The value in being so much more than just a “web designer”

ezsmith397 on April 17, 2025

To be honest, at this point in my career, I actually take a little offense when someone refers to me as just a “web designer” or “web developer”.

The real value in going down these career paths is growing to be much more of a higher-level strategist – really more of a business & digital consultant.

Often a client will come to you to “help build a website”… and once you start talking you’ll uncover other areas that might tie into the website (or might not), that need to be worked through first.

Real example here for you: I just met with a local client in my office this morning.

This guy is a serial entrepreneur and has numerous businesses himself and with his family in the area. Lots of cool stuff that’s mainly offline.

While the conversation was framed to talk about the simple 1 or 2 page site we’re building, it quickly shifted focus into other, more important areas too.

Things like: payment processing – how will customers purchase online? (That one is easy). 

How will customers purchase offline – what are the POS options, what about physical card processing? How can manage check payments for in-person and out-of-state orders?

How should we design & manage leave behinds for our sales team? Is social media marketing & content creation worth doing for this business?

These are not “website” topics. These are business topics and decisions. But ones that you probably know pretty well if you’ve been in the “web design” space for any number of years.

One of the coolest parts of being in this space, is the different types of businesses & operators you’ll meet. The knowledge and experience gained over even just a few years really starts to stack up and compound.

THIS is what makes you so dang valuable to your clients.

It’s not just about knowing a framework, or being great at WordPress or Webflow, or knowing how to get 100 on PageSpeed Insights. These things are all great… but they’re niched down so much into just the creative or technical aspects of the craft.

In my experience, overtime the expertise can and SHOULD shift into being able to point out blind spots in other ares too, and provide solutions and feedback to help these people hit their actual BUSINESS GOALS.

This is how you start off by being called on to “build a website”, and instead end up being a continuous trusted partner for your clients for so much more.

A Builder’s Journal entry – Feb 22, 2024

ezsmith397 on February 22, 2024

Trying to grow a custom WP development shop solo is brutal.

I’m running on fumes here tonight after starting my day at 2am.

The seemingly obvious solution for being this loaded down with work would be to just hire… but that’s not so easy.

Hiring is tough and expensive as hell, and quickly burns cash (from my numerous attempts).

I’m being reminded again hardcore this week just how difficult the business model truly is. It’s easy to sell services and get some revenue growing, but it starts to crack pretty quickly.

There’s this weird balancing act of needing to have more revenue to grow, but there’s a lag between the revenue going high enough past my own personal needs to have enough to hire the PROPER talent.

Hiring cheap freelancers doesn’t solve anything (I’ve tried numerous global sources).

Finding people to be “in the trenches” with me is what it really needs… but that’s tough to find quickly and costs a lot.

Overall I’m still super grateful for the business and my clients, but definitely seeing that I should have done this hard push 10 years ago when I didn’t have a wife and young kids (and still had a lot more natural energy and excitement to push through the grind).

All of this means that I’ve decided to hold off on even finishing the website or properly “launching” ConfidentWP for now. I’ve got to figure out a way to manage the current workload a bit better over the next few weeks and then I’ll revisit.

P.S. It’s funny because my overall goal was to build this model to be my “day job” sorta gig, to still have some slivers of time outside of it to build my other digital ideas (job boards, directories, etc.)

But I can see now that without some MAJOR changes, I won’t have time to do anything other than collect domain names this year.

2024, the year I launch projects of my own that break-free from just client-service business models

ezsmith397 on February 8, 2024

I’m in a phase where I’m really enjoying my agency/consulting businesses.

It’s great cash flow, and I get to work with some awesome partners.

But with that said, I’m really eager and excited to launch some new projects this year that break free of the standard client-service model that I’ve always leaned on throughout my career. I’ve been dreaming for years of making money from a THING that I own vs. always just delivering more and more services.

I’ll be very transparent and say that you can earn a GREAT living with agency-type work, but it also takes a lot to make a lot. It’s very hard to ever get leverage or multiples of your efforts.

Even with hiring, building a team, or outsourcing… In my experience it’s hard to truly multiply things in a profitable and somewhat predictable way.

Since joining Twitter in 2022 I’ve learned a ton from some awesome people who have built amazing businesses using many of the same skills that I possess — WITHOUT just selling services.

These ideas keep me up at night, and constantly race through my mind.

2024 is the year I finally get a taste of these other business models.

How I build long-term partnerships vs. maximizing profit

ezsmith397 on September 26, 2023

Do great work.
Communicate often.
Deliver high value, for fair rates.
Repeat.
 
I look at clients as partners here at 397… It might sound cliche. But it’s true.
 
I’m not aiming to squeeze every ounce of profit from every project.
 
Instead, I’m aiming to be fair and let everyone make enough to WIN together.
 
I’m sure I could have made MORE money, faster on certain projects and with certain clients.
 
Hell, I CONTINUALLY have people in the industry and people here even tell me that we’re charging too little, and won’t be able to grow, etc.
 
There is some truth to pricing and refining service delivery enough to be able to scale, I won’t deny that.
 
BUT, by operating the way I’ve always operated I have clients and PARTNERS that have worked with me for many, many years.
 
I’d rather KEEP doing great work, for long-term partners rather than be constantly chasing down new leads to try and squeeze every drop of profit from.

Building long-term partnerships for WordPress development services

ezsmith397 on September 19, 2023

I’m not a fan of one-and-done project work.
 
With our clients here at 397digital I’ve focused for YEARS on building long-term relationships instead of trying to maximize profit on every single project.
 
Often when I talk to some people about our business model (like other devs or entrepreneurs) they get confused or suggest doing things differently than what we’re doing currently.
 
While our exact pricing model and structure have evolved a few times, the general concept has remained solid for the past 5 to 6 years:
 
Do great work, at fair prices, to build long-term partnerships with everyone that we work with.
 
We’re not aiming to do massive projects and then disappear.
 
By building what started as just my own consulting career (and now the business like this), we have clients who learn to lean on us for the long haul.
 
This has led to us keeping clients around for many years.
 
We’re currently building WordPress sites and performing support and maintenance requests for 3 accounts that go back to 2018, before we were even officially operating at a company like we are now.

You have to do things before you’re ever really “ready”

ezsmith397 on September 11, 2023

You have to do things before you’re ever really “ready”.

Tonight I coached my first soccer practice.

I have absolutely ZERO experience, knowledge, or background with soccer personally.

My daughter played last season and enjoyed it, and this season the recreational director was pressed for coaches…

So I signed up to be an assistant coach.

I figured I could learn the game a bit, help out, and be able to help in whatever ways I could.

Well, it came down to the wire the other week with no one stepping up to be the main coach, and the season would have to be delayed.

So I threw my hat in the ring and signed up to be THE coach.

(With no assistant coach officially… although my wife has been AWESOME so far at helping with the communications and planning with the parents and director)

I felt pushed to do it, even though I’m beyond busy right now, and have no idea what I’m really doing.

Tonight’s practice was fun, but it was rough.

I was nervous, trying to corral and coach a group of 6 year old girls to teach them how to play a game I have no idea how to play.

I had to ask my wife on the sidelines for quite a bit of help (she played when she was young).

I had to ask some of the parent’s who seemed to know the game what to do in various situations.

All in all though, we got through it.

We had fun.

I was not at all ready, but I did it anyway.

That’s how life works MOST of the time.

You have a call to do something, and you likely just flat out will NOT be ready.

But you answer it anyway.

You take the plunge, and you figure it out.

Now I know I’ll probably be the worst coach this year when it comes to truly teaching the game and the finer points of the sport.

I’ve let the parents know this.

But I’m going to do my damn best and enjoy the process.

Tons of moments in life are just like this, especially in business.

Opportunities are going to come up that you aren’t “ready” for…

But you’re gonna need to take them (while being honest about your readiness), and figure it out.

Invest in your toolkit

ezsmith397 on September 6, 2023

Invest in your toolkit.
 
I spend thousands every year on premium WordPress plugins including:
 
Gravity Forms
Elementor Pro
KadenceWP
Bricks Builders
ACF Pro
SEOPress Pro
Perfmatters
WP Rocket
and many more
 
These have all been chosen after many years of building and testing.
 
But now? My toolkit is WELL stocked and ready to go for nearly any project that comes my way.
 
Having these tools handy and ready to go allows me to get projects done quickly and provide excellent services to our clients.
 
The value we receive is FAR above the cost of the investment in the yearly licenses and renewals.

The more reps you put in, the luckier you’ll get

ezsmith397 on September 6, 2023

The more reps you put in, the luckier you’ll get.
It’s funny how that works.
When I was 18 I didn’t want to accept this.
When I was 25 I understood it more, but was still stubborn to the full reality of it.
At 34 I fully accept it.

Enjoying the process

ezsmith397 on September 6, 2023

Major hack to “making it”? Enjoying the process.
Sounds so cliche, I get it.
But I genuinely enjoy the hell out of building this business.

Understanding the type of “doer” you are

ezsmith397 on September 1, 2023

Understanding the type of “doer” you are is important to how you build your career.
 
For me? I’m the sorta guy who just gets stuff done.
 
Not a big fan of insane meetings, and crazy planning that drags out endlessly.
 
I’ve always been more scrappy, more resourceful.
 
This meant that the traditional Corporate route was not a good fit for me.
 
I realized this early on, and built my career and life based on this.
 
This meant building my own businesses, working as a consultant with small teams, and doing things that allowed me to lean into my natural self.
 
I think having this self-awareness is key.