- Rachel Schur Chase, 33, is a Broadway actress and founder of Schur Thing Media.
- When Broadway closed in March due to the pandemic, Schur Chase began growing her social media management business into a full-time small business.
- She helps brick and mortar retailers launch online stores, mentors other stage actors looking to build an online presence, and manages customers’ social media accounts and analytics.
- Schur Chase offers a variety of packages that range in price from $ 1,000 for basic services to $ 3,500 for all-inclusive social media management.
- This is what her job looks like, as the freelance writer Gia Miller says.
- You can find more stories on the Business Insider homepage.
For nearly two years I starred on the Broadway show Chicago, played Annie, and served as understudy for Roxie Hart. Then the pandemic hit. It’s always been a dream of mine to be on Broadway, but I’m also a very practical person and I knew that having other sources of income was important. For the past four years, I’ve been helping a small business or two with their social media during the day, even while performing on Broadway every night.
When Broadway closed on March 13, my husband Ben and I booked flights to Florida for the next day. We were with my parents in my hometown Melbourne and I started getting more social media clients. Before I knew it, I had tripled my client list. Most of my clients are verbal, either friends of friends or friends of clients. I also offer one-on-one coaching and bi-monthly webinars – these clients usually come from Instagram or Facebook.
I didn’t plan to start a company, I didn’t have a start date or a name. But about a month later, I looked at my husband who builds websites and ecommerce platforms for my clients and said, “We need to involve.” He agreed. We named the company Schur Thing Media and developed a website.
My first clients came from family relationships, and the news quickly spread through personal references.
About five years ago when I started on the side, I was working for a fitness company. They needed someone to run their Instagram and social media accounts. Therefore, I took several courses and got Facebook advertising certification. I completed my training and recently received a certification in digital marketing and strategy from Cornell’s online program.
Some of my first clients were interior designers referred to me by my mother-in-law. Until recently, she was the editor-in-chief of a luxury digital publication in Palm Beach. So she shared my new business with several designers she knew.
My digital marketing company grew practically overnight, with clients like Project Runway Season X winner Dmitry Sholokhov, a gym, dance fitness company, the nonprofit Kids’ Dreams, Inc., and even an endoscopic weight loss center. I also work with a lot of interior designers like MG Design Lab and David Mitchell Brown.
We recently teamed up with a production company to shoot commercials for some of our clients. We’re shooting a commercial in a few weeks with a budget between $ 20,000 and $ 30,000.
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When everything shut down, we started helping small businesses get online.
Schur Chase quickly found more customers with colleagues who were hoping to expand their online presence.
Lauren Desbgerg
Many brick and mortar stores were very concerned at the start of the pandemic – customers were not shopping in their store and had no products available online. My husband and I were quickly hired to build ecommerce websites for multiple retail stores. While he was developing the websites, I integrated their social media so they could also offer one-touch shopping through these accounts to keep their businesses alive.
I also offer one-on-one mentoring to numerous Broadway actors and actresses to help them film during that time, such as: B. build up a social media presence or found your own fitness company.
For actors who want to stay in the industry, I help them get out of their comfort zone. I tell them to get creative and develop a unique online series that will showcase their passions and talents. I teach them how to use the apps and edit videos with a variety of creative tools. Whether they’re creating a fun series on TikTok or creating Instagram roles, I’ll teach them how to create a real online presence, market themselves, and monetize these apps.
In just a few months, we’ve grown from $ 3,000 to nearly $ 10,000 per month.
My business fluctuates between eight and 13 customers each month, depending on who needs what. I also offer social media webinars and workshops. My monthly income is similar to what I made on Broadway.
We offer a variety of packages to our customers on Facebook, TikTok, Pinterest and more. The $ 1,000 base package is Instagram account management, which includes redesigning the existing grid and bio, new content, creating daily stories, and community engagement to increase followers. Another package is a one-time website design package for converting a landing page or creating a completely new website, which costs between $ 1,500 and $ 2,500.
We recently started offering a full-service package in which we act as branding manager and creative director, provide social media management for all platforms, buy Facebook or Google ads monthly, redesign the website once or retooling to make sales funnel work perfectly, performs analysis to ensure ROI and provides insight into video creation. This package costs $ 3,500.
Every customer, regardless of their plan, receives weekly growth updates that include the impressions of the week, unique reach, best performing posts, and target audience breakdown. We also highlight when new followers contain bio-keywords like “art collector”, “travel lover” or “house pinball” that our customers want.
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I really enjoy this work and am not sure what will happen when Broadway reopens.
Schur Chase says she hopes to continue doing business even after Broadway reopens.
Lauren Desbgerg
From now on they will refund tickets until May 30, 2021, but who knows. I don’t think anyone guaranteed their old jobs. There is so much in the air and I think it would be naive for any actor to think differently. But I hope we can all come back and finish what we started – it gets even more exciting.
I got a glimpse of my old life in November when we were filming a performance of Chicago with Tina Fey as part of a two-hour special on NBC to support Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS. The entire cast came together, but first we had to quarantine and test for COVID-19. It was so much fun and a nice little glimmer of hope for us. When it was over, I looked around Eighth Avenue and was brought back to reality that Broadway is no longer my full-time job, and now I’m on this social media journey. It was such a bizarre identity crisis.
I’m not sure where my business will go if I keep this job going during the day and then go to the theater in the evening – that’s a lot of work. And at some point we want to start a family. Broadway shows are really, really hard for anyone, let alone when you’re a mom. There is a lot to consider, but I am grateful for this opportunity to make a living during the pandemic. I really love working with my clients and helping small businesses grow.