The biggest advantage of WordPress is that anyone can access it. Surprisingly, with the support of a supportive global community, anyone can start the WordPress business. Due to the low entry threshold, only 25% of WordPress experts work full-time, which attracts people who want a successful business and flexible lifestyle. But how to take the WordPress business to the next step? What would happen if you didn’t aspire to the traditional way to grow the company, buying employees, offices and everything that comes with them? This is a story about how to establish barn2 media with her husband Andy and expand it from a start-up to one of the most famous WordPress agencies in the UK with annual revenue of more than US $300000. We expanded from a two person company to a virtual team, from a web design studio to a plug-in business. None of this hired anyone. The
In the first few years, my husband Andy and I dreamed of starting our own business, establishing a more flexible lifestyle and owning a traditional career. We finally plummeted at the end of 2009. Andy quit his job and started his web design career. I applied with my current job. Andy has a background in software development. I am in the field of project management and marketing. Web design makes it possible to work from home and have a flexible lifestyle. At the same time, it makes us feel that it is an industry suitable for all of us. We soon found WordPress without looking back. The
Since then, we have always put our lifestyle first and built a thriving WordPress company. We have expanded our career with major life events, such as childbirth, disease, moving, etc. We don’t work in crazy time. For important activities such as hiking and dining out, we regularly take time out of the working day! This is how I learned how to expand WordPress business without employees and how you can do it. Like most client-side WordPress businesses, barn2 media started by designing a client-side website. There was a lack of WordPress experts, and there was always more work than needed. Soon, all our working hours were devoted to building websites for others. The
We have made many incremental improvements, such as changing quotation to fixed price and assigning priority to customers with higher budget. This has led to a slight increase in income. I can quit my daily job, but I have no confidence in how to expand my business. Many WordPress freelancers fall into the same trap. Repeatable service provision I say \
If you provide all the services your customers require, you will not be able to work efficiently or expand your business. Don’t say \
Continuous service
The first attempt to build the product was a multi-objective topic called ratio. Don’t bother searching online. Never listed. Over the past year, we have constructed the theme with the secondary theme of customer business. The plan is to sell on themeforest and leverage a huge customer base. Unfortunately, when submitting the theme to themeforest, the design is no longer up-to-date, and the market is dominated by huge themes such as Avada, which we cannot compete with. Although you think you can expand WordPress business by selling themes, you should focus on specific niche markets that can be fully exposed. In addition, before it is too early, act quickly and take advantage of opportunities. Unfortunately, we didn’t do any of them. The
In early 2016, we decided to enter the plug-in world. We think that slot plug-ins have more potential than themes, because plug-ins can provide specific functions. As we all know, plug-ins are easier to extend than many types of products. Although we are called the word press agent, we are not a plug-in company. In order to start with our own name, we initially launched two free plug-ins (including search + sort better recent posts and post table). Although it has no intention to generate revenue through these plug-ins, Posts table, which includes search+sort, began to quickly open up opportunities for business expansion. By listing word press posts in searchable and sortable tables, people began to demand that other types of content be listed immediately. We have created two dedicated e-commerce plug-ins, Posts table pro and woocommerce product table, which list all types of WordPress content. In 2016, we launched five advanced word press plug-ins. They are all designed to meet specific requirements. The woocomerce table plug-in is very successful, and other plug-ins bring regular sales flow. Within six months, the plug-in made enough money to stop accepting new customers. Since then, we have not looked back. In the 18 months since we started selling WordPress plug-ins, we have made many mistakes. We have created some successful plug-ins and other products, some of which are not very successful. We learned how to structure the business in a way that maximizes sales without increasing the workload. Do the same as follows: Choose products wisely, listen to the WordPress community, and look for gaps. Find out about the WordPress plug-in idea and read the location of creating something that no longer exists. WordPress and wookmers have huge market share, and even slot plug-ins can bring huge sales. This is good news, because it is easier to expand the business of selling small and highly concentrated products. Do not try to create the next woocomer. Be careful and realistic. Provide excellent support (but only when necessary), which can contribute to or destroy the WordPress product business. Andy and I provide quick and helpful personal support without support staff. In 2017, the monthly sales of plug-ins increased by more than 4 times, but they only support a few hours a day. You can design products and documents to perform the same tasks to avoid people needing support. Build a knowledge base – view all support requests as opportunities to avoid others asking the same questions. technical information
