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Mistake #5
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This is the moment when inexperienced netrepreneurs fail to differentiate the excellent “cheap” web hosts from the rest of the pack.
It's about "vision".
Many beginning online business owners, even those who spend a lot of time comparing every small business web hosting plan, make the same mistake…one that never fails to comes back and haunt them later. They fail to plan for their own success and, consequently, select a small business web hosting plan that’s tailored only to their current needs.
Pennywise or pound foolish?
Usually concerned with keeping startup costs as low as possible, fledgling webmasters frequently opt for a plan that adequately meets their current (startup) needs and assume they can simply upgrade to greater capacity and features later when their business takes off.
Of course this is a correct assumption, but at what cost? Once an online business begins to take off, there will be a need for more storage, more bandwidth, possibly a dedicated web server, real-time tech support, etc. These are good problems to have!
Unfortunately, if the first time you start to think seriously about these things is when you actually need them, you may learn that the “cheap” small business web hosting plan you selected when starting out didn’t actually provide as much sustained “value” as you expected.
Cost of Growth
This is where you begin to separate the business web host leaders from the wannabes. If you are favorably impressed with a particular basic web hosting package after doing all your homework, comparing features, guarantees, reliability, etc., there’s one more thing you should consider before making a a final decision: your success.
Once your online business gets off the ground, and you are generating a reliable flow of income, you are likely to begin needing more storage, bandwidth, possibly a dedicated server, real-time technical support, etc.
So how does your preferred web host's pricing structure stack up in terms of future growth and add-on features?
Did they entice you with a very basic and improbably cheap web hosting package, counting on the fact that you’ll need to upgrade soon? Are the upgraded plans where they will make all their profit?
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just one of the important considerations you should make at the beginning of what will probably be a long term relationship with your small business web hosting provider.
The leaders
In order to determine who’s really offering the best value in small business web hosting you should evaluate the cost of growth for all potential hosting providers. We’ve done just that.
In our Top Hosts section you’ll see our choices for the web hosts who provide the greatest value in both personal and small business web hosting.
The bottom line
Evaluate each web hosting plan on its own merits, but also keep an eye on the web hosting company’s advanced packages to be sure you won’t be penalized for your success when it comes time to upgrade your service.
