*** Take all the free advice from Chuck McCown you can get...
bp
<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com>
On 1/7/2015 7:39 AM, Chuck McCown wrote:
Things to do:
Pick the right radio the first time. I am partial to Cambium
products.
This is like getting married and having a bunch of kids and having
a bunch of inlaws move in with you. Don’t screw it up. You have
to live with it 24/7/365.
Get into fiber as soon as you can. Take fiber feeds from your
upstream provider if you can. Take fiber to your tower sites if
you can.
Pick the right billing system and right bookkeeping system.
Quickbooks is good for accounting, but it is not so good for
billing for a WISP. It can do it, but there are better systems
out there. It will get you by initially.
Stay the right size. If you are a very small operation you can
make good money. If you are a large operation you can make good
money. There is middle ground where you are continually broke but
need to grow. Try to avoid that. A one man operation can make
more money than a 5 man operation in this business. Try to avoid
hiring anyone for as long as possible. (That does not include an
accountant. You must have a good accountant).
Keep the company always in your political control. If you bring
in partners or gift stock to employees, make sure that your
ownership percentage is always the majority. Don’t count on
ANYONE siding with you during a dispute. Morals, ethics, honesty,
loyalty, religion all go out the window when things turn ugly.
Sad to see.
Things not to do:
Do not do a flat network. Feed each access point from a router
port or a VLAN. Do not allow APs to even know of the existence of
other APs on the same tower.
Do not scrimp on CAT 5 cable. Use quality cable. Shielded at all
AP sites.
Do not scrimp on backhaul capacity or quality. If/when you can
justify it, put in licensed radios for backhaul.
Do not hire friends or relatives.
Do not scrimp on backup power. Make sure everything can run for
at least 12 hours without external power.
Do not futz around with being an email provider. Don’t even do
any hosting right at first.
I would not do paper bills. Keep it all online. ACH /Credit card
payment receipt is a must.
Do not do installs in marginal locations. One marginal customer
can eat up all of your time and they will give you a black eye in
the marketplace.
