What Do I Do Now? How Do I Deal with a Global Crisis?
During this uncertain time, you are probably in one of two places. Either your WordPress business is taking a downturn or an uptick. I’ve heard folks talking about both. But, regardless, everyone is struggling with “what do I do now?”
Even if your business is taking an uptick there is the question of whether you should reduce your prices, offer free services to your clients, continue marketing? If your business is the former category and you are losing projects or clients, not only are you worrying about how to continue to market but also how should you be spending the extra time you have? Creating content? Pivot? Niche down? Just give up?
For me personally, I have been completely frozen for the past several days not knowing where I should be spending my time. I saw a funny meme that describes my recent “daily schedule” in light of the virus.
- 8am – get dressed
- 9am-2am – stare at my phone
Reach Out to Mentors and Other Supportive Folks
Then, I called my brother who has been an entrepreneur for years, and told him it felt smarmy to me to continue marketing. I told him I was feeling like I should be helping businesses in my community but I didn’t know in what way. (I’ve stopped taking on new clients while I finish out The WP Project Manager’s Academy and my maintenance clients don’t really need anything right now). Many of my colleagues are doing things to help small businesses in their communities and maybe that’s what I should be doing too. His response?
“BETH, THAT IS STUPID!” (yes, he sort of yelled at me ) “You ARE helping people. You’re helping WordPress people improve their businesses and what better way to help your community! It is absolutely NOT selfish to continue marketing.”
Boy, did that phone call help! And you know what else helped validate this for me? An email and video on Monday morning from Digital Marketer.
SAY WHAT???
Yep. It was uncanny how Ryan Deiss knew exactly what I was thinking and worrying about and addressed it perfectly. I shared the body of his email in our Facebook group this morning – “3 Rules for Marketing During a Crisis – without looking like a tone-deaf jerk” (if you haven’t joined the FB group yet, just click on the link and request to join – don’t forget to answer the questions)
OR, you can watch the related video here.
The short answer – don’t stop marketing, just change your tone and GIVE more than you sell.
Working On Your WordPress Business
But what if you STILL have extra time on your hands and you don’t know what to do? My answer to that is always the same.
LEARN!
Maybe you want to pivot or niche down or create a WaaS product or improve your SEO skills. All those things on your “roundtoit” list – NOW might be the time to invest in those things. You know, all those things you were planning to do when you got “around to it.” At the very least, learning something new will take your mind off the situation at hand and give you something positive to focus on.
Below is a list of areas that WordPress providers and agencies are typically interested in when it comes to enhancing or adding to their skill sets. My best advice is to ask within your favorite Facebook group where other folks have gotten training that has brought real results in a specific area.
- SEO
- UX/UI Design
- Design skills
- CSS
- Web Server Management
- Time Management/Productivity
- Project Management
- Customer Service
- Content Marketing
- HTML
- Javascript
- Social Media Marketing
- Communication Skills
- SQL
- Pricing/Sales/Closing the Sale
Take Action Instead of Worrying
And if you’re still worried about where things are going and if this will put your digital agency or WordPress business out of business, consider these things:
- The virus situation has made the Internet (and in some cases Facebook) now a requirement for folks.
- We are in an industry where we can really help people.
- Even for those businesses that have traditionally been offline, the Internet is now relevant to every business.
- This will end at some point… so if you can make it 90 days, you’ll likely be OK.
- People actually DO survive recessions. Here’s a great podcast from my friend Lee Jackson on Surviving a Recession with some very practical and actionable things you can do.
Remember, if you’re interested in focusing on improving project management in your WordPress business, the FREE WP Project Manager’s Academy is open and The WordPress Project Management 101 Roadmap is on-demand and also free.
The links are below. This is a good first step to improving your processes and getting ready to hit the ground running when this crisis ends.
And it WILL end!
Above all else… Stay Productive! Stay Strong! And I will see you soon…
How to Learn More
Join the WP Project Manager’s Academy – a FREE membership program where you can learn everything you need to know to consistently get your projects completed on time, within budget, with features that meet the client’s business requirements.
