Rebecca Gill

Although today Rebecca Gill is a successful business owner and speaker, she never dreamed of either one as a child. Rebecca grew up poor and had no career aspirations. To her, success looked like having a warm place to live and the ability to put food on the table.

After high school, Rebecca figured out how to get financial aid for college with the help of a friend’s dad. Despite the absence of clear career goals, Rebecca enrolled as an accounting student because she knew she’d need to pay back her student loans.

Fresh out of college, Rebecca took a temp job to make some quick cash. Trained on a business software system, she quickly mastered it and retaught to her superiors. With that experience, she fell in love with technology and turned a three-day temp job into a full-time position as an operations manager.

Later, Rebecca accepted a position with the company that developed the software she previously worked with. She was then promoted into the sales department, where she discovered Internet marketing. Rebecca needed a way to bring in leads, so she taught herself web design and SEO and began blogging.

During this time, Rebecca discovered WordPress. She immediately fell in love and began experimenting with blogging and plugins during her free time.  Once she connected with the WordPress community, she felt like she had found a home.

Today, Rebecca spends most of her time managing the marketing, sales activity, and administrative tasks for Web Savvy Marketing. She manages a large team of remote workers across the globe. In her spare time, Rebecca enjoys unplugging from technology and spending summers at her lake house in northern Michigan surrounded by her family.

Join us for a closer look at Rebecca’s experiences running a WordPress theme shop, how she knows when it’s time to hire more team members, and her number one piece of advice for anyone interested in starting a business on this week’s WP Elevation Podcast!

Elevation Round

Q: What’s the #1 thing any freelancer needs to know?
A: You can’t do it all.

Q: What’s the best thing you’ve done to find new customers?
A:  Learn SEO.

Q: How do you stop competing on price?
A: You say no to discounts.

Q: Any tips for writing better proposals?
A: Have a really good template.

Q: What’s your favorite CRM tool?
A: I don’t use a real CRM tool.

Q: What’s the best way to keep a project and a client on track?
A: A good tool and a good project manager.

Q: Any ideas for getting referrals from existing customers?
A: Do a good job and exceed their expectations.

Q: What’s the #1 thing you can do to differentiate yourself?
A: You need to find your niche.