Just wondering what legal issues there are to take into account when starting up a hosting company? and what age restrictions there are for staff etc.

I would think the legal issues for a hosting company would be similar to starting any company. Depending on your plans for growth, there are probably a lot of different things. The more companies you host and the bigger they are, the more exposure you have to legal issues.

Especially if you are hosting, could a company come after you for downtime, loss data, etc.? I am not a lawyer, but have run a hosting company in the past. Luckily we never faced legal issues.

If you start hosting fairly good size companies, you may want to consider getting liability (or professional) insurance. A good thing too is to have an excellent Service Agreement and make sure your clients are very aware of everything in that Agreement.

Next to having a proper business license you should also think about things like liability. What if somebody sues you for lost revenue due to an outage. Due you want to be liable with your personal assetts? Probably not. I am running my business as a LLC (Limited Liability Company) to protect me and it also looks more professional. A corporation might be another option for you. Depending on where you live you will also need a sales tax license.

Go to http://www.nolo.com and read up on these things. They offer generic, but solid information.

Chris