Where should I get my hosting?

I think we all know by now that we really do need to have an outlet on hte web if we're going to have a business these days? Yes? Even if we're not going to be a "web business", we need to have a website, just as no one would these days dream of having a business without a phone line?

Well, quite, but having understood that we do rather need to go through the various alternatives about how we could do this: are we going to try selling from the site? Is it for infomation only? Just so that people know we exist? Perhaps it might not be a selling interface, but something people can refer to for post sales technical information?

The reason we need to work these things out is because upon those decisions will rest the decision of who to use for what type of web hosting. We might just need the plain vanilla availability of such hosting. Or we might with higher volumes be much more interested in managed hosting. Or if we're going to be going further than that, then perhaps colocation would be the right answer.

This is the thing: while we might know that we need a web presence, until we've worked out what that presence is going to be ew can't decide upon the most basic technical decision, what sort of hosting we should have.