Disclosure: I may be compensated via the links clicked in the article. The opinions expressed are my own and stand by my recommendations.

You went into business to make money and the way you make money in business is to be seen. If people don’t know about your business, how can you make any sales?

For most people being seen in business involves marketing…social media, ads, email, lives, etc. If you’re like most small business owners, you’re doing everything on your own and just don’t have the time to dedicate to marketing because you’re busy doing client work.

When I started my business way back in 2014, I did all the things and kept myself spinning trying to do everything that running a business involves. If I could go back to my younger entrepreneur days I’d tell myself to hire someone else to handle the marketing aspect so I could focus on making money.

There’s no way you can dedicate time to making CEO decisions when you’re worried about what to post on Instagram every day.

Sounds great, but there’s a challenge when you’re first starting out and don’t have much of a budget.

So, how do you do it?

Fortunately, there’s a solution.

Acadium.

Summary

Acadium allows you to find remote marketing talent on any budget. It’s a great service for busy entrepreneurs who may have a smaller budget for marketing help. Acadium has a pool of apprentices that are looking to start careers in digital marketing and gain real-world experience. The biggest advantage over other marketing platforms like Upwork or Fiverr is that you often get better quality work for a lower fee.

Platform: Remote

Price: $499 per quarter for 1 apprentice or $1,999 per year for 2 apprentices at a time

Promotion: Get $100 off when you sign up for membership

Pros

• Flexible pricing options – Acadium allows for quarterly memberships as well as annual memberships depending on your needs. The annual pricing offers the best value since you’ll be able to have 2 apprentices working with you at the same time for less than $2k per year!
• Matching services – Acadium matches you with apprentices that are looking for experience in the type of marketing you need.
• Time-saving – Save valuable hours on your marketing tasks by delegating them to someone else.
• Give back – You have the opportunity to help someone else who is changing careers by being a mentor while working with them.
• Great support – There’s great support from the Acadium team, they check in regularly and ask for feedback regarding the apprentices and vice versa.
• Training – This is more from the apprentice side, but they provide all their apprentices with training materials so they’re not “deer in the headlights” new when they work with you.
• Variety – You can get help on a variety of marketing tasks; email, copywriting, website, funnels, social media, paid advertising, marketing analytics…the list goes on and on what you can use your apprentice for.
• Matching – I’ve been a mentor with Acadium when they were Gen M many years ago. Back then, you had to find an apprentice and interview them. Now Acadium matches mentors with apprentices based on the needs of both. It makes it so much easier for both parties.

Cons

• Duration – You can only work with an apprentice for 10 hours per week for 12 weeks (or 90 days). This can be a con if you don’t have a system in place to onboard a new team member every quarter. It’s also a con when you find an apprentice you really like to work with and you have to be matched with a new one once their time is done.
• Location – While all apprentices work remotely, you may have to change some things in your schedule if your apprentice works on the other side of the world.
• Video chat – I’ve had trouble getting the video chat to work on the Acadium platform, but can easily chat with my apprentices on Zoom.

What’s Acadium?

According to Acadium, their tagline for business owners is to “Mentor emerging talent and grow your business affordably.” It’s an easy-to-use platform that allows you to sign-up (after a brief interview), match with an apprentice and start an apprenticeship while you mentor them along the way for three months at a time.

My Recommendation

In my opinion, if you’re looking for marketing help for your business for a budget and enjoy mentoring others, Acadium is a great platform. I’ve been on the platform for years (previously GenM) and thoroughly enjoy mentorship and the help I get with marketing tasks for my business.

In addition to the great pricing, Acadium gives pretty sweet referral fees for mentors. I highly recommend this service. You can’t go wrong with having a dedicated apprentice for three months at a time to check off your marketing tasks.