Try @heyitslaurajane’s Reel: An Instagram Reels template for small businesses

With the holidays coming up, we think small businesses deserve an early gift: plug-and-play resources for Reels. We’ve recruited Laura Jane (@heyitslaurajane) —the “creative business fairy godmother,” as she calls herself in her Instagram bio—to help us with the first reel in our new Try @___’s Reel series. For this series, talented small business owners and creators are creating a bunch of reels, complete with catchy audio, specifically for small businesses looking for help to reach their goals on Instagram.

The best part? With templates, you’ll be able to copy the format of these reels and swap in clips of your own business in action. If you’ve been thinking about experimenting with short-form video but weren’t sure how or where to start, take a look at Laura Jane’s reel below and get inspired to create your own.

If Laura Jane sounds familiar, that’s because she’s the voice behind the viral “It Costs That Much” and “Affordability” audio sounds you may have heard on social media. Both tunes, besides getting stuck in your head, call out just how much attention and care small businesses put into their work.

“As someone who has spent almost 12 years in the creative small business industry, I’ve seen so many artists, handmakers, craftsfolk charging absolute buttons for beautiful, skilled work,” says Laura Jane. “For so many years, as a community, we drew as much attention as possible to our smallness, because we thought it separated us from the retail giants and kept us relatable, approachable and unintimidating. And while that's true, it also kept us small in our own minds. It also kept our prices small, because we then felt bad about actually charging for what we do!”

Though her audio has reached many ears, she admits she “resisted short-form video content for a long time.” Why? She didn’t have the time, and it felt vulnerable to put herself out in the world that way. Now that she’s come so far, however, her advice for getting started with Reels is quite simple: “Give it a go!”

“I think some folks look at those of us showing up on Reels and think that it comes really easily to us but, truthfully, I was very nervous for the first few reels I shared that had my face in them,” she explains. “Eventually, I fell into a groove with my style and my brand voice and it became second nature after a while.”

To her, success for creative small businesses comes from people wanting to buy from other people—supporting them on their entrepreneurial journey. Reels, she adds, help her show who she really is to potential customers and clients and, in turn, build genuine relationships with them.

“Not only have I built up my own confidence through Reels,” Laura Jane adds, “but the fact that I’ve been able to have any sort of positive impact at all on someone's business journey simply by creating fun, silly video content makes me pretty dang proud.”

Follow @instagramforbusiness so you don’t miss the next reel to plug and play around with.