In this episode, Matt Medeiros interviews Sara Dunn from the 11Web Agency. Sara is a website maker and SEO Consultant running a remote business based in Battle Creek Michigan. She talks with Matt about her recent use of YouTube and how she is committed to producing regular content along with creating a niche for her freelance business.

Listen to this episode:

What you will learn from this Episode:

Creating a remote team: * Sara's business team was initially started by hiring a local coworker to do web development and support in the business. (3:54) * Another remote coworker was brought on to help with design. (4:11) * A Virtual Assistant was added to keep projects and everything organized. (4:22)

Lessons learned: * When you are looking to hire a remote worker for your business you can give them a test project to evaluate their skills. (6:40) * A remote worker needs to be able to meet deadlines and communicate well. (6:50) * You need to find people who are comfortable with the remote working lifestyle and are used to working alone or on the road. (7:15)

Challenges of Growing an Agency: * There is a challenge of trying to find the "right" customer who is willing to budget and pay for the level of service that you are providing. (8:26) * Many new customers are found through networking events and referrals. (8:50) * The pool of people who want to pay for a great website gets smaller as the prices go up. (9:00) * It is difficult to find clients from a wide geographic area when you are working as a generalist. (9:19) * It can be very helpful to create an interesting niche for your business where clients take notice. (9:40) * Making the pivot in your agency to a specific group of businesses can be scary. There is a lot of training, marketing and adjusting of internal processes when you make a change to specialize. (11:22) * YouTube is a great tool to use for personal branding and to create a niche for another industry. Sara is focusing on wedding professionals and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). (12:26)

Executing a Business Pivot: * You still need to pay the bills and collect money so launching another business under a new brand and separate website makes sense. (14:29) * Keeping the original brand and business keeps the risk lower and current customers happy. (14:40) * There is not a strategy for using YouTube around a personal brand. (16:19) * The videos are created with a genuine approach with "this is how I feel." (16:52) * The feedback from viewers has been very genuine and supportive around the pivot. (18:11) * Pushing content with a helpful approach can direct the audience to a common thread. (20:06) * The audience seems to find the videos coming from a place of honesty and originality and is keeping people connected. (21:16) * The YouTube video creation consists of 1-3 hours a week. (24:36) * You do not need a lot of equipment to get started with a quality video that is original. (25:01)

Episode Resources: 11web Sara Dunn iMovie Lunch with Brad

To Stay in Touch with Sara: Sara on YouTube