It takes a long time to persuade a potential client to become a customer - it can take minutes to loose him!!
With the above as my guideline a few dollars more spent on a good and reliable hosting company does not really matter.
What does matter:
- Reliable Hardware
- Good Uptime
- Low Server Load
- Low Ping Response
- Low Memory Used in Server
- Min. Swap Used
- Trouble Ticket response time under 10 minutes
- Phone number to call when needed
- Knowledgeable professionals on the other side
- Good and stable user interface for you and your clients
- Frequent Automatic updates of Op. System, SQL. PHP etc...
If you have all these, your money is well spent.