How My WordPress Agency Grew To $35K/Month
This is a follow up story for Work Hero. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published almost 6 years ago, check it out here.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?
Since my last updated, we've had steady growth, doubling revenue from 2022 to 23.
Some highlights:
- We have increased the number of yearly subscribers from 2 to 5.
- We have raised our prices about 25% since our last update and retained 85% of our previous customers, as well as added about 2 new customers (monthly subscribers per month on average.
- We hired a Customer Success Manager, who has been instrumental in our growth- working with our customers on upgrades and additions to their account, as well as making sure they are getting everything they need to stay with us as subscribers.
- We are getting more referrals now than ever- our customers have been regularly referring leads to us, something that didn't happen before this year.
- Our team has grown to 20 developers, 15 full time, up from 10 in our last update.
- We have updated our website to be more aligned and empathetic to our typical customer.
- Our team's response time and overall effectiveness is constantly improving.
- We've added a Trust Pilot profile and 29 reviews, 28 of them being 5 stars.
Some challenges:
When we've had growth spurts, we have at times hired too quickly, and we discover later that a hire we didn't isn't working out. This past year, we have had to fire 3 developers due to not being a good fit for our team. The lesson learned has been not to be in a hurry when hiring, every time. Now we have a process that we follow every time, with two interviews and a technical test, to give us the best possibility of getting the hiring right.
Next, we've had inconsistency with our lead generation. We tried hiring an SDR, who was with us for 4 months, mostly creating and managing email campaigns. But the results just weren't there, and we had to let him go. Our Meta ads have performed to a level where they are profitable, but inconsistent. We're currently creating new ad copy, mostly videos, and about to increase our ad budget, as we are strong believers in ads being our ticket to getting to the next level with our business.
Other notes: I (Kevin, founder) have started to do some local networking. I neglected this for a while, but I think this is an avenue to create potential partnerships and contacts that will eventually lead to more business.
