Ok, I'm sorry if i use the wrong terminology, but...

I'm most likely to get my redundancy letter on Monday i've been discussing setting up my own business (big EEEEEKKKK!). Thus far I've got a domain name with 5 email addresses, but I backed out of there hosting package at £300 a year minimum. I know there is more to setting up a business, but I've family and friends with some knowledge on other areas!

I'm sure there must be a web host out there that is good, honest, reliable and... doesn't make me bankrupt before I start!! So any experience/help would be much appreciated

I've used Hostgator for about 3 years now with no problems whatsoever. Cheap as chips as well, think I pay about $7/month.

Who was that with?

You dont need to spend £300/year unless you need some serious storage or bandwidth. 123-reg do a package that would suit most businesses for about £70/year.

I'm sure there must be a web host out there that is good, honest, reliable and... doesn't make me bankrupt before I start!! So any experience/help would be much appreciated

I've used Heart Internet for years, they've always been fantastic for me and they do a good range of packages from £30 pa for something suitable for a web presence/marketing site, up to around £130pa if you wanted to run a high-traffic e-retail site.

I'm currently with www.tsohost.co.uk and they've been fantastic (link)

Don't go near companies like fasthosts, they're terrible! 123-reg isn't too bad, I used to use them until I switched to tso. The reason I went with tso was they had generous hosting allowances and have freephone support and I've always got through to them. Even had a problem on Christmas day, raised a ticket through their online support system and had a personal response and resolution within a few hours.

But there are two sides to it.

1) Having the contenct / web page design done.

2) Having the hosting set up (i.e. the server with your web pages, etc)

If you don't yet have a design, you can use many wizards, but they all look tacky IMO. An alternative is to use something like wordpress or some other package which can give you a neat site without too much effort

Edited 28 January, 201115 yr by Xavier

I do my hosting with krystal.co.uk, they have a range of hosting packages, so you can start small and upgrade if you need too. I register my domains with fasthosts, but then just point them to krystal's name servers.

Wordpress, or maybe something CMS such as Joomla (I use that for one of my sites).

Thanks all,

I've been looking at Wordpress, but will have a long, steep learning curve! However I have a Niece who's employed by a web design & social media company, so I'm hoping she'll show me some tips and tricks. My aim is however to be as self sufficient as I can be, as i cant afford to keep paying folks!

I don't need to use the site for eCommerce, but I will need to be able to update it regularly and add video/media content and an events diary etc.

My main problem is that I can't bank on any redundancy money, so I've got to keep all my setup costs to a minimum. I'll have to fund a new laptop & projector and a works motor, before i even start on stationary, marketing & accountants!

Car should be sorted however, as a 14 year old Civic should be on the drive on Monday (£600 70k with service history & years T&T!), but the Laptop will cost as my home IT has always been built around my works MacBook Pro, which I've got to hand back :S so new macbook & I'll also need an LCD projector, so any hints on good ones and where to buy will be helpful too!

Edited 28 January, 201115 yr by uncle bulgaria

so new macbook & I'll also need an LCD projector, so any hints on good ones and where to buy will be helpful too!

If you need to keep startup costs to a minimum, it could be worth looking at the companies who lease them - this has the added advantage of not being committed to the asset, so if you need to upgrade, etc. then it can just be a matter of paying a bit extra a month as and when you need to.

For the projector...only really had experience with Dell projectors, which seem decent enough though I suppose it would depend a lot on what you're going to be projecting and the type of room you're going to be projecting it in...

I was going to suggest Joomla, just couldn't remember the name!

My father's tango website is a wordpress blog with a theme on top. Wordpress is very flexible and not that hard to set up, and it doesn't have to be "blog" with "posts". You can have normal pages and at a glance, you'd never think it was a blog + database driving it

http://www.tangosouth.co.uk if you want to see what I mean

Uncle Bulgaria,

going OT for a moment, but why the accountant?

They are not required by the Tax Office and as long as you can add 2 + 2 and not make 6, and do a simple spread sheet, that is all you need. When we went Self Employed. I looked at all the packages available and couldn't find one suitable so taught myself how to do one in Excel that I tweeked over a couple of years so that everything fitted with the sections on the Self Assesment form. I do it monthly and can produce the full end of year figures in about 30 minutes.

Save you money.

Cheers guys.

I'm hoping to be progressing this a bit further in the next week, so I'll be looking at all the suggestions and keep you posted

Uncle Bulgaria,

going OT for a moment, but why the accountant?

They are not required by the Tax Office and as long as you can add 2 + 2 and not make 6, and do a simple spread sheet, that is all you need. When we went Self Employed. I looked at all the packages available and couldn't find one suitable so taught myself how to do one in Excel that I tweeked over a couple of years so that everything fitted with the sections on the Self Assesment form. I do it monthly and can produce the full end of year figures in about 30 minutes.

Save you money.

Yeah, I think with a bit of effort, I "might" get my head around it, but...

Some of the organisations I will need to seek contracts from will require a lot of convincing /audit. On top of that I'll need to be VAT registered, even though I'm hardly likely to hit the minimum threshold, just to even be considered by them!

So i'm looking at the benefit especially in the first 2 years.

All this is new to me and like a foreign language, so it's scaring the pants off me at the moment!!

No problem and good luck with it all.

When we went self employed 7 years ago the Tax Office were running free 3 day courses on all the implications, and even though I had been a National Insurance Inspector in the past I still went and found it very worthwhile. Unlike the old days they are very approachable now and do seem to want to help. I suppose in the long run it means they have less work to do.

Yes, another person told me about them, I've just been looking on HMRC and there are other ones too, so I think i'll be booking on one of them asap!