I think we are all on the same page when we say, there's no magic formula, or "one-way" to run a social media management business. Everyone's social media management journey is different, which means your approach should be, too.

With that being said, when we take a step back and think about a few essential things that a SMM business needs to be sustainable, there are three foundational pieces that always rise to the top of the conversation:

Pricing
Packages
Processes

Pricing

When it comes to pricing your services, it helps to start with a simple formula: your monthly income goal divided by the number of hours you want to work per month. For example, if your goal is to make $5,000 a month and you only want to work 40 hours a month, your base hourly rate comes out to $125. From there, you can price your packages accordingly. Say it takes about 5 hours a week (or 20 hours a month) to manage a client’s Instagram account — that’s a $2,500 package. To hit your $5,000 goal, you’d only need two of those clients. Pricing becomes much more strategic (and sustainable) when you reverse engineer it based on your goals and availability!

Learn more about unique pricing strategies in these blogs:

Packages

A package rate can be helpful because (1.) your client knows the deliverables they can expect and (2.) it isn't "defining" you by your hourly rate. To create a package, map out everything that you would include in that package, and how long it takes you to do it. Add in a few hours for communication and revisions to give yourself a buffer, and then multiply by the hourly rate. Here are a few common examples of package options you can create:

BASE PACKAGE

your "smaller" package, but one that is more profitable when you break it down.

"ADVANCED" PACKAGE

Include more deliverables with less of the access to you + less of your time… so consider what you’re really good at and quick doing