August 17, 2017 — Your clients aren’t clients. They aren’t partners. They aren’t customers. They’re your GUESTS. And you’ve invited them into your magical world of WordPress where impossible things happen and there’s an entirely new language to learn. Let’s talk about practical real-world examples of how making them feel welcome and giving them a better experience can have an unbelievably positive impact on your business and our community.

Presentation Slides »

August 16, 2017 — Are you having trouble growing your freelancing business into a full-blown agency? I was too! The average web design business has 1.4 employees which means the vast majority are solo-preneurs. In other words, it’s hard to grow a web design business!

But in 2013, I made a few significant changes to my strategy that paid off big and allowed me to go from struggling freelancer to 7-figure acquisition in just 3 years – starting from scratch with a completely new brand.

In this presentation you’ll learn:

The benefits of selecting a niche (niching up has many marketing and sales advantages)
How to position yourself in the market (decisions on what services you offer and your pricing have a huge effect)
How to productize your service for maximum efficiency (increasing your efficiency allows you to scale)
Acquisition “gotchas” (do you know the best entity structure for a web design agency acquisition?)

August 12, 2017 — My experience has been that designers/agencies face two business oriented challenges that they fail to address, often because of a closed lens around what is possible. In other words, they aren’t aware that these options can greatly help their businesses and these partnerships are super easy to form. – Selling alone – I spend much of my day linking agencies with clients to sell projects together. Our clients need designers and often don’t know where to turn. Designer/agency clients need hosts, ad providers, marketers, etc. and again often don’t know where to turn. Selling in tandem increases both stickiness and value for all parties involved. – Building something amazing then turning it over to an unknown hosting or adtech provider. I liken this to building an awesome sports car and then leaving to chance that the owner will park it out on the street with no protection from the elements. This presentation is a vendor-agnostic look at how designers/agencies can increase their opportunities, deliver greater lifetime value to their clients, and insure that their hard work isn’t neglected after a site is finished by partnering with other providers. It also touches on how to choose providers/partners where there is a true synergy and sharing of interests. Thank you for your consideration. I’m excited about the opportunity to help WordPress professionals explore new ways to grow their businesses!

August 12, 2017 — As a freelance web designer I heard them all. The horror stories of domains lost (and later resold at auction), the (not so) ‘great hosting deals’, and myriad tales of web designers who had run off with their money.

If you’re a business owner with a website or getting geared up to build one, you’ll want to listen to Linda’s talk on how to side-step some of these common, and not as common, mistakes. Learn what you need to know to protect your online presence and accounts, and how to work with a web professional to create the product you want (and can afford).

August 5, 2017 — As WordPress enters its teenage years, our community is no longer just thinking about startup mode. Entrepreneurs are trying to figure out longevity, and how to build a long lasting business. Karim brings the perspective of 23 years of building and leading digital teams from 30 to 300. Immersed in the WordPress ecosystem the last 5 years, Karim has seen some trends that worked against the traditional silicon valley idea’s of success. Are we a special snowflake, does Open Source make a difference in Start-up longevity?

In leading this discussion, Karim will build on the topics of the morning talks by Scott Mann and Sherry Walling. We have invited Rebecca Gill and Jon Brown, who both have many years in business before joining our community, to create a panel that collectively brings hundreds of years of business experience to the WordPress ecosystem and our community.

August 5, 2017 — This is meant to be a blunt and straight-forward talk on the challenges of entering the WordPress space. This space is not all unicorns and rainbows – at least not anymore. Business and ideas fail in this space just like any other. Panelists should come with pros and cons of being in the WordPress space, and what they would do if WordPress’s dominance in the CMS/etc. space decreases. This is not mean to be a negative subject but a realistic one, and panelists represent different viewpoints (freelancer, small, large businesses, plugin/theme shops).

August 5, 2017 — While this “sales and marketing” panel is intended for small business and agencies, lessons learned can also apply to the freelancer or the developer looking to make a business from plugins. What are the right AND wrong ways? What lessons can our panelists share from personal experience? Simply “raise your rates” isn’t enough detail here so panelists should be prepared so share a few of their tips.

July 23, 2017 — Building a Successful WordPress Business

July 23, 2017 — Building a Successful WordPress Business

July 20, 2017 — Just getting started with WordPress and need to build a site? I’ll cover exactly how to do it! I’ll go over the basic elements you need to create a site (including domain & hosting) and also covering items to look for when selecting a theme. We’ll also cover the mistakes that some businesses make that prevent them from launching their site and how to avoid them.