Nirmal Gyanwali of WP Creative, Co-founder and Director of WP Creative tells us how the WordPress agency does its marketing and hiring.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded WP Creative.
Nirmal Gyanwali: I discovered my passion for the web industry when I was 18. That’s when I started building websites for businesses. Then I spent more than a decade working for digital agencies helping small to medium-sized businesses from a junior role to CTO. I realized I could provide better value to businesses and genuinely help them achieve their online goals, so I founded my own boutique agency in 2015 – hence WP Creative was born.
There are numerous developers and agencies in the online space. Unfortunately, web developers often allure businesses on budgets by offering attractive low prices, many of which leave their clients with half-completed projects due to inexperience and poor project management. And most of the developers get excited about building a new project and want to move on to another project.
We wanted to fill the gap and provide reliable support to businesses, so they get peace of mind and focus on growing their business. Now, we work as a website partner for businesses and provide them with priority support to build, optimize and maintain their website so they can get the most out of their website. We take over clients’ existing website even though it has been poorly built, as they have no options to get reliable support. Most of the time, we do the dirty work that many agencies and freelancers can’t do and don’t want to do it.
Do you have small habits that made a meaningful impact on your life and business?
Nirmal Gyanwali: One of my personal core values and is also our company’s core value – Continuous Improvement. We never stop learning and try to improve everything we do every day, even though that’s just a tiny change. That has been a big game-changer in my life and the business. Eventually, you will start seeing the compounding effect in pretty much everything you do.
How does WP Creative market its product/services online?
Nirmal Gyanwali: We have been growing our business organically since its inception. And it’s been working well for us. We mostly get customers from inbound channels and word of mouth. We are a values-based company, and our mantra is “We care.” We care about everything we do. That sets us apart- both in terms of who we are and what we deliver for our clients. So, more than 90% of our clients have been staying with us for a long term.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to manage your online marketing?
Nirmal Gyanwali: We have been primarily writing content on our website blog to educate our audiences, and that has been driving good traffic. I am also active on LinkedIn and post some content from time to time. For the sales pipeline management, we have been using Pipedrive CRM. There is no special ingredient we have been using to market ourselves – it’s just positioning ourselves into the right market and trying to do the best in one area.
What is your hiring policy/process, and how do you retain your employees?
Nirmal Gyanwali: Though we are still a small team (just 25+) right now and growing organically, building a great team and helping them to realize their potential has been my primary focus and passion. It again goes back to our values and mantra, “We care.” We really care about each other and want to help each other succeed. It’s simple as that.
Setting clear priorities to achieve a common goal and setting the right communication cadence with the team to discuss the issues have been working well for us.
How are you funding your growth?
Nirmal Gyanwali: We bootstrapped our business from the beginning and have been profitable since day one. Though the growth requires many experiments and can burn the cash quickly without even knowing it, we have been very mindful of our growth and the vision. Based on my experience so far, setting the right priorities is the most important thing. Many companies focus on the wrong things and burn the cash quickly. And we have been there many times as well. If you are starting with WHY and setting the right priorities, the growth can drive the results for the short-term and long-term. And it has to be sustainable growth. I read somewhere long ago that business should grow like a tree. We have been following that mantra since then.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Nirmal Gyanwali: Web development is a very competitive space like many other industries. However, the competition is good for the market. There is a high demand, and hence there is competition. However, many businesses in our industry are focused on serving all and every customer and offering all digital services. We have been focusing on one thing that is WordPress Development, and trying to do our best and position ourselves as a leader in the industry. And it’s not just about What we do, and it’s How we do it and Why we do it – that’s more important. “We care” has been our mantra, and our clients and the team feel that in every step of their journey. That makes our tribe and unites us together.
Our mission is to help marketers and business owners use WordPress effectively and efficiently so they can achieve their business goals.
Tell us a customer success story of yours.
Nirmal Gyanwali: I have been collecting customer success stories since the beginning. And I love getting feedback from the clients from time to time to find out where we can improve and do things better. It’s part of our core values, “Continuous Improvement,” as well. We are one of the most recommended WordPress agencies in Australia. You can see some of the stories here – https://www.wpcreative.com.au/success-stories/.
Your final thoughts?
Nirmal Gyanwali: Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about my personal and business journey. Building a business is hard and building a great business is even harder. It’s a journey, not a destination. And we entrepreneurs if can act with integrity and aligned with values, together we can make a big difference in people’s lives, whether that’s a client or an employee. Let’s make one small change at a time.
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