Hostwell Blog » Video Blog

How Hostwell Came to Be

Bob Potter — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:08:48 +0000

Hostwell started off as a way to help out local small businesses in this rough economic climate. You can read the condensed story of Hostwell on my site – here you can see a bit more of my thought process.

Basically, I started off with the idea that $99 per year hosting was a great offer. Realistically though, other hosting companies offer it even cheaper. Even though businesses can save money on hosting, they don’t reinvest it into their site to maintain it. A light came on at that point and I saw a need for “small business website management,” that is a service that updates, adds pages, creates forms, etc. for small businesses on a monthly basis.

Still being stuck on the “hosting” side of things, I built my site around the idea of web hosting for $30-$40 per month with “two free updates and one new page addition” per month.

Direct Mail Postcards Prove a Flop

Bob Potter — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:07:58 +0000

Making customers aware of your product or service is quite a task. For the first time ever, I decided to try direct mail. I used a list of local Hillsboro, OR based businesses, hand selected 1,000 of them so I didn’t send them to companies like Intel and Yahoo!. I spent $500 on the whole deal, which is a lot of money for me to be spending.

I designed the cards, set up a landing page that continued the same message, created the web sign up forms, and sent the cards off. Two weeks later, not a single person called or filled out the web form. About 10 visitors went to my landing page.

On the bright side of all this? Close to 1,000 businesses have at least seen my name and logo – this could help as I continue my marketing efforts.

How I Manage Tasks and Increase Productivity

Bob Potter — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:50:24 +0000

Starting a small business is no easy task. Everyday I get bombarded with things I need to do – sometimes it becomes so overwhelming I get nothing done (and that doesn’t feel good). But here’s my secret to overcoming a huge list of tasks.

Keep a list (using pen and paper – not a computer) of everything you want to accomplish today. Next to each task, put estimate the time it’s going to take you to finish each task. Then prioritize.

I usually prioritize my tasks by doing the sub 10 minute tasks first, then moving onto the tasks that take up the real meat of my day (the ones that bring in the paycheck). Once those are done, I can move on to the “luxury” tasks or the ones that would be on tomorrows list.

Started Video Blog

Bob Potter — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:52:30 +0000

For quite some time I’ve wanted to create a video blog documenting my Hostwell startup efforts. The biggest obstacle was me. I dislike the way I look and sound. Today I made the choice to give myself two shots at recording my video and posting it without editing.

What helped me over the “self confidence hump” you ask? A well known sales speaker who I admire really isn’t that natural in front of the camera either. I realized it was time to get over my fear and just do it. I have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Here is my first post:

Why don’t you subscribe to my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/hostwell.