Self-employment Support?

[SvenV]

Float On is really right, it is very important to have a good balance.

Self-employment can be the most wonderful thing in the world, but you need to have good balance and must be able to put work down and just enjoy the free time you have.
I work, or lets better say I try, as a freelancer and I am at the beginning to start my own little business. And I am really happy that I can do it...

But for me is important to keep in mind that I must have a good balance. I don't want to forget that

[SteveinMN]

Resurrecting this old thread to announce that I went back to working on my photography business and I have landed my first paying customer! It's a remodeling company that, based on their Web site, really could use some help taking decent pictures. I'm their guy...

One thing I've noted in looking at other small businesses is their "social media" presence. My current situation, to be succinct, is that I don't have one. I have a twitter account in my company name, but I haven't tweeted once from it. I do not have a business page on Facebook. And I don't even have personal Pinterest or google+ accounts, nevermind business accounts. I'm figuring I probably need to do a Facebook page out of the sheer volume and penetration of the site. Pins of remodeled spaces I photograph would fit real well on Pinterest and maybe drum up business for me and the people whose work I photograph. The less I have to do with google the better, but that may not be real avoidable. OTOH, I don't want to start all those contact sources and let them die for lack of material or time. How do other small-businesspeople handle that?

[Tammy]

My husband does social media for a few businesses. One is a restaurant. They give him breakfast and lunch as often as he wishes in exchange for his work. Itan arrangement that they both like better than any formalized hours and payment. They have Twitter which is updated a few times a day with daily specials. They have instagram, which was used these past two weeks for a contest. The customer who posted the winning pic of their food got a 25$ gift certificate. They have a facebook page. That's less organized, but still updated at least ince a day.

[Tammy]

Talking to him now, and he says lots of companies dump this extra duty on a salaried manager who has no heart or skills for it. So it is rarely updated and poorly done. This is worse than no media presence.

Some businesses pay big bucks to have someone do it, but most can't afford a full time media person.

The trick is finding someone who cares and knows how social media works. And figuring out how to compensate in a way they value that is affordable.

I told my husband to start bartering with a gas station, grocery store, car dealership, apartment complex .... Our whole life could be supplied.

[SteveinMN]

Talking to him now, and he says lots of companies dump this extra duty on a salaried manager who has no heart or skills for it. So it is rarely updated and poorly done. This is worse than no media presence.

Some businesses pay big bucks to have someone do it, but most can't afford a full time media person.

Thanks, Tammy. That's kind of what I'm afraid of. My business is me, myself, and I. I would care a whole bunch though keeping a lot of social media alive likely would mean less time spent on other things, like looking for customers.

One difference for me is that my customers are other businesses. Certainly there are people at those businesses making the decision to purchase my services. But I don't face customers directly so that I would have a daily special or much seasonality to promote. So I'd have to think of something useful worth reading on a periodic basis. And to keep up with it. Without (my personal peeve) posting only when I have something to sell (that's not social, that's just an overt selling opportunity) and without preaching to the choir (Fb may be a good place to introduce the value of what I do, but if someone is already following me on twitter, do they need to be reminded constantly of the value of good photos? I don't see that as a value-add).

I do follow a few smaller businesses on social media and seeing what they send out makes me think that either I should use pretty much the same stuff in all venues (Fb post looks like a tweet which resembles whatever google+ has, etc.) and let (prospective) customers choose their preferred medium (and risk boring people who follow on more than one platform) or come up with original content for each platform (lots more time spent).

Still thinking....

[Tammy]

Not to mention yelp ... It's endless.

Less is more, for business marketing. I don't like being bothered more than once a day by a business.

Not the way most do it, however ...

[Gregg]

Deleted because I should read everything I'm responding to first...

[try2bfrugal]

Thanks, Tammy. That's kind of what I'm afraid of. My business is me, myself, and I. I would care a whole bunch though keeping a lot of social media alive likely would mean less time spent on other things, like looking for customers.

Your best investment is probably trying to come up in the search engine listings for

commercial photography "your city"

and related terms. Or doing some free work for nonprofits in return for portfolio samples, references and maybe some positive Yelp reviews and free links to your business web site.

[fidgiegirl]

Steve, what is the goal of the social media presence? Clients for you or clients for your clients? That could be important. My first thought was, "Of course! Images = Pinterest!" But in the case of your remodeling company, if it's male owners, well, they probably weren't cruising Pinterest to find a photographer. May have been, but Pinterest users are overwhelmingly female. But like you said, their clients might be searching Pinterest for remodeling IMAGES, leading to clients for them. You mentioned realtors in the past, if I remember correctly - where to realtors hang out? On LinkedIn? On FB? Not sure how to find this out.

I have different social media approaches for different audiences. Pinterest is personal and some dissemination of good information for work. I am driving a bit of traffic to Twin Cities Gluten Free through Pinterest, which is big for food photography. Twitter is networking for my paid job. There are TONS of techy educators hanging out there.

Here's another thing with social media - you can automate it. You can set schedule FB updates and tweets and pins. Then, you just go to town with your own site and connect it all up and you don't have to do a ton of posting, though there is the monitoring of comments.

Just some thoughts, not real advice. It's easy to be overwhelmed by all of it and I'm figuring it out as well.

In my own business news, I have decided to put on a one-day craft retreat on October. Have booked a space. Will keep you all updated.

[SteveinMN]

Steve, what is the goal of the social media presence? Clients for you or clients for your clients?

Well, some of it is a case of "everybody does it". I remember the days when it was possible to type http//www.nameofcompany.com and not come up with a Web site. Today even the little auto repair place down the block has at least a static Web page with a map, hours, etc. And most businesses seem to have Facebook pages, twitter feeds, etc. So I feel I need to do at least some of it. But I don't want to do it halfway. I see too much of that and I don't think it reflects well on the business.

With Pinterest, though, you raise a good question. Mine is a business-to-business kind of -- umm, business -- so "advertising" what I can do on Pinterest probably would not be fruitful. But being able to provide remodelers/decorators/home stagers with good pictures for Pinterest ... that's a competitive advantage. So I probably ought to know at least how those media work (as I had to learn the rules for MLS listings).

Here's another thing with social media - you can automate it.

I'm liking that! I'll have to figure out how that works. I can preload useful stuff. I really didn't even think I'd have to do it real-time. Good to know I don't have to. Thanks!