djpete Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 I am curious as to procedures put in place for your small hosting company should you, as a sole operator, die suddenly. It does happen. What steps have you taken? EG: sell the business, forward on existing clients etc....Is this in a Will or... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scurrell Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 I'm leaving everything to my 12-year-old son, who will run it from his bedroom on his PS3.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpete Posted August 13, 2009 Author Share Posted August 13, 2009 Good one. Surely this is a serious enough topic though. I mean 100's if not thousands of clients are at your mercy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easyhosting Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 i have a written agreement (witnesses by solicitors) with another local hosting company, that if i go then my business interests (clients etc) will be transferred to him and visa versa. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpete Posted August 13, 2009 Author Share Posted August 13, 2009 (edited) That sounds feasible enough. Probably the easiest way to go as another Hosting Company would most likely know the software eg WHMCS, terminology etc with hosting. But how did you work out the $$$ side of it? That's where it could get messy. Did you work out a sale price, percentage or? I am trying to get a handle on whether there are any standard practices about this sort of thing mainly for owner/operators. Edited August 13, 2009 by djpete 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael.Terence Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 A good friend of mine with a hosting company valued in the millions has setup an insurance policy on himself, through his company. If he dies, the company is left to his wife and the life insurance goes to attorneys with instructions that it is to go to his #2 guy who is to use the money to purchase the company from his wife. That's all the money can be used for, or it defaults back to his wife who would have the money and the company. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easyhosting Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 That sounds feasible enough.Probably the easiest way to go as another Hosting Company would most likely know the software eg WHMCS, terminology etc with hosting. But how did you work out the $$$ side of it? That's where it could get messy. Did you work out a sale price, percentage or? I am trying to get a handle on whether there are any standard practices about this sort of thing mainly for owner/operators. $$ is of no use when your gone, so we just worked out as mentioned if i go he gets my business, if he goes i get his business 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meechp123 Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Very interesting topic indeed.... I need to do some planning.. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genious Posted August 15, 2009 Share Posted August 15, 2009 Same here... always thought about it, I have a small company about 15 employees, but.. if I suddenly die... who weld handle my servers? my business? my customers? will have to think about that seriously... I'm only 23 years now.. but well! god bless me want to build Datacenters all over the world! so.. 83 years is ok for me to die! ... 60 years to build my business though! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DedicatedPros Posted August 15, 2009 Share Posted August 15, 2009 Same here... always thought about it, I have a small company about 15 employees, but.. if I suddenly die... who weld handle my servers? my business? my customers? will have to think about that seriously... I'm only 23 years now.. but well! god bless me want to build Datacenters all over the world! so.. 83 years is ok for me to die! ... 60 years to build my business though! You plan on running around your DCs when you're 76 fixing servers 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redrat Posted August 15, 2009 Share Posted August 15, 2009 "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankc Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 How many one man hosting companies do your guys think there are? Being in the business for 6 years I make a good amount of money but this topic also worries me. The reason why I ask is that the more one-man hosting companies there are the better the change that we can collectively get something going that would be able to take care of this issue. So far as that I can see the most basic and immediate need that arise when such person dies is that somebody with the KNOWLEDGE temporally take over to keeps the business running until things are sorted out. In almost all cases I bet that such person would prefer that one of his relatives took over the business but for that they need the necessary knowledge. With above in mind I wondered whether it's possible that we can work together to create some sort of training manual and support group so that such relative can use that when necessary. (But of course the best would be if he/she can learn it NOW and not wait until it's necessary) My son is 19 and daughter 17 but not really interested in what I do but when something happens to me I can bet that the INCOME will soon enough instill more than enough interest. (After all, dad provides the money so why care where it comes from?) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankc Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 It's also not only about death as even just a week in hospital can destroy a large part of your work over many years and a support group would therefore be a huge lifeline for such person. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easyhosting Posted August 31, 2009 Share Posted August 31, 2009 It's also not only about death as even just a week in hospital can destroy a large part of your work over many years and a support group would therefore be a huge lifeline for such person. in a situation like this, look at your longest serving clients and see if you trust one enough to allow him access to your support email or system. this happened to me earlier this year, i was in hospital for 2 weeks, i knew i was going in for a minor op and had to stay in, so i arranged for a long serving client to look after my support 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R-n-R Posted September 1, 2009 Share Posted September 1, 2009 This is a great topic and a very important one, one that I will be spending more time with. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdnero Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 Best way to me to employ at least a good manager who can keep watching your business and can help your family member to get involved after you. Second best is to forming a legal entity with board of directors & take someone from your family to act your role after you. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobull Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 I've wounder the same thing mmany times 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
openmind Posted September 2, 2009 Share Posted September 2, 2009 I am curious as to procedures put in place for your small hosting company should you, as a sole operator, die suddenly.It does happen. What steps have you taken? EG: sell the business, forward on existing clients etc....Is this in a Will or... I have a blooming great thick operations guide lodged with various key people packed with all sorts of disaster scenarios. We're not just talking death here, the plan should include long/short term illness, unexpected absence, hack and root attacks, basically anything that stops you operating at 100%... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonkeyMagic Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 I have a blooming great thick operations guide lodged with various key people packed with all sorts of disaster scenarios. Care to share? Would be immensely helpful to a lot of folks here I dare say. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rpd Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Well I'm a one man, well woman, show so if I go, my husband can take over. He is involved in the daily activities enough to hopefully figure it out. If we both go at the same time...well, we haven't figured that one out yet... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
openmind Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Care to share? Would be immensely helpful to a lot of folks here I dare say. I appreciate it would help others and it's not that I don't want to share but it has so much confidential information in it, by the time I stripped out all that there wouldn't be much left! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
easyhosting Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 I appreciate it would help others and it's not that I don't want to share but it has so much confidential information in it, by the time I stripped out all that there wouldn't be much left! Could you not share this and where the confidential info is just use {add *** here} so we know what we need to add at certain points. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9Hosting Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Could you not share this and where the confidential info is just use {add *** here} so we know what we need to add at certain points. You can't really copy a disaster recovery plan, it would be unique to your company. They are easy to create though, all you need to do is think of the worst possible case scenarios and then plan what you would do to minimize the impact on your business if such a thing ever happened, or if you can put measures in place to stop them happening in the first place. For example: Problem: What will you do if your datacentre has a fire and all your servers go offline for days? Recovery method: Have another server up and running in a different datacentre that you can quickly move your own site to so at least you can communicate the issue with your clients. It won't being clients sites back online but it will give them peace of mind that you've not run off to the Bahama's with their $7.95 per month The above is a very quick, broad example. You'd go into more detail in your actual plan but you get the picture. If you've never done one before just do a search on Google and you'll find loads of useful info. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
openmind Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 @D9hosting - Exactly what I was getting at... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Austdata Posted September 6, 2009 Share Posted September 6, 2009 I outsource sales and customer support. Server maintenance is also outsourced but to a different mob. All sales income is pooled in to a common transaction account. All expenses are automatically drawn from the same account. If I died the business would keep going for quite some time without me. It should survive until the executor has sorted out the will. Cheers, Mike 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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