October 10, 2017 — The idea of building a business on open source software may be old hat for most technologists, but for many people in more traditional industries, the concepts around using and contributing to WordPress may seem quite strange. Can a program you get for free be any good? How does the licensing work and what the heck is a GPL? Who do we call if it breaks? Who’s in charge of this thing? Sharing technology with everyone, is that safe? Wait, you wrote some code for us, and now you want to publish it for anyone to use, for free? We’ll answer these questions and more in a discussion of how to get OSS buy-in from the whole newsroom — lawyers, executives, and IT departments included. Along the way, you’ll get a refresher on making the most of the open WordPress ecosystem, whether you’ve been a part of this community for 13 years or 13 hours.

October 8, 2017 — I started my business in 2010 as a way to make money part-time while being a stay-at-home mom to my 1 year old daughter. Now, two kids and 7 years later, I’m running an agency full-time with my husband and trying to have some semblance of work/life balance in a business that never stops and a house with 3 kids.

This talk will be about my own personal experience – struggles and triumphs – over the past 7 years going from part-time freelancer to full-time owner of a business that supports my entire family. We’ll talk about finding purpose and striving for business success, and what that means when you’re a parent of young children.

In addition to sharing my own experience, I will be reaching out to other WP business owner parents and be interviewing them to see how they manage work/life balance, and incorporating their advice and experiences into the talk. These interviews will be recorded so that audience member can watch them after the fact.

October 8, 2017 — Branding your business lies in large part on how well you’re able to convey why you do what you do, and to put it into a narrative that your perfect customer understands. This is a simple framework based on the Hollywood blockbuster model.

October 4, 2017 — Marija will talk about her process of the creation of small business websites in WordPress from the moment she get the project from the clients to her process of listen, discover, concept with an emphasis of the designing in the browser and testing to the creation of the WordPress files for the website….

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October 3, 2017 — Table ronde autour des bon usages de votre site WordPress dans le cadre du business.

October 3, 2017 — Discover the power of turning down work in your WordPress business.

Many starting WordPress business owners underestimate how long it takes to build a strong foundation for their business. Often, out of desperation, they will take on any job, at any price, no questions asked. Ending up financially and emotionally drained. This is probably a reason why so many businesses close down in their first two years. Having experienced this myself the hard way, I discovered the power of the tiny word “No!”, the most powerful key we hold to end this rat race.

Saying “No!” is counterintuitive. And it is certainly is not an easy thing to do. But practicing to say “No!” can keep you from disliking your business and the people you do business with. The moment you stop saying ‘Yes” to every opportunity that arises, your WordPress business can grow bigger than you could have imagined.

The “No!” strategy is all about doing the work you are passionate about and are good at, and with the right clients. It really boils down to doing less of the work you dislike, isn’t profitable or does not fit your beliefs.

Learn to say “No!”
I feel the time is right to share some insights about why and how I learned to say no to certain work and clients. I will share my six step process that helped me grow my WordPress business over the years…

And remember: “If it’s not a hell yeah, it’s a no.”

【同時通訳あり】
WordPress でビジネスをしていく上で、依頼を断る力の大事さを理解しましょう。

WordPress サイトの開発やデザインを請け負っている企業のオーナーや個人の多くは、しっかりしたビジネスの基礎を築くためにかかる時間を過小評価しがちです。必死になるあまり、価格がどうであれどんな依頼でも疑問を持つことなく受け入れてしまうことも少なくありません。そういった場合、財政的にも、感情的にも、疲れ果ててしまいます。とても多くの企業やフリーランスで独立した人たちが2年以内に辞めてしまうのは、こういった理由からではないでしょうか。マヌエラは、自身も大変な思いをした経験から、「No」と言うことの重要性に気づきました。それは、厳しい競争を勝ち抜くためのキーとなるのです。

「No」と言うことは反直観的で、決して簡単なことではありません。しかし、練習することで、自身のビジネスやクライアントを嫌いになるのを防げます。遭遇するすべての機会を受け入れるのをやめることで、想像以上に事業を大きく成長させることができるでしょう。

「No」を言う方法を学びましょう。
今こそ、私がなぜ、そしてどうやって特定の案件やクライアントを断っているのかを共有する時ではないかと思います。これまでに自分のビジネスを成長させてきた6つのステップをお教えします。

忘れないでください。「『もちろん！』と即答できないなら、『No』が答えである」

Presentation Slides »

September 30, 2017 — How to start a new business with just $41.60 and a bottle of wine. Vanina shares her experience and gives some advice.

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September 25, 2017 — Bryce will talk about how he got to start the Metorik startup. His life as a developer and WordPress community member started as a traveling freelancer. Laos, Thailand, Korea, and now based in Australia.

After doing freelance jobs, he joined WooThemes, the owner of WooCommerce, which later got acquired by Automattic. So he joined Woo, joined Automattic, and he left the company to start his Metorik. In this talk, he’ll show how he’s found his life so far, why Metorik? why by himself, and what the startup business is about.

このセッションでは、Metorik という WooCommerce アナリティクスのスタートアップビジネスを始めることになった背景について話します。

彼の開発者・WordPress コミュニティメンバーとしての人生は、ノマドスタイルで旅行をしながらフリーランスをしていたことからスタートしました。オーストラリア出身のブライスはラオス、タイ、韓国に住んだ後、今はまたオーストラリアに在住しています。各国でフリーランスとして働いた後、WooCommerce の運営元であった WooThemes に雇われ、Automattic による同社の買収により移籍。その後、Metorik を立ち上げるために独立しました。なぜ彼が一人で Web サービスを運営することにしたのか、数ある選択肢の中から Metorik のようなビジネスモデルを選んだ理由など、興味深い話が聞けるでしょう。

September 8, 2017 — Dawno, dawno temu, czyli w 2015 roku na WordUpie w Lublinie Szymon Skulimowski zadał Maćkowi pytanie, czy na wtyczkach do WooCommerce da się zarobić. Wtedy Maciej, zgodnie z prawdą odpowiedział, że WP Desk to na razie tylko hobby.

Od tamtej pory zmieniło się właściwie wszystko. W trakcie prelekcji Maciek opowie o tym jak zbudował stabilną firmę opartą w 100% na WordPressie, której 100% przychodów pochodzi ze sprzedaży wtyczek. Ale nie będzie to autopromocja. Wręcz przeciwnie. Dowiemy się, jak stworzyć biznes od zera bez budżetu marketingowego, jak zbudować zespół i zacząć zarabiać. Maciek opowie o tym, co się w WP Desku sprawdziło i gdzie popełniono największe błędy. Wisienką na torcie będzie opowieść o wyjściu poza granice Polski, z którym związane były ogromne nadzieje, a na razie okazało się to największym wyzwaniem.

Presentation Slides »

September 5, 2017 — Milan lives and breathes WordPress: he’s the WordPress.org global translation editor, WordPress Serbia lead and one of WordCamp Europe organizers. One of the lecturers of the WordPress Academy in Serbia, giving talks and free WordPress Workshops. WordCamp volunteer, speaker and organizer. Member of Theme Review Team.

In spare time he holds WordPress lectures and collects WordCamp T-shirts.
Working as a Web developer at Devana Technologies, company behind ManageWP.
Look him up by @lanche86