These past few weeks I’ve spoken with so many business owners who want Instagram to bring them clients, and it’s opened my eyes more than I expected. I’ve used social media to grow my business for years, so it’s easy to forget what it feels like to start without the know-how, to feel technically out of your depth, or to have no idea what to film or how to edit.
It goes a lot deeper than editing, though. I kept seeing the same 4 things over and over, and almost none of them had to do with the algorithm.
1. Your shop keeps random opening hours
The first thing I see when someone asks why their Instagram isn’t working is inconsistency. If you can show up daily, or at least on a fixed rhythm every week, you’ll beat 99% of the people in your niche.
I think about it like a shop. If you only opened your shop when you felt like it, one Sunday, then a random Tuesday, people would rarely see the lights on. You’d never become anyone’s go-to spot, because they wouldn’t know when to find you. Social media works the same way.
That doesn’t mean you have to be online every day yourself. Over time you batch content and build systems so your business is online without you being present all the time live. In the beginning, though, you’ll have to put in the work. I’d recommend showing up 5 or 6 days out of 7, ideally planned in advance. The algorithm likes it, but mostly it shows you that you’re taking this seriously.
2. You’re paying for pretty
When business owners don’t have time, they either give up posting altogether or hire someone. That’s where the second problem starts. I’ve seen so many small businesses, often run by women doing everything themselves, spend €300, €500 or more a month on someone who delivers a few nice photos, a pile of hashtags and a weak caption with no call to action. It drives me crazy, because that money is hard-earned.
Whenever you outsource something, be clear on the ROI and ask to see it. With ads, you set KPIs. With a social media manager, you should at least see growth in followers, leads or sales. If none of the 3 are moving, it just looks pretty, and pretty doesn’t fill your bank account.
That’s why I think every business owner should learn some social media themselves first. You don’t need to be a great copywriter to recognise good copy, and the same goes for content. You do need to know enough to judge whether someone is doing a good job.
3. Your founder story is missing
The business owners I talk to have the best stories. One woman started her business after losing her mom, another bakes every cookie herself with recipes from her grandma, and another lost her job and found her passion again drawing cards at midnight. Then I open their feeds… and the story is nowhere to be found.
You think your story is so obvious that everyone already knows it, or worse, that people must be sick of it. I recently looked at a children’s dietitian’s last 18 posts, and only 2 of them made it clear she was a children’s dietitian. Forget her story for a second, it wasn’t even clear what she DOES!
4. You’re trying every format you’ve ever saved
The fourth one is a big one. Many people think they need every type of content: vlogs, carousels, quotes, all of it. They save post after post from creators they admire, get exhausted trying to make them all, and end up with, best case, a static photo of what they sell. Worst case, a heavily branded Canva post that belongs in 2020.
What you need is 2 to 3 formats that are easy to make on your phone, without any external apps, and that you can repeat. I use Instagram’s Edits app. A quote can be one of them. A b-roll video of you doing what you do can be another. That’s already enough to get comments, leads and even a video that takes off. When you have fixed formats, you stop starting from zero every time and you get fast.
You have more to show than I do
Underneath all 4 of these sits imposter syndrome and the fear of what people will say. I understand it. And I also know that none of my business would exist without Instagram: not my team, not my house, not my clients.
When clients tell me I’m just good at it because I have so much to show, I stop them right there. I have my face and my laptop. You have a shop, a process, clients you see in person and things you make with your hands. Film the packing, the baking, the drawing, the shopping trip for new stock. You work too hard and care too much to keep your business invisible.
Listen to the full Fail to Win podcast episode here:
Leave a Reply