Where to start with becoming a freelance social media manager?

[ForeverTipsy]

Or should I begin in the first place?

Long story short, I fell into SM management in my last job and did it for a few years. No formal qualifications, just learned on the job and used instinct and a couple of free courses (it was a tiny charity I worked for, so zero budget and never had to do ads or worry about ROI).

Got made redundant earlier this year, but set myself up as self employed for another role I do. Have since had three different local acquaintances ask if I can help them with their SM and they'll pay, so decided to start with a free L2 Digital Marketing course. Haven't taken on any paid work, but am helping a couple out with content creation and admin for free as it helps with my course anyway.

So, do I look for a p/t job as a digital marketing assistant to get some experience before going solo? Or just go for it? I know I am massively under qualified and under experienced, but keep getting offers of work! (No idea where to start with how much to charge, how long a campaign may last etc).

Feeling confused so any help appreciated, thank you.

Bump.

Work out what an equivalent job woukd have salary-wise, divide it by 52 and then by 5 to get a day rate. Then double it to cover things holiday, admin, business development etc.

that is how much you should charge per day.

you may want to make a reduction for long-time projects (a kind of retainer), but it gives you an idea of how much you should be charging.

If you’re already getting offers of work, then surely that suggests that you should just jump in?

It’s the ever-changing world of social media management, not becoming a surgeon or cathedral stonemason where a long apprenticeship is very much to be desired!

Another rule of thumb for a day rate is to take an annual salary, remove two zeros and that becomes your day rate. So a salary of £32,000 becomes a day rate of £320. I read it on MN and haven’t calculated it out, but it might be a useful rule of thumb.

I work as a freelancer but my day rate varies according to the organisation I’m working for and the work that I’m doing.

Thank you both @BadSkiingMum and @SanctusInDistress - really helpful, and just what I needed to hear re: keeping perspective. It's definitely not brain surgery hey.

When I asked an experienced graphic designer in a senior role recently how much I should charge he said it's not always how much I should charge but how much the business/charity can afford. Hence me doing some freebies for now; one is a tiny charity and the other a sole trader start-up business (also negates me forking out for more business insurance just yet; the policy I have for the other freelance role doesn't cover this type of work). Seems you agree in a way @SanctusInDistress ?

This probably sounds really stupid but as I have never worked in this way before, how would I know how much work I would get done in a day?! I think I feel more comfortable charging a one-off fee/package for consultation, content design & caption creation. Then I'd send it all over to them to use, along with my suggestions of when to post/how to monitor.

Another thing that can be helpful is to keep a time-recording note for the first couple of jobs that you undertake. I do this down to the quarter hour. Then you find out exactly how long jobs are taking you to complete. It also can be helpful if there’s any question about costs.