Customer Spotlight:
Erica Eide
On the journey from side project and hobby to a small business freelancing.
Erica Eide knows how to find long-term success in the world of WordPress website development. Based out of Minnesota, she is the founder and owner of EricaEide.com, where she builds affordable WordPress websites for small businesses, individuals, and other organizations.
“It’s always just been me, which I like.”
Erica first came across SolidWP back in 2012, and has been a strong part of this community ever since. Although she still considers herself a freelancer, as she’s been a one-woman show for her entire WordPress career, the success she’s found definitely puts her in the category of successful businessperson.
Adjusting To Change
For Erica, learning how to adjust within her business has been one of the biggest keys to her success.
As she says, “It’s always just been me, and which I like. But, you know, I’ve got two kids and I’m married. And I try to volunteer my time as well, which sometimes keeps me from marketing myself a little more, or trying to take on new clients. So right now, I’m pretty focused on maintenance clients.”
“And that’s something that I learned through Solid Academy. You can’t just rely on new projects coming in…”
She goes on to say, “And that’s something that I learned through Solid Academy. You can’t just rely on new projects coming in, because if I were doing that, I wouldn’t have any money coming in right now.”
Currently, Erica is managing the websites of around ten different clients in her business. Most of them are small businesses that also need her help in other aspects of their online presence, such as building their social media followings.
She also works with her maintenance clients performing new builds, redesigns, or adding brand new features to their existing websites.
The Beginnings of a Career in Website Design and Development
Back in 2010, when Erica was pregnant with her first child, she decided that she wanted to start her own blog. This seemed like a great idea to her at the time, because she had been a techie for most of her life.
As she explains, “I thought to myself, I should start a blog, you know, about my pregnancy and just for my family. So I did that. And I don’t remember how I first built it. But it wasn’t with WordPress. Then, I discovered WordPress through that process and eventually started using it.”
At the time, it was mostly only her family that was reading what she published. And all she was posting on her blog were updates on her pregnancy, to keep her family in the loop of the process she was going through.
“So I slowly began doing little websites and getting all of these interesting ideas.”
“I slowly started to learn things like adding plugins and changing site design. I have more of a design background. In fact, I went to school for interior design. So I slowly began doing little websites and getting all of these interesting ideas.”
First Professional Website
Interestingly, Erica’s family owns and operates a successful local funeral home; a one-owner, one-location operation that’s been in her family since 1958. And when Erica first began working with WordPress, the funeral home’s website had just been redesigned by a firm that specializes in creating websites for funeral homes.
When she saw the finished website, she wasn’t all that crazy about the result. And the process wasn’t an enjoyable one either. Although the result looked nice enough, it didn’t seem to match the price tag that the website-building firm had attached to it.
So she thought to herself, “You know, I’m learning how to do this. Maybe I could do better.”
She set out to do it by digging into WordPress themes and plugins, and making minor customizations that she was learning on the fly.
And it worked out better than she had hoped.
After that, Erica began to take on smaller website design projects when she had time.
And when she did, she immediately understood how important it was to offer her clients website maintenance packages to build a steady stream of income.
“Everything went from a side project or hobby, to a small business freelancing for myself.”
“I started offering maintenance, and slowly, with more training and education on my own time, everything went from a side project or hobby, to a small business freelancing for myself.”
And a new career side gig was born.
Taking On Your First Client
Erica’s first paid client was the high school that she had attended when she was young. Their Athletic Department needed a new website, and she landed the job in 2014.
As she tells us, “It was neat. It was like, wow, my old high school. I was an alum, and that kind of played into it, but I thought, for me, that was a big project. I did it for $3,000. It was a little nerve-wracking, but they totally trusted me, and they trusted what I had to say. That was a big deal. Then, after it launched, having people at the school saying that she used to go to school here. And now she made this website. I took a lot of pride in that.”
The school used the site she built for about five years, before moving into one of the all-in-one solutions that so many schools are (unfortunately) using today.
“I kept raising my prices, because I thought, ‘I’m not going to work for cheap. I can’t. I have to pay bills.'”
These days, most of her clients are local to her area. Although she did spend some time finding clients on UpWork, simply because her local network of direct connections who needed her expertise was limited.
“Eventually, I got tired of doing work on UpWork. I kept raising my prices, because I thought, ‘I’m not going to work for cheap. I can’t. I have to pay bills.’ So I moved off of there. And when I did, around 80% of the people I was working with on UpWork followed me. Which, of course, you’re not supposed to do. But I just said to them, ‘I’m done on here.’”
Finding SolidWP As a Resource
As Erica’s memory informs her, she first came across SolidWP when she found the Solid Backups plugin. After finding Solid Backups, she quickly saw that she also needed the Solid Security plugin.
“For security, I had been using one of your competitors. And we were still hacked. Since I’ve been using Solid Security, that hasn’t happened.”
For managing her clients, Erica began using Solid Central.
“Today, I’m in there (Solid Central every day, doing routine updates for my maintenance clients. Those are the three tools that got me involved with SolidWP.”
“For security, I had been using one of your competitors. And we were still hacked. Since I’ve been using Solid Security, that hasn’t happened.”
WordPress Website Toolset: Favorite Plugins, Themes, and Services
Beyond the family of SolidWP products, which remain at the core of what she does today, Erica has continued to learn by watching as many Solid Academy webinars as she can. She refers to Nathan Ingram as a “fantastic instructor.”
For the last several years, she’s been working exclusively with the Astra theme. Although she’s quickly moving toward using Kadence Theme for new site builds and redesigns.
The must-have plugins she has in her stack include:
- Solid Backups
- Solid Security
- Advanced Custom Fields
- Admin Columns
- Beaver Builder and Beaver Themer
- Gravity Forms
- Restrict Content Pro
- The Events Calendar
- WooCommerce
She also manages her clients, proposals, contracts, and invoices in Bonsai. “I rely heavily on Google Workspace for email, and apps like Google Calendar and Google Tasks for productivity.”
How SolidWP Has Helped Change Business, Work, and Life
Erica puts a lot of weight into her relationship with SolidWP.
“SolidWP’ products and training have quite literally created the foundation for both my full-time work, and my freelance/small agency work…”
As she explains, “SolidWP’ products and training have quite literally created the foundation for both my full-time work, and my freelance/small agency work for clients. As a self-professed, introverted ‘geek,’ it has also helped me begin to develop friendships in the WordPress Community.”
It’s safe to say that virtually everything she does with WordPress today has roots that travel back to SolidWP.
Through Solid Academy webinars, developer courses, and a few years participating in Freelance Leap Year, she’s gained the knowledge and the confidence needed to stop taking on low-budget projects through freelance marketplaces. But rather, to focus on a small, but growing, set of clients that she loves.
Upcoming Goals
Within the next five years, Erica has a set plan that she hopes to follow.
“My goal in the short-term is to continue working with my current clients, while slowly but steadily adding new ones. I prefer to work with people long-term, to build trust between us, and remain their ‘go-to’ person for all their website needs. I’m also hoping to learn PHP, and improve my CSS skills.”
But right now, her two biggest obstacles to those goals are time and energy. Web design and maintenance have always been her side-gig, while working full-time elsewhere. In fact, she recently switched full-time careers from her family’s small business, to working for The Events Calendar.
This has allowed her to become more involved with WordPress day-to-day, outside of freelancing. She continues to work part-time for the family business, while being a mom to two school-aged children. And she really enjoys volunteering at their schools, which limits how much extra work she can take on.
But with her track record of success, she’s certain to find her perfect groove.
Learn more about Erica at EricaEide.com
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