Starting A Social Media Agency: The Basics

Ever wondered if you could take your social media skills from freelancer to starting an agency? With the right planning, it might be a lot easier than you think. While some prefer the freedom of freelancing, ultimately, there are only so many hours in a day – which puts vast limits on your ability to earn. Starting an agency, however, will give you the opportunity to take on a lot more clients than you have time for right now, and increase your earnings potential by a significant amount. Here are a few of the essential things you need to consider if you decide to go down this route.

Decide on your key services

First of all, it’s essential to establish your particular niche and decide on your crucial service offers. Will you be offering help with all social media channels, or focusing on delivering results for a specific platform? While the former might bring you more clients, the latter will give you the opportunity to charge more money, as your expertise in Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram will be more in demand.

Find the right people

One of the most significant problems you will have is finding employees or contractors who have the right level of skills to work with your clients. It can be tough relinquishing control, especially if you are used to working alone as a freelancer or consultant. You’ll need to arrange training, teach your employees or contractors how you like things done, but also be prepared to listen to their ideas. One of the benefits of running an agency is that it gives you the chance to tap into a collective brain – and you would be wise to make the most of it.

The money

Ultimately, it’s going to cost you money to get your agency off the ground. You’ll need to pay staff, create a website, rent an office space, and pay for advertising and marketing materials. If you don’t have enough savings to pay for it yourself, you’ll need to look for funding. According to smallbusinessloans.co, there are plenty of different ways of getting investment for your business. You can put yourself out there and try and attract venture capital firms, or borrow from banks or credit unions. You might apply for assistance from the small business administration (SBA).

Find complementary businesses

As sendible.com point out, social media is part of the broader digital marketing picture. And if you want to grow your market, it’s advisable to find other, non-competing businesses to work with. For example, anyone with a company can have a social media channel, but they are also likely to want a website – so you could team up with a web designer or development company. Similarly, social media is increasingly becoming an essential part of SEO, so perhaps you could work with a specialist search firm?

Be ready to manage

Finally, if you love getting stuck into your client’s social media platforms, bear in mind that over time your focus will need to shift. As your agency grows, you will be spending more time consulting with clients and doing far less of the actual social media work. If this managerial and consultative role doesn’t sound appealing to you, perhaps you will be better off sticking to your freelance career.