Start up Dilemma.. Now What?

Start up Dilemma.. Now What?

Author
Discussion

sammc123

Original Poster:

109 posts

121 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
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So guys I have recently been made unemployed so decided to launch a business and create myself a job not knowing I would be offered a position as a bus driver starting in about 2 weeks time.

Now I have launched my Site and called potential clients and generally had some decent responses. I may make my first sale on Friday to a bridal store, BUT the service I am offering is Social Media Management. What I do is take control of the businesses Social media advertising Facebook/Twitter business pages etc and free time for the business owner to focus on other parts of the business. Now me and the client would be constantly connected with them updating me about any special offers etc that they want to be promoted through there business page.
Social media is becoming one of the largest advertising spaces for businesses world wide and alot of people are making the most out of this but it can be very time consuming.

As a business I will be charging £60 a month so £2 per day for this service but considering I am due to start work in a little under 2 weeks time, there is no way I could drive a bus AND constantly update businesses social media pages. Now bearing in mind this business was just an idea and started less than 24hours ago plus it cost's me peanuts to start, Is it time to scrap this idea and leave it alone? Money is tight right now so I cant afford to just take a chance and not take it, and this isnt something to be done part time with all the updating of business pages/ contact with clients and calling around for extra clients.

What do you guys think? my website is smmediamarketing. co. uk

Splats

625 posts

161 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
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Buffer solves some of your problem. Of course, there's an argument to say it solves your clients problem for free as well. After all, they could sit for a few hours on a Sunday night and create & schedule their entire social media postings for the following week.

sammc123

Original Poster:

109 posts

121 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
hmm okay, after looking at the buffer site for a business account with up to 150 accounts will cost $250 p/month something just makes me feel quite uneasy about selling something for a fee when they can get it for free. I wasnt aware this was available until now and was charging for my time behind the computer screen. Time to rethink this idea I guess it could be quite a decent money maker but something seems morally wrong selling something when its available free.....

richardxjr

7,561 posts

209 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
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Hang on. You are selling a service and charging a reasonable rate for it.

As a social media luddite, looking at buying a retail business, I like your idea. I will really struggle to open and manage all these accounts which I know are necessary these days, on top of everything else.

Buffer looks unfriendly, foreign, and still costs if you are a business from my look at it.

50 clients beats a bus drivers' wage? Assuming you can't afford 6 months off, take the job, build this part time (be honest with your prospective clients, you are building this from scratch, they will understand given the value you are offering) then go for it.

Think about scaling though. 100 clients gives a good income, but full time you can only spend 2 hours per month on each one - is that enough actual time? - what happens then - up the rates, employ people, franchise it out?

Anyway, 2 weeks to get out there locally canvassing local luddite/busy businesses smile

leemanning

557 posts

151 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
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Just a word of caution on this.

I go to a lot of networking events and I have seen a huge rise in the last 2 years of 'social media experts'. All doing the same as you are doing. Please don't take this the wrong way, but do you have any specialist knowledge or insight into really getting the best out of social media and be able to monetise these practices?

There are just so many people offering your service right now and everyone is much of a muchness. The main thing you can compete on is price and attention to individual clients and pouring more of your time into individual clients won't particularly help grow the business.

Please don't take this as me having a go, because I applaud you for having the guts to start it up. Just I struggle to see the link between social media expert and bus driver and I suppose if your clients knew your actual new profession I doubt many would want to put their hard earned money to somebody that they would not perceive to be an expert.

sammc123

Original Poster:

109 posts

121 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
Thank you for your reply, well I launched less than 24hours ago and have just phoned around a few businesses today, hopefully have my first sale Friday sent alot of information to a bridal store today she is discussing with partner. 50 clients a month will give me £3000 per month not taking into account outgoings but this will be enough to cover my business running costs and my personal bills. Regarding the 100 clients, no 2 hours is really not enough so I would probably look at employing 1 maybe 2 members of staff and upping the rates slightly hopefully if the business can grow this large this will bring in £9000 a month assuming I upped the rates by just £1 per day. Its just getting it across to potential clients just how important social media can be in certain industries now. Also Im going to try and bring in a decent amount of clients over these next 2 weeks it will be hard gaining new clients once working full time on the buses and keeping up to date on my clients business pages. Hopefully the hardwork will pay off smile

leemanning

557 posts

151 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
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When you speak to people, how do you sell the value? You mention there a couple of times the price per day, is that something you discuss with them?

If so, are you working on their Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin etc everyday?

I'm just interested to know where the £60 per month comes from and why is it £60 p/m?

BJG1

5,966 posts

211 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
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I don't understand how you're going to manage a company's social media marketing for £2 a day? I'm not sure how it makes sense. You are going to manage the accounts for 50 different businesses? I really don't see how it's possible.

sammc123

Original Poster:

109 posts

121 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
In response to Lee,

Dont worry about "having a go" haha i dont mind. Talking about "expert" knowledge etc I have worked building pages on Facebook and Twitter before privately but never as paid work, recently I made a Twitter business page for a experiment to test my range of skills for myself. I built the page up and amassed just under 400 follower in 2days. Now i know that is in no way an astronomical numbers but in 2 days gaining that many organic followers had me thinking I may be on to something. I am constantly researching and learning about social media marketing and it is something that excites me. I am no way claiming to be the best in the world in this field hence the low fee's and no contract to make them continue paying me if they are unhappy with the service in anyway. I am not claiming to be an expert I am offering to help, guide and ultimately a business through social media for a small fee.


sammc123

Original Poster:

109 posts

121 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
Regarding the price structure yes I do discuss this fee with the business's, the reason the price is low is because im a new start up I need clients to give me the chance. Some are not happy with this but others are willing to. Obviously because this is part time right now I wont take on more work than I can handle if the time comes that the business grows too large for me to just manage I will run the business full time and hire a few members of staff from this field off work.

Simpo Two

85,150 posts

264 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
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I'd take the proper job and run the social media thing in the evenings/weekends. If it really looks like flying (rather than probably possibly might if) you can always quit the job.

BJG1

5,966 posts

211 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
I think taking on a couple of clients and doing this in your spare time, learning about the market, the workload, the right price to charge, what demand is like etc would be the sensible thing to do to start with. I don't think that you'll be able to run a sustainable business model at £60 a month, you simply won't have the time to produce a decent job. You can't manage 50 clients, there's not a marketing agency in the world that gives someone 50 clients. You'll realistically be wanting 5 or 6 I would imagine. It'll be better to work out what's going to work for you whilst you have a steady income.

sammc123

Original Poster:

109 posts

121 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
Okay so I decided £60 per month due to the fact alot of small businesses are strapped for cash lately and to be fair could do with there business pages marketed. Now i know £60 seems a really small fee but for running part time and learning the market I think it fits perfectly. Do you have a rough idea of what a agency would normally charge for a service like this on average? After some searching around im finding anything from really low fee's up into the £1000's. I dont want to charge clients a huge amount especially in the first month of me starting a business and especially whilst im working full time. Obviously once I had a sustainable business model that worked for me I could up the price but regarding taking on extra clients surely the income from the extra clients would provide sufficient funds to hire staff down the line? We are talking IF'S and MIGHTS here but its always good to know what your getting into! smile

BJG1

5,966 posts

211 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
UK based agencies will be the equivalent of £60 p/h per head for the cheapest to much more than that for the bigger agencies.

UK Freelancers will be anywhere from £15 - £150 p/h.

I think what you're proposing would see you working for a lot less than minimum wage. I think that's fine whilst you're learning and you should definitely go for it with the first couple of clients you've found. Then you can start to lay out a business plan for doing it full-time with a bit of nous and insight into how it'll all work for you.

sammc123

Original Poster:

109 posts

121 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
So are we talking major international companies that are paying that? or small businesses such as Bridal Stores, B&B's etc? Surely the amount of time spent on Social Media Marketing for a fee of that amount is too much for alot of the small business'? I know £60 is a small amount but for introducing clients to my services I think I could be on to something with the right planning. Making Social Media Marketing more AVAILABLE to these smaller business' surely that is something they want. Im thinking to charge a flat £60 p/month rate for the first few months of custom then introducing a higher fee to continue work as I build the Business, this would obviously be told to the potential client before any $$$ changed hands. My skills obviously are not good enough at this minute to approach huge companies offering to Market them by myself but a few small business' is manageable whilst learning the business side of things. This will be my first business, I think its just sinking in how hard business really is now! haha

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
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Interesting topic.

Some thoughts in no particular order:
-400 followers is easy enough - the issue is whether they're quality followers or people just looking to swap "followers" just to increase their own follower size/ego. How many of these followers would buy from your test business that you set up on Twitter?
-What do you think you will do everyday for £2 for your clients? What would you do for me as someone who runs, say, a carpentry business?
-Bigger clients may have a more active social media presence - but so could a small business who has a lot of followers; how would you deal with this for just £2 a day?
-Your written English is pretty good but there are a few errors. I know this is only a forum post so your formal prose could be spot on?

Edit: sorry if I sound mean. Just throwing my thoughts at you. smile

Edited by Hoofy on Wednesday 5th February 22:11

sammc123

Original Poster:

109 posts

121 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
Okay well I will start with the Carpentry business idea. So you have just signed up and paid the £60 fee. First would be to make an attractive looking landing page for the business. This will be the first thing your customers will see it will have to grab there attention otherwise they are not staying never mind buying from you. Next would be to find your target audience on the range on SM platforms available and target them accordingly. I would go through Facebook analytic twice a week to see how the page is performing and develop accordingly. Every message/promotion etc sent out would be worded correctly to connect with the ( Following ) and new potential customers to encourage connection between customers and your business.

Now regarding the 400 follows it actually did go surprisingly well but the "test business" just wasn't sustainable for the product otherwise I would have run for that! It was Exotic Wood Sunglasses imported from china but once I went through the numbers it would have been extremely hard to turn a profit. Regarding how many would buy out of the just under 400 followers I had 106 people ask me how they could order and when would they be made available, I even had a woman ask could she back order her pair. Rather embarrassing explaining this was a test business page setup for an experiment haha!

sammc123

Original Poster:

109 posts

121 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
Regarding the bigger clients I forgot that one! smile

Right now at my point of starting I am targeting smaller local businesses with a small/ average following currently who are looking to try and build on that. At this point in time I would not approach nor take on a client with such a mass following. It just wouldn't make any sense for either party.

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
Who would write the content for posting on SM?

Ok, you win on the test business. But just to check, you wooden think it'd work? hehe

Hoofy

76,253 posts

281 months

Wednesday 5th February 2014
quotequote all
sammc123 said:
Regarding the bigger clients I forgot that one! smile

Right now at my point of starting I am targeting smaller local businesses with a small/ average following currently who are looking to try and build on that. At this point in time I would not approach nor take on a client with such a mass following. It just wouldn't make any sense for either party.
What about a personal trainer who had, say, 2000 followers but not the time to deal with that? I follow some PTers and they are very active on Facebook.