Insights From WordPress Entrepreneurs

Recently we’ve been picking the brains of WordPress entrepreneurs. We’re not turning into zombies, just recognizing the cool ideas and can-do spirit that fuel many of these folks. They’ve got good brains, and learning from them can help fuel freelancers. We talked about knowing when to keep pushing, how to become more profitable and their greatest lessons. Here’s what we learned.

“You’re not much of an entrepreneur, in my opinion, if you don’t have the guts to ride the bull.” -Kori Ashton

Stick With It

Entrepreneurs are known for having the perseverance to struggle through challenges and see their dreams become reality. But how do you know when to power through and when to call it quits? Our group of entrepreneurs offered lots of answers, but a lot of it came down to a simple confidence pep talk. You need to have guts (Kori Ashton). You need to listen to yourself (Emilie Lebrun). You need to be able to get up and try again (Eric Dye). On a more practical note, you should have detailed plans with rigorous data and be able to ask hard questions about your progress (Mario Peshev). Another practical approach is to simply look at your people and see how they’re handling the stress (Nancy Lyons).

“If a project is taking too big of a toll on people, it’s time to think about moving on. People are every business’s biggest asset, too big to crush for the sake of a bottom line.” -Nancy Lyons

How to Be More Profitable

When you’re trying to make your business more profitable, there are a lot of practical things you can do. Serve the right market with the right service (Mario Peshev). Develop processes and make sure they’re serving your people (Nancy Lyons). Diversify, be proactive, add value, delegate and work better (Emilie Lebrun). But sometimes profitability goes beyond making more money. Sometimes you need to be frugal (Kori Ashton). Sometimes you need to define profitability for yourself (Eric Dye).

“Investing in others, building something to be proud of, taking care in your craft—you might not get rich, but you’ll be a happy person and that’s the kind of profitability I want to have more of.” -Eric Dye

Lessons Learned

Finally, what are the most important lessons these entrepreneurs learned? You need to define your own success (Kori Ashton) and be the author of your own destiny (Emilie Lebrun). Recurring revenue and a solid business model also help (Mario Peshev). And then it really comes down to people. Networking, connecting with others, listening and learning from people (Mario Peshev, Nancy Lyons, Eric Dye). Entrepreneurs may be rock stars, but they don’t go solo. They understand the value of people.

WordPress Entrepreneurs

You can learn more from the full interviews with each of our entrepreneurs:

• Kori Ashton
• Eric Dye
• Emilie Lebrun
• Nancy Lyons
• Mario Peshev

“Focus is what differentiates an entrepreneur from any of the lost freelancers out there.” -Mario Peshev