Interview: David Wells, Entrepreneur

InterviewFX continues! This interview series offers business owners and marketers important insight, advice, and ideas that will help grow their online presence and become more successful. To see past interviews, visit this page, search “#interviewFX” on social media, or click the “InterviewFX” button in our sidebar.

Today we’re sitting down with David Wells, entrepreneur and founder of Inbound Now, a WordPress plugin development studio. David is also a former HubSpot Inbound Marketing Consultant. Read on to learn how he caught the entrepreneur “bug,” what challenges he faces running his business, and what advice he would give to anyone who wants to start a company.

1. When did you first catch the entrepreneur bug?

I caught the “bug” when I was around 13 years old. I used to play an online MMORPG (NERD ALERT) called Everquest and I was pretty good at it. I started selling the virtual currency I collected in the game for real money.

This was my first taste at being my own boss and making money by doing something that I loved. My grandfather was also a serial entrepreneur that dabbled in a ton of different industries and I think this had an impact as well.

2. How did you get into technology and digital marketing?

I have always been interested in tech gadgets and gizmos and love the awesome power of the interwebs. When I was a freshman in college, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to be when I grew up, so I chose the college of business route. I naturally fell into the marketing sphere of business because I thought it was the most creative of the business disciplines.

I had a couple of internships at advertising agencies and saw some of the cool new things they were doing with the web and other technologies. I started researching and reading everything I could about digital marketing, then got a job doing SEO work, then got a job as a marketing consultant, then made my job making marketing software =)

3. How does inbound marketing help companies grow their business online?

 Inbound marketing levels the playing field for smaller companies who can’t afford to drop tons of cash on paid advertising. It helps differentiate yourself in the crowded marketplace and keeps your brand top of mind, if you are releasing useful content into your ecosystem. It’s also a sure fire way to ramp up traffic to your site and keep it that way.

Getting traffic to a new site is probably the hardest part of any marketers job and creating search friendly content is the best way to ramp that up.

4. What have been some challenges for you managing an online business?

Delegation is the hardest part for me. I like things done in a certain (perfect) way and when they aren’t I tend to redo things myself. You need to learn to delegate things for a company to grow and succeed, there just isn’t enough time to do everything yourself.

5. What advice would you give to any aspiring entrepreneur?

Work your ass off. Nothing great comes easily. You need to put in the time to build something awesome.

Never stop learning. If you are stagnating in your current job and not growing your skill-set, leave immediately. Get an accountant and focus on the things that you do best.

Trying to do everything yourself will quickly drive you insane. Network (online and off) and find people you can collaborate with. Finding a good partner is key.

David Wells is the founder of Inbound Now, an inbound marketing WordPress plugin development studio with over 350,000 users. Image credit: opensourceway