[Jowo]

I am seeing if it's feasible to buy a small hosting business that's for sale.

I am learning web design at college but won't get around to the back-end, server side of things for quite a while.

What things should I be looking out for, questions to ask, so I understand that at the customer service and technical level, the business is sound? What risks should I be considering? Any particular ways to detect if it's strong on the technology, security, customer communication/accounts side?

My accountant can help me with the financial side, review the accounts, so I'm not worried about that but I am worried about my general ignorance in that specific side of the web business.

[BlueDreamer]

If you're still at college the one thing that would concern me is how will you support your customers? Also if you have no knowledge about servers and all the associated bits and peices how will you tackle problems that arise?

I'd recommend finishing college first before setting up a full time business

[rallport]

Not that I know or anything as I don't run a hosting company, so I'm just guessing. But I;d say the most important thing initially would be the technical side of things - that's kind of a precusor in my opion for someone operating a hosting comoany. Once you have that level of technical knowledge, I;d imagine you start to focus on the soft skills like customer service and how to run the business.

[oakleaves]

"Buying an established hosting business"

Don't bother

[Jowo]

There are some existing employees (to be confirmed). My course is 2.5 days per week and I can reduce this so I have plenty of free time to run it. I would expect a proper handover and training period as a condition of the sale.

So I do have scope to learn the technical side but I'd still prefer to have an idea before negotations on what pertinent questions to ask the seller and an idea of risks and strengths to look out for on this particular type of business.

[wesh.co.uk]

If your not fluent with servers, and server software like Linux or Win 2k8, Sql/MySQL and some coding languages, then it will give you more problems that its worth, as people will be asking you things you simply cannot answer.

If you cant answer peoples questions or resolve their problems, then you have no customer support...

[Jowo]

So what would the employees do while I sit and scratch my head at the customer requests...?

[Danielo]

Jowo,
The answer is it depends on:
How big or how small you want to start. Like what's your budget? Do you want to do web design or host websites only.
For a small startup my advice is not to be discouraged by the lack of technical knowledge. Once you know your limitations, start at the level from where you can grow. Consider these:
1. A small business hosting few and small sites (around 50) that don't need critical support especially if you have to support the web design. Once you gain experience and confidence you can ramp it up or buy bigger hosting company.
2. Try a business that does not maintain web design for clients then you can go bigger and concentrate on server management.
2. Get a hosting company that has website builder software installed for clients to make their own. You will need to learn how the site builder works and also get technical support.
3. Preferably get a server with strong support on issues like security, 24/7 support etc.
4. Make yourself a site and make it your full time toy to play around with design, scripts, control panel and other functions. You will learn a lot first hand.
5. Use google to get technical answers to server problems.

If you want to go big then you will need a strong and experienced technical hand available 24/7 to handle issues and such person can advise further.