Most social media managers start out as freelancers.
That’s likely because it’s one of the simplest ways to start a business:
Step 1: Offer a service
Step 2: Find clients who need the service
Step 3: Deliver the service
Rinse & repeat…
But as all freelancers (& really any entrepreneur) knows, there are a lot of hats to wear when it comes to operating a successful, sustainable business.
As a service-provider, when you grow your business & take on more clients (YAY) the workload increases equally (YIKES).
Obviously you want to grow your business & become more profitable! But in order to avoid working longer hours & eventually burning out, you’ll need a plan to scale.
Scaling a business requires setting up a foundation that can sustain growth--this includes establishing smart systems & hiring team members to delegate the overflow of work to.
Outsourcing work can be scary if you’ve never done it!
And when the client work has always been done by you, it can be confusing to know where to start.
But we’re making it easier on you with 5 tasks that you can start outsourcing right now to make your own workload lighter & your ability to scale your business to the next financial level more attainable…
1 | Community Management
One of the most time-consuming tasks for a social media manager is community management. Whether it’s engaging with your client’s followers, answering DM’s, responding to comments, or doing brand outreach--handing this off will give you back hours each week to work on the projects that will take your business to the next level!
2 | Copywriting & Captions
Not a great writer? Grammar probs? Then you should delegate this task immediately! Social media requires so much copy--and if this isn’t an area you personally feel strong in, or you find writing captions every single week daunting, find a great copywriter and move on with your life!
3 | Admin & Bookkeeping
If you’re brand new to outsourcing, these areas are like task-delegation training wheels. Stop trying to balance your own ledger & find yourself a great bookkeeper instead. Hire a virtual assistant to help you with administrative tasks like answering emails & organizing your calendar. The business tasks that aren’t client-related should be some of the first things you get off your plate.
4 | Curation & Sourcing Content
If you’re regularly curating content or sourcing articles for client’s accounts, this is a job you can easily outsource. Find someone with a good eye & decent researching skills, give them a few content parameters & let them do their thing. This is another one of those necessary-but-way-too-time-consuming tasks that you can hand off to the right person & never have to think about it again!
5 | Scheduling
A lot of social media managers gasp when I suggest delegating calendar scheduling. SAY WHAATTT?! But the truth is that eventually--if you want to step into the role of CEO in your business--you will need to.
It doesn’t mean you can’t edit & review client calendars before they go live, it just means you aren’t the one sitting down to schedule the first edit. The best part is that handing this off could mean you’re finally free to work on the big picture parts of growing your business, like refining your marketing strategy, developing new offers & signing more clients!
The reality is, if you want to grow your business, you can’t do it alone—so you’ll have to learn how to delegate. These 5 tasks are a great place to start & will start giving you back the time you need to work on your business versus in it!