Thinking Small Business with WordPress

Regardless of whether you have a “real” small business or not (or even a medium or large-scale company), it can be incredibly helpful to keep a lean style of thinking when it comes to growing your organization’s bottom line. As you grow, there is always room for thinking more strategically and tactically about cost-saving and greater fiscal margins.

I learned this as an indie app developer and startup owner − every single moment of every single day counts, and every opportunity to build momentum and revenue must be an opportunity worth considering. If there’s potential to save money at the same time as making money, then even better.

So what does this have to do with WordPress? A lot, actually. I believe there’s something very intimate with those that decide on using WordPress (an open source and financially unencumbered product) to help them grow their business.

Let me tell you about two significant reasons why this really matters.

Cost Savings
The direct benefit of utilizing WordPress can be most easily understood as the free yet powerful alternative to the multitude of other content management systems (CMS) that are available. But this is only where it begins.

You see, by leveraging an open source and fiscally responsible platform, you are challenging your own opinion and perspective about how you determine “value” as it relates to your business, big or small. You are giving assent to the fact that just because something is “free” does not necessarily make it bad. In fact, at this time of writing, WordPress powers about 22% of the entire web; clearly, it’s working for a ton of people who run businesses of all shapes and sizes.

This opinion and perspective then permeate all that you do when it comes to your business and operations. WordPress is like the gateway drug to finding creative and cost-effective solutions to your organization’s needs. If you can use WordPress, which does a smashing job of creating content marketing, telling your story, and selling your services and/or product, why can’t you find other software solutions that are just as good and also just as fiscally tight?

The answer is that there are tons. Once you get hooked, it really is hard to go back. Open source technology (and philosophy) − and the entire ecosystem at large − has provided for my family and the organizations that I have run for many, many years. I am so very thankful.

Business Agility
Beyond the obvious cost-savings (and the resulting positive mindset of creatively looking for low-cost solutions), there is a level of business agility that comes with using a platform like WordPress.

For instance, there are a near-infinite number of WordPress themes and WordPress plugins that can take your business from zero-to-literal-hero in a matter of moments.

Need to change your static landing page into a dynamic content marketing machine? You can do that with WordPress. Need to add an eCommerce portion of your site without the hassle of managing difficult payment gateway systems? A WordPress plugin can solve that right quick. Need to add a gallery of work or a professional-grade portfolio section to entice your new eCommerce customers with reason to buy? Another plugin or even a WordPress theme may have that natively baked in − in other words, no need for you to install anything new.

This might sound like a dream, but this is firmly planted in reality. Why pay thousands of dollars when you can control your own business destiny with a few off-the-shelf solutions? WordPress can create that professional level of business agility that gives you the freedom to focus on what really matters: Your product, your services, and your customers.

I’d be remiss, though, if I didn’t also add a healthy caveat that getting help from a trusted WordPress professional, consultant, or even jumping on a managed support system can provide that piece of mind that’s necessary when making big decisions like these. There’s no need to go it alone and there are just as many people ready to help (sometimes at a decent cost) to attend your every WordPress need.

I have used WordPress as a fundamental part of my growth strategy for every single business that I have built to date, whether it became a full-scale startup and venture-funded company, like The Iron Yard, to small indie app projects like Desk App that needed nothing more than a blog to tell the story of its inception and growth.

That’s the flexibility, affordability, and agility that WordPress allows. Give it a try. You and your business will thank you for it.