
By Mike Metz on in Agency Life & Leadership
The key to victory is partnership
As we close in on our 16th year, I’ve been striving to inject fresh energy into the business by learning new things and connecting with more people and companies. We don’t want to be stagnant—it’s too easy to be left behind in this fast-changing environment. And by reaching out to new people, not only do we identify prospective clients, we’ve found that this is a great way to accelerate our offering as well as contribute to other groups’ success.
Partnership is a balance—finding good partners can be difficult, but when you find someone who matches your culture and work ethic, it can be a beautiful thing.
FATFREE’s partnerships take on different forms:
Individuals/sole proprietors expanding our offering. We work with many trusted individuals who have helped us in a variety of ways. From copywriting and designing to market research, media planning and coding, our team connects with talented people around the globe every day. Some of these folks have worked with us since FATFREE’s earliest days. Once we find someone who embodies our style, we want them to be part of our family, even if they aren’t looking for a full-time, employer-employee relationship. We want them to feel and know that they are a key component of our success. By treating them as an equal part of the team, paying them on time, being super respectful of their right to work on other projects and recognizing their scheduling needs, we’ve been able to maintain positive, strong, decades-long relationships.
Other companies that build our capacity. I’ve come to really appreciate the value of forming partnerships with firms that drive our resources to a higher level. We’ve formed partnerships with development firms that can quickly increase our technical capacity and allow us to support our clients in grand ways. Whether it’s rebuilding an ecommerce website or rebranding a business, these partnerships ensure that FATFREE can take on even the largest, most complex projects with ease.
Agencies that need plug-and-play digital. FATFREE often takes on the role of the digital department for marketing and communication agencies. As a trusted, experienced collaborator, our capabilities allow them to provide a 360-degree offering to their clients as if we were in-house. Our team has deep experience working this way, and adapting to the partner’s needs and helping them look good is right in our wheelhouse. The key is communication—understanding how the partner agency and client prefer to operate, making sure everyone understands all that we can provide, being responsive and attentive, and acting as a single, unified entity. In other words, we try to embed ourselves as members of their team.
Whether extending our own capabilities or helping bolster another group, partnerships have been our lifeblood. It’s no surprise. FATFREE was founded on the concept of having a core, senior-level team drive the business, tapping top-notch, global talent to ramp up quickly and achieve a wide range of client goals. Knowing that, we give partnerships the same care and service that we give our clients. We need to trust them, so we behave in a manner that encourages their trust.
If you’re looking for a fruitful partnership, we welcome the opportunity to learn more about you. Let’s see how we can help one another out.