Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Becca Booker. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Becca, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

The boundaries that my team and I have implemented in our phones, calendars, emails, and social media have played a key role in scaling Homemade Social to what it is today. To set the scene, business was booming in 2020, but the burnout was heavy. I realized that to sustain my success, I needed to make changes, so I began to revolutionize our boundaries.

For social media agencies, it’s not uncommon to encounter clients who believe you should be available to them 24/7 simply because the platforms are. I quickly realized our clients weren’t giving our team what we needed – whether that be responsiveness, information, or time – and recognized it was on ME to clearly express the expectations required of our clients to get the best possible results.

This situation inspired me to work with an attorney to develop an updated contract, that we now offer a templatized version of for other social media managers, that now includes every boundary that has allowed our agency to reduce team working hours by 12.5% (40 to 35 hrs/week), yet achieve 33% more revenue YoY with the same number of team members. I didn’t want clients to be turned off by new boundaries being implemented mid-contract term, so we waited for contract renewals to come around and implemented them then. I made sure to explain how these boundaries would be mutually beneficial to our partnership and was blown away by the positive feedback!

Implementing these boundaries has created the time and revenue for me to increase team salaries and benefits further. They’ve revolutionized our company morale, employee retention, quality of work, and work-life balance, all while allowing us to generate the most income we’ve ever made!

We’re not one to gatekeep, so I candidly shared more about this in a free webinar that we recently released.

LINKS:
– Homemade Social website: https://www.homemadesocial.com/
– Templated contract: https://www.homemadesocial.com/shop/p/contract-for-social-media-managers
– Free webinar: https://homemadesocial.mykajabi.com/offers/ZShNHFZS/checkout

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Originally from Northern-California, I moved to Arizona in 2011 to study Marketing & Journalism (with an emphasis in PR) at Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University. Shortly after graduating, I started Homemade Social, a white-glove boutique marketing agency serving beauty, wellness, food, and beverage brands looking to elevate their presence among Gen-Z and millennial audiences.

Named a top influencer marketing and UGC agency, our all-female team combines our unique talents and expertise to blend data-driven strategies with the latest trends, all while keeping client goals in the spotlight. Drawing from my firsthand experience on both the brand and influencer side of marketing, I wear both the CEO and Chief Strategist hat by bringing diverse perspectives and strategies to the forefront that ultimately drive impactful results for our clients.

Our agency’s success continues to reach new heights and has ultimately resulted in features in various universities, conferences, and media outlets, like Create & Cultivate and Channel 3 News, to provide other entrepreneurs with marketing know-how they can utilize to succeed as well.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My first taste of the industry was in 2012 right after Instagram came to market. I managed the social media account for my sorority and quickly discovered my love for the industry. I took on a few additional social media jobs throughout college and after graduating, I worked as the Marketing Director at a local start-up. At that time, I decided to take a course in my free time on Facebook advertising, which was a skill that was SO rare to find at the time. I used what I learned to start freelancing as a side hustle.

Before I knew it, my freelance business grew so rapidly that I knew I needed to expand, so I put in my notice at my 9-5 in October of 2017 and went all in. Fun fact: the job I quit ended up becoming one of my clients because they found my work that valuable. After making six figures within one year of business, I founded Homemade Social in February of 2019 and have since grown the agency from a solopreneur business to a team of 12.

Any advice for managing a team?

Like I mentioned, implementing boundaries has been a game-changer for improving internal and external communication, employee & client retention, and overall work-life balance. But another aspect that goes hand in hand with this is prioritizing being an attentive and relatable leader. I strive to make my team feel appreciated and supported every step of the way. Whether it’s personal, professional, or little wins, I love to celebrate the team, making the workplace a positive and balanced environment.

To show my appreciation for our team, I prioritize hosting a monthly team bonding event – whether that be a spa day, workout class, holiday party, or quick happy hour. Additionally, our agency provides unique benefits like personal time, paid birthdays off, and year-round half-day Fridays — which has cut our work week into 35 hours!

I say it all the time — our agency has the BEST company culture, and I think it makes us really special. Being supported and finding balance in our workplace has revolutionized our company morale and, in turn, helps us put our best work forward, which leads to happy clients and referrals.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.homemadesocial.com/
• Instagram: @homemadesocial_ and @bbooks
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/homemade-social/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccabooker/