Here are the 2 big mistakes I made when I started as a Social Media Manager, that I hope someone would have told me sooner.
These mistakes contribute to why you are not growing your business fast enough.
So, if you are feeling stuck and confused about it, continue reading!
Mistake #1: Not Confident in Your Expertise
This is a common problem in business. This mistake is one of the most common ones when starting out.
A lot of new social media managers tend to think they can’t work with clients until they are experienced enough. This doesn’t really make sense, because how are you supposed to get experienced, if you don’t work with clients?
Everyone starts at zero. I started at zero. Any successful mentor or coach you see today started at zero. No one starts their business with tons of experience. We make mistakes and we learn from them.
In order for you to gain that experience, you do need to work with clients. If you keep telling yourself that you can’t start because you have no experience, then you are going to stay stuck. You will be in this cycle of telling yourself you “cannot do it”.
This is a roadblock and it’s the worst when you’re about to start as a Social Media Manager.
How to Overcome Low Confidence
Instead of focusing on the fact that you have no experience, just start doing it, even if it scares you. The problem is not that you don’t have experience. You are scared of charging money for your services.
Yet, so many SMM-s (social media managers) get stuck saying, “I don’t have experience”. What they mean is, “I am afraid of charging money”. These two are completely different things.
People automatically assume that once they work with clients, they need to charge money for it. And because they’re charging money, they start getting nervous that they can’t perform at the level that that money is buying.
So, they stop in their tracks and they don’t work with clients at all.
But what you have to know is that you can use your own knowledge on your social media accounts and showcase that as a testimonial. You can also take over a few of your friends accounts for free. This is exactly what I did. I started off working for free. Yes, this can be a little bit controversial. Because so many people are against working for free.
But if you want me to be honest, working for free and gaining experience is better than getting stuck.
Start Gaining Experience as a Social Media Manager
As a new SMM, it’s obvious that you have no experience yet. You don’t even know what your offer is. You don’t even know what you can provide in the social media management world.
So, it’s fair to say, “Hey I can help you accomplish XYZ on your social media profiles. I would love to test my strategies out. Would you mind exchanging my free service with feedback and testimonial?”
As simple as that. Once you start developing 1-2 free clients, you start feeling confident. Because now, you’re building your brand and strategies based on their feedback.
The best part is that because you’re not charging for it, then you don’t feel as nervous about it.
Mistake #2: Not Having a Solid Foundation
In order to succeed, you need to know how to create sustainable offers that help you scale from working with clients that have low budgets, that are lowballing your services, or super needy and demanding, to having a marketing agency and hiring more people to help you grow (even if it’s just one virtual assistance, it will make all the difference). I will never forget the day I hired my first assistant and delegated her all the repetitive and manual work I didn’t want to do. I immediately doubled the number of clients I could accept to work with. 
Important: When I first launched my business, it wasn’t a full social media management service. I decided to focus on what I knew best, Instagram engagement growth. BUT I did not have a focus. I was offering my services to anyone that wanted to grow on Instagram (yes, even influencers and they are super demanding 
) . And that was really naive on my part. Only after I started to work with different type of client, I realised, my services weren’t applicable to everyone, but to service-based online businesses only. I could provide real results for them, and that also made me love my daily job, and got me recommended from my current clients to new clients.
Niching Down Your Offer
When you are starting a social media manager, it’s important to niche down. Because you don’t want to be attracting everyone.
An Influencer has different strategies they need for their account, compared to a Business Owner. The same with a product seller and a service provider, (just like a photographer or a dress store). It doesn’t matter what your ultimate goal is for your business, niching down is the answer to your solution.
Starting From Zero
So many people get scared or even embarrassed about starting from zero. But you need to realize that everyone starts at the bottom.
You need to start working with clients, even if it’s for free at first. So be it. Eventually, you can start charging real money, hire other people, and grow into a marketing agency.
But working with 1-2 clients for free is going to allow you to actually test your strategies. It’s going to make you much more confident when discussing your prices with the 3rd, or the 4th client. Also, a free client could turn into a paid client after a few weeks 💰 .
With that income, you can hire more people so you can open up the capacity to serve more clients. And you can slowly develop your team.
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