Thinking about starting a GSP? Read here first.

[JasonF]

So many people post in these forums about starting is a GSP thinking all you need a control panel and a server. Here are some other things you should consider:

 

1) Have you applied for a business license? ***It is against the law to collect revenue, as a business, and not report the income to the IRS***

2) Have you looked into business insurance?

3) What cities will you host in?

4) Which data centers will you use? Do you know much about their network?

5) What dedicated servers will you get? Will you rent or purchase the servers? What is the pluses and minues to renting vs owning?

6) Do you know enough about server hardware/architecture to determine which server will give you the best performance/dollar?

7) Which OS are you going to use?

8) Which game server control panel are you going to use?

9) Are you going to offer voice servers? If so have you applied for a license with the corresponding companies? ***It is a violation of most voice TOS to resell their product without a license***

10) Which games will you host? Are you comfortable enough with these games to offer them? Have you even played these games before?

11) If you are unwilling to purchase games to host then you should not be hosting them. Using torrent copies could potentially subject your server to a virus in addition to legal ramifications of using pirated software?

12) Will you use shared hosting for your site or will you get your dedicated server to host your site?

13) Are you going to get a SSL certificate for your billing software to ensure your clients info is encrypted?

14) What payment methods are you going to accept?

15) If you are going to accept credit cards, who will do your processing?

16) What billing software are you going to use?

17) What support software/ticketing system are you going to use?

18) How will you be notified of support tickets if you are away from the computer?

 

This is just the tip of the iceberg of things you should consider before you start a GSP. I am sure other people will respond with some other considerations.

[Todd Holley]

Great idea VET.

[JasonF]

Thanks. I should have mentioned that if your answer to number (4) is your house, you need to really consider not being a GSP

[HIS-MOTHER]

1) Have you applied for a business license? ***It is against the law to collect revenue, as a business, and not report the income to the IRS***

 

Although failure to report income is illegal in the United States you can in fact run as a sole proprietorship. No license needed, but it is a very good idea to at least get a LLC. to protect yourself personally.

 

 

All good points Vet that many here seem to ask over and over. And of course they will continue to ask becasue the search feature here MUST BE BROKEN.

[Spartanfrog]

I think you should add if you are going to have employee's or just yourself.

[Defcon|Rich]

I just happen to notice this thread. Great advise there but I believe it's customary to give credit to the original author if your going to reuse the information.. I wrote that list up probably 5 yrs ago on another forum FYI.

[JasonF]

No idea Rich. Link?

[ECF]

It was posted over in ThePlanet forums by Rich a while back.

[JasonF]

Only thing I can find is this but don't see any resemblance between his post and mine -> http://forums.theplanet.com/index.php?showtopic=80008&b=1&st=0&p=0entry0