tonymazz: Going from Solo to Sustainable - Growing your Wordpress Business

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Tony Mazzarella from UkuuPeople

#WCOC

Grow your

business! SoloSustainableRecruit

superheroesBuild an awesome

Wordpress shop, fight evil at every turn,

eliminate the competition, make

friends, expand your reach, take on larger projects, get famous,

wear spandex

To

ABOUT @tonymazzTony Mazzarellatony@ukuupeople.com

ukuupeople.com wpenvision.com

New York | Denver | Mumbai

What does sustainable mean to you?

1 THE LONLIEST Number?

Solo is great, until …

• Massive Project• Evil Requirement• Loneliness Sets In

Growth is rarely planned…

Grow YourHow toShop

But let’s look at how to do that anyway

2 STEPS SuccessFind a unique position in the market Identify your personal strengths and weaknesses

Have rules in place, but be flexible

Focus on culture

Dream… realistically

Find a Unique Position

• Focus on what you’re good at, it’s easy to sell

and manage things you’re passionate about

• Being unique and serving a narrow purpose

aligns you with overall market growth

• Allows you to more easily identify

opportunities, good clients and team

members

Identify Your Strengths & WeaknessesSales

Project Management

Design

Theming

Development

Karaoke

Giving WC Presentations

Knowing what you’re good at helps you

identify and fill gaps in your business with

people, services and strategy

Have Rules / Be Flexible

“I will only hire people if I can comfortably commit ‘x’ years”.

“We will add 1 person for each ‘x’ percent of revenue increase”

“Our developers won’t do L1 support tasks”“Don’t eat leftover Sushi”

You have to be flexible, because we’re experimenting and the rules WILL change.

Focus on CultureYou can’t force culture, but you can foster itHave weekly meetings and don’t just talk about projectsBe informal, play jokes and have funRewards go a long wayLet your team use some time for creative or R & D projects

Dream Big… Realistically

Measure everythingSet boundariesKnow when to walk away from an ideaStick with what you’re good at

Don’t listen to

him!

Like a dog tied to a post, you want to

have boundaries

Okay, Time to Grow

WHATWHERE

WHO

What do you want to be?

WHAT

The X-Men: You want to run a huge brick and mortar development shop with millions in revenue and hundreds of employees

Prefer to hire employeesLove whiteboardsDiscussing things over a water-cooler still happens

The Avengers- You want a small team, distributed to get the job doneYou ask everyone you know what chat platform they use, because of your own insecurity of the one you’ve chosen.You like working from homeYou’re really good at tracking time

Superman – You’re a Rockstar freelancer and you like it that way… but sometimes you need assistance from the Justice League

You like working on your own termsWilling to give up only small pieces of the overall scope

Who is your team?

WHO

• Employees• Contractors• Dedicated Developer Service• Partners

• Designing• Theming • Programming• Project Managing• Business Developing• Marketing• Sales-ing

Or… a little of everything

Break It DownResource Cost Ease of

Management

Flexibility Liability

Employee High Moderate Low High

Contractor Very High High Moderate Moderate

Dedicated Developer

Moderate Low Very High Low

Partner Low Very High High Very High

Where do we grow?

Great work environmentEasy for collaborationGreat accountabilityExpensive as heckReduces talent pool

DistributedThe world is your oyster Lots of cool online toolsWork in your underwearCulture is difficult to achieveAccountability and Collaboration CAN be difficult

Brick & Mortar

What are some of your favorite distributed workplace tools?

HOW WE WORK Distributed

Bonus.ly

Skype

To ProjectKEYSSucces

s

But let’s look at how to do that anyway

Successful Project

Set project minimumsFlexible pricing structureGet Signoff on everythingGive your clients deliverables & deadlinesFire Clients

Don’tUnderbid just to get a jobDon’t take tempting projects outside of your expertiseTell the client anything is easyOverpromiseAccept RPFs

Do

OPEN QUESTIONS

ABOUT @tonymazzTony Mazzarellatony@ukuupeople.com

ukuupeople.com wpenvision.com

New York | Denver | Mumbai

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