12 things you need to invest in to grow your Pinterest management business

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If you’re new to the virtual assistant or Pinterest manager world, you may be thinking that you need a lot of capital to start your new business or grow it, but the truth is you don’t need much to get started.

I wanted to outline some things you may need if you’re starting out and then a few things you may want to invest in as you grow your Pinterest management business.

Some of these will require financial investments while others will require time investments.

6 Things you need to invest in when you start your Pinterest management business:

Let’s look at the basics you may need to get started with your business. This is assuming you’re starting a virtual assistant business offering Pinterest management or social media management.

1. Internet

Your business is online and you’re going to need a good internet connection to manage your client work, market your business, grow your audience, build your network and run the online side of your business. You don’t need to invest in the best internet connection, you just need something that is fast enough to allow you to get your Tailwind scheduling, pinning and marketing done in a reasonable amount of time.

2. Laptop/ Computer

You’re going to need a laptop or computer to work from in order to run your Pinterest management or social media management business. Whether you rent a computer, have your own or get access through your local library you’ll be using it often and you need to make sure it can handle the amount of work you’ll be doing.

3. Tailwind/ Scheduling programs

Tailwind is a must have. Tailwind is a scheduling tool that will help you schedule your client’s pins in advance. Thankfully you can set up your Pinterest management package in a way that requires your client to pay for their Tailwind account. You can do the same for your client’s social media scheduling programs if the paid version is required. It is also important to note that you’ll likely need to invest some time into learning how to use the programs effectively and efficiently. The more you use the program the more efficient you’ll become and the more profitable your business becomes.

Want one month free on the Tailwind plus plan? Use this link here!

4. Learning/ education/ templates

If you’re just starting out or you’ve been running your business for a while, the learning never stops. In order to grow your business, you’re going to need to invest your time into learning about the changes to Pinterest and other platforms, how to market your business, how manage your finances and more.

You may also want to invest in education like online courses or mentoring to help you quickly learn everything you need to know instead of spending 3x the amount of time sourcing all the information yourself and then spending more time learning strategy through trial and error.

That’s why I’ve created my signature program for Pinterest managers, VAs and Social media managers – The Pinterest Gameplan. It’s the online course and coaching program that will take you through everything you need to know to effectively use Pinterest for your clients and give you the confidence to charge higher rates.

When you buy templates for marketing your business or templates for managing your client on-boarding you’re simplifying your processes and ensuring that you’re using something that has been tested before. Often we can get caught up in trying to make everything perfect and that delays your business growth. Templates help you jump to the front of the line so you can book clients and start making money from your business ASAP.

5. canva/ design program

You’ll need to create pin designs or social media graphics for your clients if you’ve included it in your service package. You will likely also need to create your own marketing graphics for your business.

The best way to get started doing that is to use Canva or another design program you have access to. It’s a free tool with a paid version, should you need it. You will need to invest some time into learning how to use this design tool to create effective graphics.

This time investment is worth it because if you can produce better quality graphics for your client’s Pinterest account you’ll have raving fans sharing your work with everyone they know.

6. marketing

As you get started in your business, you’ll want to invest your time into building relationships, collaborating with other business owners and choosing ONE platform that you’ll use to market your services.

While you may find yourself wanting to just do client work or be on Pinterest it’s important to remember that marketing is the key ingredient to getting and booking new clients. When you begin building your network and building relationships with other business owners, you’ll find your business growing rapidly before your eyes.

It takes time out of your day, but it is worth it when you begin to see how your network and audience provides you with new leads and clients.

You may be tempted to jump onto EVERY social media platform right away but by choosing one platform and mastering it for your business you’ll become booked out sooner. That will then give you the financial peace you need in your business and from there you can grow your business on other channels.

Improve your Pinterest management client experience by perfecting your client on-boarding system. In the Ultimate Pinterest Manager checklist I provide you with checklists to assist with client on-boarding, client account account set up, monthly maintenance and more. Add your email below to get immediate access.

At this point you may have a long list of things you’re thinking “YOU NEED” but I’m here to tell you that the 6 things above are the KEY things to invest in initially. Some require money and others require time but they are the MOST important investments you can make initially. You don’t need a lot to get started and from my experience starting and running 3 businesses, I’ve come to realize the more you focus on validating your business, developing the skills you need for your service offering and acquiring clients the more growth you’ll experience.

You don’t want to be here 12 months later still waiting to get your first client or customer. Stop delaying your business success by focusing on things that won’t help you book clients and deliver a fantastic service.

Book clients first and expand your business footprint later. We are so blessed that in this day and age you can start and run a successful business with a only Facebook page or only an email list or only an Instagram account.

As you become booked out, then you’ll want to start implementing the LONG-TERM business growth strategies like websites, logos, domains etc. And guess what? You’ll be excited to do that because you’ll have money coming in consistently so those costs will be easily covered!

Another key thing to consider is the cost of registering your business with your state, province or country. This varies around the world so you will need to look into the requirements for your area. Sometimes you may be required to registered right away while in other cases you only register once you make an income.

6 Things you need to invest in as you grow your Pinterest and social media management business:

Now it’s time to take a look at what you may need as you begin growing your business after having booked your first few clients. This is assuming you’re starting a virtual assistant business offering on Pinterest management or social media management.

1. learning/ education/ templates

I told you the learning never stops right?
For Christmas each year I get a learning gift because I know the value of learning in life. Whether its business related or life related – we are ALWAYS learning.

As you become booked out or take on your first few clients, you’ll begin seeing areas that you want to niche into or learn more about.

You’ll begin to notice areas that could be more streamlined in your business, or you begin to see areas that you’d love to work on and improve in your business.

An investment in your education or in templates that help you take action instead of staying stuck is priceless when it comes to the growth of your business.
Why? Because YOU are the key to your business’ success. The skills, mindset, knowledge and resources you have will take your business forward.

My students have gone through exactly what you’re going through which is why when they began booking clients they asked me for another course into an area that they wanted to learn more about – Pinterest SEO keywords.

That’s why I created Simplifying Pinterest Keywords. It dives deep into how Pinterest identifies and maps out the keywords associated with your pins, where they find all of the information to give your pin a ranking and score, what you can do to ensure you’re ranking highly in the Pinterest search engine and more on how to leverage keywords for your clients in 2020.
My students have already said this mini course was an invaluable deep dive into keywords – it’s helped one student save their business income by turning their client’s Pinterest account around in less than 2 weeks.

Whether it’s Pinterest marketing, online marketing, business systems, project management tools or templates – the investment is always well worth it if you apply what you’ve learnt.

2. Mindset

This is really the biggest area you’ll need to invest time into as you begin to grow your business.

Whenever I start my mentoring sessions or coaching programs, I always talk about the resistance my clients and students will feel in the first few weeks.

I must admit I usually get strange looks initially but then 2 weeks later they come back to me and share that they didn’t realize they’d experience such huge mindset roadblocks or resistance during the process. Thankfully when it appeared, they were reminded of our call and worked through it effectively.

You are likely going to face similar mindset roadblocks as you grow your business. Imposter syndrome, the comparison game, the easy comfort zone, procrastination and perfectionism will all pop up. It happens to many business owners, no matter how successful they are.

Working on strengthening your mindset and setting boundaries in life will help you navigate these mindset blocks and feelings as they arise.

3. health

When growing your business, health can sometimes take a backseat because you’re so focused on trying to grow your business and manage everything outside of business.

However, your health is one of the keys to creating a successful business.

Your eyes take strain, your brain works hard, and you can experience a lot of stress as you grow your business. Staying healthy through consistent exercise, drinking lots of water, resting and eating well can have a big impact on your stamina when it comes to work.

Not only do you not want to get sick, but you also want to make sure you can really focus when you do work.

Balancing life and work is not easy so ensuring your work time is productive and focused is the key to being able to step away at the end of your work day feeling confident you’ve done what you’ve needed to.

4. marketing

At this point your marketing efforts may shift slightly and take on a different form that before. While you’ll still be building your network and collaborating with other business owners you may be expanding your marketing efforts to other platforms now that you’ve got your first group of consistent clients.

Your focus now is on building your audience and creating a sustainable flow of client leads through your marketing. You can choose to stick with the marketing tactics you’ve been using already because simple is BEST! If you feel that you’ve really perfected the first marketing channel you’ve been using, then you can think about using an additional marketing channel.

My pro tip here is to ensure you’re not doing TOO much at once. Start out by focusing on one new area like starting one new social media account OR creating your website. Don’t try and dive into both because with a full client load and the regular marketing you’re doing daily, you’ll spread yourself too thin if you add in too much.

Keep it simple and focus on one new area that you’d like to grow into during this phase. Even better – perfect the channel you’re already using and find ways to leverage it even further.

5. accounting/ finances

Now that you’re making money from your client work, you’ll want to ensure you have your business accounting and finances in order.

One of my favorite resources for this is Mike’s book Profit First. It is a wonderful resource for small business owners on how to easily manage your finances so you’re taking profit first (hence the book title) and paying yourself.

Because we’re all in the biz of making the money so you want to take some home right away!

I’m excited to share info in 2020 with you about a new course one of my biz friends is launching to help you master your finances. She is an accountant, bookkeeper and runs her own accounting business. She is launching a new course to help you finally feel confident about your finances and master money once and for all. Keep an eye out in 2020 for a post about this new course if you’re interested or send me a message in the comments section to let me know you want the info on it.

Whether you invest in an accountant, a course around accounting, a book on managing your finances or you use everything you know to manage your finances, it’s important to invest the TIME into getting it all organized.

6. systems

Systems, systems, systems. What an exciting term but also a bit ambiguous, am I right? What are systems and which systems do I need?

When you think about systems in your business, it’s best to think of them simply as the processes used to get a desired outcome. The steps you take to get from A to Z for a particular task or project.

You could set up the following systems in your business to save you time and mental effort:

– Payment processing and invoicing system

– Client on-boarding process

– Client analytics reporting system

– Accounting and financial management system

– Weekly workflow system

– Email response systems

There are many systems and each business will require different systems based on the tasks you perform and the outcomes you’re looking to achieve.

At this point I’d suggest you look at the things you do in your business daily, weekly and monthly. Then ask yourself if there is a way you could automate that process or if there is a way you could use an existing tool to make this process more efficient.

Look at how you send out contracts and invoices and identify if it’s the quickest and easiest way to do it. Have you created a system for sending out contracts and invoices so that you follow it exactly each time you have a new client? Do you know exactly what steps you take? Writing those steps down means you now have a repeatable system. Automating that system = winning at biz life!

By creating a system for your business tasks you’re increasing your efficiency and ensuring you don’t forget anything.

Those are the first 12 areas that you may want to invest in as you start and grow your business.

Naturally as you progress and begin growing your business even further, you’ll have more that you want to invest in, like outsourcing and marketing ads.

Every investment you make will be worth it if you pay attention to when it is truly needed and ensure you apply it correctly.

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