Dan Norris is a serial entrepreneur & an overnight success icon. He is the founder of WP Curve which provides 24/7 support service for WordPress websites, an award winning blogger, author of the Amazon’s bestseller book “The 7 Day Startup” – yes, that’s one impressive list of achievements, right ?
Here’s Dan Norris Comments on the questions we asked him –
Dan Norris – The Entrepreneur
Have you always known you wanted to be an entrepreneur ? Did you ever try taking up a job ?
Yeah I worked a job for 4 years out of University. I used to get pretty bored and eventually figured out if I wanted to avoid boredom I’d have to decide what I wanted to do every day. Becoming an entrepreneur was the easiest / only option I could think of.
Tell us about your WordPress journey – the where, the when , the how ?
I started our in the web industry before WordPress was popular. When CMS tools started taking off I got into WordPress, Joomla and Magento. Eventually WordPress became a clear winner, particularly for content-driven sites and small business sites which was my space. I ended up going for a WordPress specific service in 2013 with WP Curve because I saw other people doing it well (like WP Engine) and it felt like a good fit.
Dan Norris – With WP Curve
How has WPCurve changed your life ? And you ?
I have a lot more flexibility now and work less than I did with my agency and make more money. I get to work on other projects like presenting at events, writing books and building a brewery which is nice too! I also get to work with an awesome team that is growing quickly which is exciting and it’s rewarding to help customers get real results.
Working remotely , across continents at times – how do you handle that ? Any Challenges ?
We have a lot of software (35 different tools), we try to have regular calls with my co-founder and key staff and try to catch up in person when we can. There are a lot of challenges but lots of benefits too. We write a lot about building a remote team on our blog.
What do you think is the one single reason, WPCurve has met with the success it has ?
It was a simple idea that was very referable at the right time. I think that is the main reason it’s gone well. We’ve also done a good job at executing on things quickly and learning as we go. It was an idea that I launched in 7 days and that set the scene for how we would do things.
Any crazy customer experiences that you can share with us ? No names , of course.
Hmm better not haha. We love all of our customers 🙂
Where do you see yourself and WPCurve , say, in another five years ?
I find it pretty hard to see that far ahead. I will hopefully be building businesses, helping people build their businesses and writing and speaking about it which is pretty much what I do now.
How important do you think personal branding is for an entrepreneur ? Any tips ?
I’m going through this at the moment. It’s a bit hard to say. I’m generally in favour of having a simple consumer style brand as opposed to building a personal brand. But people do love to follow other people so I’ve started going a bit more personal branding stuff as I’ve realized that. I don’t think it’s for everybody but it makes conferences a lot more fun because people come up and act like they know you!
About The 7 Day Startup
Any key messages from your book “The 7 Day Startup” ? If you had to sum it up in just one line, what would it be ?
You don’t learn until you launch.
Am sure a lot of people would be inspired by your story – Who inspires you though ?
Anyone doing anything creative, generally the bigger the scale the more inspiring. I’ve had people read my book and start mid 6 figure businesses as a result. Those kinds of stories inspire me the most.
Mike Macey
July 1, 2015 at 11:03 pm
Entrepreneurs rule! I’ve been one for 50 years (I’m unemployable) and enjoy my freedom, use of my God given creative thinking, and income. Thanks for sharing your journey Dan Norris 🙂
Tushar Bhadalkar
July 20, 2015 at 2:22 pm
Hi Mike,
Totally agree ! Glad you liked the interview 🙂
Cheers,
Tushar