View Full Version : where to find cheap office as a base for webhosting biz?
where to find cheap office as a base for webhosting biz? and where to find budget web designer ? anyone interested to join up?
have to get a office. if not i get people asking me whats your registration number..where is your office and stuff.. and they don't want you just because of that.. kind of not fair.. and they ask what assurance you can give.. normally how do you all handle
Office as in a physical office?? Or just a virtual office with mailing address??
I think you can use your own home under the Technoperiour (spelling??) scheme, but need to apply to EDB?
Maybe can ask heng chai about it?
i mean get a real office.. some client really wanna come down to your office to have a chat 1.. .. and how do you all handle people when they ask for your office. i mean its not nice to say your office is at home and sort of stuff.. and they always like to ask how many people in your company.. when u say 1 or 2.. its like forget it to them
must remember that profit margin for web hosting business is getting thinner and thinner, think carefully before you spend.
as for cheap design, may be you can look around for some web hosting biz template, you can get quite a good one below 200-300 sing dollars.
polarbear
30-01-2003, 20:35
The moment you get an office, your costs will go up tremendously. This will eat into your profit margins. Especially, if you are offering cheap hosting, and barely earning enough.
From my experience, an office will set you back say about $800/mth. Location is also an important factor. An office in Geylang and Suntec City does mean a lot of difference to customers. Of course, the latter one will cost you more.
Think about it. Starting a business is not as easy as what people think. There are a lot of hidden costs. :)
you'll need to work out your sums, office rent is not the only cost ... you still have to think about your electricity bill, water bills, internet connection ... blar blar blar ... a more controlled approach will be to look for some companies that are sub-letting their office area. most of the time you'll pay a fix sum for a small area which should cover your electricity etc. what kind of rent range are you looking at? and how big a space? rent rates are really low now, so it might be a good time to sign a long contract.
polarbear
30-01-2003, 21:50
Yeah, but a long contract means you must comit. :)
Yah, I got customer ask me for my office and one customer even send me a pizza to my mailing address, in the end I redirect it to my home :)
Pizza??
What I must say is the the people from other countries have it easy.
For example, in the US, they don't really care if you run your business from home/a house or not. Fairly common anyway.
For us, being w/o an office is almost a criminal offense punishable by death. Maybe we should look into using the office as a home as in a "office home" instead of a home office. :D
Heng Chai
30-01-2003, 23:37
Virtual office would work well for jason. You can meet the client when they want to at the office, even can rent a conference room for a few hours if you're expecting a big group. They will allow you to use their address as your company address and offer you the facilities at low costs.
SOHO = no good?
Seriously, I never had this problem. I work from home and my clients know it. Some even come over for a little chat. Just make sure you always have drinks prepared and offer it to them. (Hey, they travelled all the way, at least show some appreciation)
If you cannot gain your client's trust, whether you have 1 person at home or 100 people in an office doesn't make any difference, its all about how you represent yourself on behalf of the company to your client. If you client has misgivings about SOHO, tell him the facts, SOHO enables you to keep the costs low.
My advice to the new hosting companies:
SG.GS may be different from the various new hosting companies right now in the sense that we have a 2-3 years reputation. However, do remember that SG.GS also started in exactly the same position as you are right now. One man show with a crappy webpage and no corporate bank account to boot. SG.GS has its ups and downs since it started, but we have still grown till today. Its not about what you have (fancy office, lots of staff, great servers), but what your CAN do to improve everything from server speed to customer service. That's what actually matters.
polarbear
30-01-2003, 23:49
I guess most people when looking for a provider, prefer someone they can see and talk to, making sure you are there. But really, I can't see any established comapnies not having an office. Can name me any?
SOHO may work in the States, but in Singapore, it will still take a while. Maybe people have too much bad experiences with freelancers, unreliable hosting providers, and such in Singapore.
As the saying goes, "One bitten, twice shy". :)
Heng Chai
30-01-2003, 23:57
But really, I can't see any established comapnies not having an office.
Home office also considered office... :D
True. I can imagine how it feels when all the 10 companies that email you requesting for details find out that you don't have an office and back out.
so whats important now is at least register the company.. am i correct? but virtual office.. will the client know its a virtual office? wouldn't it be not nice?
another problem is... anyway to get a fixed line number to redirect to your handphone at a low cost.. how much will that be.. because a fix line number will always be better than a handphone number
polarbear
31-01-2003, 00:11
As the saying in Chinese goes, "Zi Shi Bao Bu Zhu Huo De", translated into English, "You can't extinguish a fire with paper". There are always ways and means to find out, but at least its not so outrightly obvious.
But it's not cheap, I think the bill for a virtual office can come up to hundreds a month, depending on what services you deploy.
polarbear
31-01-2003, 00:14
Originally posted by jason
another problem is... anyway to get a fixed line number to redirect to your handphone at a low cost.. how much will that be.. because a fix line number will always be better than a handphone number
If I am not wrong, it's about $4.16 per month for the Call Transfer service. However, talk time charges from SingTel applies when a call is being diverted. So, if a customer call and talk a lot of rubbish to you, expect a hefty bill. :)
I believe you need a ROC No. in order to apply for a business line too, and monthly line subscription rates applies.
apply home line and get a call transfer.. and use a starhub handphone.. sounds good? hee cut cost
polarbear
31-01-2003, 00:28
Haha, also can...but if home, then your number won't be listed in the Business Directory, but Residential Directory. :)
Heng Chai
31-01-2003, 00:46
Virtual offices are quite easy to tell. If you're a new company, they don't expect you to have an office in Suntec. Doesn't make sense.
I don't think anyone will bother to check whether its a business phone or home phone. Can get through good enough.
Generally I rather give my HP number since its a sure win way of contacting me. Office, they'll know they can't get through if its in the night. As I said, if your client can trust you, they won't care what type of number you give them as long as they know you're going to pick up.
The call transfer thing really no point lor. But if you really want, get Starhub VOIP phone. That SCV thing. Its about the same as ground lines, but it charges per sec. Do note that if you transfer a call to a handphone, you'll need to pay 2 bills (assuming that your handphone doesn't have incoming free), one is the talktime based on the ground line rates, the other is the talktime based on the handphone rates.
whats VOIP..how does it work?? so is registering the company with RCB important for a startup company to gain trust from the consumer?
maybe not loh
Some want a cheap host they dont care much as long the site always up can liao.....
khimhong
31-01-2003, 05:01
whats VOIP..how does it work??
If I am not wrong, VOIP is Voice Over Internet Protocol.
Jason, if you are interested to get a virtual office, just peek into the classifieds. I think there are quite a number of offers around.
polarbear
31-01-2003, 07:45
Originally posted by jason
whats VOIP..how does it work?? so is registering the company with RCB important for a startup company to gain trust from the consumer?
RCB is a must if you want people to trust you.
polarbear
31-01-2003, 07:47
True enough, if there is trust, your customer will not mind even if you do not have an office or land line. However, trust is not built immediately, it takes time. The first impression still counts.
what i feel is a well designed website and informative plus a fixed line number will seriously give the better impression for a start because customer will have this idea of thinking you are parttime..thats what i feel and i also think best can put the fixed line and handphone number together..even more assurance..what you all think
websotong
31-01-2003, 09:41
then get virtual office lor - they will give you fixed line number, the recep will answer the call in your company's name and then transfer to your mobile. Like Heng CHai says, can also rent conference room from them.
Cheap, cheap... at the most only a few hundred bucks a month, say S$200-400, depending on location and what facilities you need. PM me iif you need contacts.
Heng Chai
31-01-2003, 09:48
Virtual Office for a few hundred?! What the... I've been seeing offers of less than $100 for VO. Don't make sense to pay so much a month unless you're looking at renting a cubicle.
jason: You are LOOKING THE WRONG DIRECTION. Do not think that by putting up an appearance that you are full time means that they will host with you. If you are doing it parttime, be honest and tell them. Or you rather they find out the hard way when something happens? Even if you are parttime, webhosting means you gotta be around 24/7, anything wrong with the server its YOUR responsibility nomatter what time of the night it is.
Companies will trust you if you are registered with RCB simply because of one thing. If they want to sue, they can.
VOIP is the new phone line offering by Starhub via the cable tv socket. Sounds pretty good especially for helplines. Only problem is if there's no power to your flat, means no phone either.
khimhong
31-01-2003, 11:56
Virtual Office cost less than $100 per month. So far, i've not seen deals that go beyond $100.
I am using a Virtual office of SGD$25 per month.. only with phone redirecting and mail/fax redirecting
websotong
10-02-2003, 12:26
the VO I'm using costs a few hundred bucks becos it provides me with my own personal secretary, overseas VO and a host of other business facilities - it's not just phone and fax line. What's more, the address is in a prime location, which is important for my kind of business.
Heng Chai
10-02-2003, 12:34
That's good. But if it was just a basic phone + fax, it'll cost less than $50/month?
Where can i find these virtual offices?
Marcus Lau
12-03-2003, 04:06
Dear Nomad,
You can head down to International Plaza where there are many virtual office you can approach to. One i know is International Plazw, Centre 2000, #19-06A. Just take a MRT and alight at Tajong Pagar MRT station.
Of course there are more others ... maybe later some members will provide to you later.
Best regards,
Marcus Lau.
DO these VO provide a mailing address with mail fwd/ing or just address and you would have to pick mail up your self?
Originally posted by Nomad
DO these VO provide a mailing address with mail fwd/ing or just address and you would have to pick mail up your self?
well u can either pick them yourself or you can have the forwarded to you , but you will need to pay for the postage fees.
I believe they will provide you different packages which suite all your needs.
zIp-dIsK
25-03-2003, 10:56
What and where is the cheapest virtual office? pricing?
i saw one is 3 dollars per month, always got the flyer when i pass by international plaza.
you can try this number 62200878
zIp-dIsK
25-03-2003, 23:30
wow. that's cheap. will try that asap =]
khimhong
26-03-2003, 04:43
Sometimes the cheap ones are not reliable...is there a possibility that they close down or move without informing us ?
I believe you need to sign a contract to get such thing done.
So what if a contract is signed?
The company may file for bankruptcy protection, and you can't do anything. :(
yeah... that's the problem with some of the new and small ones... "pokkai" already also we dunno. one of my friends use Servcorp. quite expensive compared to the cheaper ones but heard they're really really professional and they have been in Spore for quite long already. btw their HQ is in Australia.
some of their existing service office clients have been with them for 10 years..... i guess if people stick to them for 10 years, they can't be that bad right?
the website is www.servcorp.net
The monthly fee is cheaper than getting a reliable web hosting, so i presume most of the ppl will just swear on it and look for another provider if they really go bankrup.
if contract doesnt mean anything, what else can protect your business??
If you believe that customers should be paying more to get quality webhosting services, shouldn't you also lead by example and get a quality yet affordable solution for this?
Think the example is quite hard to give, the defination of quality and affordable is actually vary among ppls. A student may think that 4 dollars hosting is very affordable, and he dont mind 5,6 hours of down time for his blog site, but a company may think that 20,30 dollars is reasonable for them. Of course if you running an enterprise website, you might request a RAID, it all depends.
In my previous context, cheaper is less than 30 dollars.
I have a friend who operates a training business and has some space to let. Let me know if you are interested at $50 per month. In the interest of resources not being overbooked, I would estimate that they can cater up to maybe 5 clients.
They have these to share:
- a desk for you when you come to work in their office
- a small room to have a private discussion with a client or associate
- broadband internet access (computer may be available but if you bring your notebook and plug into the network, even better)
- collect your snail mail for you and let you know via email
This rate is based on the assumption that you are not there all the time and everyday. Do PM me if interested.
action_scripter
30-05-2003, 12:31
Here's a list of more established "virtual offices".
I'm using http://www.servcorp.net/. They are more expensive than the rest but the Suntec office is damn chio :> Plus lots of nice looking ladies there haha.
http://www.nscpa2000.com/virtual%20office.htm
http://www.cityhub.com.sg/
http://www.mrcentre.com.sg/main.htm
http://www.pbc-asia.com/
Btw, please dont register virtual offices at those International Plaza ones... so many people are doing it... everytime i see a business with a registered office at International @ Anson, i'll know it's just a virtual office. Credibility goes down.
good luck.
Originally posted by action_scripter
Here's a list of more established "virtual offices".
I'm using http://www.servcorp.net/. They are more expensive than the rest but the Suntec office is damn chio :> Plus lots of nice looking ladies there haha.
http://www.nscpa2000.com/virtual%20office.htm
http://www.cityhub.com.sg/
http://www.mrcentre.com.sg/main.htm
http://www.pbc-asia.com/
Btw, please dont register virtual offices at those International Plaza ones... so many people are doing it... everytime i see a business with a registered office at International @ Anson, i'll know it's just a virtual office. Credibility goes down.
good luck.
Thanks for the cool links. I am sure this will let us have more better choice than Int Plaza business centres..
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