How to Grow Your Business Through Effective Collaboration

I’m Breanna Aponte, CEO of Shameless LLC.

How to grow your business through effective collaboration.

Well, with my business, I knew that I had three things that would really make my business grow. One was media. I needed a way to show people what it was that I was doing. Then I needed the marketing. I needed graphics. I needed a way to promote those things that was I coming up to get it out there. Then the third one was that I needed different businesses that could effectively help my business, but wasn’t in direct competition because everything that I do involves women. I thought of things like beauty, health, and wellness. I decided to take those three things and figure out ways that I could collaborate without it having to come out of my pocket so that I can get those things that I needed for that growth.

For media collaboration, I know a lot of photographers and videographers in the Cleveland area. I know that one thing that I have that they don’t have is a following and a good clientele. I have a women organization where my ladies can be used as portfolio-builders for these media, whether it’s photography or videography, and I agreed with them to, “Hey, do this work for me for free and in return I will give you clientele and I will promote your business.”

With graphic designing, that’s basically the flyers, the promotional work that is put on my social media, any ad campaigns, and I knew a couple people who were trying to start their own marketing companies who needed word spread and that needed clientele. Again, I took my following and my clientele and I made my clients their clients, and they offered me their work for free.

You can take your services that you offer and another person’s services that they might offer that doesn’t compete with one another but that could benefit one another. It’s a way to invest your time and invest your talent and invest your business without having to take out those financial burdens and have to pay for them.

Being that my brand is Shameless and I have and organization called “Shameless Ladies,” all of our women want to feel beautiful. That means I’m giving them the aspect where they’re getting the confidence but they need their hair, their makeup, their nails, health supplies, they want to lose weight, they want to be in shape. I got together with some nutritional people, handed out product or did personal training. I got with salons, nail techs, makeup artists, and I had them offer their services, as well, either to me so that I could save money on getting glammed up and I had, in return, promoted their business.

Through collaborations, you can build and grow your business without breaking the bank.