On this episode of the WP Elevation Podcast, we’re finally sitting down with Chris Lema. Chris is the chief technology officer and chief strategist at Crowd Favorite, in addition to being a well-known speaker at WordCamps across the globe.
Chris joins us to share his tips on prioritizing duties, how he encourages his employees to stay on board long-term, and why he thinks the WordPress community is so welcoming and accessible. Listen in for all of these insights and more on this episode of the WP Elevation Podcast!
For this week’s competition, you’ve got a chance to win an hour of consulting with Chris Lema! To enter, leave a comment and answer Chris’ question: What is the biggest pricing challenge you’re facing right now?
Update: Congratulations Amber! Chris has chosen you as the lucky winner! Thanks for your contribution and keep elevating!
Chris Lema spends his days helping businesses create operation plans for profit, growth, and excellence in customer service. This entails dedicating the majority of his time to working on spreadsheets and communicating with clients or team members.
Chris is also a well-known member within the WordPress community who is often found speaking at WordCamps and other WordPress events all over the globe.
As a child, Chris wanted to be an architect because he was in love with the idea of building things. He realized late in high school that this was not the path for him and instead decided to study social welfare. In this program, he learned how to build organizations, mobilize people, and enact policies.
After college he changed gears and began working at a government research lab. At the lab he learned how to build the first computer-based online learning management system.
This was back in the early days of the Internet when programming was so new, there was nowhere to learn it. Chris and his team learned by trial and error, spending many nights working on networks and coding.
Chris claims that he was a terrible student, but as soon as he immersed himself in the real world, he immediately became engaged in technology and business-related problem solving.
Join us on today’s show to hear Chris’ experiences managing a team, helping companies grow, and what it takes to differentiate yourself on this week’s WP Elevation!
Elevation Round
Q: What’s the #1 thing any freelancer needs to know?
A: Raise your rates.
Q: What’s the best thing you’ve done to find new customers?
A: Talk to people on the phone.
Q: How do you stop competing on price?
A: Change the narrative.
Q: Any tips for writing better proposals?
A: Write like a human.
Q: What’s your favorite CRM tool?
A: My email.
Q: What’s the best way to keep a project and a client on track?
A: Constant, consistent, regular communication.
Q: Any ideas for getting referrals from existing clients?
A: Ask them.
Q: What’s the #1 thing you can do to differentiate yourself?
A: Tell better stories.
You can reach out and thank Chris Lema on Twitter and on his web site.
Chris suggested I interview two guests: Tony Perez and Syed Balkhi. Tony and Syed, keep your eyes on your inbox.
Hint: to enter the competition, leave a comment below answering the question: what’s the biggest pricing challenge that you’re facing right now? Leave a comment below answering this question for a chance to win an hour of consulting with Chris Lema.
18 Responses
An amazing episode! Troy, you should have Chris on again—maybe once every fifty episodes or so!
What is the biggest pricing challenge I’m facing right now? I am thinking about changing to a three-tiered pricing structure (low-end/mid/high) in order to capture more opportunities. Is this a good idea? I would love to have only 10k clients, but since none are coming in, I need to generate some income.
And Chris—if I am lucky enough to win the hour of consulting—after I earn my first $400k, I will come down to San Diego and personally treat you to a gourmet dinner of your choice, with a Malibu & Diet Coke!
An amazing episode! Troy, you should have Chris on again—maybe once every fifty episodes or so!
What is the biggest pricing challenge I’m facing right now? I am thinking about changing to a three-tiered pricing structure (low-end/mid/high) in order to capture more opportunities. Is this a good idea? I would love to have only 10k clients, but since none are coming in, I need to generate some income.
And Chris—if I am lucky enough to win the hour of consulting—after I earn my first $400k, I will come down to San Diego and personally treat you to a gourmet dinner of your choice, with a Malibu & Diet Coke!
Excellent episode! I am in the discovery phase, trying to find my nitch to build a side hustle and eventually a full-time business with WordPress. My greatest pricing challenge now is finding clients who are willing to pay a fairly new consultant with a non-existent portfolio. My real passion is speed/security optimization, but I am not sure how to build that into a business. I would love the chance to have a coaching session with Chris to help me determine where to take this new venture! Thanks for the great interview. collinmbarrett.com
Excellent episode! I am in the discovery phase, trying to find my nitch to build a side hustle and eventually a full-time business with WordPress. My greatest pricing challenge now is finding clients who are willing to pay a fairly new consultant with a non-existent portfolio. My real passion is speed/security optimization, but I am not sure how to build that into a business. I would love the chance to have a coaching session with Chris to help me determine where to take this new venture! Thanks for the great interview. collinmbarrett.com
Let me tell you a story! When my kids were little and I was a stay at home mom, I started making cute notecards and eventually people wanted to buy them. Then someone asked me to design a logo. Then a brochure. Then a website. Then I started making more logos, brochures and websites … for a very low price. I gradually increased my rates and still got more new clients. Now I have a lot of clients and “keep an eye on” a lot of websites. As a solo-preneur, I find I don’t have time to maintain over 30 websites and create new websites for new clients – I work all the time! My biggest pricing challenge is how to make my time more profitable so I can balance my work and my life better. I would like to spend less time doing low-paying or non-billable work for existing clients/websites which keeps me from working on bigger projects.
Thanks Chris and Troy. I am a big fan of both of you “rock stars!”
Let me tell you a story! When my kids were little and I was a stay at home mom, I started making cute notecards and eventually people wanted to buy them. Then someone asked me to design a logo. Then a brochure. Then a website. Then I started making more logos, brochures and websites … for a very low price. I gradually increased my rates and still got more new clients. Now I have a lot of clients and “keep an eye on” a lot of websites. As a solo-preneur, I find I don’t have time to maintain over 30 websites and create new websites for new clients – I work all the time! My biggest pricing challenge is how to make my time more profitable so I can balance my work and my life better. I would like to spend less time doing low-paying or non-billable work for existing clients/websites which keeps me from working on bigger projects.
Thanks Chris and Troy. I am a big fan of both of you “rock stars!”
The biggest pricing challenge we are facing is an ongoing problem I think all development shops face while transitioning from freelance to “agency” level… how to effectively find enough potential clients with the budgets we are striving to attain, without abandoning the efforts that are currently bringing in clients. That said, I do believe we are facing the challenge by integrating the processes necessary for growth and putting them to use on current clients; continuing to accept clients at the current budget levels we want to outgrow, though more selectively; and expanding our outreach up the scale.
The biggest pricing challenge we are facing is an ongoing problem I think all development shops face while transitioning from freelance to “agency” level… how to effectively find enough potential clients with the budgets we are striving to attain, without abandoning the efforts that are currently bringing in clients. That said, I do believe we are facing the challenge by integrating the processes necessary for growth and putting them to use on current clients; continuing to accept clients at the current budget levels we want to outgrow, though more selectively; and expanding our outreach up the scale.
My biggest pricing challenge is how do I effectively price myself so that I can pay myself and dedicate enough money to marketing and bizdev. I launched as a solo entreprenuer a couple of months ago and have my bread and butter business creating custom websites but, recently launched a DIY website builder platform as well. Also toying with a subscription box service all powered on top of WP.
My biggest pricing challenge is how do I effectively price myself so that I can pay myself and dedicate enough money to marketing and bizdev. I launched as a solo entreprenuer a couple of months ago and have my bread and butter business creating custom websites but, recently launched a DIY website builder platform as well. Also toying with a subscription box service all powered on top of WP.
Thanks for a great episode, Troy and Chris!
Here’s our story: In 2010, I left my travel-heavy career in higher ed to become a stay-at-home mom, who was going to make money “somehow.” I was already blogging personally with WordPress and heavily modifying my themes and starting to play around with plugins, around that time friends started taking notice of my blog and asking me to set up their blogs. It only took two or three of those requests before I realized that the “somehow” of how I was going to make money was as a WordPress developer. The first few years I happily worked at it part-time. Then, last year, it seemed like the right time to take my business to the next level and things exploded. I went from being a one-person part-time freelance shop to a full-time business with two freelancers, and my husband also working part-time for my business. Now, we are in the process of preparing for a rebrand. Our goal is for the business to support both of us working at it full-time and to have a traveling agency that spends time on the road meeting new and existing clients, both as a value add and for marketing purposes.
As we move away from identifying as a freelance shop and toward being an agency, our biggest pricing challenge right now is identifying the appropriate way to price on value rather than time and expenses. At times it feels sort of arbitrary to me and even “unfair” to charge one client more for the exact same website as I would charge another, just because the product he sells is 5 times more expensive. How do I identify the value and how to price for it when writing proposals? Is the formula expenses+time+value (just added on the end) or is there another way to think about it? This becomes further challenging for us, because we already work with clients all across the US – our clients on the east coast are used to paying more than those in the south and midwest. As our new strategic plan will be focusing on expanding our reach even further, do we take local into account when bidding projects or is it irrelevant?
Thanks for a great episode, Troy and Chris!
Here’s our story: In 2010, I left my travel-heavy career in higher ed to become a stay-at-home mom, who was going to make money “somehow.” I was already blogging personally with WordPress and heavily modifying my themes and starting to play around with plugins, around that time friends started taking notice of my blog and asking me to set up their blogs. It only took two or three of those requests before I realized that the “somehow” of how I was going to make money was as a WordPress developer. The first few years I happily worked at it part-time. Then, last year, it seemed like the right time to take my business to the next level and things exploded. I went from being a one-person part-time freelance shop to a full-time business with two freelancers, and my husband also working part-time for my business. Now, we are in the process of preparing for a rebrand. Our goal is for the business to support both of us working at it full-time and to have a traveling agency that spends time on the road meeting new and existing clients, both as a value add and for marketing purposes.
As we move away from identifying as a freelance shop and toward being an agency, our biggest pricing challenge right now is identifying the appropriate way to price on value rather than time and expenses. At times it feels sort of arbitrary to me and even “unfair” to charge one client more for the exact same website as I would charge another, just because the product he sells is 5 times more expensive. How do I identify the value and how to price for it when writing proposals? Is the formula expenses+time+value (just added on the end) or is there another way to think about it? This becomes further challenging for us, because we already work with clients all across the US – our clients on the east coast are used to paying more than those in the south and midwest. As our new strategic plan will be focusing on expanding our reach even further, do we take local into account when bidding projects or is it irrelevant?
My biggest problem now is not so much the pricing, as I have taken advice and guidance from Troy in the WP Elevation program. But my biggest problem is finding clients at that price point. They seem to be few and far between.
My biggest problem now is not so much the pricing, as I have taken advice and guidance from Troy in the WP Elevation program. But my biggest problem is finding clients at that price point. They seem to be few and far between.
Amazing episode! Inspiring as ever, but you might’ve talked me into going to pressnomics!
I’m currently building on a kanban board WordPress plugin (plug: http://kanbanwp.com ), and plan to release it in a couple weeks. The challenge I face with pricing is whether to go with a free core + paid addons (what everyone else does in the WordPress ecosystem), a free core + paid pro version (easier to maintain), or some other model. I could also release it as a SaaS app (where I have the most experience) but then I’m competing with Trello. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Amazing episode! Inspiring as ever, but you might’ve talked me into going to pressnomics!
I’m currently building on a kanban board WordPress plugin (plug: http://kanbanwp.com ), and plan to release it in a couple weeks. The challenge I face with pricing is whether to go with a free core + paid addons (what everyone else does in the WordPress ecosystem), a free core + paid pro version (easier to maintain), or some other model. I could also release it as a SaaS app (where I have the most experience) but then I’m competing with Trello. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Hello Troy, Chis, and WP Elevation! I am completely blown away by this community. You all rock!
Troy: want to take a moment to personally send you a huge ‘Thank you!’. I recently came across your podcast, you are brilliant and continue to delivery tremendous value to the community. I have personally learned so much – in a very short time – from both episodes like this as well the $10k proposal template. Also, currently working on implementing Video User Manual into my service offering. I can’t wait to share a pint with you someday.
Chris: You have shared with all of HUGE BARS of GOLD on this episode. BOOM! Thank you for sharing with us what truly is transformational advice. I share your passion for serving others at the highest level and working to the bone to go from – one passionate digital ninja – to a small clan of digital ninjas. This transition has been far one of the most challenging faced throughout my career. I hope to have an opportunity to share my story with you either through this ridiculously awesome contest – or – heck in a few months, I will just schedule a call. Looking forward to continue learning from your blog. Cheers!
Ok, so now down to the lighting round… “what’s the biggest pricing challenge that you’re facing right now?”
At the moment, the BIGGEST pricing challenging I am having is knowing – as I scale my team how to properly bill for these hours. Do literally take my rate and apply it to my new team members billable hours? Should I offer a blended rate to my customers for time the put towards the project? I am about to bring my first full time team member (ninja); and not sure how to price out hours put forth projects as I bring on, develop/train new team members.
My other pricing challenges isn’t so much related to pricing of projects/hourly rates – but more the price of turning down a certain level of work. I have several large opportunities in front of me with a mixture of smaller – quick win/less strategic jobs available – I always want to serve everyone at the highest level but having a hard time differentiating which projects are the ‘right fit’. (Troy: I am working on implementing your customer score card which should alleviate this issue – just hard for me to say no)…
Ok, this is been great. Thank you all for your support. Best of luck to everyone out there dedicated to the hustle.
Cheers!
John
Hello Troy, Chis, and WP Elevation! I am completely blown away by this community. You all rock!
Troy: want to take a moment to personally send you a huge ‘Thank you!’. I recently came across your podcast, you are brilliant and continue to delivery tremendous value to the community. I have personally learned so much – in a very short time – from both episodes like this as well the $10k proposal template. Also, currently working on implementing Video User Manual into my service offering. I can’t wait to share a pint with you someday.
Chris: You have shared with all of HUGE BARS of GOLD on this episode. BOOM! Thank you for sharing with us what truly is transformational advice. I share your passion for serving others at the highest level and working to the bone to go from – one passionate digital ninja – to a small clan of digital ninjas. This transition has been far one of the most challenging faced throughout my career. I hope to have an opportunity to share my story with you either through this ridiculously awesome contest – or – heck in a few months, I will just schedule a call. Looking forward to continue learning from your blog. Cheers!
Ok, so now down to the lighting round… “what’s the biggest pricing challenge that you’re facing right now?”
At the moment, the BIGGEST pricing challenging I am having is knowing – as I scale my team how to properly bill for these hours. Do literally take my rate and apply it to my new team members billable hours? Should I offer a blended rate to my customers for time the put towards the project? I am about to bring my first full time team member (ninja); and not sure how to price out hours put forth projects as I bring on, develop/train new team members.
My other pricing challenges isn’t so much related to pricing of projects/hourly rates – but more the price of turning down a certain level of work. I have several large opportunities in front of me with a mixture of smaller – quick win/less strategic jobs available – I always want to serve everyone at the highest level but having a hard time differentiating which projects are the ‘right fit’. (Troy: I am working on implementing your customer score card which should alleviate this issue – just hard for me to say no)…
Ok, this is been great. Thank you all for your support. Best of luck to everyone out there dedicated to the hustle.
Cheers!
John