Deciding to Collaborate with Jasmine PR
Straight after leaving my day job I began networking to promote Wilkin Design and gain some long-term clients on my monthly retainer services. My confidence grew the more I networked and discussed my business to people, the responses were positive and people were impressed that one of my clients was from The Apprentice… your clients are your best marketing tool.
However, whenever I heard that someone in the same room offers one of the services I offer I’d fear that I wouldn’t gain any clients due to a potential competitor. But then I decided to stop seeing my competitors as competition and instead see them as opportunities for collaboration… and this is how the idea came about for myself and Jasmine to collaborate, especially because we attend the same networking events either together or separately. I dropped her a message about the idea and straightaway we arranged a Starbucks catch-up. The next day, we did our first duo-pitch at The Growth Community and landed four 1-1s with people interested in our collaborative services.
I met Jasmine at her first networking event (Island Networking), which was only a month after I had started networking. Two Starbucks catch-ups later, we’re on the same wavelength, have a lot in common and have our duo-pitch planned.
Both myself and Jasmine offer social media services, alongside me offering design, branding and website services and Jasmine offering PR, events, copywriting and email marketing services. Now, imagine there’s a potential client in the room and they require social media services… out of myself and Jasmine, how could the client make a decision on who to approach for the job? What if the client would also like some design work and some copywriting work? In this industry a lot of aspects overlap and often comes the assumption that because you do this you can also do this and that. With our collaboration we can offer a full marketing package, or just aspects of each others services, under one set rate without either one of us becoming a Jack of all trades.
As we’re both within the marketing industry, the same age and new to networking, becoming a collaborative team makes us stronger, gives us the ability to benefit both of our clients even more and means we can rely on each other for support with any concerns, problems or just to vent about life things.
Seeing someone as a competitor will only increase imposter syndrome and self-doubt. Collaborating is much more beneficial for everyone, as this means no one is overworked, the clients are happy, and you have the perks of a team-mate without the downside of working for an employer in-house. Win-win!
If you need a lot of marketing with a strong visual presence that increases your brand awareness, get in touch with either one of us.
Follow us and our journey in LinkedIn.
