Meet Anna
“I struggled along as a martyr. I tried to do it all myself. I was too scared to expand and bring on new people. I didn’t know how to do it. I didn’t trust myself to hire the right people. I thought I was opening myself to a world of pain, even though I knew growing was the end goal.”
Anna Butterfield
Owner, Help Me Net
Anna Butterfield, of Help Me Net, lives on the picturesque Kāpiti Coast of New Zealand. It’s a place with breathtaking ocean views and miles of wandering, hilly trails. Not a bad place to launch a digital marketing agency.
But let’s go back 15 years to a time when Anna was simply an avid blogger who had a deep interest in the web. Eventually, she was drawn to the community-driven world of WordPress where her skills and opportunities grew. She began designing websites for herself and dabbling in side projects for friends and colleagues. A website here. Content creation there.
It was not until she was on maternity leave a few years later that she realized, “I could make a business of this.” So, she did.
Help Me Net is the place where society’s makers, growers, and doers who don’t spend a lot of time on their devices or exploring WordPress go for digital solutions. Anna is happy to guide their digital journey so that they can focus more time on their passions and businesses.
Since she balances raising a family and growing an agency simultaneously, she’s become quite skilled at responding to everyday pleas for help – whether from a child or client. The daily grind can be challenging, yet always full of variety. In the midst of the whirlwind, spending time with her children and being in her garden keep her heart full and her feet grounded.
“Technology is not everything for me. That wouldn’t be healthy. I do like to turn off my computer screens, put down my phone and walk outside in my garden. It gives me space and perspective. And, that is really nice.”
In that time of space and perspective, Anna could see that as a team of one, she couldn’t accomplish her goals or implement the systems and processes she needed to successfully run her business. Nor could she scale.
She needed some help! The only problem, she didn’t feel confident that she’d find the right person and integrate them to her systems easily.
Why GoWP?
Anna found herself in a position many agency owners know well. She was full of energy, and ideas, but carried heavy work loads and stress, as well! She wanted to expand, but was not quite confident how to get there.
Anna says she didn’t plan to bring a developer on her team initially, but she knew GoWP had earned a favorable reputation among WordPress agencies for delivering quality integrated, white-label solutions. Several of her colleagues use GoWP’s maintenance and content edit plans for their own clients. The dedicated developer service piqued her interest, but left her with questions. Security is of utmost importance to her. After a consultation with the GoWP team, her questions were professionally and sufficiently addressed. She saw adding a developer to her team as the right choice for her agency! “If I had simply found a developer out of the blue, I would have worried about credentials.The systems & processes are in place with GoWP and I know everything is okay.”
Hundreds of companies have entrusted GoWP with their agencies’ websites for a reason. Our talented developers utilize innovative tools such as Visual Validator to maintain client sites. They can handle an agency’s WordPress Page Builds, Third-Party Integrations, Installations, Set-ups and more.
Every agency owner wants a happy team. GoWP’s professionalism and stellar delivery of services instill confidence within an agency. The team can relax knowing odd or extra hours are no longer the norm because the support is there and work is completed. A team with work-life balance and mutual trust is a big win!
Anna's Struggle
TLDR
Anna knew she had the skills to do the work of her clients, but also that she needed help keeping up with clients’ requests.
The Whole Story
Anna was living her best life. She had a young, healthy family and a passion that turned into a viable business. On top of that, she worked with a pool of clients she genuinely liked and respected. She says her clients are “passionate about what they do, but not necessarily native computer users. Self-described technophobes actually.” She felt a sincere loyalty to her clients and their success. The loyalty was obviously mutual because many of her clients turned over most of the decision making and tasks to her. She did it all: marketing, web design, content for all of them – as a team of one. After many years of trying to do everything herself, she finally realized, she simply couldn’t take it all on without backup.
“It’s common for freelancers to carry everything on their shoulders. When you’re making so many decisions for your clients who hand you everything. If you’re working around children in school, there’s just not enough time in the day to look after all of these people. You can’t find the balance sometimes. You can’t step away. You need help making sure nothing gets missed.”
Anna had no doubt what her company’s needs were. She needed to expand. However, the worry over how to implement a real solution left her somewhat paralyzed. She kept putting off making the decision of hiring freelancers for natural reasons. Trust.
“If I had simply found someone out of the blue, I would constantly be worried. I would be opening my business to someone else. I would be concerned about security credentials and having processes in place.”
GoWP's Solution
TLDR
Anna added a GoWP dedicated developer to her team who took a huge burden off her shoulders.
Several of Anna’s colleagues work with GoWP, so the company’s record and good reputation were familiar to her. She decided to hire a dedicated developer and found the process was much easier than she could have anticipated. GoWP prioritizes communication. She was freely able to communicate her needs and expectations, and of course, the systems she uses.
“After a lot of concern, onboarding was remarkably easy. In the first two weeks, I found that all of the projects I hadn’t gotten to for a while were finished. I had to rush to catch up. It was really breezy. I have an incredible amount of trust in GoWP. The developer came in and just did the tasks.”
Anna met her goal to expand her team and benefit her company. She’s been able to take on new clients and hired an administrative employee. And, it all started with the developer.
“Having a trained professional who can just step in and solve a problem is the most freeing, stress-reducing WONDER. After so many years of doing everything alone, having a dedicated developer is like magic.”
The GoWP team couldn’t be more happy that our services have helped Anna scale her business and put her in a position to achieve several goals she set for herself. And she has advice for other agency owners:
“It took me 6 years to realize I simply had to bring on help. My advice to others would be, ‘Don’t do what I did. Don’t be an idiot, get a developer!’ It just opens up so much energy to be able to start dreaming about what’s possible for your business and allows you to actually enjoy your business. You don’t have to just go through the steps and put out fires.”
Recap
Anna Butterfield makes a career of helping clients navigate the digital marketing world. There was a time when she took on all aspects of a client’s need, from website design to content writing to page support and more. As she took on more clients and responsibilities, she did not feel confident, however, in growing her team – hiring the right people. She performed all of the duties alone and lacked the time to fully implement the systems and processes she needed. After mounting exhaustion and much consideration, she turned to GoWP for help. GoWP worked with Anna to understand her needs and matched her with a Dedicated Developer who would work with her 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. This one decision alleviated tremendous stress and time constraints. Anna’s able now to implement those systems and processes and has even added more clients and more team support.
“Things are pretty good right now. I’m loving it and credit GoWP. I have more time to implement processes and I’m able to deliver the work I know I can for clients.”
Anna Butterfield
Owner, Help Me Net