Can’t do this alone

It may sound like the name of a song.

Or it could be some new mom / new dad rant (*facepalm*) when they don’t know why their newborn is crying…

But no, it’s not that. Simply, I cannot do business development on my own. I need a partner – partners, actually. Also, I need someone who can hold me accountable.

I can’t do this alone because I am Business Bloomer, and I have no employees I can delegate work to, especially client work. I chose to stay small and that means I do everything, from WooCommerce development to looking after my own websites, from tax filing to marketing, from product creation to writing.

Adding business development to these tasks is almost impossible with a newborn, a house to renovate and move to, a few hours/day to get work done and my million dollar valuation to-do list.

So, I need some help. And today I’m going to reveal who I’m working with to get stuff done – faster and better.

Stuff I need help with

Before describing who I’m getting some help from and why, it’s important to explain where I require such help.

My revenue streams are:

  • (SERVICE) Client work: WooCommerce clients who find me via the businessbloomer.com WooCommerce blog and need help troubleshooting / customizing their stores
    • (SUBPRODUCT) Referral income: when I can’t take on WooCommerce work, I send clients to vetted freelancers and earn a referral commission
  • (PRODUCT) Online courses: free and premium WooCommerce lessons for designers, developers and DIY store owners
  • (PRODUCT) Affiliate income: useful WooCommerce content with the occasional affiliate link to a recommended, vetted plugin e.g. https://www.businessbloomer.com/woocommerce-horizontal-my-account-navigation-menu/
  • (PRODUCT) Private community: called the “Bloomer Armada“, where members get WooCommerce perks such as discounts, 1-to-1 access to me and other benefits such as guest posting
  • (PRODUCT) Newsletter sponsorship: starting from WooWeekly issue #357 I’ve started selling sponsorship slots, which are displayed into the email and also the website

On top of that, I also write WooCommerce blogs each week to keep up with regular readers and Google, publish a weekly newsletter, send tweets, reply to blog comments, spend some time on Stackoverflow / Quora / Facebook to help WooCommerce developers, and more.

How I can do all this alone in about 30 hours/week I'm not entirely sure, but my systems are pretty automated so my admin time is reduced to the bare minimum. Click To Tweet

Either way, I can’t increase my weekly hours by too much. So, I need help if I wish to develop my business.

Outsourcing

I need to move faster.

Therefore, I need help.

Things that takes me ages to get done are:

  • Writing posts: I post a WooCommerce tutorial once/week, but I need to increase my affiliate income, have more content for the newsletter and keep ranking high on Google. TL;DR: I need copywriters if I wish to scale content.
  • Recording lessons: putting together more online courses is one of the main objectives for Business Bloomer if I am to become the Netflix of WooCommerce tutorials. TL;DR: I need teachers if I wish to increase my offer.
  • Raising sponsorship: now that I sell sponsorship slots for WooWeekly, I definitely have no time to do direct sales to partners, contacts and leads. TL;DR: I need fundraisers if I wish to sell out each month.
  • Running my own affiliate program: now that my product offer is growing, I need to revamp Business Bloomer affiliate program. There is not even a link in the footer… TL;DR: if possible and feasible, I need affiliate program managers if I wish to do a great job with Business Bloomer ambassadors.
  • Building new products: my product offer is about to grow with new courses, a revamped Bloomer Armada membership, but also new products or productized services. TL;DR: if I am to code and market new revenue streams, I need business partners / co-founders.

Reminder: I also do client work on top of all this and I can’t just drop it (for now).

It’s evident that if I wish to move fast, in every directions, I can’t do it all by myself.

I risk of getting there in 10 years time if I were to do this alone, and it could be too late then. Click To Tweet

So, it’s official.

From today onwards, Business Bloomer is not == Rodolfo Melogli any longer. It’s for the better.

A series of copywriters, partners and helpers will make my dream possible in a shorter time.

First partnership signed

I’m moving fast. And people in the outside world are noticing it.

It all started with a brand new Bloomer Armada member publishing a guest post on Business Bloomer last February.

At the end of the guest post there was a contact form for a contest. The guest blogger received many sign-ups, and decided to purchase more posts.

Then, an email arrived in my inbox last August:

“Hey Rodolfo, would you be free for a call this week? I am wondering if there is a way for us to collaborate more extensively for mutual benefit“

And so, as of September 28, 2021, and for the duration of 6 months, David Mainayar of PeachPay and I are going to partner in order to scale and monetize WooWeekly.

This is an amazing opportunity for David to establish his expertise and grow his 1-click WooCommerce Checkout business, and for me to get incredible help with content, social exposure, newsletter sponsorship sales and more.

Needless to say, David is also responsible for helping me in the first stage of this business development phase with several proposals and a detailed plan without me even asking.

Wanna share the news?

And if you need some proof of what David’s capable of:

Question for David: where do you find the time?

Learning and connecting

I also need to keep up with learning and networking. Not many WordCamps right now, so I had to look elsewhere.

In a tweet last week I asked about Post Status benefits:

Post Status is the place for WordPress creators and professionals, as long as I see. If I am to need help, I need to hang out where helpers are. And Post Status is one of those places.

The only thing stopping me from subscribing right now is the Slack requirement; both for productivity reasons and past experiences with WordCamp Slack channels I really said I was never going back to Slack ever again.

Slack, or not Slack, that is the question…

Alright, subscribing now! Come say hi

I really hope to make the most of Post Status membership, and possibly find new partners, get business development tips and overall suggestions and feedback.

Looking for copywriters

It all started with a quick tweet:

I got in touch with those copywriters who DMed me, hired two of them for a paid ghost-written post trial, and finally chose one for a 4 ghost-written post agreement.

If I need to scale, I need this sort of help as well, especially for plugin recommendations and affiliate content.

I’ve already published 3 of them, and it’s clear that it’s not my “tone” or “voice”, but it doesn’t matter. Articles are well written and informative:

Besides, I should get money back and hopefully more than breaking even (RoI) once affiliate links start earning me some revenue.

Either way:

Hiring copywriters is a short- and long-term investment: you save time right now when you need to concentrate on other business tasks; you make money back or even a return once those posts start converting subscribers, customers and/or… Click To Tweet

I’ll keep an eye on stats and revenue and see if it’s viable to further scale content outsourcing.

Conclusion

It took me longer to publish this post as I was waiting to sign the Business Bloomer <> PeachPay partnership before announcing it.

I will try to get back to Fridays for posting my weekly update on business development here on this site.

So far, so good. I’m excited for the new partnership, happy with content outsourcing, I’ve also sent a partnership proposal that hasn’t been fully accepted yet, and delighted with WooWeekly sponsorship slots sales:

  • October / November / December STAGE slot is now sold out ($500 each)
  • October also sold 3 secondary slots
  • November also sold 3 secondary slots as well

In total, I made $1950 so far. And that’s a nice way to end a post.

Published
Categorized as Business

By Rodolfo Melogli

Author, WooCommerce expert and WordCamp speaker, Rodolfo has worked as an independent WooCommerce freelancer since 2011. His goal is to help entrepreneurs and developers overcome their WooCommerce nightmares. Rodolfo loves travelling, chasing tennis & soccer balls and, of course, wood fired oven pizza.

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