I don’t often do content for my fellow Social Media Managers, not because I don’t love you – but mainly because I tried the whole ‘coaching other SMMs’ thing in 2021 and it just didn’t sit well with me.
However after 7+ years as a business owner and over 13 years professionally managing social media accounts (yikes I’m old). I think I may have a few tricks up my sleeve that could maybe help. Should I turn this into a series? Maybe that would be helpful? Let me know.
Anyway, this one is called ‘How to Train your Client’ and it’s basically one big ass reminder to stay in the drivers seat of your business, remember that you’re juggling multiple clients whereas they only have one ‘you’ and basically the importance of setting boundaries early.
I know that it can be beyond tempting to mould and adapt yourself to the working ways of everyone who’s offering you money, but truth be told – they’re paying you for your expertise and one sure-fire way to ensure you don’t work at your best, is to work how other people want you to.
Contract clauses, payment terms, communication styles, approvals processes, information sharing, platforms used, working hours. These are all things that I want you to sit down, right now, and decide your very best case scenario for all of them.
Will you protect yourself and the work you produce with a contract? What kinds of things would you like to include within that contract (hint: all of the above is a good place to start). Who owns the final work product that you produce? Will you work with their competitors? How long are they in contract with you? What notice period do they, and you, need to give to terminate?
The answer to the above question should always be yes. In bold, underlined, put it in a bigger font. Get a signed contract from anyone you work with. It protects you both, but mainly you. It doesn’t need to be written or even checked by a solicitor. I’m sure our good friend ChatGPT could help you, I used a template I found online years ago and have ensured I keep it up-to-date and relevant. I also keep a digital and printed copy of each contract that gets signed. You can use Google Drive or Adobe Contracts or I’m sure many more platforms to collect digital signatures.
For reference, my client always owns their final product though I have a clause that ensures I can use it in any portfolio, I don’t agree to not working with competitors but I do have a clause that I can’t influence their employees to either come and work with me or quit their job, my contract lengths vary but in general it’s an initial 6 months then 2 months notice thereafter from both sides. Think about how far in advance you tend to work, and then add a bit on when it comes to your notice. It stops people from signing up then pulling out willy nilly, and means that you’re free to work as far in advance as you deem fit without fear or not getting paid for it.
When will you invoice for work? Before you start or after you finish? How long will you then accept waiting to be paid? What are the penalties for them if they don’t adhere to that? Do you send reminders? Are you aware of the how to claim any unpaid monies back?
For me, I invoice ahead of time for retainer work, and upon completion for one-off jobs. They then have 7 days to pay, or they get a 10% fee added on-top of their invoice amount. I’m not a monster, so if they’re an ongoing client and they let me know something’s happened – then I can adapt. My Xero account also sends them reminders (but not until after their invoice is overdue). But if I have no contact and no payment after 30 more days, I send them a very formal and passive aggressive email saying, if you don’t pay I will take you to the small claim’s court. And I have done in the past, and I will continue to to do in the future.
What is the most effective way for clients to communicate with you? How quickly can they get hold of you for either an in-person or a zoom meeting? Will you join onto their existing group messages or create your own? Which platforms will you be contacted on, and which remain sacred to you? Remember here to think how you work best.
My friends? You voice note me all day long, send me those podcasts! Clients? No thank you. If I need to retain the information you’re telling me, write it down and send it to me formally. A quick ‘the website looks fab, thank you’ is fine, but briefs should not be sent to me via email. I also have a specific WhatsApp business number, so clients are allowed to have and share that with their teams but it goes without saying – my personal number is off limits. My personal instagram is the same and I regret the few clients I’ve allowed onto my personal Facebook (note: you do not need to be friends with someone on Facebook for them to made you an admin on Business suite).
I am reasonably flexible in that, anyone can contact me at any time and I ensure I’m not being disturbed my end. But I work between emails and WhatsApp business. If you want to see me in person I ask for a week’s notice, and 48 working hours for a zoom call. Obviously emergencies are different, but I always make it crystal clear during an emergency that this is a one-off.
Approvals processes I think, maybe, depends on the type of work you’re doing. But think about how many revisions you want to offer within your initial quote (this will make them send through better briefs once they realise they’re being charged for their indecisiveness). Also take into account how long they can take over their amendments. For social media work, you probably require a rapid turnaround, but for longer term projects perhaps they can take longer. Also think about how fast you agree to make any changes, remember to overpromise and overdeliver.
If someone wants to approve/revise their social media content then they’re allowed access to AirTable where I build it, I won’t set up separate processes for them to look at it. Currently only 10% of my social media clients approve my work before it’s posted as I do prefer to cultivate a relationship where I’m trusted. If anyone does require approvals for social media, I set clear expectations of what will happen if work isn’t approved in time for posting. IE, I still get paid! I don’t diminish my earnings because someone didn’t find the time to press go.
For websites, they get an initial draft, a full build draft and then final tweaks. They also have an abandonment clause that if I don’t hear from them in 2 months, I am allowed to re-quote for the project (this hasn’t happened yet). They’re sent the website on a dummy link, and when they send back any revisions I give them a (generous for me) timescale of when they can expect their changes to be made by. Usually it’s a week, but I’ll say a fortnight so they’re pleasantly surprised.
When it comes to information sharing (and storing), you may have to consider how they already operate. Are all of their files on an internal server, does the whole company use OneDrive vs GoogleDrive? I was recently given a USB stick with the information I needed on it (I’ll draw the line at a floppy disk…). That being said, once you’ve received that information – where do you want to store it? Obviously it needs to be secure, but also accessible anywhere you need it and able to save in high-res.
WeTransfer is the bane of my life, I get to client’s work when I can and obviously work through in chronological order. Just because a client has sent me their documents today, doesn’t mean that I’ll get to them in 3 days (and why do they always send it on a Friday?!). I personally store most things in Google Drive, then should anything happen to my MacBook, I know it’s accessible on a new device that doesn’t even need to be an Apple product. If client’s want to use OneDrive then that’s fine, but my working versions will probably stay within Google and only finalised things get transferred over.
When you’re working quickly, efficiency is key, so learning how to navigate multiple different storage platforms and even remembering which one has what documents – can slow you down massively. Some clients also send things through WhatsApp which is fine. I generally just ask that wherever they want to send stuff, they stick to it. So I don’t get some bits emailed, some WhatsApp’d and some on a Cloud Drive. I also have one client who utilises a Facebook Group for all of their staff, again – not ideal, but as I don’t have to store anything for them then it’s fine.
You will know which platforms you like to work with the best, I know plenty of Social Media Managers but we all seem to like different schedulers. Name any process that you need any platform for, and I bet you can find multiple versions that offer almost the same service. It’s just the one you click with. There are a few exceptions here, if a client’s paying for a total CRM service, they may want you to use the inbuilt features such as their website editor, newsletter system or blog post uploader. But unless there’s a clear, financial reason – make sure you’re working on the best platform for you.
For example, I use Business Suite for scheduling all of my Social Media Content, and that does not differ for anyone. I can keep all of my clients in one place, I’m not logging in and out of anything, I can access it on my phone, it’s connected to my personal Facebook should an emergency arise. And for several other reasons, it’s the best platform I’ve found. I also create and store Social Media Content on AirTable, clients are allowed access to their specific boards, but I won’t be organising my content anywhere else. I can work ten times faster using these platforms as I have muscle memory of where each button is and every shortcut I need. I’m not slowing myself down by learning something new.
On the flip side, I appreciate that Newsletters and Websites I have to be more flexible with. If I’m starting it from scratch them I’ll go with Flodesk for the former or WordPress for the latter – but if they’ve already got a system up and running then it genuinely would be too much work to ask them to move – unless I had a jolly good commercial reason. I moved one client from MailChimp to Flodesk because MailChimp was far more expensive and didn’t really do what they wanted. So of course, once I’m in I can make suggestions, but if they’re using Kajabi, Hubspot or similar then chances are they’ll want to stick there.
Repeat after me, a client cannot set your working hours unless they employ you. Yes it is reasonable to expect you’re sometimes available during ‘normal’ working hours for their timezone. But if you’ve set your business up around a hobby, childcare, the way you work best – then stick to it. If you want to work weekends, work them. If you’re a night owl, go for it. If you’re part of the 5am club – cool.
The only thing I will say, is maybe think about scheduling emails or including a note that says “don’t look at this until it’s convenient!” If you’re sending communications outside of their working hours. I know people who work all weekend, for clients who are Monday – Friday. We all have access to our emails on our phone now, so to save anyone feeling pressure to respond out of hours, maybe do one of the above?
Again, I think you have to expect an element of your meetings or communications will be inside of Monday – Friday, 9am until 5pm. But I stand by the sentiment that as long as you have some availability within those times, you don’t have to be available for all of it if that doesn’t suit. I personally work school hours, and 2 days a week I contract for outside clients (so I have to focus on them, and them alone). However that leaves me with 3 days a week, and 6 hours a day on each of those, where I’m contactable to my clients.
This is all regarding communications, however. A client never dictates to me when I work on their social media or build their website. I’ve done websites at 11pm at night, scheduled posts on a Sunday… whatever works for me.
All of the above is basically a guide to say, it’s your business – run it your way. Outsource bits, keep it to yourself, work till midnight or only on a Monday, use Slack, Discord or carrier pigeon. Just think of the above points (and probably some more as you develop your business) to curate a business that looks and feels good for you. There are plenty of hoops we have to jump through as business owners, there are many hardships in being a business owner, but working against your grain to please multiple difference people isn’t one of them. Did you set up your business to feel like you’re being pulled in a hundred directions? Probably not.
9 times out of 10, if you set boundaries and expectations from day one, then a client will go along with them willingly. But if you let things fester and get to a point where three things can happen:
- You get stressed
- The work gets affected
- You can no longer work together
…then you run the risk of letting a client down, something we never want to do.