Tonight’s meetup features WordPress Consultant Bill Erickson.
(Live streamed at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wordpress-austin).
Announcements:
- Next meetup: Back to Basics: WordPress for Blogging Sept. 13 at Cospace, 7:00pm
- Getting Started with WordPress class on Sept. 20th, 7pm-9pm
- WP 101 plugin – video training inside WordPress. It’s a premium plugin but once you purchase it you can use it on unlimited websites.
Bill Erickson: Tools for organizing his development business
Being a WordPress developer means not just knowing WordPress but how to run a business.
Tips to waste less time communicating with clients
- Clear communication eliminates frustration & sets expectations
- How much does it cost – state rates and mimimum charge upfront
- Give example of projects
- What services do you provide
- Stock emails for every kind of client interaction and stage of process
Managing business
- Uses email as initial form of contact – contact form rather than phone number
- Clear emails serve as a contract/agreement with client.
- Once email contact has been established, all information goes into custom CRM (Customer Relationship Management tool) for prospect and project management
- Clearly communicate scope of work, billing, timeframe
- Once they agree, invoice is sent out for 25%; project completion at end of one week (not including changes); balance is due in 3 weeks regardless of whether or not the client has all changes in.
- Everyone on calendar has paid 25%
- Clear rules and deadlines – everything is organized.
- Keeps track of time spent, budget, effective hourly rate
- Tracks inquiries, conversion rate
- Define time for calls – you can’t get work done if you’re always taking calls. Schedule phone calls, and be accessible by phone. For example: 8-10 am – emails; 10-12 pm – phone calls; 1-5pm – coding
- Follow WordPress development for information on new features, code
- WordPress is based on backwards compatibility
Bill’s CRM tool – more info (and download link): http://www.billerickson.net/wordpress-genesis-crm/
Recommends plugins to use with CRM:
- Registered users only
- Gravity forms – for the contact form
- Gravity Forms + custom post types
- Relevanssi – makes search relevant; can search custom fields
When migrating sites, Bill recommends never use WordPress’ Import and Export tools – it doesn’t grab everything, sometimes breaks links. Bill has a different process – visit his post on how to move a website.
Also referenced:
Flex Slider for WP Rotator – plugin developed by Bill Erickson: Turns WP Rotator into FlexSlider, a fully responsive jQuery slider.
Toggl.com – time management/billing tool