From the trenches: Running a Drupal consultancy for the last 10 years.

This is a presentation I gave during DrupalCamp Manila 2014 earlier in April. The talk is focus on sharing my experience as a CEO of Pixel Onion and how the journey has been for us.

Topics covered were about opportunities in the Drupal market, how is the industry like in Singapore, hiring of talents and what aspiring individuals who like to start off their own shop need to start thinking about.

Transcript

1. From the Trenches: 
 How it is like running a Drupal consultancy over the last 3 years Kiat Lim, CEO, Pixel Onion Pte Ltd (Singapore)
2. Warning: This is not a technical session
3. Ingredients for A Better Web Questions or feedback? Tweet it to @ironkiat 2007 Started designing for Drupal 5 2008 Became an entrepreneur 2011 Shut off the first venture and... About Kiat Lim
10. Jan 2012
11. Aug 2013
13. Ingredients for A Better Web Questions or feedback? Tweet it to @ironkiat So...what have we learnt?
14. Lesson 1: On strategy...
15. “Find Your Niche before you find your customers”
17. Content Strategy User Research Information Architecture Visual Design Responsive Theme Prototypes SEO 3rd party integration E-commerce Training Maintenance Customisation Vertical industry solutions
18. man-day?
    man-hour?
    value costing?
19. Lesson 2: On marketing yourself...
20. “Evangelising & contributing back is the most efficient way to establish a brand for yourself”
25. Drupal Global training day, Nov 2013
28. Lesson 3: On hiring...
29. “Experience matters, but Attitude wins big time”
31. We don’t have much Supplies
33. Consider hiring fresh graduates
34. Or Career Switchers
36. Lesson 4: On handling competition...
37. “Swear by Drupal &
    it’s best practices”
40. Lesson 5: On opportunities...
42. “Opportunities are everywhere.
    It’s whether or not you see them”
43. What do you think? Kiat Lim, CEO, Pixel Onion Pte Ltd (Singapore) @ironkiat / kiat@pixelonion.com