Time is Money
Time flies faster than a viral tweet, and as a social media manager, it's not just engagement rates you need to track. Today we’re going to break down how to value your time financially and make adjustments to optimize your daily routine.
Valuing your time as a social media manager is crucial for maintaining productivity, setting appropriate pricing for your services, and achieving a healthy work-life balance. Developing client facing relationships can often blur the line between doing right by yourself and your time, and doing right by your business. In order to effectively make use of your day, it is crucial to effectively evaluate your pricing.
Let’s start with the pieces that are within YOUR control:
1. Calculate Your Desired Income: Start by determining how much income you want to earn annually. Consider your living expenses, business expenses, taxes, and savings goals. This will give you an idea of the minimum income you need to generate.
2. Set a Weekly Work Goal: Decide how many hours you want to work each week. This will help you establish a baseline for your work hours and give you an idea of how much time you have available.
3. Break Down Tasks: List all the tasks you perform as a social media manager, such as content creation, scheduling, analytics, client communication, and strategy development. Estimate how much time you spend on each task per week.
4. Calculate Billable Hours: Not all your working hours will be billable. Consider time spent on non-client-related tasks like administrative work, marketing your services, and professional development. Deduct these hours from your total work hours to calculate your billable hours.
5. Determine Hourly Rate: Divide your desired annual income by your billable hours to calculate your hourly rate. Keep in mind that this is a starting point, and you might need to adjust it based on market rates, your experience, and the value you provide to clients.
6. Research Market Rates: Research what other social media managers with similar experience and skill levels are charging in your industry and location. This will help you gauge whether your hourly rate is competitive.
7. Consider Value-Added Services: If you offer specialized services or have unique skills that set you apart from competitors, you might be able to command a higher hourly rate. Think about how your expertise benefits your clients and factor this into your pricing.
8. Factor in Expenses: Remember to account for expenses related to your work, such as software subscriptions, advertising budgets, and equipment costs. Your hourly rate should cover these expenses while leaving room for profit.
9. Review and Adjust Regularly: As you gain experience and your client base grows, regularly review and adjust your pricing. You can increase your rates as you become more in demand or offer more advanced services.
10. Value Your Work-Life Balance: While it's important to earn a fair income, don't underestimate the value of a healthy work-life balance. Consider the impact of working long hours at a lower rate versus working fewer hours at a higher rate.
11. Provide Clear Pricing to Clients: Communicate your pricing structure clearly to potential clients. Transparent pricing helps build trust and ensures both parties are on the same page from the beginning.
12. Offer Packages: Instead of charging solely by the hour, consider offering packages that include a set number of hours or specific services. This can simplify the pricing process and provide more value to clients.
Remember that valuing your time appropriately is not only about the money you earn but also about maintaining your well-being and delivering quality work to your clients. It's a balance between what you need, what the market supports, and the value you bring to your clients' businesses.
Here at TJ Creative we have recently nailed down a strategy that we want to share today!
Being a part of a team means handling different clients and different tasks that change daily. In order to prioritize our clients while making sure to keep the internal wheels turning, we utilize a time tracking tool that allows us to pull data reports SPECIFIC to each task per client.
After inputting time entries delegated by facet, we can evaluate not only how much money each client costs, but also how much time.
For example, let’s say **Jane** has 4 clients. Perhaps Jane has segmented an individual full day of work to each, OR, she allotted time slots to each on the daily. When Jane clocks in to start her work day, she keeps a running timer in the background while she completes her tasks.
Let’s say, on average, Jane spends 3 hours twice a week creating captions for her sum of clients. She spends 9 hours once a week on content creation, 5 hours on SEO and market research, and 7 hours on engagement. Jane does a weekly call with each client for an hour to review grids and strategy, and then grants each client an hour post-call to revamp her methods. The next five hours of her time are devoted to miscellaneous tasks like personal marketing or refreshing her own socials.
As her timer ticks along in the background, she is able to specify her billable hours and compare the sum against her package pricing, allowing Jane clarity about her structure.
By pulling her time reports and comparing them against her team members and the market standard, she will have a better idea regarding both her own and her client’s ROI!
So, fellow social media managers, as you navigate the ever-scrolling sea of hashtags and emojis, remember: every double-tap of the clock matters. By tracking your hours like the trendiest influencer tracks their followers, you're not just avoiding leaving money on the table – you're setting yourself up to be the ultimate time-tracker, the ROI rockstar, and the productivity powerhouse that your clients and your future self deserve!
Time is the heartbeat of your hustle, keep counting those moments and turning them into magic!
XO, TJ Team
