Dear LET members,
Please read this before commenting. I am now legally old enough to own a "business". I've registered with the tax office as a sole trader currently.
I know you're going to bash, and bash, and bash me for this, but before you start doing so - this isn't happening yet. PremiumVM closed due to school commitments that I had at the time. It's nearly time (in June) for me to leave school, and go to college when I'll have a lot more free time (due to days off etc). Therefore, PremiumVM is relaunching. 24/7 support WILL exist for shared/reseller clients to start with, and then for VPS clients shortly afterwards. I am not using any LEB providers for the shared/reseller side of this. I'm using an establish company (non-EIG!!) that has been around for a long time and provides 24/7 email, phone and chat support and also offers 24/7 end user support (hence the 24/7 support for shared/reseller clients to start..).
The problem before was this: I jumped in too soon with dedicated servers, etc, so didn't have enough coming in to cover everything. Therefore, I am starting small. I am going to start with a reseller account to sell shared, reseller, VPS and Dedicated Hosting. This means that I won't be loosing money for very long as this is a cheap option. This will work.
I want to confirm that this won't be happening until May/June time. I can also confirm that there will be no more faffing with PayPal - 2Checkout is being used (recommendations of alternatives like 2CO would be appreciated!). The reason I am using the PremiumVM name again is because it didn't last long enough last time to build up a really bad reputation.
Rather than surprise you and wait till May/June to tell you, I thought I'd do it now. It's better to do it earlier rather than later. I can also confirm that everything will be done properly this time - I've registered as a sole trader with the tax office, I will have some form of phone number (UK based - 0845/0844/0800/0870/0871/0330), etc.
Payment methods that will be accepted to start with - PayPal (via 2Checkout), Credit Card (via 2Checkout), GoCardless. In the future I will look to accept Payza (AlertPay, Moneybookers and also Liberty Reserve but they will not come for a while.
I understand there's going to be the usual criticism etc. I've been researching this for a while, talking to a local business advisory to see what I had to do to be "all legal". Therefore, I've done what they've advised me to do which was start with getting a tax ID and registering with the tax office (even though I won't need to pay tax to start with). The forms are in, just waiting for the tax ID to come through (Monday hopefully). I know you're going to say that this is going to fail again. Quite frankly, it's not. I'm not jumping in at the deep end like I had done in the past with SwitchVM and PremiumVM (phase 1). I'm starting at the shallow end, and then slowly going deeper.
I'd advise you to be as constructive as possible in this thread, and would ask you to direct any questions that you don't want others to see to my PM box, or via email to admin@premiumvm.com
I welcome any questions, and advice you have to make this a success. Once again, please don't bash - and I am asking nicely for this! I will take on board any advice/suggestions you have and try to implement them.
Kind regards,
Dominic