Vendor Booth Rental Agreement: Fill & Download for Free

Practical planning tips:Use Google spreadsheets or other shared software. To stay organized, use this religiously. This also saves you stress knowing all your thoughts and open to-do's are in one place.Use various online and offline resources. There are great reviews, forums and books (e.g. Bridal Bargains - http://www.amazon.com/Bridal-Bargains-Throwing-Fantastic-Realistic/dp/1889392391/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299730400&sr=1-1 - does a good job helping you navigate new brands and not be ripped off; I haven't read it in over 5 years, but I learned a lot of wedding planning tips from it)Consider hiring a wedding planner or day-of coordinator. The rest of this answer assumes you are doing most of the planning yourself.For all vendors, be sure to keep contact info, cell phone numbers handy and get everything in writing and follow-up regularly, especially the month before to re-confirm the details.More important things to remember throughout the planning process:It is your wedding. The two of you should make the final calls.It is just one day (or at most a week celebration). You spend a lot of time planning for the big day, but what's more important is preparing for your marriage. Think of the issues which come up as preparation for far more serious life challenges in the future.Being engaged is a special, brief time. Don't forget to enjoy this period of your relationship. One day you won't be able to imagine what it's like not to be married.I. First things first: At its core, a wedding is an event (or series of events) with the end goal of celebrating you, your fiance and your decision to tie the knot. Basic event planning steps are where you should start:Size: Discuss with your fiance how large of a wedding you'd like. Consider other weddings you've attended. Less than 100 is fairly intimate and you're likely to get to talk to everyone at least once. More than 200 is large enough where you won't actually talk to everyone. Discuss any constraints you'd like to put (e.g. if your fiance hasn't already heard of the family friend today, the family friend is ineligible to be invited). Todo: Make a list of everyone you will definitely invite ("A list") and others you would like to invite if you have space ("B list"). Force your fiance and all of your parents to do the same. Do this on a shared Google spreadsheet or similar and give yourself time to let the old friends spring back into memory.Vision: Discuss the overall vision with your fiance. Even those who haven't planned their weddings since childhood have likes and dislikes when it comes to their own weddings. Figure out the structure (is it multiple days? a single day? local? at some faraway destination?) and each of you should choose 3 things you absolutely want to have done well (e.g. great food, perfect dress, open bar). It's a good idea to keep some document (tab in that Google spreadsheet) to capture other special ideas you guys have.Budget: Discuss what you can spend, who else is contributing to figure out your overall budget. Weddings can vary vastly in cost depending on city (coastal cities can be >50% more expensive than in middle of the US) and your taste.II. Location & Date: With your vision, guest count range (estimate your invitee to attendee ratio which can be anywhere from 50-95%) and budget, start to solidify the types of wedding venue you want. Questions to ask yourself:Local or destination: Local is easier to plan, destination is more interesting and a decent way to force your guest list to a smaller size.Single site or multiple: Do you want your ceremony and reception to be at the same place or not? Are there other events (e.g. tea ceremony) which you need to hold during the wedding day?Indoor or outdoor: Time of year and location obviously a factor.Over 250 people or under: At a certain size, your choices become limited to large venues like dedicated wedding/event centers, large hotels or convention centers. Under about 250, you can consider less typical event venues like local restaurants, wineries, zoos, museums, schools, gardens, etc.Anything special you're looking for: a view of the ocean, a place where all guests can equally see the dance floor, a city view, a place you can overhaul entirely, a place with special meaning in your lives, etc.Do your research online, look at pictures of actual weddings from the place and then make appointments in blocks so you can spend a few days and hit a lot of places. If you're calling a non-traditional wedding venue, you should consider getting rental quotes on the phone without saying your are planning a wedding (call it a family reunion or other celebration) to avoid the wedding inflation. When you visit, bring a camera to take pictures to help you remember the sites.Once you have a short list, here are factors to consider when choosing and booking a location and date:Fees: Dig deep on the requirements. Some places require you use their coordinators. Others charge you a per person cake cutting fee. Many limit your choice of vendors.Size & layout: How many can be accommodated? Do you have buffer if your guest list balloons? Do you want a dance floor? Think through the things you'd want and what space requirements they'd have: e.g. slideshow (will it be dark enough in the room, is there room for screens large enough plus projection), a photo booth station, a 14-piece band, etc.? What would the layout of tables be and is it what you're looking for? Will the place photograph well?Date: What is available? Will these dates work for everyone (does it conflict with family members' graduations? other friends' weddings? any must-have vendors)? Note that Sunday weddings can be harder for traveling guests but can be cheaper; weekday weddings are even harder for guests and even cheaper for you.Book the place(s) with the required deposit. Be sure to actually read the rental agreement before you sign (and ask for edits and changes based on any special needs) and keep copies of it, contact info of the person at the venue and copies of your deposit receipt handy. Remember that your wedding, as special as it will be, is one of potentially hundreds of events the site is handling in a year. You (or your wedding planner) need to be responsible for following-up and keeping the site and your other vendors on point.III. Wedding Dress: For better or worse, the wedding dress industry is not nice to consumers. Brides are not that cost sensitive and unfamiliar with brands -- so they are a gold mine. Often dresses are not made until you and a bunch of others around the world order them, so that's why you hear about the notoriously long lead times and "rush orders" for dresses needed in less than 6 months. Factors to consider:Budget: You will wear this dress for maybe 12 hours or so, but it will be in a lot of photographs. Decide how much you are willing to spend and don't forget all the pieces you'll need to put the look together including the dress, alterations, shoes, undergarments, veil, other hair pieces, wraps/shawls, make-up, hair updo, cleaning the dress afterwards, etc.Styles: Get the bridal magazines, look online. When you go to stores, try on styles you weren't considering, you will likely be surprised as you most likely haven't ever seen a wedding dress on. Don't be surprised if most places require appointments and an assistant who suggests dresses versus let you browse. Often stores cut out brand labels and dress model numbers so you can't compare prices easily (evil, I know). Bring friends, relatives who will be helpful only. Take pictures if the stores let you.Timing: Check on the rush order timing, and as excited as you might be about your wedding date, I recommend you tell them your wedding date is 4 weeks earlier than it actually is to ensure on-time delivery.Alterations: See if the store requires in-store alterations. Wedding gowns aren't easy to alter well given the materials and complexity of some dresses, especially strapless dresses. Budget time for alterations as well as hundreds of dollars.Accessories: As you will know by now, all things "wedding" related cost more. Consider looking for accessories outside a bridal salon or borrow from friends if you don't want to spend hundreds on a veil.Cleaning: Depending what you do with your dress afterwards, you can have it dry cleaned and/or packaged in an archival box.Make-up & hair: Research make-up and hair options. Some people hire professionals to come to wherever they are getting ready; others go to a beauty salon. Consider whether bridesmaids and mothers will need professional services too. Some make-up artists stay with you during the day to help do touch-ups or hairdo changes.IV. Bridal party apparel:Bridesmaids dresses require some lead-time too, but usually not as much. Typically bridesmaids pay for their own dresses, but you can cover the expense if you wish. Work with your bridesmaids or have your maid of honor lead the coordination. Make the final call yourself in case of conflicts. Several stores have gotten into creating wedding apparel, e.g. J.Crew. Stores like rkbridal.com in New York offer online/fax orders and price matching.For men, tuxedo rentals are fairly flexible and many nationwide chains make it easy to get measurements taken. Do take special care to have folks pick up their tuxes at least a day in advance and they must try the tux on in the store in the fairly likely case there are sizing issues. (To be convinced, read my review of Men's Warehouse at http://www.yelp.com/list/my-wedding-palo-alto.)V. CateringFood: Decide what type of food and banquet style you want. You could serve lunch or dinner, or just have cocktail hour or a light brunch. Buffets are not any cheaper than plated food, but require fewer servers, yield hotter/fresher food and require space on your floor layout. Plated meals can feel more formal and be easier for guests. Food stations are good for lighter receptions but can be sufficiently heavy and interestingly diverse compared to a more tranditional meal. Do a tasting if you can.Fees: Caterers have lots of hidden fees, most notably the service fee which usually starts at 18%. Investigate staffing fees, rentals for tables, chairs, chair covers, linens, flatware, dinnerware, glassware, etc.VI. Cake: Some caterers or locations (e.g. hotels) can provide your cake. Definitely do a cake tasting though often with cakes of height, the density required as well as how long they have to be left out can make them taste bad. This is definitely not a rule as I was happy to find my wedding cake at a regular bakery which does delicious wedding cakes, though they book up fast. As a cost-saving measure, you can have extra sheet cake of the same type of cake made. The cake, once cut up, looks pretty unrecognizable, so the sheet cake might even look better. Watch out for the cake cutting fee on top.VII. Florist: Florists range from those who provide you with specific arrangements to people who are more event designers who can help you build out the decoration and look & feel of your ceremony and banquet tables. There's been some recent trends to get more creative than flowers for reception centerpieces -- rocks, potted arrangements, fruit, your favorite memorabilia or photos and other ideas can also be used.VIII.Invitations & Collateral: There are numerous online resources for creating invitations, programs, placecards, table cards and anything else you need printed for your wedding. A friend found artists on Etsy.com who would do custom designs for you and send you the files you need to get their logos, special fonts printed elsewhere. You can also use offline stationary, greeting card (e.g. Paper Source, Papyrus) or crafts stores (e.g. Michael's) to get invitations created.Tips: Personally, I think having consistent design throughout all your printed materials brings cohesion and polish to your wedding. That includes color choices, fonts, graphical elements, paper choice, etc. FedEx Kinkos can cut a stack of paper for around $1 per cut, so please do not waste time cutting your own invitations if you just need basic straight lines. Use a Google form or other form to collect updated mailing addresses; consider doing RSVPs online or save-the-dates online to save paper. If you mail RSVP cards, consider writing in light pencil a unique # that corresponds with each invitee in case someone doesn't properly fill out their name and you can't associate the RSVP card to the recipient. Obviously maintain a spreadsheet of RSVPs and make sure your RSVP cards include all the fields you need to provide the caterers with the info you need to give them (e.g. a couple wants chicken and fish, do you need to know which the wife wants vs which the husband wants for their placecards?).I'll call out wedding favors here since it fits as one of the things you will be physically handing out. If you have a theme, brainstorm what would be fun and creative. For the sake of the environment, before you buy 200 trinkets, think about what guests would actually want, use and keep.IX. Photographer & Videographer: After a wedding, besides your fond memories and funny stories, the photos and videos are what are lasting. Having an edited small set of photos and/or videos which highlight the day is priceless, both for the two of you as a couple, your parents, and also to your future children. Browse these vendors' online portfolios, ask friends to see their wedding albums and videos and find someone whose style you like. Note that even cheap ($1-3K) photographers may be terrible and no better than your amateur SLR-lugging photographer friends. So make sure you see some images which make you feel an emotion, awe you or otherwise make some good lasting impression on you. Consider hiring photographers and videographers who have worked with each other so they are used to each other and don't get in each other's way.Tip: Formal wedding albums are very expensive (many hundreds of dollars) given the archival quality of the book and binding. Unless you definitely want one, consider going with a photographer which doesn't force a package deal with it upfront. You may find after the wedding that you weren't sure what you were thinking spending all the money you did for the wedding; plus you realize you'd have to require white gloves for people to actually view your album. Instead, if you can get the digital copies, make a cheaper flip book for your coffee table.X. Entertainment: This can be your friend with a great iTunes playlist and nice speaker system to a DJ or a live band or two (perhaps different for your ceremony, cocktail hour and post-dinner dancing). Be wary of using house speakers for sound unless you've tested it out while the room is filled with talking guests. Often these systems are weak and made for background elevator music. Consider who will be your emcee -- a friend, the DJ or lead singer of your band. Provide clear instructions on the style you want (e.g. funny, raucous, stand-up comedian, etc.) and how self-promotional they should be. If they are doing your introductions, be sure to provide pronunciation guides for your wedding party.For your ceremony, do be sure people will be able to hear the officiant, you, your fiance and any musicians or speakers. You may be a little shy, but it isn't that fun to watch a wedding where you can't hear anything. Similarly think through the seating plan if that within your control to ensure people can see well.XI. Transportation: Map out all the relevant locations for your wedding day -- from where you, your fiance, parents, wedding party members will stay the night before, where everyone will get ready, where everyone will meet, when folks need to arrive for photos, the ceremony, in-between photos, the reception, etc. Figure out who is transporting themselves and whose transportation you care about and decide whether you will hire limos, shuttles or other transportation, or work with friends to chauffeur you around.XII. Rings: If you have an engagement ring, look for a wedding band which will complement it. Men's bands tend to be thicker and thicker bands need to be slightly larger that thinner bands for comfort. Consider engraving something special inside your bands. Allow for time for re-sizing when ordering.XIII. Personal details: Having been involved in many wedding and attended countless others, I strongly recommend you continually consider how to make your wedding day yours. Not for the goal of outshining other weddings, but to make sure it's a day that is about you, not what a typical wedding has to be since you are the ones shelling out the time and money. I've seen some nice personal touches, e.g. game lovers had guests do various brain teasers in a table competition. It's hard to think of these personalized details, so keep that running list of brainstormed ideas and ask your closest friends for thoughts on what makes the two of you unique.Day-Of coordinationHaving run day-of coordination many times, I'll have to write another answer on how to make sure your wedding runs smoothly as this one is long enough.

Chiming in due to A2A.We’ve sold several 6-figure projects over the past few years remotely. I have never met some of our customers, and others we’ve met later on (8–12 months after we’ve already started the business relationship).Selling expensive software remotely is a challenging endeavor. It requires a good amount of reputability in the industry, a terrific track record of successful projects, a portfolio of respectable companies, good reviews and testimonials, great folks running the project, and ongoing marketing activities.We’ve lost a number of projects simply because we are not a local agency with an office next street, but that attitude is gradually changing thanks to the growing percentage of freelancers and telecommuters in the US, together with the lack of talent or availability by the well known companies in the industry.As an example, we built a project for $60K over a year ago and signed up a $3K/month maintenance contract that’s been ongoing for a year now and counting. I met the project lead a couple weeks ago while traveling, and found out that a few of the enterprise vendors quoted $400K for the initial build and somewhere around $100K for annual hosting and support.Since we’re one of the leading service providers in the WordPress space, our client had conducted a 4-month detailed background research of us and our competitors, and reached out to some of us. We were proactive and understood the business problem well enough to execute on time without any downtime or notable regressions.In terms of our process and ongoing activities that allow us to close higher cost contracts, here are the main ones we focus on.Active Presales Engagement and Vetting ProspectsOnce we get in touch with a prospect, we communicate proactively. We schedule a few calls, draft down the technical assignment, and dig deep into the business model. We identify possible challenges related to high traffic, large volume of users or content, and alternative monetization opportunities that we could implement.Moreover, we don’t compromise when it comes to our workflow and business model. We know what works best for us, and the more we try to be flexible, the lower quality we will produce. Therefore we’re incredibly transparent as to who’s working on the project, what roles are involved (project manager and QA involved in prioritizing and validating the work), and why cutting corners will not help the business in the long run.More often than not we have to decline participation in RFPs or reducing timelines and budget. It’s more effective to focus on delivering the best quality possible with the right focus than trying to find workarounds that are potentially dangerous.Customer SatisfactionIt sounds like common sense, but more often than not, it isn’t. We do strive to provide outstanding customer service through availability, regular communication and reporting, and a lot of time educating our customers on why we’re doing something, what would be its impact in the long run and how will it affect the business over the next 6, 12, 24 months.Since we’re vetting our prospects, the business relationship usually starts as an agreement that we’re an industry expert and will provide the best possible options for each and every feature. We stress on the fact that quality is a priority, and it entails stability, backwards compatibility, performance, and security. We can’t scale by growing technical debt, which is why we need a stable foundation from day one.If anything seems to be derailing outside of our process, I schedule a call with our client and explain the consequences. We put the effort to get back on track and resolve any communication or planning changes that have been introduced.Moreover, happy clients send testimonials, and can serve as a validation for your work by prospects who want to ensure the quality of your service.Ongoing Retainer ContractsWe have coined the term “WordPress Retainers” and 90% of our business revolves after this model.Since “waterfall” is a controversial model for building successful applications, we push for “agile” every single time. I’ve been discussing the value of our retainers plenty of times online:WordPress Retainers and the Future of Recurring Revenue in WordPress - WP ElevationMoving to retainers with Mario PeshevOn WordPress Development Retainers - Mario Peshev on WordPress DevelopmentWordPress Development Retainers and Ongoing Maintenance by DevriXI share those links over the first couple of emails while initiating a contact with a client.If I have to sum it up, retainers allow us to understand the business model better as we go, focus on an MVP (minimum viable product), built the foundation, and increment. We go live sooner rather than later, and work on basic features which are iterated over and over until we reach to the right combination of features and lightweight core software.We do insist on building a long-term relationship as releasing the software itself is one of the easiest parts of the process. Scaling it and responding to user requirements once the application is life is what we really focus on - building the right value for the right target audience.Industry ExpertiseObviously industry expertise is crucial for high-end projects. If you can find a contractor that would quote you $2K or $6K for a project, why pay $50K instead?We often get those questions, and are used to covering the standard problems with DIY or low-cost solutions on the market. Most low-cost service providers are not engineers, and usually bundle several components or plugins that do the “heavy lifting” for them. That comes at a price in terms of stability, flexibility, performance and security - and inevitably leads to a clumsy and unstable project that is of no use, and cannot be extended further on.I wrote another guide going over the challenges that an experienced agency or a software engineer takes into account while building an application - The Disconnect Between a WordPress Install and Developed Solutions - WP Elevation . Some of those include database optimization or denormalization, caching layers, accounting for the best server configuration and other fine tuning activities that really make the difference.We have 5 WordPress Core contributors in our team and have been profiling in high-scale WordPress applications receiving 10M+ monthly views. This expertise is different than the theoretical knowledge of “how to scale an application” and is something that most clients trust. Especially when we’re still working with many of those customers on a retainer basis, and they keep paying for our services.We have also released free software and educational content that helps out and confirms our industry know-how (you can’t educate publicly without getting backlash if you really know your craft well).Community InvolvementI’ve been an active member of several communities, and most active in the WordPress ecosystem over the past years. Many of our team members have submitted free plugins/themes, reviewed themes, contributed to Core, helped out in support forums, presented at meetings or events and so forth.That community involvement is important since an experienced service provider should always follow the latest innovations in the technical stack, what’s coming next, and what is currently in the works. Helping out improves your skills first, and builds a valuable network of partners and other service providers, as well as hosting vendors, plugin developers, journalists, and key people in your industry.I probably have to “pull strings” at least a few times a month - reaching out for advice if we’re using a 3rd party solution, or ensuring that we have priority support access for a hosting provider that we’re partnering with. This ensures guaranteed stability and personal access to vendors, which is important whenever you rely on external services or products.PartnershipsBuilding partnerships with other industry peers is also crucial. You get preferential terms for services and products, together with marketing exposure for both parties once you collaborate on an eBook, a webinar, or share a booth at an event.I find that extremely helpful for very small businesses (1–3 people) or larger companies (50–100 people).Solo entrepreneurs and small teams are often fully booked with a backlog of a hundred things they should do today. They prioritize 5 or 10 and push back the rest down the line. Having a person of contact there will allow for faster response times or better terms.Large teams, on the other hand, employ a lot of people that are not necessarily aware with all of the company terms or processes. They may mislead a client and lose a deal, or cause a regression, or decline a feature request. Those could become a deal breaker for a business, and having someone to email instead will reduce the risk and get the work done.Partners can often refer leads to you as well. If you offer development services, you can partner up with designers, hosting companies, or plugin developers that don’t do services for their users. Collaborating with other agencies is also helpful - there are high seasons for certain companies that can’t handle all incoming leads, and they need additional manpower in order to cope with all inquiries.You can be an upsold white-labeled service provider for them, or pay them a referral fee if they send the client over and don’t want to deal with PM. It’s a win-win.Ongoing Marketing CollateralWe do rely on inbound marketing which involves content marketing, email marketing, building landing pages, SEO, conversion rate optimization and the like.In order to continue ranking well, we do publish a lot of content in our blog and craft designated landing pages for our services. For example, we rank in top 5 for several “WordPress SaaS” variations thanks to our landing page which includes a conference video where I talk about building a SaaS business, a portfolio of our SaaS projects, and a breakdown of our development process when working with SaaS providers.All of those are tailored to our preferable audience - being entrepreneurs, startups, and reputable companies who want to enter the SaaS space, and need a reputable and experienced vendor.We do maintain our social media accounts, accept guest submissions and cross-promote services whenever applicable.We’ve noticed that customers do a detailed background research before committing to a large amount of money, which is why we try to cover all areas and be active. If you’re spending $100K on a project, you want to be absolutely sure that the team knows their stuff, and is not endangered from bankruptcy any time soon. Being active online, publishing regular updates and stressing on your engagement helps out.Guest Posting and InterviewsOur SEO and community activities help a lot, but most of that content comes as our own view on the market, tailored to our current visitors, and seems… subjective.Of course I’ll say that we’re the best provider that ever existed in the industry. I read that every single time for every single product out there. That’s what converts people at the last phase of the sales process.But that’s not necessarily true (more often than not) and numbers are twisted. Service providers excel in different activities. For example, we can’t do low-cost projects and have a good amount of overhead due to accounting, paying for marketing or ads, office rentals and what not. What a consultant can do in 3 hours we can probably do in 15, but we don’t take on projects under 70–80 hours anyway.We also can’t allocate 40 developers on a project simply because we don’t have that much.Which is why we need to address the problems that we solve, and do that through our partnerships and submitting content elsewhere.We do guest post at industry blogs and with our partners, which brings fresh traffic from people who don’t follow us, and increases our exposure. With time (all things combined) we get featured by various magazines and service experts, who reach out for interviews or podcast participation.Which helps us get more traffic and reputability, and also helps prospects validate our process and company culture better while looking us up.EventsWe do sponsor, speak at, organize and volunteer at events in our industry. It’s a way of contributing back to the industry and helping out smaller communities.It’s also some exposure that we can list on our end. Lower end service providers can probably gather leads there as well, given the large amount of people at a conference and the fact that they’re looking for cost-effective solutions.That’s not the extensive overview of selling to enterprises, but covers a good percentage of the marketing and community engagement activities, as well as the quality of work required in order to close deals, execute, complete them with 5-star ratings, and get enough referrals and support in order to get to the next one.

We’ve sold several 6-figure projects over the past few years remotely. I have never met some of our customers, and others we’ve met later on (8–12 months after we’ve already started the business relationship).Selling expensive software remotely is a challenging endeavor. It requires a good amount of reputability in the industry, a terrific track record of successful projects, a portfolio of respectable companies, good reviews and testimonials, great folks running the project, and ongoing marketing activities.We’ve lost a number of projects simply because we are not a local agency with an office next street, but that attitude is gradually changing thanks to the growing percentage of freelancers and telecommuters in the US, together with the lack of talent or availability by the well known companies in the industry.As an example, we built a project for $60K over a year ago and signed up a $3K/month maintenance contract that’s been ongoing for a year now and counting. I finally met the project lead a few months ago while traveling, and found out that a few of the enterprise vendors quoted $400K for the initial build and somewhere around $100K for annual hosting and support.Since we’re one of the leading service providers in the WordPress space, our client had conducted a 4-month detailed background research of us and our competitors, and reached out to some of us. We were proactive and understood the business problem well enough to execute on time without any downtime or notable regressions.In terms of our process and ongoing activities that allow us to close higher cost contracts, here are the main ones we focus on.Active Presales Engagement and Vetting ProspectsOnce we get in touch with a prospect, we communicate proactively. We schedule a few calls, draft down the technical assignment, and dig deep into the business model. We identify possible challenges related to high traffic, large volume of users or content, and alternative monetization opportunities that we could implement.Moreover, we don’t compromise when it comes to our workflow and business model. We know what works best for us, and the more we try to be flexible, the lower quality we will produce. Therefore we’re incredibly transparent as to who’s working on the project, what roles are involved (project manager and QA involved in prioritizing and validating the work), and why cutting corners will not help the business in the long run.More often than not we have to decline participation in RFPs or reducing timelines and budget. It’s more effective to focus on delivering the best quality possible with the right focus than trying to find workarounds that are potentially dangerous.Customer SatisfactionIt sounds like common sense, but more often than not, it isn’t. We do strive to provide outstanding customer service through availability, regular communication and reporting, and a lot of time educating our customers on why we’re doing something, what would be its impact in the long run and how will it affect the business over the next 6, 12, 24 months.Since we’re vetting our prospects, the business relationship usually starts as an agreement that we’re an industry expert and will provide the best possible options for each and every feature. We stress on the fact that quality is a priority, and it entails stability, backwards compatibility, performance, and security. We can’t scale by growing technical debt, which is why we need a stable foundation from day one.If anything seems to be derailing outside of our process, I schedule a call with our client and explain the consequences. We put the effort to get back on track and resolve any communication or planning changes that have been introduced.Moreover, happy clients send testimonials, and can serve as a validation for your work by prospects who want to ensure the quality of your service.Ongoing Retainer ContractsWe have coined the term “WordPress Retainers” and 90% of our business revolves after this model.Since “waterfall” is a controversial model for building successful applications, we push for “agile” every single time. I’ve been discussing the value of our retainers plenty of times online:WordPress Retainers and the Future of Recurring Revenue in WordPress - WP ElevationMoving to retainers with Mario PeshevOn WordPress Development Retainers - Mario Peshev on WordPress DevelopmentWordPress Development Retainers and Ongoing Maintenance by DevriXI share those links over the first couple of emails while initiating a contact with a client.If I have to sum it up, retainers allow us to understand the business model better as we go, focus on an MVP (minimum viable product), built the foundation, and increment. We go live sooner rather than later, and work on basic features which are iterated over and over until we reach to the right combination of features and lightweight core software.We do insist on building a long-term relationship as releasing the software itself is one of the easiest parts of the process. Scaling it and responding to user requirements once the application is life is what we really focus on - building the right value for the right target audience.Industry ExpertiseObviously industry expertise is crucial for high-end projects. If you can find a contractor that would quote you $2K or $6K for a project, why pay $50K instead?We often get those questions, and are used to covering the standard problems with DIY or low-cost solutions on the market. Most low-cost service providers are not engineers, and usually bundle several components or plugins that do the “heavy lifting” for them. That comes at a price in terms of stability, flexibility, performance and security - and inevitably leads to a clumsy and unstable project that is of no use, and cannot be extended further on.I wrote another guide going over the challenges that an experienced agency or a software engineer takes into account while building an application - The Disconnect Between a WordPress Install and Developed Solutions - WP Elevation . Some of those include database optimization or denormalization, caching layers, accounting for the best server configuration and other fine tuning activities that really make the difference.We have 5 WordPress Core contributors in our team and have been profiling in high-scale WordPress applications receiving 10M+ monthly views. This expertise is different than the theoretical knowledge of “how to scale an application” and is something that most clients trust. Especially when we’re still working with many of those customers on a retainer basis, and they keep paying for our services.We have also released free software and educational content that helps out and confirms our industry know-how (you can’t educate publicly without getting backlash if you really know your craft well).Community InvolvementI’ve been an active member of several communities, and most active in the WordPress ecosystem over the past years. Many of our team members have submitted free plugins/themes, reviewed themes, contributed to Core, helped out in support forums, presented at meetings or events and so forth.That community involvement is important since an experienced service provider should always follow the latest innovations in the technical stack, what’s coming next, and what is currently in the works. Helping out improves your skills first, and builds a valuable network of partners and other service providers, as well as hosting vendors, plugin developers, journalists, and key people in your industry.I probably have to “pull strings” at least a few times a month - reaching out for advice if we’re using a 3rd party solution, or ensuring that we have priority support access for a hosting provider that we’re partnering with. This ensures guaranteed stability and personal access to vendors, which is important whenever you rely on external services or products.PartnershipsBuilding partnerships with other industry peers is also crucial. You get preferential terms for services and products, together with marketing exposure for both parties once you collaborate on an eBook, a webinar, or share a booth at an event.I find that extremely helpful for very small businesses (1–3 people) or larger companies (50–100 people).Solo entrepreneurs and small teams are often fully booked with a backlog of a hundred things they should do today. They prioritize 5 or 10 and push back the rest down the line. Having a person of contact there will allow for faster response times or better terms.Large teams, on the other hand, employ a lot of people that are not necessarily aware with all of the company terms or processes. They may mislead a client and lose a deal, or cause a regression, or decline a feature request. Those could become a deal breaker for a business, and having someone to email instead will reduce the risk and get the work done.Partners can often refer leads to you as well. If you offer development services, you can partner up with designers, hosting companies, or plugin developers that don’t do services for their users. Collaborating with other agencies is also helpful - there are high seasons for certain companies that can’t handle all incoming leads, and they need additional manpower in order to cope with all inquiries.You can be an upsold white-labeled service provider for them, or pay them a referral fee if they send the client over and don’t want to deal with PM. It’s a win-win.Ongoing Marketing CollateralWe do rely on inbound marketing which involves content marketing, email marketing, building landing pages, SEO, conversion rate optimization and the like.In order to continue ranking well, we do publish a lot of content in our blog and craft designated landing pages for our services. For example, we rank in top 5 for several “WordPress SaaS” variations thanks to our landing page which includes a conference video where I talk about building a SaaS business, a portfolio of our SaaS projects, and a breakdown of our development process when working with SaaS providers.All of those are tailored to our preferable audience - being entrepreneurs, startups, and reputable companies who want to enter the SaaS space, and need a reputable and experienced vendor.We do maintain our social media accounts, accept guest submissions and cross-promote services whenever applicable.We’ve noticed that customers do a detailed background research before committing to a large amount of money, which is why we try to cover all areas and be active. If you’re spending $100K on a project, you want to be absolutely sure that the team knows their stuff, and is not endangered from bankruptcy any time soon. Being active online, publishing regular updates and stressing on your engagement helps out.Guest Posting and InterviewsOur SEO and community activities help a lot, but most of that content comes as our own view on the market, tailored to our current visitors, and seems… subjective.Of course I’ll say that we’re the best provider that ever existed in the industry. I read that every single time for every single product out there. That’s what converts people at the last phase of the sales process.But that’s not necessarily true (more often than not) and numbers are twisted. Service providers excel in different activities. For example, we can’t do low-cost projects and have a good amount of overhead due to accounting, paying for marketing or ads, office rentals and what not. What a consultant can do in 3 hours we can probably do in 15, but we don’t take on projects under 70–80 hours anyway.We also can’t allocate 40 developers on a project simply because we don’t have that much.Which is why we need to address the problems that we solve, and do that through our partnerships and submitting content elsewhere.We do guest post at industry blogs and with our partners, which brings fresh traffic from people who don’t follow us, and increases our exposure. With time (all things combined) we get featured by various magazines and service experts, who reach out for interviews or podcast participation.Which helps us get more traffic and reputability, and also helps prospects validate our process and company culture better while looking us up.EventsWe do sponsor, speak at, organize and volunteer at events in our industry. It’s a way of contributing back to the industry and helping out smaller communities.It’s also some exposure that we can list on our end. Lower end service providers can probably gather leads there as well, given the large amount of people at a conference and the fact that they’re looking for cost-effective solutions.That’s not the extensive overview of selling to enterprises, but covers a good percentage of the marketing and community engagement activities, as well as the quality of work required in order to close deals, execute, complete them with 5-star ratings, and get enough referrals and support in order to get to the next one.Some ideas of starting an enterprise-focused venture in the WordPress development field:Mario Peshev's answer to How do I get started in the enterprise WordPress development business?