We’re a small business. We work with small businesses a lot. Do we want to grow? Sure, but not at the expense of the small businesses we represent.
Here’s what I mean:
For some agencies, working with multiple companies in the same line of business is no big deal. Maybe you are a graphic designer or a builder or even a website developer. You can see how this type of agency can work with similar businesses, no problem. But what we do, what I sell our services (and follow-through) on, is becoming the voice of the brands we represent. As I’ve said time and time again, we don’t just “publish posts.” Pushing generic content is simply not what we do. We actually become the brands, themselves, personified. So how could we possibly be more than one voice at a time? How could we say one client is the best at what they do and turn around and say the same thing about another client who does the same thing?
An unwritten promise we make to our clients is that we inherently will not do that.
When we take on a client, we are all-in. We become the person behind the keyboard, creating shareable, engaging pieces of content and creating conversation. While in the process of onboarding a new client this week, we were approached by one of our colleagues to submit a proposal for a competitor of that new client. For a second, I thought about it…. my business has to take precedence, right? But after a two-second conversation with my team, I was reminded that we don’t do that. Not only would it feel “icky” but I can’t do that to my team, making it even more difficult to develop a strategy and voice for one brand only to turn around and do the same thing for a company in the exact same industry.
It’s a risk we take, sure. If it doesn’t work out with our new client for some reason, well we potentially lost out on the opportunity to work with this other one. BUT… for the clients we have worked with for nearly a decade, if I asked them how they would have felt if we were working with their competitor, I don’t think it would go over well.
Small business is personal. In fact, large business is personal. Keeping the voice authentic is what we do. So for now, we will keep it to one company per industry.
by 
