Well, EagleEnvision.NeT has been in business for a little over a year! Summer is always an exciting time, since one year ago we planted a small seed that grew to something that we couldn't have really imagined back then.
Since I develop the Club Starter Kit, a simple ASP.NET starter kit for beginners, I have come across many people that are small startups. I LOVE web startups! Mainly because EagleEnvision.NeT used to be a startup. So I'm going to fire off some tips, for those of you reading this.
GET A WEB HOST
We made some mistakes, this was one of them! The problem with EagleEnvision.NeT was that we didn't really do a lot of research when choosing a hoster. Our first hoster, who will not be named, wasn't terrible, but there are better hosters in the world. Our current hoster, UltimHosts, we have had for about 10 months and I don't think we've really had a problem. They are small enough to have GREAT customer service, but large enough to have a wide range of shared and virtual hosting plans.
There is an exception to this rule. If you have your own server, that's great too.
USE SUBVERSION
Subversion is a source control management server that basically versions your files. If you need to get a past version, you can do this with Subversion. There are others out there (CVS, Team System, Source Safe, etc) but Subversion seems to be the industry standard.
Our hoster currently doesn't allow Subversion servers on a shared hosting environment (we don't mind). So what we did was bought a Dream Host plan. We ONLY use our Dream Host plan for Subversion. That seems to be working out well.
You might be able to find a hoster that offers both (which, I think Maximum ASP might)... but buying 2 hosting plans might not be a bad move.
DON'T BE AFFRAID TO USE AN OPEN SOURCE PROJECT
Yes, it is true! We use an open source project (2, in fact). We use SubSonic, a .NET data access layer generator. SubSonic is, honestly, one of the greatest tools in the world, in my opinion. It saves a LOT of time and, frankly, money. GO SUBSONIC!
We also use SubText, which is what this blog runs off. Subtext is a really great tool for those .NET-ers out there.
FINALLY, AGGRIGATE A LOT OF BLOGS
Aggregate AS MANY blogs as possible. This will get you familiar with different uses of technology. For example, I have some top-name .NET bloggers in my RSS feed reader (IE7) such as Rob Connery, Phill Haack, and Scott Guthrie. I also aggregate JavaScript blogs, Microsoft blogs/news feeds, and even Fake Steve Jobs.
So, there you have it. That's how EagleEnvision.NeT gets around. But the best way to start a business is to make your own decisions. Use this post as an opinionated guideline rather than a Bible.
Take care!