Learn from my mistakes, don't make them: The Business of WordPress - talk given at WordCamp Europe 2013
13. Oct 2013•0 gefällt mir•3,256 views
Downloaden Sie, um offline zu lesen
Melden
Business
Technologie
In this talk, I discuss the issues I've faced and mistakes I've made throughout my seven years of running a WordPress-focused agency. This talk was given at WordCamp Europe 2013.
9. The Zen of Recurring Revenue
WordCamp Europe 2013
10. Breakdown of services today
Courses/consulting
10%
Digital Mktg.
10%
WP
Hosting/Maintenance
10%
WordPress sites
70%
11. Goal breakdown of services
Courses/consulting
10%
Digital Mktg.
20%
WP
Hosting/Maintenance
30%
WordPress sites
40%
12. 2. Much ado about
clients & chemistry
WordCamp Europe 2013
13. Who is your ideal client?
Budget
Industry
Timeline
Referral
Mentsch?
WordCamp Europe 2013
14. Same conditions…
Client 1
Client 2
Industry
Tech
Tech
Project Manager
X
X
Type of project
Theme + custom
design
Theme + custom
design
Designer
Theirs
Theirs
Developer
Y
Y
WordCamp Europe 2013
28. Hiring
What you are looking for
• Experience
• Portfolio
• Personality
• References
• Test them!
What they are looking for
• Compensation
• Respect
• Opportunity to learn
• Flexibility
• Passion
WordCamp Europe 2013
35. x = number of billable hours per month =
60% of available work hours
y = overall overhead per month
(salary, taxes, rent, office expenses)
z = profit goals
a = hourly rate
(y + z) / x = a
WordCamp Europe 2013
40. Credits
Photos
• Church of All Nations – Wikipedia
• Western Wall – Wikipedia
• Armenian Quarter – Jaime.Silva, Flickr
• Southpark image – Southpark downloads
• Running guys in black and white – New Old Stock
• Sunset – Unsplash
• The Aussie Troops – Flickr
Links
• IDC report on CRM
• SugarCRM data on usage
• ReadWrite web on CRM
WordCamp Europe 2013
Hinweis der Redaktion
A bit about me and illuminea – how I got started in business and WP
A few pics of Jerusalem, including my baby at the last WordCamp J
With all due respect to WP, the whole running after projects that start and end is time consuming, and means you don’t know what’s happening next month. We realized after a few years of doing that, that it was too stressful.So we came up with additional and ongoing services to offer your clients. Maintenance, hosting, support, reporting.
Recurring: SEO, hosting, maintenance
Ask audience for some things that make the ideal client
Sharing updated contacts with teamTracking leads and opportunitiesRunning reports on what type of projects you are signing most, revenue, etc.Syncing with targeted mailing lists in order to
Stay in touch with past clients. Because the nature of our businesses are once-off, the end of a project can easily mean the end of the relationship! Start today to start gathering data.
Hiring
You may not think you’ll ever reach the stage where you want to spend money, but you will (God willing). And it sneaks up on you.Hiring is one of the riskiest things you will do.So start collecting talent today. Meet someone good? Write their details down and store them for the day you need to grow your team.
Freelancers are uber-important. They are your elasticity.Cloud servers - they’re all about increasing your resources when you need them, shrinking when you don’t. That’s where amazing freelancers can help you out.Keep a good database of freelancers you can turn to when you need a few more hours of someone’s time, temporarily, but don’t need to hire. If you can create an ongoing relationship with freelancers, it’s win-win. They know they can expect work from you, and you have somewhere to turn when in need.