Starting Off

I don’t believe in messing around, and neither should you. When you bought this book, your first question was probably “how did Igor make a million dollars selling WordPress Themes?”. That’s the crux of the book. There are so many web development and business books out there which may have some good things to say, but the reader is left asking: But did these techniques really work for the writer? Or is he/she just regurgitating other personal development books to make a quick buck?

Let me make this clear. I founded and run a successful theme building business for well over a decade. That business has made me a millionaire. I want you to have that success as well. And you can! I don’t just talk the talk, I’ve lived and breathed these techniques. They’ve changed my life for the better, and now I want to give something back to you and others like you who just need the right tools to become a success.

In this chapter, I’m going to show you how I did it. This is my story, the trials and tribulations. If you want to skip to subsequent chapters and read my technical advice going in depth on each technique I used, please do. However, this chapter contains a story which, when things seem difficult for you, I want you to remember. I want you to remember how I made all this happen for myself. And knowing how I did it, will empower you to make those same strides in your life and in your business.

In chapter two we will discuss some of the strategies I used to save my business when in difficulty. After this, we’ll go into much more detail about the techniques you need to employ. But for now, sit back. Let me tell you a story about how all this came to pass, and how you can make that change for yourself, too.

My First Experience in Business

“You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-holegoes”

- Morpheus, “The Matrix”

From an early age, I developed two character traits which have been the foundation to everything I have achieved:

● Creativity

● Passion for experimentation.

I know that you have these two qualities within you as well. You might not have consciously thought about them before, but if you didn’t have a desire to create, you wouldn’t want to build a

business. If you didn’t have a passion for experimentation, then you wouldn’t have bought this book. Taking the chance to learn somethingisan experiment. We never quite know how it’ll work out, but we’re willing to take that chance. I’m glad you’re taking that journey with me.

Because of these two traits, I feel my life naturally pointed towards becoming a businessperson at a young age. But whatever age you are, whenever you made that realisation. You’re here now, and that’s all that matters.

Despite having both creativity and a passion for experimentation, I was like a lot of kids and teenagers. My parents were strict. My mom especially always said to me “first study, then everything else”. She knew the importance of learning and discipline. Unfortunately, I enjoyed computer games and soccer a little too much and it could be a struggle to sit down and study when I knew I wanted to kick a ball about or jump into a video game and forget my worries.

My parents continued to push me in one direction. They wanted me to become a doctor, but medicine did not interest me at all. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to help people - one of the reasons for writing this book - but I knew my talents were not best suited to becoming a medical doctor. I also found hospitals to be frightening places from a young age, especially when considering that some people die there. I don’t say this to demean the medical profession, I believe those drawn to it are amazing people, but I wanted to focus on where life was strong.

Where it thrived.

From an early age then, I learned a valuable lesson:

Be true to yourself.

It doesn’t matter what others want for you, but what you want for yourself. Therein lies discipline and hard work. But most of all a passion for something you care about. That’s what web development has been for me. You see, like Morpheus in The Matrix, I was offered a choice by life. The red or the blue pill:

The Blue Pill: The story ends there. I would have become a doctor or other medical professional. I’d have been wealthy. I’d have had job security. But I’d have been unhappy.

The Red Pill: This is the choice I made. To take a leap into the dark. I wanted to build something for myself from scratch. I wanted to be my own boss. There was no job security there. I had to do it all for myself. It was dangerous. The outcome was not clear. And that was just fine with me. So, I took the Red Pill, metaphorically speaking.

As soon as I made the decision to follow my dreams, the world made sense. I was enthused. I was excited. I knew I wanted to be a businessman. An entrepreneur who doesn’t need to answer to anyone else. A person who makes things. A person who offers something new to the world.

From there, I prioritized German as a second language and mathematics. My dream was to study economics and one day graduate with a degree in Business Administration. In wasn’t all dry studying though. After picking up first in the Republic’s Language Academic Competition and receiving a grant to attend a top-tier university, I started to look around me.

Cultivating Positivity and Leadership

Now, this is important.

You can learn a lot from people. Whether they are knowingly teaching you or not. You can learn both what to do and what not to do. But what I loved the most was being around people who inspired me. My friends at university did that. I learned that they too had ambitions. I surrounded myself with like-minded people and all through those crazy University days when I cut loose more than once, I soaked up one word:Possibility. I used my experiences from University where I studied business. There, I learned much by immersing myself in the field of International Relations and Politics for 5 years. This has greatly informed my understanding of people and how to influence them positively. It’s also helped me know when to act, when to push forward, and when to leverage my strengths to achieve a goal.

Life is full of possibilities. It’s out there to be had, to be sculpted into whatever you want it to be.

I need you to know that. I need you to feel that in your very core. You have to believe.

Surrounding yourself with other hard workers and dreamers is the best way to reinforce that belief. Go out, find like-minded people. You’ll soak up the inspiration and it will put fire into your belly. You’ll want to go out and make your WordPress theme business the best one available.

Psych yourself up for the challenge by knowing that, if possible, surrounding yourself with people who want to make successful businesses is the best way to cultivate that feeling in yourself.

Then pass on that good feeling. Hold your head up and show that you believe in yourself.

Someone else will be watching. A friend, a colleague, a passerby, and they’ll be inspired by you.

This doesn’t mean blind faith or believing in the impossible, but it does meanknowingthat you can achieve something and exuding the confidence that you can do it. This will make potential business clients, investors, and staff want to support and follow you.

I learned much about this even from a young age when I was interested in video games (I still am!). I played many games on PC and PlayStation including Counter Strike, FIFA, and even Need for Speed. I actually became one of the best players in my home city. This was an excellent glimpse into the world of applying yourself to reach a goal. So, if someone ever tells you that video games are bad for you, just remember that when used in moderation, they are an excellent way to test yourself, work as part of a team, and build character! I always wanted to be the best I can be, and this sense of accomplishment drove me on to create businesses with that same ambition.

Accepting Help & Developing Gratitude

No one is a self-made businessperson. They may have done 90% of it, but there’s always that 10% where someone helped you achieve your goals. Whether it’s a friend who works on a logo for you for free or a fellow freelancer who refers you to a client as a web developer.

Be willing to accept help when you need it. Don’t let pride stop you from maximising everything in your life to make your business happen. I don’t mean just taking from those around you, but I do mean accepting assistance from others humbly, knowing that this will help you get your business to where you want it to be.

In my case, I accepted help from my Uncle. I had this burning desire to want to be a millionaire before I was 30. I wanted it so much I could taste it. When I graduated from university, I knew immediately that I needed to set up my own business; to maximise what I had learned from all those years of study. I wanted it so badly, I was able to put my pride aside and use any advantage in my life I could find.

My uncle had a small sewing shop, so the idea came to me to sell T-shirts. Was it a million dollar idea? Probably not. But it was a way to finally make something happen for myself. Using my uncle’s workshop to design and make T-shirts. I made strides and sold them on campus, but as my sales grew and grew. Something was missing. I needed something more than just raking in sales. I needed purpose.

And you will too.

Finding Purpose

In 2006, while I was still studying, my cousin Victor offered me an opportunity. He told us we could make money by making websites and content management. I knew next to nothing about IT or working with websites at the time. But as I said beforesoak up everything around you.

Listen and prepare to learn.

And so, I gave it a shot. That shot changed my life and opened my eyes.

You see, my T-shirt selling business had showed me I could be successful on a small scale. I could make enough to get by. Over time, I could make a lot of money if I stuck to that business model and kept expanding. But something was missing. I felt empty from the endeavour.

Working online changed that. It made me realise that what I needed to be fulfilled in business was to:

1. Be productive and keep learning.

2. Stay relevant by learning about cutting-edge technologies (last time I checked no one has cancelled progress).

3. Be able to grow a dynamic business on a worldwide stage.

4. Help people build their dreams.

5. Interact with customers and help resolve any issues they might have.

These five points gave me purpose. They fired me up like I’d never been fired up before. I loved feeling that way, and that just spurred me on to bigger and better things.

The take away from this is that you should try to find purpose and passion in your theme business. Don’t just treat it like a disposable means to an end. T-shirts were that for me. But in the highly competitive world of web development, you need to be passionate. Not just for yourself and your team, but also for your customers. Each website you help create can be a portal for them to bigger things. A business they need to sell products, a blog to express themselves, or a site exploringtheirpassion.

That’s important. You’re facilitating other people’s lives. That’s a wonderful thing. Get fired up about that. Make that your purpose, and your business will fly. Your customers will know you care, and you’ll put the time and hard work into becoming the best developer you can be.

With that sort of purpose, you’ll be unstoppable! I am, and you can be, too.

Small Steps Lead to a Great Journey

By the time Victor and I came to grips with just what creating online services and content meant, we realised we were at the beginning of a new revolution. But we didn’t become a success overnight. We didn’t even start with WordPress! We started building websites designed to generate traffic on Google. Then, using Google Adsense, those websites would slowly generate advertising revenue. We didn’t just make the sites, we filled them with content.

Remember, again,soak up what’s around you.

I knew many students, and so we asked them to fill the websites with articles. The sites were designed to get a good ranking on search engines and to be attractive to visitors interested in whatever niche topic the website was about.

Word of mouth was our main source of new clients. But remember what I said - with passion and purpose, the end product is positive. The offers began flying in. Clients wanted their own websites built from scratch.

This was all achieved with small steps. Just putting one foot in front of the other. By the time I looked back, I realised we had come a long distance. But the business was saturated. I couldn’t keep up with orders and my web design experience at that point was limited. I realised there was only one thing to do:

Scale up!

Bigger Means Better

I got in touch with some other web developers and together we created a team of creative, productive people. Soon, we could handle more orders. It was the same business, only on a larger scale. It was that simple to increase our profit margin. Plus, with several talented people alongside me, I was able to be humble and learn more. To soak it all up and become a better person, a better businessman, and a better developer.

Soon, we opened up our own office. With developers assisting me, I was free to spend more time on marketing. So, I studied. I learned. I looked at how other people were leveraging their talents online. It became simple. I looked to marketplaces like Elance (now Upwork). Upwork is a digital job marketplace for freelancers. You set up a profile and bid for jobs based on your experience and work rate. The more you work, the more you receive good reviews, and the more clients you attract. It snowballed from there.

You might think it sounds like we were rolling in cash at this point. Nope. We weren’t. We were making enough to keep the lights on, but that was about it. However, I believed. I had passion. I had a purpose. I knew that with this steady foundation in place, we could as a team move forward and achieve something truly worthwhile.

We just needed to keep moving forward and scaling up.

Embrace the Learning Curve

While working with Upwork, I continued to learn. I was surprised by the sheer number of people from all walks of life that I had to interact with. That was a great lesson for me. Working with so many clients, I began to understand their psychology. I figured out how to meet their needs and almost always guarantee a 5 star rating. I also learned how to identify problematic clients and how to deal with them. These lessons I have kept with me to this day. And we’ll be discussing them in greater detail in a later chapter.

One of the most positive interactions I had was with a long term client. He was just starting out as an entrepreneur and we got on famously. In our conversations, I learned a lot from him, and I like to think that my work and my team’s work helped him build up and move forward. His name was Dan Norris, and today he is an extremely successful businessman, coach and author of the bestseller The 7 Day Startup. Among others.

Again, this comes back to soaking up what’s happening around you. Learning. Adapting. And being a good person. Positive. Acting with passion and purpose. You’ll make long term connections that way, I promise. Connections which will enrich your professional and sometimes even personal life.

I continued to better myself each and every day. Sure, it was tiring at times, and we all have bad days, but the trend was moving upwards. I kept the momentum, and I never took my foot off the gas. You shouldn’t either.

The WordPress Revolution

Around this time I started to notice that more and more clients were requesting that we design themes for WordPress. Noticing this trend, I knew that we would have to maximize it to increase our revenue. So, I did the groundwork. Research. Research. Research. I discovered that with Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress, savvy developers were able to create themes which could be sold on mass to millions of people. Just think about that - one theme which can be customised and used for many purposes. Before this, people had to design each website one site at a time.

We could create themes which were ready made and easily installed by those with just a little WordPress knowledge. That opened up possibilities for users, and it opened up a worldwide marketplace for us.

But how best to reach that market?

My research led me to websites which were selling those themes. Places which operated much like Upwork - a marketplace for freelancers. But, these sites focussed purely on web development. It all made sense. Where would a businessperson go to find the best websites?

To a site that specializes in exactly that, of course.

Theme markets had appeared, and I stared at Themeforest knowing it was the future for my business. WordPress had changed everything, and Themeforest was a ready made platform that I could profit from. I was soaking it all up again. Still ready to learn.

But it wasn’t all roses.

Instability and Uncertainty

I had continual challenges I had to meet. The workload wasn’t consistent. Some weeks we’d have too much work to do pulling all nighters to meet our deadlines. Other weeks, we’d have nothing happening. That put a tremendous amount of stress on my team. It’s natural to worry about where your next paycheck is going to come from, and how much it’s going to be.

Unfortunately, the life of a developer is never easy or simple.

But I faced it all with zeal. I knew I couldn’t let down my team. They had to be paid. I had to find the work, so I spent a lot of time sourcing new clients and marketing the business.

The competition from other job markets was fierce, and you’ll face this yourself. People living in poorer countries were able and willing to charge pennies for large projects. I can’t blame them for that, but the disparity in standards of living across different countries means someone working in the US, for example, is going to have to compete somehow with someone in India who can charge a tenth of the price.

That meant focussing on higher paying clients. I had to find clients who really cared about their businesses, and so were willing to pay a decent rate for having a first class website.

Unfortunately, this is when I hit my biggest hurdle. And it was completely out of my hands.

Between 2007 and 2010, the world economy tanked. Clients cut their cloth accordingly. That meant having much reduced budgets for everything, including web design. A massive 80% of our clients could not or would not pay the older fees. So, we had to renegotiate, and that meant each order was going out for far less.

I knew I could not go on like that, and neither could the business. Something had to change. I had to adapt. I had to learn. I had to save the business.

And that was when I decided to rethink my business strategy. A priceless lesson we’ll explore in the next chapter.

What You Learned in Chapter 1:

In this chapter, you learned:

1. How I started my business.

2. How I grew my business.

3. Why WordPress changed everything for me and my team.