Our February 2014 meetup topic was WordPress Business Workflow. Four people gave short presentations, then we had an open discussion.

If I missed anything, please leave a comment, and I’ll add to the post.

Work standards

Ryan Hinkle

• Work standards are important (version control, backups, SSH, etc.)
  • Taking shortcuts can hurt you
  • Work standards can save you
  • They make it easier to bring people on to your team
• Tools: Git, Vagrant, Bitbucket

How I started my WordPress business

Kurt Hanson

• How Kurt got into WordPress development.
• Found his first (low-paying) jobs on Elance, and some jobs led to good clients. Lately it’s been too difficult to compete with low-bidders (especially in low-wage countries). He thinks oDesk is even more low-wage. oDesk takes 9.5%.
• Before you start, be prepared to go hungry for 1-2 years. If possible, set funds aside before starting.
• Work with others with complementary skills. He’s been making local connections at The Factory.
• Bills hourly with 50% deposits (of estimated total).
• Tools: Photoshop, email, Google Calendar, Firefox, Dropbox, Camtasia, Vegas, QuickBooks.

Contracts and business hours

Chad Warner

Contracts/agreements

• Scope of Work
  • What’s included
  • What’s excluded
• Schedule and Completion Date
  • Targets
• Client Responsibilities
  • What they must provide you
  • What they must do
• Cost Estimates
  • Estimates, not fixed costs
• Payment Terms
  • How much?
  • When?
  • Method?
  • Penalties?
• Domain Registration, Hosting, Maintenance, SEO
  • Specify who controls these
• Technical Support
  • What will you offer?
• Legalese
  • Indemnification
  • Limitation of Liabilities
  • Copyrights and Trademarks
  • Attorney Fees

Business hours

• Protect your time; no one else will
• Set an autoreply with your work hours and emergency contact info

Discipline and time-tracking

Luke Rumley

• Be disciplined. Track time. That helps inform future estimates.
• Don’t allow scope creep. Something has to give: time, money, or scope.

Group Discussion

Pricing

• Topher had an hourly rate. He gave an estimate based on that, but told them that additional work would be hourly.
• Chad uses PayPal Payments Pro with Harvest: $0.50 per invoice (client must pay via PayPal; not credit card).
• Chad says you can probably pass credit card fees on to clients after changes that took effect Jan 26, 2013. Ask your lawyer. See Merchant Surcharging – Understanding Payment Card Changes, New Credit Card Swipe Fee Rules Are Good News For Shoppers,  You Could Soon Pay More for Using a Credit Card
• Ways of dealing with price objections: explain your value, let them walk away, get them to reduce the scope, make them prioritize features, offer several price options.
  • You won’t have 40 billable hours/week; you might get 20.

Accounting

• Topher says you get tax discounts for accepting foreign funds.
• Save for taxes (25-30%). Make estimated payments. Kurt uses Paychex.
• Get an accountant. Have them do taxes, advise on deductions, etc.
• Send 1099-MISCs to anyone to whom you pay over $600.

Legal

Recommended Lawyers: Haans Mulder, Todd Stuart, Mike Lichterman, Andrew Longcore.

Prospecting & Estimating

• Use a Discovery Phase to get to know each other and decide if you want to work together. Give a deliverable (report/plan). Charge a few hundred if you can.
• Red flags: prospects who want you to reduce your rates because they tell you their site will be a good portfolio piece, or who offer equity in their company, or who promise future work.

Project Management

• Time-tracking: Toggle, RescueTime, Harvest, spreadsheet.
• David Veldt uses Boomerang to schedule emails.

WordPress Maintenance

• WordPress updates: use a paid service like ManageWP. Use a free tool like WP Remote, InfiniteWP. Topher charges clients $10/mo for once a month updates (security updates are ASAP). Chad charges $30/mo and uses Advanced Automatic Updates for everything except e-commerce plugins. Here’s how to exclude plugins.
• Monitor sites with UptimeRobot, Pingdom