Work Process: How to run your social media management business from home

UPDATED ON JUNE 24, 2020

The business environment these days is different from what we used to have a few months ago. It is significantly harder to secure projects due to the current state of the economy. But it doesn’t mean our hustle will be put on a halt.

When I started my social media management business from home, I remember feeling insecure about so many things. I only had the most basic of tools: a laptop and a wireless mouse. The rest had to rely on a solid work routine to keep my work process smooth and on track. And today, I’m going to share that with you. I hope it helps in getting your social media management business up to speed too.

Here’s how to run a social media management business from home:

01 GET YOUR FIRST PROJECTS

In my tips on how to get online jobs and remote work from home, I shared the importance of preparing for an online job the same way you would when applying for regular office work. Iron out your CV and make sure you have a portfolio to show. No prior work experience? Not a problem! What you can do is create your sample social media projects to convince potential clients that you can perform the task of an experienced social media manager. Strengthen your claim by establishing your social media presence and demonstrating your skills and knowledge to your brand.

02 INVEST IN QUALITY DIGITAL TOOLS

Any serious social media managers and digital marketing practitioners would try every highly-rated digital marketing tools there is out there. I used to pay for monthly subscriptions of Hootsuite, Photoshop and so on. But as other digital tools improved over time, I just had to switch tools. Today, Canva has been a fantastic tool in getting my social media content on point. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have created their social post scheduling tool as well.

03 LEARN WHAT YOU WANT TO EARN

The first agenda is to learn what it takes to run the business on your own. If you’re going to start a business with minimum to almost no capital, chances are you will have to do the entire work, from pitching to clients, preparing proposals, closing deals and so on. As soon as you begin your work, you’ll realise that regular communication with a client is just a small portion of your daily tasks. You will also have to carve some time to produce the output. At that time, I didn’t have a graphic design experience which was essential to creating great content. So, I had to teach myself and relied heavily on online videos and blog tutorials. I learned the design part in social media and combined it with what I learned from my PR and Marketing work experience. Soon enough, I found myself working on actual social media projects.

Recently, I’ve discovered hundreds of digital books and audiobooks in Scribd. And it’s been amazing partner to my nightly learning routine.

04 REDEFINE WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED FROM YOUR PREVIOUS WORK

I am forever grateful for the things I’ve learned from my previous PR and Marketing Communications jobs I’ve had in the past. I didn’t only learn how to set up an event from start to finish; I have also learned how to manage a team of creatives to produce an entire campaign. All of those learnings, I brought to the table to help with the projects I won online. And you can do the same too. Take the time to recall the previous job experience you’ve had. List down the skills you’ve learned and look for a way to connect those work experiences with your current work.

05 ESTABLISH YOUR WORK ROUTINE

One of the things I learned from managing a social media management business from home was that you would be easily swamped the moment you start working on a project. I started losing a lot of sleep trying to keep up with the crazy time difference between my US clients. I took calls in the middle of the night and work on the actual projects by day and submit them before my end-of-day. It was clockwork. Before I celebrated my third month, I realised I was burning out fast! While there’s nothing wrong with hustling hard, forgetting to take care of yourself will be a huge mistake. Create a daily work routine that respects your need for a me-time. It will improve your focus and stamina to handle the tough work.

06 PREPARE TO HUSTLE

Unless you have some fund to start a remote team, you’ll be surprised at the amount of work you’ll be having when you run your social media management business from home. Reinvest what you earn to grow your business by automating your work process. I’ve shared my social media tools that improved my work process. But eventually, I started getting my small team to help on the grunt work so I could focus on getting new projects.

Do you need other resources to get you up to speed?

Read these topics related to working-from-home here.

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