Interview with Marius Vetrici the guy who knows WordPress inside out

Today, in our interview session, we have Marius Vetrici from WPRiders. WPRiders is a reputable web development agency focusing on custom WordPress solutions, which have delivered more than 1100 projects during the last five years. They know A LOT about WordPress, plugins, and themes. That’s why we’ve listed them first in our Top 12 WordPress maintenance services and in Top WordPress development companies.

In a rush? Download his 5-steps framework to validate your business idea.

They’ve helped over 500 entrepreneurs launch and expand their online marketplaces, subscription, and membership websites.

1. Marius, tell us more about your company and the service you are offering.

We develop WordPress plugins, complex websites, and WordPress integration with third-party systems. Our main focus is on quickly building and launching WordPress-based web platforms.

[novashare_tweet tweet=”In as little as 60 days we will Prototype and launch a nice and shiny Minimum Viable Product via @monetizeinfo and @mariusvetrici” theme=”simple-alt” cta_text=”Tweet now” hide_hashtags=”true”]

In as little as 60 days, we will Prototype and launch a nice and shiny Minimum Viable Product. Our customers love this idea because they can quickly test a new business idea cost-effectively.

2. What marketing strategies have you used to grow?

I started as a WordPress freelancer on Codeable. Codeable is the best WordPress marketplace in the world, with more than 500 hand-picked WordPress experts. There wasn’t too much marketing for me initially because Codeable was doing all the job as a freelancer.

I was good at landing projects through the platform, so I started taking more and more projects and booking them in my calendar. I managed to have projects prepaid for about 1.5-2 months. And that was a game-changer because I said to myself – “Hey, you can do better than that!” So I hired my first two colleagues and founded WPRiders agency.

Later on, as an agency, we developed several other channels. The most notable ones are:

1. Partnerships with theme and plugin vendors started routing the customization requests that fell outside of their support capabilities. We have been working for years with themeisle.com.
2. Partnerships with hosting companies – again, one of our key partners is www.presslabs.com – I found we have some common values regarding serving customers: job well done, honesty, and proactive attitude.
3. Adwords campaigns – we have tried this for a couple of months, but unfortunately, the low quality of leads and the high cost of acquisition per lead have rendered this channel unprofitable for us.
4. Inbound marketing – we have started writing educational content to help online entrepreneurs launch web platforms.

3. How are you using inbound marketing to promote your agency?

I realized some so many entrepreneurs struggle to launch their online businesses. And there’s so much uncertainty and confusion in this process: they don’t know if their business idea will take off; they don’t know which technology to use or which software company or freelancer to work with. Should they take a technical partner or not? And so on.

For these entrepreneurs, we started to create educational content. We write inspirational stories which are semi-fictional but have their root in real web platforms and web projects that change people’s lives.

We create business content about how to start, run and manage your business. We have even created a 72-page comprehensive PDF guide with best practices for launching new online products and services. And we’ve structured our case studies by verticals, technology, and project type so that they can inspire those needing new business ideas.

Do you want to check some educational projects? Now it’s easy. Or maybe you want to see marketplaces, i.e., clones of Airbnb and Uber? Easy again. Or maybe you want to check some Gravity Forms-related projects. Here they are.

To publicize this content and help the audience find it, we are leveraging socialbee.io to actively promote our content to Social Media.

Last but not least, we started to use sendinblue.com to collect the emails of those who want to keep in touch and send them a monthly newsletter.

4. Can you share with us your biggest fail?

I spent $200,000 on a software project that never took off. We built inventory management software for small mom-and-pop shops. Working on outsourcing projects was hard money earned, so spending the money on delusional projects.

After trying several ways to make our product successful, I finally gave up, decided to sell our clients, and closed the company.

Financially, this was a huge loss. But from a learning perspective, this was worth a couple of MBAs 😀because I had the chance to learn first-hand what it takes to lead a product through 5 different versions, hundreds of customers, thousands of discussions, miles of specifications, and test cases.

[novashare_tweet tweet=”Financially, this was a huge loss. But from a learning perspective, this was worth a couple of #MBAs via @monetizeinfo and @mariusvetrici” theme=”simple-alt” cta_text=”Tweet now” hide_hashtags=”true”]

5. What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned in your business journey?

First and foremost, I’ve learned what Strategy is and, in my case, what is Product Strategy.

In straightforward words, Strategy is:

1. We want to play – i.e., which market, which segment, or which job to be done we are targeting.
2. How we will win there – i.e., how we will outsmart the competition; why customers should choose us; how we differentiate ourselves; why we are better. Unless you have a compelling reason to charge a profitable margin, neither your customers nor your competitors will allow you to do that.

I have also learned I need to build my marketing and sales team when I don’t really need them. If I build those when I need them, then it’s a bit too late. A business needs to balance both the ability to generate work on a repetitive basis and the capacity to handle the work that you generate. In other words, keep in balance sales and operations.

[novashare_tweet tweet=”I need to build my #marketing and sales team at a time when I don’t really need them via @monetizeinfo and @mariusvetrici” theme=”simple-alt” cta_text=”Tweet now” hide_hashtags=”true”]

The other important learning is that Success is a matter of exceeding expectations. I am successful every time I manage/set the expectations, and then I go beyond that level. My service could be the best globally, but I will be regarded and perceived as a failure if the expectations are even higher than that.

Last but not least, I’ve learned the importance of company culture. In WPRiders, my current agency business, I drafted our mission (our reason to exist) and values even before making the first hire. Then I ensured everyone I hired was in tune with our values.

6. You manage a dev team. Any tips for keeping everything organized?

The easiest way to manage people is to hire the right people, so you don’t have to micro-manage. Then to endow them with your trust. This is easier said than done, but it is crucial. If people have the right mindset and share the same values, you will naturally move in the same direction.

Next, I wrote down our working policies to ease the burden of repetitive work and ensure the same quality of service across all the projects. We have written policies for development, project management, sales, hiring, etc.

Once the tasks and projects accumulated, we needed to take control of our work. For this, we have used Asana for project management, Harvest for time tracking, and ForecastApp for workload management for the last five years.

7. What advice do you have for anyone that’s doing WordPress development and starting an agency?

You need to get many things right and in alignment to have a successful agency. But here’s my shortlist of the top things:

1. Write down your success declaration. Make a written commitment to yourself to be successful. This commitment will help you do the right thing at the right time despite difficulties, challenges, and road bumps.
2. Get a mentor, someone more experienced than yourself. How will this help you? It’s like you are driving with your driving lights on only, but then the mentor comes in and lights up the long-range lights. Of course, you will see “farther” and “better.”
3. Read books or listen to audiobooks to learn new things. Aim for at least one book per month.
4. Find ways to generate new leads in a controllable, repetitive manner. Own this process. Don’t rely on word of mouth only as this is pure luck. And one cannot plan for being lucky.
5. Ensure you have a backlog of paid projects for at least 2 months in advance.
6. Ensure you have a cash reserve covering 3 months of taxes and salaries.
7. Hire people in tune with your values. And, yes, write them down before hiring.
8. Think about your differentiators.

• Do you have deep knowledge about a vertical?
• Do you master a technology/process that only a few people/companies have?
• Do you have a close relationship, and they trust you?

Most of your strategy attributes will be copied by your competitors. But the more you look for and build differentiators, the longer you will stay in the market.

8. In your opinion, what’s going to be the next great feature in WordPress that developers should prepare for?

I foresee two things will happen:

• Web and mobile development will blend more and more. Developing web and mobile applications will use the same technologies.
• The next big leap in WordPress and web development will not come from inside; rather, it will come from other technologies like AI and Virtual AR or BigData.

[novashare_tweet tweet=””The next big leap in #WordPress will not come from inside; rather it will come from other technologies like #AI and #VirtualAR or #BigData.” via @monetizeinfo and @mariusvetrici” theme=”simple-alt” cta_text=”Tweet now” hide_hashtags=”true”]

9. Who have you looked to as inspiration throughout your career? Any books, blogs, movies you recommend?

10. What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

I play board games with my two sons and go hiking or cycling.

I also practice Vipassana/Goenka meditation.

11. Do you have any plans (personal or business) that you can share with us?

Yes, sure. I’ve recently attended the IMD Advanced Management Program in Switzerland, where I learned how to innovate as a process, not by accident, and how to develop new and disruptive business strategies that are sound and complete.

So, I am working with my team to develop new online products alongside our Agency business.

Conclusion

Thank you, Marius, for your time. I encourage all our readers to connect with Marius and learn as much as possible from him. He’s a brilliant, dedicated entrepreneur.

Download his 5-steps framework to validate your business idea.

Connect with Marius Vetrici:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mariusvetrici/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mariusvetrici

Twitter: twitter.com/mariusvetrici