Carrie is a very interesting individual! She’s an aspiring digital nomad and through some impressive hustling, she landed her very first client. I know several of you reading this are trying to land your first client, or maybe your second or third, so I’ve asked Carrie to tell her story… And to also give you the step-by-step breakdown of what she did to land her first client.
Hopefully you’ll be able to get some inspiration to land a client!
I just want to quickly remind you of the next Facebook Live session in The Dude’s Brood Facebook group on September 21st . Make sure you’re in the group and take a peek at the events section to find out the time of the session. I’ll go through all the posts from the week highlighting some keys things and answering any questions you have 🙂
Anyway… Now it’s time for Carrie to take over and hopefully inspire you to go land a client! Oh, and follow her on Instagram too!
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Ok to be honest my headline should have read still faking it but made it, sort of. To understand why let me share a little about me first. Almost a year ago I decided to ditch the 9 – 5 and live in a van. Spend my days outdoors catching sunrises and toasting sunsets around Australia. I was living the sweet life while depleting what little savings I had post van purchase. Originally I thought I would spend 6 months travelling right the way around the big loop but after that 6 month mark ticked over I was addicted, also I had only made it about a 1/4 of the way around the country! I had to make a decision, sell my baby and go back to the corporate prison or become one of these Digital Nomads everyone keeps talking about.
Obliviously I set out to be a Digital Nomad otherwise I wouldn’t be here writing this article! When I sat down and looked at my skill set and tried to put a plan in place it became clear after the millionth time I stopped what I was doing and checked my Facebook & Instagram feeds, Social Media Management was right for me.
As I am sure there are a lot of people who are thinking about taking the jump into their own online business I thought I would share with you how I got my first client and started my business within weeks. This is my story and I hope it inspires you to give it a go if this is something you are considering.
Ok so I decided logically on Social Media (no way I had the headspace to mess around with code, webdevelopment blah blah blah)
All the research in the world doesn’t mean anything unless you have a client right. I decided to stick with what I know and find someone within the alcohol industry. Not just because I am an avid wine consumer but I used to work in this industry pre van life. It made sense to me to stick with what I know as I couldn’t imagine creating engaging content for a law firm. Don’t get me wrong, I am not going to pigeon hole myself forever but I really want to succeed and you can have a lot of fun with alcohol along the way (both drinking and creating content!).
So after picking a job title, niche and throwing caution to the wind I set out to get my first client. I went along to a large food and wine event and started talking to businesses. As I had already worked in the industry I felt comfortable in this space and easily made connections. I engaged really well with one company who were to become my first client.
Once I had spent some time making connections and of course eating some food and drinking some wine I left with excitement. Two days later (I know how crazy busy shows are so didn’t want to bombard on their recovery day) I emailed on my client asking if he would like me to manage his social media. I 100% expected him to say no right off the bat but he said he was interested. Wowzers I seriously couldn’t believe it! He asked me about my prices and said he would take it into consideration. Me being me who loves spontaneity I hadn’t even gotten this far in my planning. I pulled a figure out of my head (not the smartest strategy I know!) and worked out the value I could give him for this amount.
I sat down and researched all his accounts, found the positives, the negatives and the gaps. Using my small knowledge of powerpoint I created what I thought to be a beautiful in depth proposal. Using their branding and in an easy to digest format I walked him through everything I would do for his company and how. To my shock horror he excepted! I was in business. Now it is still very early days (1month if I am honest) but I have loved very minute of it. I love the feeling of working for myself. I love working with my client on growing his business. I actually love sitting down at my laptop and creating content (Canva all the way!), taking online courses, researching and feeling like a boss lady!
As I said at the start I am still faking it but made it sort of. I am so proud of where I have come in the last 6weeks and excited to see where it takes me. My life right now in my van is exactly where I want to be. So far I have found the online digital nomad community especially the SMM world to be so inclusive and happy to share their knowledge. I guess I would like to share my 2 cents to those thinking about taking that next step.
The steps I took to get my first client
- Jumping online I researched everything on social media from courses to Facebook groups, mainly free courses at the start but since I have signed up for some paid content also
- I worked out who my ideal client would be, starting out I wanted to work in a space that I am comfortable in
- Next I brainstormed networking opportunities
- I met perspective companies face to face at a live food & wine event and talked directly to sales managers, marketing managers and business owners. I am probably going to sound fussy but I wanted to work with someone who was on the same level as me so meeting face to face gave me a feel of how we would work together also.
- As I didn’t have any business cards (neither do I have a company name / website as yet!) I just met with people and got chatting about their products building a relationship. I didn’t want to get too salesy but I got business cards.
- After the event I contacted a few companies via email to see if they were interested in social media services and to say that it was great to meet at the show
- My now client responded and asked for my rates
- I created a 6 page power point presentation using their companies branding showing them where they are currently on social media and what I will do for them in the future. I spent a lot of time on this presentation making sure they could see the value that I could add and to make it look professional and show what content I can create
- After a few negotiations on pricing (we are on a 3 month trial at a reduced rate with a bonus to be paid after the three months and full rate to be paid there after) we were up and running
- I am charging a set monthly fee for a set amount of posts + daily engagement / responses
- I have since been creating all content through Canva (I just love this program) and scheduling through Hootsuite
