Bet Hannon, an agency with an exceptional appetite for learning, honing skills, and professional development, started out with freelancing in 2008. Its humble beginning as an agency began after more than 15 years in non-profit management.
Starting out with freelancing in web development and email marketing newsletters, Bet Hannon decided to create an entirely remote agency with a team that was spread globally.
“…When it was time to add team members, the decision was made to create an entirely remote agency, which has allowed for hiring the most qualified specialists no matter where they live. For more than 10 years before the pandemic, the team was working hard to create positive remote work experiences together.”
Today, Bet Hannon has successfully embraced website accessibility and is committed to its goal of designing websites with accessibility in mind for all its clients, which also include those with visual, cognitive, and motor skill challenges. What has earned Bet Hannon its success is the mindset the agency follows – they believe everyone deserves a functioning website anytime they are online.
Bet Hannon’s Stance on Their Niche – Embracing Website Accessibility
Bet Hannon operates in WordPress web development, managed hosting/care plans, and content management, mostly working towards making websites accessible to facilitate people with disabilities. Designing websites with accessibility is the agency’s number one priority now.
The Bet Hannon team took additional training in website accessibility, and once they saw how making websites usable for people with disabilities could dramatically impact their lives – increasing their independence and human dignity – they became deeply committed to web accessibility. Every site that they build includes web accessibility, and they perform accessibility audits and remediation as well.
“In 2017, one of our clients – a large agricultural water district – let us know that changing legislation meant that their website needed to be web-accessible (Section 508 compliance). While we brought in some specialists to help us learn, our client was eager that our agency be able to support them as they continue to work at compliance over time.”
Bet Hannon’s Biggest Achievements
When we asked the agency about their biggest achievements, they humbly told us, “We are the developer partners for a large national nonprofit, providing managed hosting and support for their seven WordPress websites, including one complex internally-focused site for documents and administration related to their many boards and committees.”
This was a big win, and demonstrated how committed they are to their agency’s mission and vision to make the website accessible for everyone.
Bet Hannon’s Recipe for Success
The agency’s success in growing has been directly linked to its dedication and hardwork.
Bet Hannon has depended a lot on visibility and volunteering, especially within the WordPress community, which has been the most fruitful for its agency’s growth and success.
“Our team has had organizer experience in three different local WordPress Meetups, been speakers for Meetups and WordCamps. Most of us participate in several online communities related to agencies or WordPress, and try to be helpful to folks who have questions about web accessibility or Gravity Forms or other things we have experience with.”
3 Software Tools/Apps That Have Helped Bet Hannon in its Success Journey
When we asked the agency what software tools or apps have helped them achieve success in their journey, they shared with us the tools they use to streamline their everyday work.
The agency uses FreshDesk for general client support tickets and things like requesting content changes and reporting one-off issues. This not only allows their team to respond more quickly, but it also gives them an archive of past issues that are searchable.
Another tool that the agency used is Basecamp. This is for larger projects, like a web development project, and for day-to-day chats and processes. “We’ve built out a lot of project templates in Basecamp that help keep us organized – everything from 140+ checklists for a web development project, to off boarding clients when they stop working with us.”
The agency uses Punchlist for getting client comments on mockups. This tool essentially works like commenting in a Google doc, but also adds the ability for both the agency’s team and its clients to make video comments.
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Bet Hannon on How Cloudways Has Contributed to the Success of Their Agency
The agency had only great things to say when we asked them how Cloudways has helped Bet Hannon in their journey.
“Migrating to Cloudways has really helped us get a handle on our hosting and server ops costs. Instead of having to purchase multiple year VPS contracts to get affordable hosting, Cloudways allows us to scale hosting up or down as needed. The simplicity of the management dashboard, combined with the amazing chat support lets us reduce our cost for outsourced server ops services.”
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Bet Hannon’s Tips for People Wishing to Work in Their Niche or Start a New Agency
Some tips that Bet Hannon wanted to give to people who wanted to start work in the same niche or starts a new agency are the following:
- Systematize your processes and keep those processes updated. This allows you to delegate more effectively as well as to be more efficient with your time.
- Automate as much as you can. Set up Zapier to help you keep your CRM updated, get projects created in your project management tool, etc. Automations let you spend that saved time on more higher-level or critical tasks.
- Always be thinking about how to remove yourself (and other team members) as the bottlenecks for the team getting things done.
A quote from Bet Hannon summarizes how the agency has been able to grow so much in little time, what has helped it, and how it makes it continue to rise towards success.
“Participating in the wider WordPress community is invaluable for growing your agency. You will always find others who have skills and ideas to share, so you’re always learning something. And there are always others coming behind you who want to learn what you have to offer – even if you are at the level of just knowing how to put a post into WordPress, you have something to share.”
