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The WP Minute brings you news about WordPress in under 5 minutes -- every week! Follow The WP Minute for the WordPress headlines before you get lost in the headlines. Hosted by Matt Medeiros, host of The Matt Report podcast.
Eric Karkovack (00:00)
Hi everyone and welcome to the WP Minute. I'm Eric Karkovack. Today's episode features a segment from our June 2026 member meetup, where Kurt Von Ahnen and I led a discussion about the current state of business. We talked about client spending habits, AI's impact on the market, and why foundational knowledge still matters. Now you can catch the entire episode over on our WP Minute Plus channel.
For all the details and how to grab a free membership, visit the WPminute.com.
Eric Karkovack (00:38)
So ⁓ the subject of our meetup this month is really where is your business in 2026? what's the state of things for you? ⁓ Kurt, I'm gonna start with you. Just what have you noticed about this year? ⁓ what kind of wins and losses have you have you been experiencing?
Kurt von Ahnen (00:58)
Well, I think you know from my other content, I'm a pretty transparent open book guy. ⁓ we were in an economic winter from December on. It was ⁓ I mean, it literally, I I would jump onto like the post-status meetup, you know, and everybody's crying the blues about work is slow and there's nothing coming in and people aren't making decisions and companies aren't getting off purchase orders. And ⁓ I'm not gonna lie, I started to fall into it a little bit. I was like, I guess we're all doomed. ⁓ but I kept doing the work.
And I think that's like, I think as a business owner, that's the part that's tempting to skip. Right. So I was like, you know, right, wrong, or indifferent, whether I'm seeing results today or not. I gotta get up, I gotta do the work, I gotta, you know, do the posts, do the things. And I did the things. And I I there's I'm a person of faith, so of course I'm gonna give credit to the Lord. But ⁓ April rolled around, Eric, and we sold a year's worth of work in the month of April. So so then I was like, okay, well, now.
Now that giant boulder's lifted off, let's let's reexamine our processes and see what we what we missed, what we didn't do, what we could have done better, what worked well. And then we we doubled down on some things in ⁓ May. Not gonna lie, I was really hoping May would duplicate April, but it didn't. And ⁓ but June, we closed on a few deals that was a direct result of the seed that we had sown in May. And so overall, we're up for the year.
you know for revenue and for the number of projects. So I'm pretty happy about that. it's just there was that really big lull in the middle of the actual, you know, closing the sale, but the process of making the pipeline was longer, but the results were better. And I think that's normal though. When you're when your pipeline value increases in in a monetary way, it should be expected that your pipeline's going to extend in a calendar way as well.
Eric Karkovack (02:53)
Yeah, I th that's that's it's great to hear. ⁓ and it's weird because I I fell into that doom last year too. Like last summer was so slow around here. Like and I this is my twenty-seventh year freelancing, okay? And yeah, I haven't left the house in twenty-seven years. but it I for the first time ever, I felt like the economy actually impacted my business. Like it had never, you know, even like through two thousand eight, I don't remember a slowdown. In fact, I remember things speeding up.
maybe more people were moving online at that time, because you know, we were still in a a paper era. ⁓ but yeah, I was I was seriously worried for the ⁓ future of of my business at that point. I thought I might have to get a job. ⁓ but the last couple of months have actually picked up. I have gotten several leads, a couple new projects that I wasn't expecting. So I feel, you know, much better about things than I than I
did. And I I tried to spend, you know, that downtime being productive, talking to folks, just producing content for my own, you know, enjoyment and hoping other people would see it. and I think that's just been, you know, what would help get me through it. But it it it does show like if you said you just keep doing the work and you keep trying and you, you know, you take the opportunity when you do have downtime to maybe learn or explore other things.
⁓ you know, you there isn't a light at the end of the tunnel, so that's good to hear.
Kurt von Ahnen (04:24)
The the hardest part as I listened to you talk is like we founded our business in two thousand and eight, by the way, like right in the middle of the pandemic, not pandemic, in the middle the economic crisis. We were like, you know what, we should start a business. And and it worked, like like we were able to sustain ourselves where my corporate position was sal was commission based. And because sales were down and the economy was so horrible, I was standing at a car dealership not making any money. And I thought, well, this is stupid. Why am I coming here to make no money? I could, I could go at home.
make no money, right? And so so I just started doing the website thing and it just grew and it grew and and it went. But I think there's a lot to be said. Like you said, you were still meeting with people, you were still making content, you're still putting your face out there. I think there's a threshold where every person, every individual has to make the decision like it's been too long. This has failed. I've got to move on to something else. But there's also that personal inspiration where you go, I know I'm doing the right thing.
Like I know that I know that I know I'm doing the right thing. So I just need to stick with it and it's gonna pay off. I don't know when, but it's gonna pay off. And I and I think I think history constantly rewards people that put in the work and have the resilience to stick it out.