Orem, UT Lee Livingston, CFO of fast-growing Dedicated, Cloud, and Virtual Hosting Provider NetHosting recently sat down with BusinessQ’s Jeanette Bennett and eight other Utah-based business leaders for an involved question and answer session on “Starting a Business 101.”

Casting an informed look on success strategies for businesses hoping to succeed in an unsettling economy, the participants, including Mr. Livingston, illuminated such topics as what accounting tasks should be addressed from the start, how to anticipate growth in small business, and how to spot the commonalities in business that are successful.

In response to the question of commonalities in successful businesses, Mr. Livingston said, “There was a time in history when the Internet was not a significant factor in the success of a business. Today it is one of just a few keys to perpetuating and having a successful business.”

Mr. Livingston also stated that to have an effective website, a business should not only focus on content, but on marketing and driving traffic to that site in order to get results. 
On planning for growth, the NetHosting CFO asserted that a company’s greatest resource in the beginning is its capital and that the decision of leasing or owning real estate should be considered very carefully, as the wrong decision may ultimately detract from the company’s initial growth. As to the issue of accounting, the same lesson applies, says Mr. Livingston, of aligning one’s priorities and assets, including complex product lines like NetHosting’s, and of consistent and accurate reporting.

“We’ve taken great care at NetHosting to implement all the components discussed in this panel,” Mr. Livingston stated following the Q&A session with BusinessQ. “And part of that commitment includes our ongoing efforts to maintain our PCI compliance and SAS 70 certification.”
 

Rebekah Perkins

Rebekah is an avid writer and former lacrosse player. She is also the Content Manager at NetHosting. Rebekah enjoys the pace and energy of the Internet industry as well as the rules-are-made-to-be-broken attitude of the English language.