"This is not directly related to SMM, but how do you manage your finances?"
"You know what? In freelancing, the income stream is not consistent.
In your first month, for example, you can earn Php 10,000.
Then in your second month, you earn Php 50,000.
In your third month, it went down to Php 25,000.
So, it's not always the same.
It just depends on the projects that you will get on that month.
Right?
I would highly recommend first to build your emergency fund.
I am not sure if you already watched my video talking about emergency funds.
But the basic idea of it is just to
know how much is your monthly expenses and then multiple it by 6.
For example, every month, your expense amounts to Php 20,000.
It includes all your basic needs.
So, you are going to multiply that by 6 months.
So that even if you lose your job for 6 months, you can still sustain your lifestyle without you struggling.
That is the first main thing to do when you are a freelancer.
Have an emergency fund.
Aside from emergency funds, the second thing to do, especially if you are a breadwinner,
get a life insurance.
I think those are the main things I do in managing my finances.
And I have a routine when it comes to my finances.
Every month, I track my expenses for the whole month in a spreadsheet.
It's for me to see how much money I've spent in just one month.
I could also see there if I have to cut expenses for the next month
or whether I have to take another project for next month.
It would be really nice to track your expenses every month
to see if you overspent on something, so that next time,
you can catch yourself, "Oh, I should not spend on this thing right now because I overspent last month."
"How do you identify your prospect clients?"
"How could you tell if he or she is a prospect client or not?"
"If he or she fits into your customer avatar categories.
I am not sure if you have already created a customer avatar."
"Is this like your ideal client or your ideal customer?" "Yeah."
"For example, the clients you want to work with are coaches.
You should have a list of categories on the type of coaches you would entertain.
Are they coaches who talk about fitness?
Are they coaches who sell courses?
Even just those questions that are answerable by yes or no.
You have to have a list of your ideal clients.
Also, take into account the target clients or customers of your ideal client.
The more you know who their target clients are, the more you can help them with their business.
For example, if you can see that client when you are browsing on LinkedIn, or maybe...
Where do you source out?
LinkedIn? Instagram? Facebook groups?"
"Instagram and Facebook."
"Facebook? Okay.
For Instagram, you can always check their posts and highlight stories.
And if you can see, "Oh, this coach is pitching his or her courses."
So, check it off your category checklist.
Where does this client live?
For example, you don't like working graveyard shift. You are working graveyard right now, right?"
"Yes, my client is in New York. So I have to follow their time."
"You know what? Sometimes, if you are a Social Media Manager, it does not really need that your work in their time.
You can just schedule the posts.
And that is also a good thing if you are a Social Media Manager.
Is it okay with the client if you don't work in their timezone? If yes, check it on your list.
If there are one or two that do not fit into your category, you can just skip that and focus more on the checked ones.
And to be honest, even if you have checked all those items on your list,
if you will really get to know or if you are going to hop on a call with that client,
you can feel their vibe and you would know if you could help them or not during the call.
It is okay to back off if you don't feel like working with the client."
"One last question, I remembered because of this conversation.
I encountered the term discovery call. What are the usual questions to ask during the call?"
"Always make sure that it is not just the client who asks about your business and the help you could give to them.
Ask them as well about their goal for the business, their target market, and their processes.
If you can see that you can help them with the problems that they face,
if you know that you can do something for her or for him to improve their business,
then go for it.
Previously, when I was just starting out as a Social Media Manager, or even as a freelancer, in general,
one of the mistakes I made was that I let the client ask me throughout the call.
I did not ask questions.
And it turns out that after I got hired, I realized that I wasn't able to help him or her.
We are not matched to work together.
It is because I did not ask.
It is really important, for you as well, to decide if he or she is a good client.
Ask what problems they needed help with and their goals as an entrepreneur.
And also, please just accept projects that are in line with your values in life.
If you think that the business is not aligned with your values, even if you have checked all the items in your checklist,
back off. Just back off."
"I think you talked about this in one of your videos before,
what's the first thing to ask the client once you get an offer or passed the initial interview?"
"You passed the initial interview and the client hired you, is that the scenario?" "Yes."
"If you are a Social Media Manager, the list of things that I always from the client
is the brand kit.
For example, if they don't have a brand kit, since some clients don't really have one,
make sure to get the links to their social media accounts and their website, and you can base all your content from there.
But you should already have talked about their goal in the initial interview.
Because all the content you will put out on their social media accounts will be based on their goal.
You can't just put anything that is not in line with their goal, right?
For example, if the goal is to build brand awareness, get interactions, gain account followers, and have product sales,
the things that you are going to ask would be
the raw pictures that they want to include in the content.
You know what, a lot of clients will not provide any.
So, you have to find your own.
You have to find your own content.
Just make sure that it is not copyrighted.
If they don't have a budget for paid stock photos or clips subscriptions,
there are many websites that have free photos or clips.
You can get from there.
For the caption, there are some clients who provide the captions, but not the image.
So, you have to source for the image. They will just provide you the caption.
There are also clients who would assign everything to you, both the graphics and the captions.
They just really want to see your planned content and they will just check it.
They will just approve it or they will comment on what they want to change in the content.
And then, another thing that you can ask is the landing page link to the products or services they are selling.
For example, if you only have their website link, and they have another landing page.
Again, a landing page is different from a website.
All the assets that you could use, get those so that you could repurpose them.
For example, they have a YouTube channel,
you can get a clip from their YouTube channel talking something about the course they are selling.
You can just cut that part and then post it on Facebook, LinkedIn, and so.
So, those are the things.
And for example, you did a discovery call today, August 23.
Your target date to start posting is September 1.
Before September 1, you should be able to finish creating content for two weeks.
So that the client would still have some time to check the content before it gets published.
Because they might want to change something but it's already late as it has to be published the other day.
It is also up to them if you will be posting every day, or just once or twice a week.
It depends on what you have agreed upon during the discovery call."
"How long do the clients would usually need you? What is the minimum number of months?"
"Actually, to be honest, there are some Social Media Managers who are service package-based.
Therefore, they are getting paid per month to do this set of tasks.
They contract it for three months.
And after that, if the client liked the service, they would offer a retainer.
But if not, then the contract ends there.
But in my case, it is every day for about 4 years.
It depends on you and your client if you will be paid monthly for certain tasks or per hour.
There are also some Social Media Managers, and I saw this offer on Upwork,
this is a good thing to offer as well.
We, my team and I, are also thinking to have this kind of offer as well.
Do you like graphics designing or you are more on copywriting?
Which do you feel like doing?"
"I think a little bit of both."
"That is nice." "I don't think I'm more on something."
"I feel like it is a balance of the two."
"Balance? That is nice. That is actually nice.
I saw on Upwork, everything is just graphics.
A lot of social posts that contain graphics only.
30 social media graphics.
Her pricing is $99 for 30 social media graphics.
Therefore, the client can post 1 content per day using the image that she will produce.
But she will not be doing the caption, the strategy, and everything."
"Purely templates?" "Yes, purely graphics."
"She also provides the template for those graphics so that the client can re-use it.
Actually, that offer is a product.
It falls under the product category, not service."
"I think I saw some selling 30-day posts." "Yeah, yeah."
"So, it's up to the client what image they will insert. The provider just has to give them the access to edit." "Yeah."
"Yeah, that is nice. That's nice."
"I also saw one offer, I forgot how much, but the offer is engagement for one week."
She will just engage, comment, respond, and such.
But that is also a good service to offer, right?
Just for one week."
"Just be creative with the service you can offer to the client." "True."
"It depends if it will be bi-weekly or bi-monthly, etc."
"I think that is all for my questions.
I just want to share that in one of your videos, you suggested that one way to get a client is
to get a beta client.
So, I did that one time on my personal Instagram account.
I said, "Hi, I'm looking for small business owners who would be interested to be my beta client."
"After 10 minutes, one of my followers responded." "What does he/she said?"
"I really got excited."
She said, "Hi, we are in need of one because we don't have time to do postings and such."
I really got happy. And now, we are currently in the process of discussing what to do."
So, I just want to share that it's because of your advice to look for beta clients. So, thank you."
"That is nice.
Sometimes, you know what...
I have something to say again, Oh my God. Do you have to go out now?
You know what? I notice that successful freelancers, or even entrepreneurs,
these are the people who are willing to work for free at first.
just to see and know more about the market.
Sorry to say. But some of the coaches would not really recommend doing that kind of thing, to be honest.
I think that would be a good start for aspiring and newbie freelancers
to see if they really do like that task.
Because you are doing it for free, right?
Or if you are not doing it for free, at a discounted rate, at least.
It will test whether or not you really like that kind of job
because you are doing it for free.
If you can really maximize that time that you have a beta or test client,
to learn from that experience,
you will have a long way to go.
You will be successful when you are so open to learn.
If there is something you feel like, "Oh, I think I have to adjust this process because this slows us down."
To some, even getting test clients is difficult.
I told them that they could ask their relatives or friends who own a business if they could handle their account.
Or maybe you can just ask someone from LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook groups.
There are also many entrepreneurs inside Facebook groups.
As a freelancer, you will just have to have a heart that doesn't easily get discouraged, and you can receive "no".
Sometimes, we easily get discouraged when our proposals get rejected.
If you can control your emotions, you will be unstoppable.
It's okay to get rejected. There are still other clients. Try again next time."
"On my part, since I'm very interested and I'm willing to work for it,
I could not afford right now the courses that are being offered.
So, I opted for your advice to find test clients.
Fortunately, they also do not have enough funds to hire someone yet.
So, it worked for both of us."
"Yes, that is nice. It's like both of you are in the same situation where you cannot afford paid courses yet, for now.
But I would highly recommend,
eventually, if you already learned all the basics,
and you are slowing earning from social media management,
I would highly recommend that you go for advanced courses to level up your skills.
I can really see that you have great potential because right now, you are really taking action on what you are learning.
And I am so happy to know that.
You are really part of the #bossupfam because that is the goal of our community.
To really take action once you learn something.
So, is that it? Don't you have any additional questions?
Don't worry because if ever you have follow-up questions, you can message BossedUp PH page or directly to Cess.
"Thank you so much for your time" "Thank you."
"It's a pleasure to get a consultation call with you."
"And congrats to your 20k subscribers milestone." "Yes, yehey!"
"Thank you! It's because of you guys why our subscribers' count grows.
Because the YouTube algorithm sees if many people are watching the video."
"Thank you." "Hopefully, you get some value from what I've said."
"Yes, definitely." "Thank you so much."
"Bye!" "Same. And more power to you, BossedUp PH"
"Thank you." "Thank you."