Francesca Marano’s WordPress business became successful and greatly increased her income. So much so that she started sharing business advice with over 35,000 hopefuls on C+B. Since she gave a business plan workshop at WordCamp Nijmegen, I took the chance to pick her brain on her journey so that business owners using Plesk can follow.
1. How did you get the idea for your niche business?
The niche kind of found me to be honest. I started tweaking my mommy blog for fun and after a while I got some requests from other ladies that wanted similar blogs for their hobbies or new businesses. When I started freelancing as a side gig I knew I would have been more comfortable talking to an audience that I empathize with: women in their late thirties, with a business idea they are passionate about. The only difference between them and me is that I was the one that had the technical knowledge to help them build an online presence 🙂
2. What was your goal at the start and did you reach it?
When I started my goal was pretty simple: make a decent living with my business. At first I did really poorly: in fact, I had to go back to work full time because I didn’t make any money. But somehow I kept getting asked to do websites. So after a few months, I decided to give it a go again.
But this time I did the one thing that changed everything for me: a business plan. It helped me focus on what mattered to me, give the right price to my services over the year, and become clear on my offerings. I did reach my income goal every year, thanks to careful planning.
3. To what do you owe your skills and success?
In my first job, I had a demanding, yet nurturing boss who taught me how to interact with customers, write emails, and use an agenda. She had a thing for extreme tidiness. So I had to clean my desk every night before going home so I could start with the right attitude in the morning. We had the most pristine office in the building and I had developed great organizational skills.
However, I’m curious by nature and always found this to be an advantage, in any job I had. I learn fast and I’m enthusiastic about new adventures. All these traits combined helped me a lot in my professional life.
4. How hard do you find it to stand out?
Marketing myself was definitely my biggest challenge. I love being behind the scenes, making things happen – more than talking about them. So I never really enjoyed social media. There’s too much noise – too many people that are better at marketing themselves than they are at doing their job. Social networks though are quite important to promote your businesses if you’re a freelancer. So I use them, but I always preferred blogs and newsletters.
5. What was the most rewarding thing about running your own business?
Having people writing me to say how much they appreciated what I wrote and how much my books helped them, especially those I wrote for creative technophobes. Lovely testimonials from past clients. Actually getting the job at SiteGround because my commitment to WordPress was also recognized by my employer.
6. Were you ever in situations where you had to turn down a client?
Yes, at some point I had so much work that I had to turn down a few clients. Also, saying no to initiatives that don’t represent my values. Like speaking at conferences or writing for other websites that didn’t align with my business.
7. If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Reach for the stars and plan your route there carefully 🙂 Don’t improvise, especially with finances and pricing. And believe in yourself, always.
Where can you find Francesca Marano?
Francesca is the WordPress Community Manager at the web hosting company – SiteGround. She’s also the representative of the WordPress Community Team and she is the founder of C+B, a blog with an editorial staff of sixty authors offering advice to thousands of Italian female creative entrepreneurs that reads it every month.
She’s a passionate speaker and you can find her talking about WordPress, community, open source, women in tech and small businesses – in Italy and around the world.
Francesca says “It doesn’t matter what your financial goal for the year is, or what your mission for your small business is, having measurable goals and a clear strategy will allow you to do what you love and make a living out of it.
Check out more resources on how to start a web hosting business or a web development business.
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17 Comments
I am an entrepreneur myself, and I couldn’t agree more with the points Francesca makes. All points are quite relevant, but the one that resonated the most with me was the one about not improvising with finances.
When you first start out, you are filled with energy and imagine yourself becoming a successful entrepreneur overnight. Due to this, you often tend to take liberties with your budget and finances, which is the last thing you should do with a new business.
It’s always best to make a business plan, and stick to it, no matter what.
Thanks again for this insightful interview!
Thanks for your feedback. Great to hear you liked the interview with Francesca and that her valuable insights inspire our readers. I also strongly recommend to attend one of her workshops or talks, she’s a fantastic speaker and I learned a lot about how important it is to create a business plan from her during WordCamp Nijmegen. Therefore, I couldn’t agree more with you here.
Some really good insights there. Especially the point about getting the satisfaction of hearing from your readers who feel that your work helps them in their business. I run a blog too, and I can totally relate to that feeling.
Kudos to the woman!
Hi, Abishek, glad to see you liked our post and interview with Francesca. You’re right, she deserves all the kudos, she’s amazing in everything she does. Good luck with your blog, we’re pretty sure it provides lots of value for your readers as well.
Best thing about word press is that it lowers the entry barrier for a webprenure. I couldn’t even imagine to start my journey without wordpress. Non techie person like me can use word press and create online business with easy. Thats best thing can happen.Niche selection is always a difficult thing.In my opinion choosing something with matches your passion and skill set can give you lot of advantages.
Hi Usha, I totally agree with you. I’m not a technical person myself and when I found the WordPress project and its community, I was amazed to see how easy it is, to make yourself heard in the world (wide web). WordPress gives everybody the opportunity to raise their voice, no matter who they are and where they are located! #Inclusion #Diversity
I am a blogger, and I couldn’t agree more with the points She makes. All points are quite relevant, but the one that resonated the most with me was the one about not improvising with finances.
i am an Indian based blogger and agree with Francesca Marano’s all points but I have followed all of them very sincerely but in my case, I didn’t a success like her.
So, Anyone wants to share his/her precious advice with me.
I am an Indian based blogger and agree with Francesca Marano’s all points but I have followed all of them very sincerely but in my case, I didn’t a success like her.thanks for sharing such a great content with us
how it is easy to build business online today
i am an Indian based blogger and agree with Francesca Marano’s all points but I have followed all of them very sincerely but in my case, I didn’t a success like her.
So, Anyone wants to share his/her precious advice with me.
I am a blogger from India. I agree with Francesca Marano. I followed everything she pointed, but unfortunately, I didn’t get success.
So, Anyone here interested to share any advice with me.
I am also a blogger and regularly post new articles on the my blog. I agree with Francesca Marano. After continuous efforts and regular updates one can get success. I am following all these steps and hope will get the success soon.
WordPress really empowers people to pursue their dream of having their own blog and sharing their knowledge on what they are good at. It’s just that we have to put in consistent efforts for the same. Francesca and her story must have really inspired plenty of people like how I am inspired right now.
I agree with these tips for success. Also it is interesting to understand how we should handle our finances. I think it is really important to stick to your budget
As a WordPress business owner, I can understand how essential those tips are for achieving the success! Thanks a lot for providing such great information Francesca Marano! have a nice day 🙂
Hey mate, in which niche is your site? Would you like to work with me? Also, yup the information about Francesca Marano I found this this blog is pretty amazing.