From Manchester City Football Club to Running her own business, Abi Withey is Changing the Game of Social Media for Small Businesses

Sometimes as a small business owner, you meet someone and know instantly that you’ve struck gold. Not only has this month’s Moments to Motivate guest helped me transform my own video content for social media, but she has also helped me revolutionise the video content of so many of my clients too. We’ve loved working together so much that we’ve even launched our own unique package - The Content Accelerator - more details can be found at the bottom of this blog!

I first met Abi from Tailor-Made Social after spotting her content shoot with Victoria Haydn - a fab brand photographer who has also featured on Moments to Motivate. Abi has an incredible skill at solving a problem that so many female business owners (myself included) face - how to get incredible video footage of yourself, that you can use even if you’re posting 5x a week!

Having experienced first-hand what incredible value Abi can bring to a small business, and how she helps female business owners feel confident in front of the camera, I knew that Abi was someone I wanted to bring on board to Your AJency as a trusted expert. The rest as they say is history.

In the last year or so I have welcomed some amazing women to my Moment to Motivate Series – but this is the first who has a business that is less than 6 months old and yet her interview is packed full of insights and inspiration. 

Abi has become integral to helping me and my clients get visible.  She deserves all the success and so grab a cuppa and enjoy this moment that I know you will have plenty of takeaways from. I hope you’ll be inspired to get visible!

Find out more about how Abi is changing the game for female entrepreneurs who want to show up more authentically on social media.

Meet Abi Withey From Tailor-Made Social

In my community there are people who are just at the idea stage, perhaps just launched or have an established business.  Tell us a little about your journey, including some of the highs and lows, how long ago you started, and what prompted you to take the plunge to start your business. 

I am still very early on in my business journey, but feel like so much has happened in such a short time! 

Tailor-Made Social originally started for me as a bit of a ‘passion project’ after helping friends and family with their social media over the years in my free time. I quickly realised that with my experience running channels, strategy and content creation for global brands, and working directly with the platforms themselves - that my knowledge and expertise could really help smaller businesses and individuals running their own socials. So back in October 2023, I started up my Instagram account @tailormade.social and ran this alongside my day-to-day job, finding any spare moment I had to create content, connect with people and build my network…early mornings, lunch breaks, evenings, weekends - you name it! By Christmas, I was inundated with requests, people asking me about my services and pricing…but I didn’t have any! At that time I was just sharing tips and advice for free, but I was completely taken back by the amount of interest I had received and after much consideration, I handed in my resignation/notice in January 2024. 

I was so afraid to take the leap, mainly from a financial POV - I’d never not had a salary before, and my partner had also recently gone self-employed, so it was tricky to know when was the best time to do it. But, I wanted to give it a go before I was 30 (I’m currently 28)…we haven’t got children yet, plus we have a few years left on our fixed-rate mortgage…so I thought RIGHT let’s just go for it! If it doesn’t work, I can always go back into employment…but five months later I’m fully booked for management clients, and booked up for the next two months with content shoots and have had my biggest ever month financially! It’s true what they say…you do always wish you’d started sooner!

You’re so right! That is really incredible though Abi! We talk about how important in marketing it is to share your why.  Tell us your why - what is your goal with your brand?

To love what I do, and have more freedom to do the things I enjoy in life! Plus, to hopefully build a great foundation for me and my partner to be able to start a family one day.

Over the years with my previous roles in social media, I was working 16-hour days, seven days a week, constantly contacted in the early hours or late at night, even while I was away on annual leave or off and it really took its toll, both mentally and physically on me. 

While I truly loved my job, it became my whole personality. It was my priority over everything and all I ever spoke about. I missed friends’ birthdays, hen-dos, family celebrations, holidays and even loved ones passing away because I simply couldn’t get the time off work or was too far away. It’s something I’ll always look back on with guilt and regret. So now, by having my own business, I am in control of my time, and the decisions on where I am and when. 

Flexibility is one of the big perks of running your own business for sure, but it's hard to launch and run a business on your own, impossible in my opinion. Who and where have you sought the necessary support? What has been most useful?  

This is a BIG one! I’m so glad I sought help and advice so early on in my journey. It felt like a bit of a risk because at the beginning I obviously didn’t have the income necessarily “flowing” at that point but it was very much a case of “trust the process” and having the confidence to view these costs as investments. 

For me there were a few investments I made which were a real game changer:

Branding photography

I took the plunge and had a shoot before I even fully launched my business! I worked with the incredible Victoria Haydn Portraits and I was so delighted with the outcome - it meant I had a huge bank of imagery ready to go and use across my marketing channels and meant all my branding looked super polished and cohesive right from the start. 

Mentor session/Power Up

Although I was only a few months into my business, I already knew there were some things that needed ironing out and working on. I was incredibly busy (which I was so grateful for!) but my finances just weren’t reflecting that. That’s where you came in, Anna! We worked on my services, made sure I was doing more of what I loved and worked on a pricing structure which accurately reflected my time and expertise. I left the session with a clear plan on what to charge, and also goals of where I wanted to get those prices to. Doing this early on allowed me to save time in the long run and book my ideal clients!

Outsourcing

Following on from my session with Anna, it put into perspective just how valuable my time was. This meant that there were some things that I didn’t feel comfortable doing or that they would’ve taken hours of my time which I could’ve put towards my client work or own marketing…I outsourced help with copywriting for my services from the amazing Helen and Tash at Culpepper & Co, and also my website (which is now in progress - yay!) with Sophie from Align & Bloom.

We were so happy to work with you and love seeing how much you’ve grown! How did you find your audience? What have been great platforms for you?

My main audience is on Instagram and where I have connected with a majority of my clients. My feed is essentially my shop window, so it has been a great way of showcasing what I can do and also a great way of meeting other incredible business owners!

What’s surprised me the most is the power of recommendations and word of mouth. So many of the founders I work with, particularly for content shoots, are due to seeing my work on other people’s channels and wanting to replicate or level up their current content. 

Finally, networking and in-person events have proven really successful for me. I’m a people person and really love getting to know new people. Creating these relationships face-to-face have then led to work or recommendations.

We totally agree about the power of networking and word of mouth recommendations! Has your background also helped you in your business? 

I’ve worked in social media for nearly eight years but the majority of my experience, and where my love of all things content and social media came from, was my five years I spent at Manchester City Football Club. 

Being the Global Social Media Manager for one of the world’s biggest brands was intense, but in the best way possible. I led on the social and content strategy for channels which had over 100 million followers - I don’t think I ever had a quiet day! 

Looking back, I can’t quite believe some of the things I worked on. Leading on global kit launches for PUMA and Nike, being asked by Meta to feature on a panel about best practice in content creation for social, planning and executing campaigns for historic Club moments, and also being there right in the heart of the action filming with players and capturing tentpole moments. The pressure was like nothing I’ve ever experienced, but it has set me up for life…nothing will ever be as stressful as live tweeting penalty shoot outs, posting a player announcement with a few minutes notice or knowing you had one chance at filming the trophy lift…so it’s meant I now approach everything in such a calm and relaxed way. 

It’s also important to note that City always championed the use of iPhone filming and mobile first content. It was encouraged at every match, and we were the first Premier League club to have ‘presenter-led’ Instagram Stories where we featured and appeared in all of the footage after we saw what a huge impact it had on our engagement with global audiences. This is why I carried this into my business. I’ve seen first-hand the power of mobile content for a global brand, and now I’ve made this a core element in my content shoot service.

Working directly with platforms, and a constant focus on best practice has helped to shape my manageable, relatable and no-nonsense approach to social media and I hope my experience helps me cut through some of the noise of all the ‘experts’ and ‘gurus’ that fill our feeds! 

Wow. That must have been quite the experience and it’s reassuring to hear that such a big brand is all about mobile-first content too! How did/do you strike the balance and set boundaries between work and life? 

If you find this out, please can you let me know!? 

This is actually one of the main things I’m trying to get better at, but I’m still early on in my business and at the moment, I just love being immersed in it! 

I’ve been working on my boundaries and not replying to messages or emails straight away, particularly late at night, early in the morning or at weekends, as at the start I was so focussed on getting back to everyone ASAP. 

The main thing for me is getting out for a walk everyday (without my phone) with my boyfriend and two dogs. This is complete switch-off time for me and by leaving my phone at home there is no temptation to film, respond to messages or be on Instagram. 

Phone-free time is a great tip for all of us who feel the pressure to constantly be “on”! What’s been your personal highlight for Tailormade Social so far? Success looks different for everyone, what is success for you?

For me, it’s the results I see from my clients, and that doesn’t necessarily mean from a numbers/data POV. I saw one client go from having crippling anxiety around social media to then confidently posting and showing up on their account. Another client was incredibly nervous and hated talking on camera but by the end of our session, they said they’d enjoyed it so much and felt completely at ease. Another messaged me to say they were fully booked for the next 3 months with all their leads/bookings coming from the content I’d created for their Facebook and Instagram channels. 

Making people feel this way was honestly more than I could even dream of when starting out with Tailor-Made Social.

Secondly, although I’m not necessarily driven just by money, a goal of mine was to get to a position where I was able to match my monthly salary from my previous job…within just my second month, I exceeded that!

That’s incredible! What is the best advice anyone has given you in terms of being an entrepreneur/ business owner?

You can’t do it all…as much as you think you can or want to, it’s not healthy or sustainable to do every single thing in your business! 

Outsource, connect with like-minded individuals, and spend your time on the things you LOVE! 

…And what would be the one thing you would have done differently?

There are a few! 

First thing is with my pricing and services…I was so worried about not having any clients when I first started that I was trying to be everything to everyone. I undercharged, lowered my prices to fit to other people’s prices and said “yes” to clients who (now looking back) weren’t my ideal client. It meant I was working endless hours for not very much money at the beginning and it was a great learning curve! 

I would’ve also set better boundaries. I am, and always have been, a people pleaser! I found myself doing a lot of ‘favours’ for people or answering messages and emails during my downtime which was hard to undo! 

If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere with anything on it—metaphorically speaking, getting a message out to millions or billions—what would it say and why?

YOU are your USP

We absolutely love that! We think everyone has their own superpower and unlocking that is often the secret to their success! We love working and supporting ambitious female founders, the ambitions and ideas of others is really motivational. Saying something out loud can really help make things happen so what’s next for you and Tailor-Made Social?

Yes! I love this! There are a few things for me…

Short-term: take my content shoots around the UK with my ‘pop-ups’! I’m planning a pop up in Norwich, London and the Cotswolds over the coming months!

I would also love to put together online workshops and masterclasses this year. It’s something I’m working on in the background at the moment! 

Long-term: I would love to get to a point where I can be invited to talks, panels or speak at events all about my experience (I’ve got some great stories to tell!) and the industry as a whole. I recently attended the International Social Summit in Barcelona which was great…but during some of the talks and presentations, I thought “I really think I could do that!”

Hearing Abi talk so passionately about social media and cutting through so many of the myths we hear has been game-changing for so many of our Your AJency clients. She is doing wonderful things and having worked with her myself, I can 100% recommend Abi’s services! Given that Tailor-Made Social is only just 6 months old, we’ve been blown away at the inspiration and insights that Abi has left us with - proving that all experience can help you run an incredible small business!

About Abi Withey, Founder of Tailor-Made Social

Abi is an organic social media and content specialist with 8 years experience working with some of the world’s biggest brands! Her mission is to save business owners time and hassle with their social media through services like content shoots, management and 1:1 sessions, so that they can focus on the things they love! 

During her time as the Global Social Media Manager for Manchester City Football Club, she led on the strategy and content creation for their channels and worked directly with the platforms themselves. Abi is keen to bring this level of insight to smaller businesses and founders who don’t have this kind of access.

In a world full of Instagram ‘experts’ and ’gurus’ it can be incredibly overwhelming to know which advice to take or tips to follow, so Abi’s aim is to ease that stress through her manageable and realistic approach!

Work With Tailor-Made Social

The Content Accelerator for small business owners

Your AJency have teamed up with the incredible Abi at Tailor-Made Social to offer a totally unique one-stop-shop package for female business owners who need help with their social media content. 

You’ll get:

⚡️1-hour Power Up session with me to brainstorm killer content ideas with a focus on your brand goals and target audience.
🎥 3-hour shoot with Abi: receive over 100 social media videos (including that all-important b-roll!) that will make your brand shine.
🗣️ We strategise and dig deeper on your behalf behind-the-scenes between your power up session and the content shoot.

Find out more by getting in touch with us today.

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