While anyone who is reading this blog is well aware that I myself am alive and well, some people might be wondering exactly what MWI is up to. After all, the MWI website is a bit stale, we haven’t posted new press releases since last year, and if you used to see me at networking events before then you may have noticed that I haven’t been in the business networking scene for over a year. All this stems from one thing–we’re busy. If you’d like a high-level view of what we’re busy with, read on.
1. More clients - We’re doing about twice as much work as we were six months ago. This year we’ve done work for Avalon Hills Eating Disorder Treatment Centers, Bank of American Fork, Briarwood International, CADD Edge, Castle Arch Real Estate, Chapman Innovations, db4objects, Extra Space Storage, GizMode, MyComfort, Neumont University, NICS, Poems Art Publishing, Redi2, Remote MDx, Server Technology, Sony, Sorenson Capital, SpeedyCEUs.com, Synergy Properties, USDTV, Utah’s Hogle Zoo, Wasatch Venture Fund, Waterford Institute, Workers Compensation Fund, Winder Farms, Workforce Solutions, and Yellowstone Holiday Resort, and I’m sure I’m missing a few there.
We’re now turning away clients, putting less effort into proposals, and charging more, and yet the stream keeps on coming. I’ll blame a good economy for it.
2. More services - We’re offering more services than we were a year ago. If you want the whole list start here and work through it all. The fastest growing segment of our business is related to search engine optimization and search engine marketing. A year ago we didn’t offer SEO as a service, now it’s about a fourth of our revenue and growing fast.
3. More employees - We’ve hired seven employees since December, all out of necessity. And we could use 2-3 more. It seems like everyone I hire keeps very busy, and yet it’s not enough. For example, I hire someone to do SEO and HTML, but then we get a lot of SEO work and they can’t do the HTML. So I hire an HTML guy, but he can’t handle all the HTML work so I’m using all his time plus contractors to do overflow work.
4. More blogs - I haven’t put much time into my skateboard blog lately, but it was taking some time earlier in the year. But now we’ve got The Organic SEO which has launched (although we’re still finishing up putting a skin on it), and we’ve got several other blogs in the works, some for business, some for fun.
5. More products - Anyone who has managed an agency knows the bane of agency work is that it’s mostly project based, unless you specialize in media buying or some service that provides recurring revenue (which is part of why we’re so interested in SEO). With a web development agency you get stuck in the rut of building a custom project once and selling it once, whereas companies that have products build them once and sell them 10,000 times, so their time can be dedicated to buliding a better product rather than a lot of products.
For the past few years MWI has been building content management systems for clients, and now we’re productizing that CMS so that we can set it up faster and therefore sell it for less or sell it for the same amount but make more money. And we’re looking at seling it as a subscription service rather than for a large, one-time fee as we have in the past. The system is going to be called Habitat and the website will be at www.habitatcms.com, although as you can see we’re still working on the content for it.
We’re also working on a web-based point of sale (POS) system for retailers that has yet to be named, a simple email marketing system, and we’re refining our event registration and email newsletter systems.
6. More plans - I know, I know, it sounds like we’re all over the place and can’t focus on anything. But 90% of the new things we’re doing are already making enough money to pay for themselves or are taking less than 10% of MWI’s total man hours. The idea is to work on all these ideas in our spare time, see what catches hold, and then put some focus on that. But at the same time we’re focused on getting the work done that we already have coming in so that we don’t end up in a spot of trouble. So far it’s working out quite well.
7. Oh, and I almost forgot, more office space. We’re supposed to be moving this weekend.
Sounds like lots of good news! When you have to start turning away clients and charging more, you know you’re doing something right. Keep up the great work and maybe when there’s time you can surprise us all with updates to MWI’s site.
Glad to hear it, Josh! You know your stuff, and frankly, you’re just a good guy.
Tipping point? I have always liked your work. The Organic SEO will be a read on my list.
Glad to see you’re enjoying more and more success! I’m a fan of a healthy web development market.
Good for you Josh…
Speaking of you being busy–I recently sat down with two very successful businessmen. They have both owned and operated their own businesses for 30 or 40 years and both are in the process of selling them. When discussing another acquaintance and company that was not doing very good work, one of them made the comment, “It is better to do a couple things really well than do a lot of things average or worse.” I first considered that for myself, then I remembered this blog topic. and thought it was good advice–especially with my current experience.