Last month I attended the big national WordCamp US conference in Portland, Oregon. Apart from an opportunity to tour attractions in downtown Portland, take in a few wineries in the scenic Willamette Valley, and drive along the beautiful Pacific coast, here are some takeaways from the key sessions I attended (mainly on business management tips for WP design agencies):

Growing and Sustaining a Digital Agency in Uncertain Times by Jessi Gurr, Iceberg web designer (see the talk video here). Following are the key points made by Jessi based on experience with her small (9 employees + contractors) WordPress agency:

• Focus on profit not business growth; and your profit margins also need to grow
• Audit your business – again, with a view to profitability
• Assess employee profitability, considering the real cost of employees, i.e. 1.25 or 1.4 multiplier of base salary
• Downsizing is not a failure – use contractors to cover gaps
• Streamline processes: for example, use checklists to bring websites live, and apply knowledge bases to answer common customer questions (use Chat GBT)

Scaling your Agency: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Karena Kregar of OpenSky and Gina Deaton of Clockworkwp (see the talk’s video here). Karena and Gina reflect on lessons learned from growing their two WordPress companies: one, a solopreneur who expanded to 6 employees, and the other, an agency that went from 3-4 staff to 15-20 employees now:

• Scaling your company should be personal and intentional – fit your work commitment to your stage of life
• As you grow, shift from serving clients directly to serving them through your team.
• Don’t attempt to “scale chaos” – get organized!
• Created a road map for operations – keep processes at a high level, allowing for staff creativity and problem-solving.
• As to “culture”, make it a place where you actually want to work

Innovative Pricing Strategies to Grow your WP Business by Brian Rotsztein of rotsztein.com (see the presentation video here). Brian, a speaker, author and consultant, gave an engaging talk on practical pricing strategies for a web agency or solopreneur – here are his key tips:

• Using an hourly rate, while apparently logical, in effect rewards inefficiency – if you get better at it, you get paid less!
• Applying Fixed Rate is straightforward, but has problems with “scope creep.” The Fiver digital consulting platform is an example here, with its productized services.
• Rather, apply an approach which he calls “relative value pricing”. Charge more for unique scenarios or rush jobs.
• Be prepared to walk away from difficult clients. He goes on to provide a series of common and at times humorous types of client calls and proposals that he has encountered.
• Know your own personality type and that of your clients, and adapt your approach accordingly. In difficult negotiating conversations, don’t be afraid to Pause or hit the Mute button as an effective way to counter an unreasonable client price proposal.