Promoting Your Hosting Company

[mhearn]

So initially I signed up for a reseller plan just to help out some of the clients I work with. Now I have four clients signed up and I think I would like to try and expand this hosting business. I guess I am saying I would like to get serious about it. I have just a few questions:

1.) As an independent, how do you handle support? Obviously I can't do it all myself. With only a few clients, what are some reasonable support outsourcing options or should I wait on this piece?

2.) How do you promote/advertise your hosting company? I have a niche I am targeting since I am providing hosting to and for Christian based organizations and churches.

3.) How fast can this grow reasonably? When should I look at moving to VPS's or dedicated servers? What sort of client/reseller account is a good balance?

4.) Where should I focus when trying to grow this? I know I need to get serious about my site and revamp it. What other areas do I need to focus on?

Thanks for all the help and advice.

[Express]

1.) As an independent, how do you handle support? Obviously I can't do it all myself. With only a few clients, what are some reasonable support outsourcing options or should I wait on this piece?
I hire staff to support our clients at web hosting express. However we have set out a time limit on the support. for example if the call is not answered within 30 seconds by our staff at the office it is then diverted to our PA who handles the call and takes a message and forwards it to us.

2.) How do you promote/advertise your hosting company? I have a niche I am targeting since I am providing hosting to and for Christian based organizations and churches.
We have always worked closly with webhostdir.com for ad spot lights which has helped me very much. However there are alot of ways to advertise and now we have got alot of clients we found that word of mouth beats it all and is the best source of advertising. Or simply for a cheaper solution you can always advertise of google adwords.

3.) How fast can this grow reasonably? When should I look at moving to VPS's or dedicated servers? What sort of client/reseller account is a good balance?
This will not happen over night.

4.) Where should I focus when trying to grow this? I know I need to get serious about my site and revamp it. What other areas do I need to focus on?
Keeping your clients happy. You never know when they might tell a friend.