Changing the World one WordPress site at a Time Running a - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Changing the World

• ne WordPress site at a Time

Running a successful, distributed WordPress agency serving U.S. nonprofits

Our customers are changing the world

• Am

Americ ican an o

• r global

al nonprofit fits (usually .org TLD, sometimes .gov or .edu)

• Fund

nding ng comes from individual donors, foundations, government agencies

• 15-25% goes to over

erhea head; extreme pressure to keep these costs down

We design & build websites

We build petitions & donation forms

We maintain 100+ WordPress sites

Tool

• ols: InfiniteWP, Sucuri, Backstop JS, FreshDesk

We build plugins & data integrations

• Me

Media Ded eduper er Clea ean u n up t the he Med edia L Library and nd k keep eep i it clea ean

• WP Po

P Popup up Crea eate f e flex exible, e, power erful l layover ers

• Wid

idge get Menu enuizer er Crea eate e meg egamenu enus b s by adding ng widget et c cont ntent ent to menu enus

• Bette

tter Secti tion N Navi vigato tor Sho how sec section-based sed na navigation n via ia a a wid idge get

In 7 years, we’ve gone from this…

Be Ben

Designer, developer

Ira ra

Technical Project Manager

Lesley

Webmaster, communications Didn’t ’t kn know

• w

ea each h other her at a all…..

To this:

8 Secret Sauce Ingredients

• 1. Partners
• 2. Careful projections
• 3. Biting the bullet
• 4. Good tools
• 5. Employees & company culture
• 6. Treasuring (and firing) customers
• 7. Communicating
• 8. Constant assessment

Graphic credit: Drew Melton www.phraseologyproject.com

Photo credit: Bill Dickinson www.flickr.com/ photos/skynoir/

Partners

Don’t go it alone – get partners!

Picking the Right Partners

Partners

Make sure you make a good team.

Careful Projections

• What will you do?
• What won’t you do?
• Aim high, but make realistic

predictions

• Remember:

Planning is guessing.

Projections

Create cautious expectations.

Biting the Bullet

Bite the bullet Just do it!

(a few of) The T

• ols
• Proje

ject M ct Manageme ment: : TeamLab, Sma marts tsheet

• Time

imekeepin ing: BeeB eeBol

• le
• Ca

Callin ing/vid ideoco conferencin cing: Skype, UberConference, , Zoom an and S Slac ack

• Co

Contr tracts cts: Sign gnNo Now

• Wir

ireframin ming: HotGloo, uxpin, balsamiq, Axure re

• User te

testin ting: Optima timal W Workshop

• Ch

Chattin tting: HipChat, S Slac ack

Good T

• ols

Start free, pay when necessary & don’t be afraid to change!

The Employees

Employees & Culture

Hire people you want to hang out with.

Employees

Hire people you want to hang out with but who are different from you.

Our Customers

Th This i s is s Hanna nnah. h.

Customers Cultivate great relationships!

The Customers

You’ll work hard to get them, but some customers aren’t worth keeping.

Customers

Cultivate great relationships, but KILL THE BAD ONES!

F*&%ing up

Communicating

My guarantee: you will mess up something …it’s all in the recovery!

Have hard conversations quickly and bravely

Assessing

Proje jects cts:

budgeted versus actual hours

Em Employees: s:

1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, every year

Tools:

• ls:

constant assessment Budget et: : monthly

Constantly Assess Check and check again.

Awesome Sauce Ingredients

• 1. Don’t go it alone…but do choose carefully
• 2. Create cautious projections
• 3. JUST DO IT
• 4. Use great tools
• 5. Hire remote, and prioritize company culture
• 6. Treasure (and fire) customers
• 7. Communicate carefully and respectfully
• 8. Constantly assess

cornershopcreative.com @cornershop Lesley@cornershopcreative.com @eckandgrumble