Profitable Projects – My Interview with Brent Weaver of Ugurus WPCP: 144

This episode is sponsored by my awesome web host, LiquidWeb I think at some point many web developers are posed with the question of growing their business into an agency or staying on the solo path (even if you have a team, you may choose to stay small). I waffled with this for a long time. You guys have heard me say over and over again that it had never been my intention to build websites. I fell in love with WordPress, started playing around with it and the next thing I knew I was bartering a website in exchange to having some tile done in my house. At the time, it was a win-win. Looking back sometimes I wonder if it was choosing the wrong fork in the road, but I guess that's how we learn, right? Fast forward to a few years after that first project and I had hired a developer and a designer. The only problem with doing this was that I never really learned to properly price my projects. A couple years after having hired the developer and designer I had a project manager and an outsourcing company (other WordPress site builders, like myself, were using my developers and designers). At the time it seemed like a smart decision. It was great cash flow and didn't require much on my end. It did, however, give me a much higher overhead than I ever wanted and all of the sudden I felt trapped.   The good news is if you really love what you're doing and have a passion for building websites, you can learn how to scale your business into an agency with larger projects that are much more profitable than the freelancing only route. That's what Brent Weaver of Ugurus learned. Brent got into website building at a young age, continued doing so with a good friend (still his business partner), learned a lot of the mistakes we all make along the way, then figured out how to scale his business the right way. Questions I Asked Brent Before we get into Ugurus, what were you doing before you launched the company? What brought you to creating Ugurus? (Why did you start the company?) When you launched Ugurus, was the Bootcamp your first product? What are some of the things that get in the way of people creating an agency (moving from freelancer or solo entrepreneur to agency owner) When I was looking at the 10 weeks of the bootcamp, one of the things that stood out to me was in week 4, the anatomy of the $10k project: Discover why you need to transition how you present yourself. I noticed a huge difference once I scaled my team and it wasn't just me. Any tips you can share without giving away your course? Are there common characteristics you find that make someone a good agency owner (vs. staying a freelancer)? When should someone consider expanding their team? When's the next Bootcamp? What You're Going to Learn What Brent was doing in Australia for 6 months and how he realized cubicle life wasn't for him How he and his partner almost ran their business into the ground When it's good to have office space (what are the 'right reasons') How investing in mentoring and coaches shifted the business (and created a business they could sell after 12 years) When Brent realized there was something to the teaching and training he was doing (hint: he was creating content) What the first Ugurus course was How they've built their team of coaches What courses Ugurus offers Like Brent mentioned in the episode, you can get access to their Web Design Sales kit! Just click the button below to get free access! Where to Connect with Brent Website | Twitter | Facebook