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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
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
