pretty easy to find white label solutions out there in all areas for example look below -

http://www.seo-positive.co.uk/company/partners/

Doing this you can slowly move away form hosting being your core business, and gradually move to an all round website solutions company with a bit of marketing thrown in. That way your moving with what your customers want, keeping up with the times.

Thats what I would suggest.

 

[telemax]

This whole 'there's no money in it anymore' thing has been going on for ever. There's always people having a good moan.

 

[InPrintImaging]

Difficult one to judge (and believe me, I know as my market is over saturated as well). You need to make a decision about your business sector:

1, During the 18th and 19 centuries, large numbers of people were employed on farms. Seed used to be sewn and harvested by large numbers of manual laborers. With the advent of mechanization, this is no longer the case. Only small numbers of people are required to do this sort of work. The market has gone.

2, When home computers first came into being, there were 2 main players IBM and Apple. Over the years, with mass production the cost of IBM compatible PCs (windows) has plummeted. Apple have however continued to be highly successful due to having a strong brand and good quality products. The fact that they cost more isn't a problem as their products are excellent. The same can be said about luxury car manufacturers. If price were the sole deciding factor, BMW, Mercedes etc would have gone bust long ago.


The question for you is, is your industry 1, or 2, and if it is 2, what can you do to differentiate yourself?

 

[lostinlondon]

Thanks, everybody for your replies so far. Chris you are right - no matter how saturated a market, there's always room for somebody to do it right - lets face it, shared hosting was extremely saturated when I entered 10 years ago, but I still carved out a name for myself based on service and passion - I think it's the latter of those two that have dwindled over the years. At one point I was indeed setting my sights on beating Fasthosts - crazy maybe for a bedroom operation at the time, but I've no doubt in my mind that aiming high got results.

WilkoWilko that is an idea I've been looking at, and one worth investigating - I posed as a customer last week to sign up with 1&1, and went though no less than 8 pages of 'offers and upgrades' before they'd sell me the account at the basic price quoted. Okay this may be overkill, but I think some choice upgrades would help my bottom line.

Telemax - you're correct too, people will always moan. A photographer friend of mine once told me there was no money in photography - he was talking to me over a coffee at his home studio, set in his 6 bedroom house, with his Merc parked outside - maybe this was business-speak for "there's not as much money in photography as I'd like"

InPrintImaging - Thanks for your input, the business areas I operate in are definitely still in demand, but maybe i have to adjust my target demographic; while the personal sites I host may migrate to google pages and Facebook, in the corporate world there will always be a need for reliable mission critical hosting, I just need to be selling to the right people.

Thanks everybody for your responses, I guess my solution is to stop looking for a new venture with a quick payoff, and to try and recapture the passion that made me successful in the first place and apply that to my existing ventures. I really do appreciate your time, and if anybody else has a view on this, feel free to add your thoughts!

L.

 

[Billmccallum]

I'd go along with wilko's advice, look at new sources of income that won't cost you a great deal to run, for example printing as a reseller, throw together a few web sites and contact your past customers and offer a variety of services.

 

[cafelife]

Have you not noticed that every successful entrepreneur has a story to tell? How they have lost x amount in the past and some even bankruptcy.


They are successful now because they have the drive and motivation to keep going, keep pushing, keep getting up when they got knocked down.


Walt Disney went bankrupt more than once, and look at his legacy now!


Duncan Bannatyne said on more than one occasion, we can always succeed in something that is already being done by others, you just got to do it better than everyone else.


Also, you will find that the most successful of people are the ones doing something they love and passionate for.


So my message is, don’t give up, and do something you love and are good at, then things will fall into place.

Take care, all the best xxx

 

[Kevin H]

I think your comment " based on service and passion - I think it's the latter of those two that have dwindled over the years" is perhaps the most telling point you have made.

If you have lost your passion for something, or don't have the passion to begin with, then negative comments by others are more likely to hit home with you.

If you can try and find something to have a passion in; something where you will enjoy being better than everyone else; and then see how you can make money at it.
Then , if you can, do it.

I had this as a milkman (and enjoyed the time and had a great retention rate at a time the industry was in massive decline); I had it as a web-application developer (and got to work for some top companies and work abroad); and I have it at the moment about SEO. I just love talking about it and gradually seeing my efforts move my clients up the SERPs (I'm very competitive lol).

Then, each time the passion wanes I look for what could be my next passion. Currently eyeing up that coffee shop in a small town/large village somewhere where I can work just enough to live OK and chat all day with my customers (so, not too busy thankyou ). That will be my next thing when my passion for code and SEO wanes (in the next 5 years or so is my guess).

Good luck with finding your next passion

 

[FIZIX Agency]

Difficult one to judge (and believe me, I know as my market is over saturated as well). You need to make a decision about your business sector:

1, During the 18th and 19 centuries, large numbers of people were employed on farms. Seed used to be sewn and harvested by large numbers of manual laborers. With the advent of mechanization, this is no longer the case. Only small numbers of people are required to do this sort of work. The market has gone.

2, When home computers first came into being, there were 2 main players IBM and Apple. Over the years, with mass production the cost of IBM compatible PCs (windows) has plummeted. Apple have however continued to be highly successful due to having a strong brand and good quality products. The fact that they cost more isn't a problem as their products are excellent. The same can be said about luxury car manufacturers. If price were the sole deciding factor, BMW, Mercedes etc would have gone bust long ago.


The question for you is, is your industry 1, or 2, and if it is 2, what can you do to differentiate yourself?

^ This

There is still a market you just need to either optimise your process to complete or do it better than everyone else. If you have an image of performance and reliability then you can charge a higher premium. Of course you need to back that up with higher performance and reliability.

Also, support and being accommodating goes a long, long way. The amount of hosts who won't do anything out of the plan on shared hosting (Hi can we have such and such... no), those that do get known for that amongst development circles in particular.

I think your comment " based on service and passion - I think it's the latter of those two that have dwindled over the years" is perhaps the most telling point you have made.

If you have lost your passion for something, or don't have the passion to begin with, then negative comments by others are more likely to hit home with you.

If you can try and find something to have a passion in; something where you will enjoy being better than everyone else; and then see how you can make money at it.
Then , if you can, do it.

I had this as a milkman (and enjoyed the time and had a great retention rate at a time the industry was in massive decline); I had it as a web-application developer (and got to work for some top companies and work abroad); and I have it at the moment about SEO. I just love talking about it and gradually seeing my efforts move my clients up the SERPs (I'm very competitive lol).

Then, each time the passion wanes I look for what could be my next passion. Currently eyeing up that coffee shop in a small town/large village somewhere where I can work just enough to live OK and chat all day with my customers (so, not too busy thankyou ). That will be my next thing when my passion for code and SEO wanes (in the next 5 years or so is my guess).

Good luck with finding your next passion

^ And this, if your passion is gone then it is of course time to move on.

 

[PDC]

Its very difficult because as you say, the market has become over saturated and there is always someone willing to undercut you on price.

We found similar in our business sector a few years ago. We have managed to continue, largely by providing a good quality service at as competitive price as we can. Doing this we get a fair amount of return business as well as people recommending us to others. We certainly loose a lot of work to companies who charge less as people often only hire based on price, rather than results or the thoroughness of a service.

I'm not sure what the answer is for you but good luck.

 

[GraemeL]

Who would have thought there was a market for this?

The whole article is fascinating.

Makes you want to set up a market stall.......

G

http://dominiqueansel.com/cronut-101/

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/cronut-copycats-spring-around-globe-114416558.html

 

The whole face of technology, by it's very nature, will change regularly - it's just a matter of keeping yourself dynamic and moving yourself along with the flow.

I am in IT support (among other things) and I am far from a fan of tablets, consoles, etc....but when they come through my door I take them in, because I provide a service to my customers and they don't know where else to go - so I expand my services each time to accommodate them.

It's all about service, and whilst many don't care, there are always those who will pay for the peace of mind that ultimately comes from giving them a decent service.

Look at your current business, see what you can do to 'complement it', tweak your business model, add to your portfolio, sign up with a few companies offering products your customer-base might be interested in and sell their products to them, etc...... and most importantly, ensure you give a good service - nobody likes to pay too much these days, but some people recognise value for money when they see it.