Welcome to Content Club

Dan Norris - Co-founder contentclub.co

The 7 Day Startup How to build a scalable WordPress business in 1 week

Dan Norris

• My story

• How to make good decisions

• How to choose a business idea

• The 5 most important elements for growth

• WordPress business ideas matrix

• Questions

Topics

• Everyone told me it was a good idea

• Took me 6 months to launch paid version

• 4,000 free signups

• Coverage in TNW / Mashable

• 12 months later $476 in MRR

Informly Timeline

• Business idea at uni - didn’t launch

• Agency couldn’t grow

• Startup - total failure

• SEEK

• Moving cities

WTF?

WTF?

WP Live Ninja

24 / 7 access to a live WordPress developer for $49

WP Live Ninja Timeline

• Saturday - Had the idea / registered the domain

• Sunday - Uploaded a $37 theme

• Monday - Filled in the content and set up apps

• Tuesday - Posted a special deal in a forum

• Wednesday - Emailed the list and asked them to sign

up

• Next Wednesday - $476 MRR

WP Curve now

• Me and Alex in the US• Total team size of 21 people• 500 customers• $37,000 in Monthly Revenue (mostly

recurring)• 35,000 monthly visits to our site• Featured on Fox TV, Forbes, Inc.com• $181.00 total spent on advertising• Presenting at WordCamp’s worldwide

WP Curve I had no time to think about

• Sexy ideas• My failure• Permission• Assumptions• The small stuff• Pricing strategy• The perfect payment gateway

“You don’t learn until you launch”

How decisions changed

• Experts said unlimited wouldn’t work - data said otherwise

• We thought agencies would be our market - they weren’t

• We thought everyone would use chat - they prefer email

• I thought we needed seamless Stripe integration - PayPal

was fine

• No big launch - a long ongoing growth curve

• No flashy site - a $37 WordPress theme was fine

• I thought WP Live Ninja was a cool name - it wasn’t

The 7 Day Startup Process

• Day 1 - Choose an idea

• Day 2 - Design your MVP

• Day 3 - Choose a business name

• Day 4 - Build your site and marketing funnel

• Day 5 - Set up a marketing plan

• Day 6 - Set targets

• Day 7 - Launch

9 elements of a great bootstrapped business idea

1. Enjoyable daily tasks

• Dealing with cheapskates

• Packing envelopes

• Going to the post office

• Getting trolled on oz

bargain

• Solving problems

• Building and managing a

team

• Creating content

• Building an audience

2. Product / founder fit

• Sales

• Business development

• Quoting

• Local team

• Creating content

• Building a remote team

• Going on podcasts

• Getting press

3. Scalable business model

• Expensive resources

• Low profit margin

• Clients with high

expectations

• Local focus

• Entire world as market

• 70 million sites

• Margin built into the

business

• Virtually infinite resources

4. Operates profitably without the founder

• Would have to hire 5 people

• I could never leave

• 50% profit margin

• I can replace myself at

about 750 customers and

still make a good living

5. Builds an asset you can sell

• Re-sold hosting

• No value being created

• Recurring audience

• Own IP

6. Large market potential

• Mostly local

• Some interstate

• 70 million wordpress sites

• Operates 24 / 7

• Worldwide team

7. Have a pain or pleasure differentiators

• Just another agency • Unlimited - invoice pain

• 24 / 7 - Responsiveness

anxiety

8. Unique lead generation advantage

• Better looking

• Better at sales

• Nicer office

• Better looking

• Better beard

9. Ability to launch quickly

Stop operating on assumptions

The 5 most important elements for growth

1. Profit margin

2. Large market

3. Asset building

4. Simple business model

5. Recurring or predictable revenue

Where to learn more

• wpcurve.com/7daystartup

• wpcurve.com/blog

• @thedannorris on Twitter

• dan@wpcurve.com

• Please approach me

Questions?

Welcome to Content Club

Dan Norris - Co-founder contentclub.co

Unlimited WordPress support & small jobs, 24/7 from $69 per month.

wpcurve.com