There are a couple of key things to look at when starting a hosting company. There are four major factors:
1.Site design is the first thing a prospective customer sees. Creativity into a well designed “professional” looking home page for your company. The bottom line is a new customer will not even consider you as their host if they feel you are an armature no matter how great or cheap your packages are.
2.Develop your website as a total package to its clients. Don't just present your hosting packages and leave it at that. Offer tutorials, articles, support forums etc. These additional services not only provide additional content for you clients, but if developed correctly will bring additional traffic to your site which will potentially lead to more sales.
3.You must understand how search engines work. Over 90% of your business will likely come directly from search engine results. So it is absolutely essential to optimize your site for search engines.
4.Find your niche. The hosting business as a whole is a huge industry which is very competitive. Your best chance at success is to simply find a market and develop your business to cater to that specific niche.
You have to develop a business plan which works from all angels. If you can develop a hosting company which has a professional design, some extra content, and search engine friendly and which targets a specific niche, you will have a far greater chance at success. There are many other factors to consider but if you can master these four, everything else should fall into place.