Keys to Small Business Hosting

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Finding the right web host can be a tricky proposition for small and medium sized businesses.

Just ask Campbell Evans, Principal of Key Personnel Staffing Services in Vancouver, B.C. In search of the right fit, his staffing agency has gone through three different web hosting providers in the last three years.

Key Personnel, like many smaller businesses, doesn’t run any high-bandwidth applications or conduct electronic commerce. However, web hosting remains a critical component of Key Personnel’s IT infrastructure. Explains Evans, “web hosting is tied into our online job board, which is then tied to the E-mail for the resumes coming in.”

A simple application like a web page that posts job placement opportunities is the lifeline of a company that uses its job board to attract candidates for the positions they fill. E-mail is equally vital. It’s the quickest and most efficient way for Key Personnel to review resumes and screen potential candidates.

Breakdowns in hosting service can prove fatal and severely impact a company’s business. Evans brings up his own painful experience. After placing an ad for a position in the newspaper, problems with the hosting provider caused the web site to go down and all their E-mail to bounce. All E-mail responses to the ad, which represented most of the potential candidates for the job posting, were lost. This was all the more devastating since a smaller business like Key Personnel competes vigorously with larger staffing and headhunting agencies. To stay ahead, it must find people as quickly as possible. If a potential candidate can’t get information about a job and get their resume in, Key Personnel loses the chance to place that person.

The breakdown occurred because their hosting provider and domain registrar did not inform them of their domain name’s requisite annual renewal - an oversight a business owner moonlighting as a webmaster, might understandably overlook. What happened was that the provider and the registrar botched the correspondence regarding Key’s domain name change. Evans was not notified at any point, so his domain was allowed to expire leading to the interruption in service.

Hosting Tips for Small Businesses

To say the last, Evans has learned quite a bit from his experiences and has some good web hosting advice for other small business owners.

“Find someone with a bit of a track record,” says Evans. “Every time someone goes under, you have to transfer everything over and do all the paperwork again.” He adds that the transfer process may also take some time, potentially causing you to be offline for a couple of days.

Financial stability is one thing, but when looking for the right fit, Evans believes getting a recommendation or referral is also a good idea. A referral is particularly useful if it comes from another small business owner. Explains Evans, they’ve “gone through the same hassles…and even made the same transition from one provider to another.” Other good sources include testimonials, online resources and discussion groups.

A stumbling block that Evans has encountered is customer service language that is sometimes “too technical.” Evans encourages small business owners to first try out your hosting provider’s technical support team. “Make sure they speak your language,” says Evans. Even a trial run can give you an idea about the type of customer support and service you can expect. “Ask them a question, see if they can explain it to you. If they can’t answer questions in a way you can understand, you’ll be lost.”

Make sure the hosting provider provides backups to all your critical files. But more importantly, make sure you know how to access them if needed. Evans relates to a time where he lost all his files. It wasn’t that his provider didn’t provide backups; they did. Evans just wasn’t sure about his provider’s backup file policy, and as a result, didn’t know how to access them.

Evans says it’s always a good idea to have backups…just in case! Some hosting providers provide backups, but have restricted service hours. If access to your backup files isn’t automated, you might be stuck in a bad spot if technical support is closed for the day and nobody is there to take your call.

A request that Evans has found success with is asking the hosting provider to “cc” all correspondence regarding his account and domain name so that he is fully aware of what is going on at all times. The incident with the domain name expiration convinced Evans that knowing exactly what was going on with this account was crucial to avoiding any further disruptions in service.

Security is another key concern for small businesses. Key Personnel receive dozens of resumes in the form of E-mail attachments - a common source of computer viruses.

Evans definitely appreciates the protection that E-mail virus scanning provides, especially when he gets E-mail with the added notation, “virus removed.” When looking for a provider, be sure to ask for useful features such as E-mail virus scanning and do a thorough investigation of its security track record.

Tied in with all of these various issues is the service level agreement. Be sure to discuss this with your host and to read through it carefully. It should clarify issues such as copyright ownership, complaint protocol, liability, and notification procedures regarding renewals and discontinuation of service. And ask questions if there are issues you find confusing.

Small Business and Hosting

Small enterprises continue to move their business processes online, making web hosting increasingly important. Lots of business owners like Evans have become “jack-of-all trades,” running a business and handling IT at the same time. Many of the “little things” about hosting are learned through experience, even trial and error. As Evans describes it, “the first time…you don’t even know the difference between Unix and Win NT, you just know you have to upload your website!” Hopefully, Key Personnel and Campbell Evans’ experiences will help other smaller businesses avoid some of the inevitable web hosting bumps.

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