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Tanvi Shah increased her Instagram following from 5,000 to over 38,000 in about three years.
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The 26-year-old decided to quit her regular job with the Big Four after realizing she could earn just as much.
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Shah said the business world affected her mental health and her job satisfaction is now higher.
When Tanvi Shah quit her job at a Big Four accounting firm, she knew she was taking a huge risk by giving up her monthly salary to become a full-time influencer.
“It was terrifying and I’m still very scared,” she told Insider. Initially, her parents did not understand the potential of social media. “It was a huge relief for them to know that I have a base to fall back on and in the worst case scenario I can get another job.”
Shah said that when she started posting regularly on social media, she didn’t think it would become her main source of income.
As the pandemic started, she began to spend more time creating career advice videos for social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
“I started investing more time in improving the quality of images and videos and worked with many companies,” she said.
“My following quickly grew as I talked about things that weren’t normally discussed, such as mental health when I worked in the corporate space and was South Asian.”
Shah content found an audience and within a year she was considering how to monetize her followers.
Before starting to create higher quality content, Shah had 5,000 followers on Instagram, which then doubled to 10,000 at the start of the pandemic. She now has more than 38,000 followers on Instagram and about 70,000 on TikTok.
The social media influencer says her earnings per post depend on how much work she gets per month or what brand she works with.
“The goal was to match my salary of £3,000 ($3,600) a month. The cost for a post starts from £200 ($242), but sometimes a big brand opts for a content pack, such as an Instagram reel and a TikTok video The biggest deal was £1,500 ($1819) for a brand that wanted three pieces of content.”
Creating social media content started out as an afterthought for Shah, but within a year, opportunities arose from modeling to radio appearances. The London-born influencer then found she was struggling to manage her time as a content creator alongside her corporate job.
“I woke up at 6 AM to edit videos and realized there wasn’t much fun in the corporate space and my passion shifted to social media, so I had to weigh the decision,” Shah said.
“If I don’t try to do it full time, I never will. I wanted to give myself the freedom of time, so I decided to resign from my Big Four job.”
Shah said that before she quit her job, managing a side job felt like a double life. She became aware that former managers were viewing her messages and that made her cautious. “It felt like I was Hannah Montana coming back from work and doing something completely different, but I’m versatile.”
In the financial world, there was a clear career path and timetable for progress for Shah. However, she felt it would take a toll on her mental health.
“Working for myself as a maker allows me to manage my mental health by setting boundaries,” she said. “If I decide for a week that I can’t work, I’m not out of pocket because of last month’s earnings.”
Having a background in accounting and consulting and knowing how to manage her money helped Shah become self-employed.
“What people don’t see is all the work that goes on behind the scenes. I value self-management and have at least five different apps and tools for planning and organizing,” she said.
“It helps that I know the basic tax and accounting rules and have a way to track profits and losses and expenses. I’m a financial girl and nerd, so it was second nature to see how much profit I was making.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
