We recently connected with Katie Edgington and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The biggest challenge is definitely mindset. When you’re self-employed, you run into the issue of “How much should I charge per hour for what I have to offer?” which is really a question of “How much do I feel I’m worth?”.

Before I started my journey with freelancing I’d worked in hospitality for almost 10 years, and I’d never earnt more than minimum wage. The work felt taxing – I was always tired because I was on my feet all day and I had to cycle 10 miles a day because I couldn’t even afford the bus to work, and all the people I worked for treated me badly. Even when I was studying at university, I was being offered ‘jobs’ in the fields I loved but they were never paid aside from expenses and you were expected to give 30 hours of your week away for free.

This is the case with a lot of people who decide to start their own business, too. Because we’ve been raised in a culture where underpaying is the norm and ‘hard’ work is valued so little, then it feels wrong to charge a large amount for doing work that you genuinely enjoy. So for a lot of people, self employment NEVER becomes profitable because they don’t charge enough to cover the expenses from starting a business or to justify quitting full-time work to have more hours free to grow it and make profit! The key is knowing that time is valuable and that there’s no model you have to base what you feel your time is worth on, and then overcoming the belief that your skills and knowledge are worth more than the traditional model of capitalism conditions us to believe.

Katie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Katie Edgington and I’m an ex-fashion photographer and freelance social media creative based in London. I started my journey in the offline fashion promotion industry but transitioned into online and remote work during COVID in 2020.

I studied a degree in BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion & Imaging in 2015 but realized during that time that the fashion industry wasn’t for me, and I also quickly found that networking in person (which you HAVE to do in that industry to be successful!) wasn’t my strong suit either, so the chances of a future career in that field were nearly impossible. In the 3 years I spent studying it felt like I learnt more about what I couldn’t do rather than what I could!

It wasn’t until 2020 that I discovered the possibility of creating my OWN business and working online. I was forced to make the transition after the repercussions of COVID meant I couldn’t support working unpaid internships as easily anymore and I wanted more job security and something I had complete control over myself.

I used the experiences I’d had from my time in London and the self-taught business and creative skills I learnt online from Youtube videos and guides to build my own social media management business. I currently work for photographers, coaches and creatives all around the world to support them in growing their businesses through organic Instagram marketing, and In my first year of working for myself with nothing but an Instagram account I became booked out in the space of 4 months and quadrupled my corporate income a fulll-time six figure business. My goal now is to find that success for ALL my clients!

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Every client I’ve ever worked with has come from Instagram (unsurprisingly!) and many people are shocked to find that out because I only have 100 followers and don’t post.

At the start of my business journey I dedicated an hour a day to outreaching my dream clients by searching for photographers, creatives and coaches with services I was passionate about, and bookmarking their pages so I could consistently engage with them and build a friendship. But I haven’t had to do this in over a year, and here’s why:

Instagram is an amazing place to find clients for any business owner or niche, because it’s the only platform that allows you to connect with your dream clients on a deeply personal level. People don’t log in to Instagram to buy, they log in because they want to share their lives and build relationships with other human beings. The truth is, if you use Instagram like just another business platform to sell your product or service, It’s an approach that’s going to fail! I once read a statistic that only 1 in 100 people who follow you will buy your product or service just from marketing alone, And now, because of IG’s algorithm, that one person who would be interested might not even see your post!

So my approach to outreach is simple; I don’t advertise a product to sell and hope that the right person finds it, I build a connection with the dream clients I’d love to work with and tailor what i COULD offer to suit them. So for both myself and the potential client I’m reaching out to it feels like friends wanting to support friends. I spend time getting to know them, showing interests in their passions outside of work and understanding their problems in a genuinely sympathetic way. Even though my product (social media management) is VERY real, marketing it in this unique way makes my potential clients feel like there couldn’t possibly be a better solution out there for them and the statistic I mentioned before is no longer applicable.

Because my approach is so targetted, I never put time into connecting with clients who aren’t my ultimate dream clients. At first this seemed counter-intuitive because I thought that would mean less income stability, but as my business has grown it’s proven to be the most successful business model. It’s kept me sustainable because i’m genuinely passionate about the people I’m working for so I consistentky work hard and do a good job, and because of that I get more clients from their referrals. The chances are if they came from a dream client they’re also aligned with my interests in some way, too, which means I now don’t even have to waste hours a week searching for dream clients… they find me, and I’m always booked out!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

The strategy I use for all of my clients is the same (and is based around my success with building my 6 figure business entirely through Instagram engagement, too!) – It’s to NOT worry about building a BIG audience, rather an intentional one.

I ask my photographer clients this; If your goal is to use Instagram to book more sessions, then why do likes and follows from a random person who will NEVER be within 500 miles of you matter? I see so many photographers wasting so much of their time and energy on creating reels to ‘beat the algorithm’ and get more views, but all that engagement is meaningless if it will never translate to a sale. That same amount of time could be focused on strategically engaging with potential dream clients, and those connections will actually grow your business rather than just make it look better. Gaining 10 followers a week who are local and aligned with you is WAY more valuable than 1000 who just think you take a beautiful photo!

My best tip for growing an intentional audience is deeply engaging (following, commenting and DMing!) with them, and I’ve found these are the most successful ways to find them!

– Local geotags related to your service: For example, if you’re a photographer wanting to book senior pictures looking at Universities in your region and commenting on dream clients posts, or if you’re a wellness coach places like local gyms or yoga studios!

– Followers of your favorite local photographers/creatives/vendors: The chances are if you love their work and that follower does too, they’ll also be aligned with what you create.

– Friends of current clients – If you’ve recently posted work with a client, engaging with people they’re tagged in other photos with or are following is a great way to build your presense in a community. I’ve found this to be particularly useful with brides and their bridal parties, as it’s not uncommon for them all to get engaged around the same time!

The best part about this approach is that it DOESN’T neglect the algorithm, either – It will actually boost your chances of getting on the explore page for your work to be seen by people all across the country (it’s more than possible for an account with 5k followers to make 100,000 impressions when it gets on the explore page!) The way the explore page works is that when a group of similar people (a niche) engages with your work, that post will appear on the explore pages of people in that niche that aren’t currently following you. That’s a lot of potential global dream clients!

Another big tip is to NOT neglect the followers or clients you already have, as nurturing a strong bond with them is what will lead to referrals, and then the web of dream clients starts growing itself. When you don’t have to invest time into outreaching, you can invest that time into bigger things to grow your business even further.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @imkatieedgington

Image Credits
Kendall Aubrey @kendallaubreyphoto (couple climbing mountain, elopement with model in white dress and groom in red suit) Claire Kreklow @ckreklowphoto (wedding – model in satin dress, and wedding – bride with white bouquet) Jess Golden @wetheromantics (bride in backless dress) Camryn Clair @camrynclairphoto (branding shot of women in front of wall) All of these images show how my clients have been able to connect with and shoot their dream clients from social media!