It’s Friday! That means it’s time for another solopreneur interview. Not sure what these are? This post here will explain, and here’s the link to No 1 in case you missed it.
Onwards.
Today I have for you Eugen Oprea (pronounced u-gen) from My Online Business Team.
If someone were to ask me explain what Eugen does in a sentence I would say: ‘Eugen makes internet ‘stuff’ and all that SEO and analytics melarkee really really really easy for non techie types’. What an introduction!
He’s incredibly helpful, just follow him on Twitter and every morning you’ll read: ‘How can I help you today?‘, he means it to, it’s not just words, he expects you to reply! But you’ll have to go and prove that to yourself!
And we’re off…
Eugen tell us all who you are, what you do, and why you decided to go solo?
I‘ve always dreamed to become an entrepreneur. But just as anything in this world you need to take things step by step. So I started my journey by building computers, repairing them and ultimately selling them. But when I felt that I wanted to do more, I left home and moved to London.
Long story short, after 1 year the recession came, I lost my job, returned home, got another role at a software company and from September 2011 I’ve worked full time for myself.
Right now, I am somehow living my dream.
Pardon? Explain…
I‘m doing what I love.
It’s been a journey. Putting all the pieces in place, I mean ‘it’s happening’ this was the plan.
While I was working full time, I was building and running my business part time in the background including: making contacts, offering help, networking, learning, working out who I could serve best, I spent the same hours on my business as I did in employment!
A lot of people have told me that I know to translate tech for everyone to understand. My business is supporting other business owners: this is my chance to help people and change the world, helping others who are doing the same thing!
I do that over at EugenOprea.com, where I do my best to explain how WordPress works, what it takes to get on the #1 page of Google and how you can get more insights from Google Analytics data. This site is for people who like to get their hands dirty and get involved in the technical.
But for solo and small business owners who feel overwhelmed and would like to have someone else do it for them, I launched My Online Business Team with Rachel Mathews.
What made you choose this business?
When you decide to start a business you need to find a market first with a specific need and then see how you can apply your skills to cover the needs of that market.
So in 2010, when I took Sonia Simone’s course “Remarkable Marketing Blueprint”, I realized that there are people who don’t know specific things that for me seemed so easy.
This, somehow opened my eyes and made me see that I can help a lot of people just by sharing with them my knowledge. I noticed some people were really struggling, putting in all the time and effort and trying to fit together pieces of jigsaw, where I had the whole picture.
If you had to start over, what would you do differently?
If I had to start over, I would go back to high school and spend less time playing on the computer and more time learning new stuff.
I would read more books and I would invest more time into my personal development and professional development.
On the business side, I would choose more carefully the people who I work with. But we make mistakes so we can learn from them and I am fine with that.
What was the best piece of advice/learning?
Read, read, read… until your eyes hurt.
Not having English my first language, it was an obstacle. I learned English at school and from movies, but when it comes to writing that is a different story.
When I launched my blog I started to look for ways of improving my writing and get my message across more clearly and easier. During my research, I have found this quote and I did that to improve my writing.
However it misses something, after your read, read, read you need to write, write, write.
I would probably add to it, after you read you need to take action, action, action!
What drives you?
The feeling that I am able to do something that can change the world.
At the same time I am motivated when I see that the people I help are really happy with the results they get. I am driven when I see that my work has results, or when I get an email from someone who just wants to thank me for something that I did.
Yes, that makes me really happy.
What do you wish you knew at the start?
Nothing that I can really think of right now. I knew from the beginning that this journey may be hard, that there could be difficult times, but I was willing to take that risk.
I believe that anyone starting a solo business will do so at the right time for them.
As you design and build websites, let’s talk about those: what’s the worst website you can imagine? And the best? For a new solo business what do you think they must have on their website to make it look hottie and awesome to potential customers?
The worst website: one that has a design from 1991!
The best website: One that has a purpose, that sends a message across, that is well optimized primarily for readers, one that is not stuffed with ads or other thousands of things that make you loose your focus and one that makes hard for visitors to share it.
If people were building their first site themselves, what would you recommend?
Well, I use WordPress to build sites so I would say get a premium theme. They have clean designs, they are easy to customize, secure, they make your website look more professional and they are not expensive.
If you need help, get someone to help you. Personally, if I don’t know something, rather than spending 2 hours working on that bit, I would hire someone to do it for me in half an hour and spend my 2 hours making at least double the money that I use to pay that person. So it’s worth it.
Another thing would be to have a signup box that is visible, because it will help you grow your list and if you don’t have a list start one right now! Offer an ethical incentive to encourage people to sign up to hear from you again. Also use social media buttons that can let your readers share your content with just one click.
And if you are putting efforts in creating content, make sure that you do that on your home base (your blog, your website) and use Facebook, Twitter, Google+ as outposts not places to put all your work on.
I am saying this because you do not own your Facebook page and if Mark Zuckerberg decides to delete it, you can’t do anything about that. On the other hand, you own your website/blog and you can do anything with it.
Shout Out: You can find Eugen at myonlinebusinessteam, follow him on Twitter @eugenoprea or on Google+ Eugen also has a free Google Analytics Course over at eugenoprea.com
Thank you for having me, Dawn!
It was a pleasure to do this interview for you and I hope that your audience will find it helpful.
Thanks again!
Thanks for allowing me to ‘grill’ you! Dawn xx
Great interview! Nice to meet you Eugen :)
Clients from outside the US have asked me before if it was crazy to think that they could blog in English when it’s not their first language – you’re proving that it can be done. I’ll be glad to point you out to them.
Thank you, Kelly! Nice to meet you too.
In my opinion if your clients know their area of expertise, it shouldn’t be very hard to blog in English, even if they are not native speakers.
They may do mistakes, but they will learn from them and as long as they practice more, they will become better writers.
Eugen