My year in review: 2018

Reviewing my year has become a habit and one I’m glad I started. As I read my post from last year, I can see where I continued to grow and where I stumbled. Overall, 2018 was a great year for WebCami Site Design. After 16 years in business, I feel like I’m just getting started. I feel so fortunate to love what I do for a living. Here are my highlights for 2018:

I wrapped up two different online training courses that have helped me immensely in the day-to-day operations of my business:

• I completed the WP Elevation Blueprint course in the summer of 2017 but continued to participate in their online training through May of 2018. They also have a strong FB community that I have really enjoyed.
• I started and finished Jennifer Bourn’s Profitable Project Plan. This has been one of the best investments I’ve ever made in learning to run my business! Jennifer lives in Northern California near where I grew up and she has amazing skills as a teacher. I found her processes to be invaluable for taking a new client through the design process from start to finish.  It was like she had made a custom training just for me.  I’m sure I’m not the only one that felt that way.

I continued to grow my care plan business:

• I started offering add-ons to my care plan options.  I think I’m getting better at educating my clients about how important it is to maintain their WordPress websites.   I’m currently training in aspects of SEO and inbound marketing to grow these services more.
• It was a bad year for hacking, with nearly a dozen clients having their sites compromised. The clients that were in my care plan had their sites restored quickly.  It was an eye opener for both of us.

I became the first GoDaddy Web Pro Ambassador:

Team GoDaddy at WordCamp US.

This was such a highlight of my year and my career.  I attended WordCamp Seattle (as I normally do) but I worked in the sponsors’ area in the GoDaddy booth and talked to other attendees about how I use GoDaddy tools in my business.  I loved this gig!  I enjoyed meeting new people and telling old friends things they didn’t know about GoDaddy.  To top things off, the GoDaddy employees that I met were so welcoming that I felt like I had been working with them forever.

This lead to a surprise invite from GoDaddy to attend WordCamp US in Nashville.  This is the granddaddy of all WordCamps and I had never gone.  I still almost cry when I think about it because I am SO grateful I was given the opportunity!  I met so many designers, developers, and industry leaders.  I met people I have only known and admired online.  Again, the GoDaddy team was amazing.  I loved being a part of their community at both events.  GoDaddy did some amazing customer appreciation outreach at this event and it didn’t go unnoticed.

As I close the door on 2018,  one theme comes to mind for the future – customer appreciation.  As a customer:

• I appreciate the training I received from WP Elevation and Profitable Project plan.
• I appreciate the tools I have to offer a customer care plan to my clients.
• I appreciate the responsibilities and opportunities given to me from GoDaddy as their Web Pro Ambassador.

In 2019, I plan to pay this forward and spend the year focused on appreciating my own clients!  As a business owner, I plan to:

• Give my clients useful and regular blog posts to educate them about WordPress and their websites.
• Create a once a month newsletter that isn’t all about selling, but the news they can use.
• Communicate more frequently not only with new clients but also with ongoing clients with maintenance requests.
• Offer website wellness checks for both old and new clients… and give three a month away for free.
• Give my DIY clients more advice on how to keep their websites safe on their own.
• Offer more time for video conferences for clients.  We are about to have big traffic changes in Seattle and my local customers might not know about this option.
• Select one client each month for a surprise thank you!
• Continue online training in both client management and SEO to offer a better experience to all clients.

Finally, just one big thank you to each and every client I have ever had.  I have learned so much from all of you.  Thank you, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!