We were lucky to catch up with Hailey Cory recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Hailey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

Since starting my business it’s always been just myself. As my business grows, I’ve recently been contemplating the idea of how I can expand my team. I have always known I wanted to build a team, but never knew I’d need one so soon. It’s definitely not something that’s easy to navigate and I’m not sure how to administer tasks among another person or people, but I know it’s something my business would benefit from. If there’s anything I’ve learned during this period in my business it’s that the growth may be uncomfortable but it’s something to be excited about and I will figure it out as I go, as I have in every other aspect of my business.

Hailey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a Social Media Strategist and Brand/Website Designer. In 2019, I was working as an Aesthetician. I had just gotten my Advanced license and I loved my job. When Covid hit, spas/salons were one of the first businesses to close and suddenly I was out of a job, I had no idea what I wanted to do next. While working as a nanny, I thought of what I could do for the time being with the knowledge that I already had. It was on a day during naptime, I was watching Tik Tok and came across a video of a girl talking about her “Day as a Social Media Manager” and then it clicked for me. I’ve always loved Instagram, and I could be able to continue working alongside people in the beauty industry and in other industries that interested me, as their Social Media Manager. From there I spent every spare moment working on creating this business and it blossomed and grew, what seemed like, overnight. Since very early on I knew it was no longer something I was looking to do “for the time being” and it was something I wanted to grow more and more.

While working solely as a Social Media Strategist for clients, I discovered by passion for all things branding. Shortly after I got started, I quickly created a website for myself to showcase my services, contact info, etc. and I had so much fun doing it that I found myself recreating my website every couple of weeks. I started recreating clients’ logos for fun, mocking up brand designs, website designs, and it was then that I decided to start offering those services as well. That quickly became one of my favorite processes and one of the things I loved most about my job – making clients’ branding cohesive, unique and beautiful from their brand design to their website to their social media content.

Being a year and a half or so into starting this company, it’s so fun for me to look back at the content I created in the very beginning and see how far I’ve come creatively, how my process has simplified and how much more confident I am in myself and in all of my designs. I’ve also had the opportunity to work with so many incredible women and have the privilege of being inspired by them daily. I’ve created amazing client relationships that have allowed my business to grow. In the beginning stages of building this business, I spent a lot of time networking, reaching out to businesses that I felt were a good fit and building relationships with locally owned & female owned companies – now I’m lucky enough to gain most of my new clients through referrals and that is an extremely rewarding feeling.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

My mindset is definitely quality over quantity. I’m not someone who has a large following on Instagram, but I do believe that the community I’ve created is very curated to my business/brand. I have great relationships with my followers, and have had conversations with most of them and consider some of them friends. I support them and they support me. My followers range from potential clients to other locally owned/female owned companies.

That’s not to say that gaining a large following isn’t a goal, but the main objective with gaining followers is that they are your target audience and are potential clients, customers, consumers, or supporters of your account.

I built the community I have on Instagram by engaging with accounts that were in my “niche” and that aligned with my interests. I supported and reposted their content and created real relationships.

Building a community when starting a new company is a game changer, it allows you to gain support from those who have already accomplished what you’re looking to accomplish and can provide you with support and give you advice.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I’ve always thought of myself as a very non-corporate company. I enjoy chit-chatting with my clients and creating real relationships. I like to check in with them regarding their business but also in their personal life. We catch up like friends do, while also maintaining a professional working relationship with mutual respect. I never dread meetings – we discuss business needs but then also do a friendly check-in about how life’s going. My clients are always beyond understanding when unexpected circumstances come up, as I am with them. We have a very healthy, friendly partnership and I love it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thesocialdevelopment.com
• Instagram: @thesocialdevelopment

Image Credits
Black and White photo – photographer credits @imagesbyher.co