August 31, 2006

Interview with Tony Ryan

Written by Brian Turner

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Tony Ryan is the director of TWD Hosting, which was setup in 2004 to service the business sector of the hosting / development industry, because we specialise in B2B web solutions we use only the very best technology and servers – Business users demand the very best in both support and uptime, they want solutions to problems and answers to questions in plain English – which is exactly what we give them.

Recently we have setup quite a lot of eCommerce solutions for new clients – we seem to be making a bit of a name for ourselves in the eCommerce world, with the speed of setup and low initial setup costs…

We use a few freelance designers to help with web-design work, and we are always looking for good, low cost designers to call upon when the need arises.

So… That is basically us at TWD Hosting Ltd, high spec equipment for the business user – we are not the cheapest hosting solutions but we never set out to be….

Hi Tony, and thanks for taking the time to be interviewed. You’ve recently moved your business model from web design services to focus on webhosting services. Can you please explain why this move made more sense to you?

There are a lot of very good professional web designers out there – in fact we use a few from time to time if a client requires design services, I am not a web-designer, I can put a decent web site together but I would never call myself a professional, that is why I decided to move the company away from design services – Let the professional designers get the design work, and leave the hosting side of things to a professional hosting company…

Moving to difference business models can be both invigorating and challenging. What sort of challenges have you had to face in focusing on webhosting services, and how difficult has it been for you to re-orientate your business in this way?

The transition was a lot easier than I thought it would be to be honest… By sourcing a few good, reliable freelance designers to do any design work for us we have found that we have a lot more time on our hands to focus on client support and the business in general.

We do not pretend to our clients that we do the design work – we are upfront about everything and invite our designers to approach clients (with there permission) the client then chooses the designer they are most comfortable with and they arrange everything between themselves – the arrangement works rather well.

There are constant arguments online about which is better for hosting – Windows or Linux; and additionally over the best type of control panel to use for administrating websites. Where do you stand on such arguments, and also, do you make a decision on “what is best” based on your own assessment of what your business needs, or on clients say they need?

For me, at the present time Linux wins on the operating system front – there are several reasons for this, one is security which is a major consideration for us when we are hosting business website’s, another is I HATE the fact that you have to reboot a Windows machine after updates – and we all know how often Microsoft release updates!

In the control panel stakes, clients of ours have a choice – one that to be honest we make for them the majority of the time depending on the type of website they are planning to operate… We use cPanel for general (non eCommerce) website’s because it is regarded as the industry standard and is quite easy for the end user to learn, but we also use Ensim Pro on our eCommerce servers – this is because although Ensim is slower, has less features and is probably slightly harder to understand than cPanel it has a far better security reputation and is less “buggy” than cPanel.

Webhosting is an area filled with technical language that many small businesses may have difficulty understanding. How do you help people make decisions on what they need in this regard, and how important do you think it is for webhosting clients to be aware of issues such as connectivity and datacenter reputation?

I always try and explain things to clients in plain English – The majority of our clients have very little technical knowledge but we know that just by spending a few more minutes writing an email we can help them understand exactly what is going on… One thing I hate is when companies use technical “babble” to confuse a client or even worse to hide failures on their part.

As for connectivity and datacenter reputation – I don’t think this matters to the majority of our clients, when a prospective client contacts us for the first time we invite them to visit the site’s in our portfolio to see the speed at which the pages load – this is what matters to clients, speed and reliability – how this is achieved is normally of no interest to a client at all…

The US market in webhosting is very competitive, and this has really driven prices down for clients. However, the UK market still supports a lot of webhosting companies who charge premium rates for the same level of service. Do you think the UK market will liberalise similar to US markets, or are hardware acquisitions costs such that the UK webhosting market will continue to be more expensive than the US for webhosting?

In the long term UK prices can only come down – I very much doubt that we will see the sort of prices that the USA enjoy though. The problem with the UK market is that the datacenter costs are so high… The UK is an expensive country and as such the costs of power, tax, rates and everything else that a datacenter has to pay make sure that the UK will never be able to compete with the USA.

There is a good demand for UK based hosting services though – something that as a company we are currently looking at very seriously, pricing will obviously be a huge issue though… Do we charge an extra premium for UK based services or take a hit in the profits?

The internet allows for a lot of opportunity online – how would you say you’ve been able to grasp these with online services, and how difficult would you say the challenges are?

The Internet has certainly opened up a whole new marketplace for a lot of people, it is a huge resource and it can only get bigger with more and more companies joining the internet revolution. I do find that the Internet has made business a lot less “personal” – I would much rather chat to someone via email than via the telephone these days…!

The challenges for today’s business are to actually be seen on the Internet – Flashy website’s are quickly becoming a thing of the past as they no longer impress anyone, companies are instead saving their money to use on SEO and advertising in a bid to actually be found on the net.

SEO and advertising are things that I think TWD Hosting will have to grasp in the future in order to provide a more complete solution to clients – a bundled design / hosting and SEO / advertising package is something that will be in demand in the near future.

You recently suffered a period of severe illness. What contingency plans do you advise a business to have, to ensure that the business continues to operate and support clients in such an event? Also, how has the illness changed your perception of how you run your business?

Yes – my illness was a massive blow (not only to me personally but to the business). I was totally unprepared with nobody else in the company having enough knowledge in the day-to-day running if things to do much more than simple admin duties and reply to emails.

This is something that will not happen again – staff training is the key and do not make yourself indispensable! It might feel good to be the only one in the company to have access to this or the passwords for that but it really is not a good idea to run a business around yourself…

I have also had what you might call a “life changing experience” with this illness – although I should make a 100% recovery the fact that things were at one point “touch and go” really made me but things into perspective, also not being able to see my children for nearly 3 weeks made me more determined to spend more time with them once I got better.

Work and Business really are not something you want to build your life around…

You’ve been using mentoring services, to help gain useful advice and insight into running your business. How useful have you found this service, and how important do you personally think it is for other small businesses to access such business support services?

A business mentor is a very good source of advice for a small business, the meetings are very informal and you soon feel very at ease chatting about the things that are concerning you about your business.

Sometimes you put things to one side in business, maybe your books are less then upto date? Or there is a pile of paperwork in the corner that you have been ignoring?

A mentor will simply help you to see that these things need to be done and help you to organise yourself better – they will not interfere with the running of your business mind you, they just offer advice and once they understand what you do and how your business model works then you soon find yourself bouncing ideas off each other…

I think that the majority of small business fail not because of a lack of enthusiasm by the owner or a lack of a good idea but simply because of a lack of help & advice with the general day-to-day running of a business…

What would you say is the single most important thing you’ve learned about setting up a business online?

That is a very hard question to answer, probably the biggest thing I have learnt is that no matter how much you think you know, you never know enough about online business…!

If anyone is thinking of setting up a business online – do not be afraid to ask for help. Business forums like Platinax are a great place to ask questions and get good, solid help & advice from people who are experts in their field.

I don’t think there is anyone who is a complete “online business” expert – there are far to may variables for one person to be a total expert at everything…

Thank you for your time, Tony, very much appreciated.

Filed Under Interviews