Customer Spotlight:
Dave Braun
On helping entrepreneurs find freedom in their lives and businesses.
Dave Braun is a multifaceted, successful WordPress website designer and developer that has found WordPress to be an invaluable tool for building and sustaining a long-term business income and lifestyle.
While Dave does operate several different businesses, his WordPress development career is centered on his Pro Website Creators endeavor. Within the umbrella of Pro Website Creators, Dave and his team build clients new websites that they can be proud to own.
But the quality of work Dave offers goes far behind the pride that his clients feel when they experience their new website for the first time. The real mission is to hand his customers a website that attracts more clients and builds their sales funnel.
And as Dave will tell you, his path to owning and operating a successful WordPress website design business has involved a lot of learning, patience, and perseverance.
Getting Started: The Great Husband Now App
Before launching his career in WordPress, Dave was working as an engineer for a semiconductor company. During that time, he and a buddy had an idea to build a mobile app that would help husbands become better husbands.
Now there’s a great idea.
As Dave explains:
“The idea was, as a husband, you could input a list of date nights in there. We also have a list of gifts that you could give to your spouse, and all kinds of reminders in there. You know, reminders to text your wife at certain times of the day. That kind of thing.”
“…we should have spent a lot more time on marketing than on engineering.”
He goes on to say:
“Then, we have a battery level for all these different relationship areas to show you if you’re running out of ‘battery energy’ in the relationship, and you need to do something to boost it. One of the things I realized was it was a great app and everything. But we should have spent a lot more time on marketing than on engineering.”
Dave and his partner quickly realized that if they were going to launch a mobile app, they were also going to need a website to promote it.
At the time, neither Dave nor his partner had any website-building knowledge (other than using Frontpage a bit several years prior). As such, they decided to hire someone to build the site for them.
Upon realizing that his website had been built using Joomla, Dave decided to learn Joomla himself.
And he did.
But what Dave soon began to realize with Joomla is that every time he searched for something he wanted to do, he was instead finding WordPress plugins that were easier solutions.
So he began to transition his website building from Joomla to WordPress for a new project he took on in 2014.
The Beginnings Of WordPress Design and Development
In 2014, Dave came up with another app idea called Date Night Plans. This was a spinoff app from the Great Husband Now app.
It was then that he decided to build his new supporting website using the WordPress CRM.
“It was around the time that I was laid off from my company. And so I’m like, let me start delving into this WordPress development idea. That was around 2014. And I did my first site on WordPress, which was exactly when I came across iThemes.
”He continued, “And I started buying the iThemes tools. But what really grabbed me was the training that was provided. And at that time, it was Benjamin Bradley leading it. He was great. Then Nathan came along and started doing a lot of the training.”
When Nathan arrived on the scene, it was only the beginning of Dave’s relationship with iThemes.
“And I started buying the iThemes tools. But what really grabbed me was the training that was provided.”
Taking WordPress Development To the Next Level
Shortly after meeting Nathan at iThemes, Dave knew that he wanted more from his new endeavor developing WordPress websites.
“One thing I quickly realized is I needed to have a coach and a mentor in this. So I reached out to Nathan, because I thought he was knowledgeable. He was a good guy and we even had the same faith. So I thought well, are you interested in doing this (being my coach and mentor in WordPress)? And we started in November 2014 with him as my web coach and, you know, kind of a life coach in a way too. And that morphed a few months later into his advanced program, where once a month we do kind of a mastermind, followed-up by a 45-minute, once-monthly one-on-one phone call.”
Dave has been a solid part of the iThemes family ever since then. In fact, he says that he is “an iThemes person for life” because of his experience with iThemes products and the extensive training and personal interaction he has received.
A Multifaceted Business Approach
Currently, Dave also operates a business that provides coaching for entrepreneurs. Along with a business partner, they developed a product called Hire My VA, or hiremyVA.com. In this endeavor, they help people hire quality Virtual Assistants without breaking the bank.
While building this business, he remains highly focused on his Pro Website Creators business.
“With Pro Website Creators, we do all kinds of different websites for people. We really specialize in e-commerce. That’s what’s really fun for us.”
“The main type of clients are many different e-commerce sites.”
As he explains, “The main type of clients are many different e-commerce sites. We have somebody selling CBD. We have many different clients selling high-end European-type clothing, like really nice coats that cost hundreds and dollars. You know, they sell pants as well. Stuff like that. We’ve got another client that is a nonprofit organization selling tickets to volunteer at events.”
As Dave knows very well, the best approach to business is to not toss all of your eggs into one basket.
Dave’s Toolset For Building E-Commerce Websites
As any professional WordPress website developer will tell you, building a powerful WordPress e-commerce site also always begins with the WooCommerce plugin.
But a successful e-commerce site involves a lot more than simply downloading and installing the WooCommerce plugin on your site.
“From there (downloading and installing WooCommerce), it goes to using a good search plugin. We use the Fibosearch plugin for that. And that works really, really well. After that, it all depends on what the clients want. We try to stay away from Jetpack, even though we occasionally need to use it for some purposes. For example, we usually use the iconic plugins for certain things to enhance how products are displayed.”
He continues, “It really just depends on what the client wants. We’ve even used booster.io for certain applications. That works pretty well for what we’re doing. We also use some WooCommerce plugin addons, such as the one that allows WooCommerce to communicate with ShipStation.”
What Problems Do You Solve For Your Clients?
Dave tells us that the biggest problems he solves for the people who hire him and his team and two-fold:
- He builds amazing websites and sales funnel designs that help them grow their businesses
- He helps them grow personally through HireMyVA and entrepreneurial coaching programs
The most satisfying part of this work is seeing clients use their websites to achieve their business and personal goals, while helping them achieve true freedom in their lives.
His goal is to continuously provide extraordinary value to clients, allowing them to use the strengths of his business so they can use it to bolster what they’re doing.
What’s Coming In the Next Five Years
Dave has some serious goals in mind as we progress into 2022 and beyond.
“Through HireMyVA and Pro Website Creators, I’m looking to directly help 1 million entrepreneurs find freedom in their lives and businesses.”
“Through HireMyVA and Pro Website Creators, I’m looking to directly help 1 million entrepreneurs find freedom in their lives and businesses.”
But, of course, all aggressive goals come with their own challenges. In this case, the biggest challenge is getting the word out on exactly who they are and what they can do. And getting that information to the people who Dave knows his expertise can most help.
Dave Braun’s Personal WordPress Website Toolset
Like most of the other top WordPress developers, Dave has his go-to WordPress plugins, themes, and services.
On the top of his list are:
- WooCommerce
- Customer Reviews
- WooCommerce Cart Abandonment
- Astra theme (although he’d like to make the switch to Kadence Theme. He’s just heavily invested in Asta at the moment)
- Support Candy
- Meta Box
- Central Color Palette
- Cleantalk
- iThemes Security Pro
- BackupBuddy
- iThemes Sync
He also utilizes a lot of code snippets to make e-commerce sites as awesome as they can possibly be.
How iThemes Has Changed the Life of Dave Braun
This is an answer that is best summed up by Dave himself.
“iThemes got me started with WordPress from the very beginning, and I’ve been a loyal customer since 2013-2014. With all of the excellent training, I’m able to have success and connect with amazing people. Without iThemes, I’m sure I would have given up on this business a long time ago!”
He went on to tell us that, because of iThemes, he now sleeps much better at night. And that he does everything better in his business because of his relationship with the iThemes family.
“Establishing recurring revenue and optimizing that process has been business-changing. I’m able to keep up much more easily on new trends and keep my business at the forefront.”
And, knowing Dave, we are certain that his success will only continue to flourish.
Learn more about Dave at prowebsitecreators.com
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