I think that it takes a special kind of person to start a successful business by themselves. This seems to be true in all cases, because most business require disperate skills to function. For example it is quite possible to run a web hosting business if you are not technically saavy, but at some point that technology is going to require your interaction and you aren’t going to know what to do. This is evident with a “low end host” I follow. He sold a service at a loss (most likely) and got a bunch of customers. Too many, in fact, for his equipment and software. Couple this with a severe lack of communication from him, and customers complaining everywhere they are able, and you have a recipe for disaster. I’m just watching it play out in real time.

Not saying that this would have happened if he had a partner with him, but at least then the blame could be spread across another person too. Perahps that partner would have actually responded to trouble tickets, or otherwise helped with customer relations and technical challenges.

This is the thing I am most concerned with about starting a hosting business myself, and likely the reason I have spent tens of thousands of dollars at this point with no return.