Owner or Renter? + One Page Business Plan

Well, I’m older now. 🤪 By birthday was last week. I turned 47. It was mostly a normal day, although I did give myself permission to work a little lighter that day. Plus, we went out to eat that evening.

Good thing is, even though I’m older, my son is right in that age where he’s starting to care what he looks like. So, with his bugging me, I purchased a “power cage” to put together a legit home gym here at the house. Maybe my son is going to make this old man get in better shape! 🤣

Or die trying. 😉

Anyway, let’s get to business here…

First, are you an owner or a renter? I make the case for one of the core reasons to use WordPress in the first place.

Then, let’s put on our executive hat and talk about what your business actually DOES. Let’s talk about your “critical client flow” and I lay out my own as an example.

OK, let’s do it…

Are You an Owner or a Renter?

If you’re here, I’m guessing you are using WordPress. But, the lure of shinier objects is always there.

When it comes to website platforms, you have the WordPress alternatives such as Squarespace, Wix, Webflow and others.

When it comes to ecommerce, you’ve got Shopify. And even in WordPress world, you’ve got SureCart that tacks onto WordPress and looks like it is part of the site even though it is technically hosted elsewhere.

Lately, I’ve had clients look into using ScoreApp for online quizzes.

I’ve had clients look into using apps like Skool for online community.

And, I get it. Sometimes, these externally hosted platforms seem simpler. Nice features. And the idea is that there’s a team there to just make it work. Not only that, let’s be real… sometimes WordPress isn’t the best tool for the job. It isn’t as if it was built from the ground up to perform every possible task.

The lure of shinier objects is always there.

So, why WordPress? Why does it power like 43% of all websites?

The answer comes down to 2 words: OWNERSHIP and CONTROL.

With a WordPress site, you have a platform which you fully own. It is your’s. You can move it anywhere you want and build it however you want. You’re in full control and you own all the data.

Does a Skool community have great features and maybe even work better than something on WordPress? Yeah. But, you don’t own it.

Does your online course sitting on Teachable work pretty well? Sure it does. But, you don’t own that platform.

Does Shopify have advantages over something like WooCommerce? Sure, in some settings. But, you sure as hell don’t own it.

The way I look at it is this…

Do you want to be an owner or a renter?

Everything these days seems to be pulling people into the world of renting everything. Our data is scattered all over a bunch of web apps sprinkled around the internet. We pay rent to services all around the internet. Many times, you don’t even pay rent, but you just use “free” web applications…. which are only free because they’re mining the ever loving hell out of your data.

And then from a technical perspective, this means we have to “integrate” all these separate apps. Companies like Zapier exist for this reason. And lots of time gets wasted trying to figure out how to somehow integrate all these apps spread out all over the place that you’re renting. You don’t own any of it… but you spend a lot of time trying to hobble together a website that works by chaining all these separate apps together.

Or…

You just build a platform you own. A online business platform you own. And you do it on WordPress.

I find that the strongest draw to rented platforms I see is some people looking for something easier. Or they like the user interface. Or it was recommended to them by somebody else who doesn’t have the ownership mentality but is only thinking about tools they’re familiar with.

But, I think it is best to lean in to the ownership mentality. To make your default position to be an owner and not a renter.

This is why I have built my platform on WordPress. I am an owner, not a renter.

And even in the fast growing world of AI, where so many people will be using AI to build and manage websites, I think it will be even MORE important to have an ownership mentality with your website and it’s data. And no worries… WordPress will adapt and become quite usable with AI. Of that I have no doubt.

So, are you an owner? Or a renter?

This Week In Concierge

Concierge service includes certain core services that are always just there…. things like updates, hosting, daily backups, access to the premium licensing of the Concierge Toolkit, and more.

But, I’m also the “web guy” for all of my clients. And that means I am often dealing with some of the complexities and mysteries of running an active website. My clients come to me rather than spin their wheels trying to figure out everything themselves.

Here’s a taste of some of the things I was doing just last week…

• Re-designing the Learndash course interface to make the courses nice and pretty, including code customization to give the course pages a look that Learndash can’t do “out of the box”
• Debugging why a client’s popup wasn’t appearing like it was supposed to
• Debugging the ability for an external service to communicate with a client’s WordPress site via the REST API
• Built a custom contact form (per specs) and integrated it right into the WooCommerce dashboard of a client’s site
• Debugging plugins, like why Elementor failed to load, or why CartFlows checkout pages were losing their layout.
• Helping a client figure out why some weird thing was showing up on their website and they couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.

Funny thing is, as I review my activity from last week to make that list above, that only gets me through Tuesday. It keeps on going. 🤪

I do a lot of big project work for my clients when needed. Full rebuilds, setting up funnels, integrations, etc. But, I also handle a lot of those weird tech gremlins that just come up. I explain the unexplained. I record a ton of videos every week to show my clients how to do things on their websites. I fix annoyances.

And that’s why it is called Concierge. 😎

WordPress Quick Bits

Less Is More?. While Google is using AI summaries more and more, that has resulted in less click-throughs fo the actual websites. After all, a lot of people just use the AI summary and stop there. But, Google claims those clicks that DO some though are “quality clicks“. They say: “When they get to a decision to click out, it’s a more highly qualified click… What we hope to see over time—and we don’t have any data to share on this—is more time spent on site, which is what we see organically in a much more highly qualified visitor for the website.” Interesting.

How To Vibe Code. If you’re not famliar with that phrase “vibe code”, it basically means using AI to program things. It is called vibe coding because you don’t need to know the little intracacies of the programming language because AI deals with it. You can just make things with…. a vibe. 😎 Anyway, Zapier has a great article on how to vibe code. If you want a primer on it and some tips on how to do it better, it is a great read.

FlyingPress 5. FlyingPress (the caching and performance plugin) has been updated to version 5. The key to this release is more automated “done for you” performance powered by a cloud optimization engine. I won’t get into the nerd weeds on it here, but they’ve got a great writeup of all the new features here.

Kadence Updates. All of the Kadence plugins and theme have gotten updates. Blocks Pro 2.7.6 adds support for dynamic video background URLs on rows, which could be handy in some situations. They’ve also been putting work into their documentation, with more form integrations, a writeup on creating product templates in WooCommerce.

SEOPress 8.8. SEOPress continues to get better with version 8.8. This version now supports an import of Rankmath global settings when switching plugins, improvements to the user interface, enhancements to the SEOPress REST API (like access to Google Page Speed data), and more. Check out the release notes here.

FluentCommunity – Course Quizzes. I got word that a new update to FluentCommunity is coming out this week that introduces the ability to put quizzes into your online courses. It is cool to see FluentCommunity moving so quickly. Instead of a beefy BuddyBoss/Learndash site, you can now just roll with FluentCommunity and do it all with no bloat.

Automattic Back In the WordPress Biz. You may remember a few months ago how Automattic announced they were going to be scaling back on WordPress version releases in order to match more with WP Engine. Frankly, at the time, it felt like a stupid Matt hissy fit and it probably was. So, smartly, Automattic has come out and said they’re going to restart active core development. Good to see.

WordPress AI Team. WordPress has a new AI team, it was announced by executive directory Mary Hubbard. This is a good move in order to ensure WordPress is future-proof in a world of AI. We need WordPress to be a powerful component in an AI world rather than an isolated island.

WordPress Costs Less. While core WordPress is obviously free, it is definitely not free to run a WordPress site. But, it is cheaper. In fact, WP Engine put out a report showing that WordPress sites cost up to 44% less to run than other proprietary platforms.

Fluent Forms 6.0.4. Fluent Forms got a new release last week, with 6.0.4 now supporting front-end entry view. Basically, this enables you to show the form submission on the front-end to the end user without needing to be logged-in. Additionally, there’s been improvements to the ChatGPT integration, tweaks to the built-in honeypot, and more.

DB Version Control. Robert DeVore has introduced another plugin called DB Version Control. This one enables the export of your content to clean, readable JSON files that can be much better for version control. Check it out.

One Page Business Plan?

For a lot of solopreneurs, it is super easy to lose sight of exactly how our businesses work. We just do the day-to-day and we “work” and somehow it comes together. But sometimes, it feels rather chaotic and hard to grow.

But, then we hear about “systems” and we know that putting together proper systems in our businesses is the key to growth.

I am reading a book right now called Systemology, by David Jenyns. And in it, he spells out a roadmap he calls the Critical Client Flow, or CCF.

This CCF fits on one page. It basically is a one page business plan.

I’ve studied this basic process in other settings, too. It is the idea of boiling your business down to a system – a series of steps that your typical customer or client goes through – to go from new arrival to the point of a completed service. And then based on this broad level overview, you systematize the business around it.

And ALL of us, no matter the business, have this same basic critical client flow structure. It is just a matter of whether you’ve bothered to ever look and identify it.

In this book, the basic overview of the flow is this:

• Attention. How you get people’s attention.
• Enquiry. Getting people to reach out and contact your business.
• Sales. Converting them into a customer and getting them to buy.
• Money. Accounting.
• Onboarding. Getting things set up to deliver.
• Delivery. Delivery of your core product/service.
• Repeat. Setting up repeat business, referrals, etc.

It starts by identifying one primary customer type and then identifying your core product or service. Even if you may serve different kinds of customers, just pick one primary type for now and one core product or service.

Then, for each stage of the critical client flow, you specify the core process(es) of each. You don’t need to spell out everything. You want to keep it simple. Concentrate on the most important processes and don’t get into the weeds.

So, let’s take my own business and do up a quick critical content flow.

My typical client is a membership site solopreneur using WordPress. And my core product is, of course, Concierge. Again, I have other kinds of clients, too, but I’m focusing on my most common target customer.

• Attention. For me, it is Youtube, this newsletter, referrals, and the blog. Those are the key drivers of attention to the business.
• Enquiry. In most cases, it is the Roadmap calls. That is usually the first point of contact before people enroll in Concierge.
• Sales. People enroll right on the website.
• Money. It is processed by WooCommerce and they enter the system automatically.
• Onboading. New Concierge clients fill out an onboarding form, then it goes to me for a proper site onboarding.
• Delivery. Core services and, of course, project work and misc tasks managed inside of Basecamp.
• Repeat. By nature, Concierge is a recurring program. There’s also the process of success stories and referrals.

In essence, that is my business. That’s the flow. That’s the system.

By going through it, it provides clarity on what to most focus on. Other things come up in my business, of course. But, this critical client flow is the core of things and where most work should go into systemization.

Also, spelling it out helps spot constraints on the system. For instance, I know I have a constraint on the system between enquiry and sales…. because I talk to people and they’re ready to roll, but I tell them to just go to the site like everybody else and sign up. I could remove that constraint by having a process to sign them up right on the site as I’m speaking to them.

Anyway, I would highly encourage YOU to identify your own critical client flow. Spell it out and write it down. Once you have it, then it provides a lot of clarity on what to focus on in your business.

And then, when it comes to your website and how it is put together, we can build it specifically to help streamline and automate some of those core processes.