Rachel launched her business during COVID-19, despite the risks and the fear of failure. After quitting her stable, secure job, Rachel decided it was time to stop dreaming of starting her own business and just do it. Having worked in the digital marketing sector for a number of years, Rachel wanted to do things differently. So, she launched Pinelink, her very own digital marketing agency.
The aim of Pinelink is to support the sustainable growth of small to large businesses through an ethical approach to digital marketing. Rachel and her team do not believe in a quick-fix service that offers short-term results. Pinelink is all about achieving sustainable business growth that benefits people and the planet. Here Rachel shares her story.
What is Pinelink all about?
When I launched Pinelink in 2020, my aim was and remains to start a digital marketing agency that genuinely cared about people and the planet. Pinelink is all about providing an ethical approach to digital marketing. We lead with integrity and are fully transparent about what we do and how we work. As a specialised marketing team, we provide expert and organic services to our clients that ensure long-term success for their businesses.
Tell us a little bit about your background and how you started your company?
I have always been a creative person. Ever since I was young, I loved to read and write, and those enjoyments have never faded for me. At university, I gained a degree with honours in English literature before going on to study a master’s in creative writing. Like most of my fellow graduates, I dreamt (and still do) of becoming a published author. In the meantime, I wanted to pursue creative outlets and so I became a copywriter for a digital marketing agency. I worked for four years writing copy for numerous clients, learning about SEO and rankings, and improving my knowledge.
Right before the coronavirus hit, I quit my full-time copywriting job to become a freelance copywriter. Thankfully, I had a lot of writing experience by this point and an impressive portfolio that helped me attract a number of excellent clients. So, I freelanced comfortably for a while, building up a client base, and producing some excellent work for various companies.
During this time, I had questions from my clients asking whether I provided bespoke graphics with my articles or whether I could re-design websites or help with rebrands. While I did not offer these services, my husband is a graphic designer and so we started talking through different ways we might be able to collaborate on various projects.
The more we talked, the more we began extending the services we offered and building out our business plan. Throughout this process, the most important question we kept asking ourselves was why did we want to do this? And the answer was always to help people and the planet.
Soon enough we reached out to a friend who specialised in analytics and pitched a rough business idea to him. He signed up immediately and his skillset meant we were able to offer a full-rounded marketing package even as a small start-up team.
And so, Pinelink was launched.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
I think that one of the things that cause people to shy away from starting their own businesses is the worry they aren’t qualified enough or they fear they don’t know what they are doing. Personally, I don’t think you have to have particularly skills to start your own business. Instead, I think you need certain characteristics. The 3 characteristics I think you need to launch your very own start-up include:
- Drive. You must be motivated to work hard for your dream. Starting a business isn’t an overnight process. It can require months (sometimes years) of hard work behind the scenes before you even launch your brand to the public). So, you need to be driven.
- Passion. If you’re not passionate about what you are doing it can be very difficult to dedicate hours of your time to it. If you’re going to start a business, you need to have passion. I am passionate about helping people grow their businesses so they can serve their customers and do their bit to better our planet. That passion serves to motivate me on the harder days, when worries about the future sneak into my thoughts or those familiar fears niggle their way into my mind.
- Integrity: as I have already mentioned, it is extremely important to our team that each of us leads with integrity. This means that when we say we’re going to do something, we do it. We are honest and transparent and as a result, our clients can rely on us. Integrity is a key characteristic to have in business. It gains peoples’ respect and ensures you stick to your morals.
What are your plans for the future, how do you plan to grow this company?
In the future, I would love to grow our business so that we have a number of well-established teams. Each of our service offerings requires specialist skills and so we would love to have managers in each of these departments, overseeing the work and ensuring we are always providing the very best to our clients. We plan on achieving this by hiring the best people for the job; those who are motivated, passionate about what they do, excited to be part of a company that wants to drive change, and generally keen to learn and develop. Sure, experience is important but ultimately, it’s the people that make our business. If you are willing to learn and keen to do the best you can, you will be a great fit for our team.
How have the pandemic and Lockdown affected you or your new business?
Well, like many people, we launched our business during the pandemic. Bad timing? Maybe on the face of it. However, launching our business during the pandemic was a necessary step for us. If we were going to commit to this business, we had to accept there would be hard times and good times. So, no matter how risky it might have seemed, launching when we did was one of the best decisions we made. Not only did it mean we worked that much harder, but it was the greatest test of commitment for our whole team.
And we are pleased to say that all our hard work paid off. Not only did we gain clients during the lockdown period, but we were able to support businesses from start-up level to large corporations with their marketing needs, thereby helping business owners navigate a turbulent time successfully.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
I think one of the ways we separate ourselves from our competitors is by offering a service that prioritises sustainable business growth. So often, digital marketing agencies charge huge prices to launch short-term growth campaigns that often result in businesses becoming inundated with orders they can’t fill and customers they are unable to serve.
At Pinelink, we are proud to provide organic marketing strategies that help achieve sustainable, manageable business growth. So, our services help our client’s businesses grow at a rate they can manage. After all, there is no point bringing in 9,000 product orders for a client in a day if they can only fulfill that many in a week. We work closely with our clients to understand their goals so they can succeed for the long-term and grow their business at a rate and in a way that works for them.
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
- Not creating contracts. One of the first business mistakes we made was not writing our work contracts early enough. In the early days, we spent so much time setting up our website and cold pitching to clients that when the work did come in, we didn’t have the paperwork to make everything official. Thankfully, our clients were understanding, and we managed to get everything ready and in place reasonably quickly, but it was a rookie mistake.
- Pitching projects that were too big. When we started out, we wanted to say yes to every project we could. However, there were numerous opportunities that came our way that we were unable to fill. Unfortunately, this meant wasted time where we tried to pull together pitches only to discover we didn’t have the right specialists for the job.
- Doing it alone. Often, I think business owners are afraid to ask for help. That was certainly me when we started out. I was enthusiastic and driven and I wanted to do it all on my own. However, this can take more time and can mean you make more mistakes. So, I wish I had asked for help sooner because it makes all the difference.
What’s a productivity tip you swear by?
Lists. Writing lists is my number one productivity tip. If you are not a list writer, this might seem like a basic tip, but list writing has always been the easiest way for me to stay productive. Every week I write out a list of tasks I want to achieve. I assign the tasks to certain days and schedule in all my meetings and just get organised. It’s an easy way to see what an upcoming week is looking like and it’s also a great way to look back and feel a sense of accomplishment.
What helps you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business?
I think the biggest way I stay motivated and driven in my business is in communicating with my clients. I am delighted when clients share how their business is succeeding because of our service. It makes me happy to know that Pinelink is playing a part in their success and that is what drives me and keeps me motivated.
What is your favourite quote?
“The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
– Nelson Mandela
What valuable advice would you give new entrepreneurs starting out?
It’s simple: just step out of your comfort zone and give it a try. I think so often we let fear hold us back; fear that we might fail, fear of what might happen, fear we are not good enough, fear, fear, fear. Saying no to that fear and stepping out anyway is a huge accomplishment. Even if your business doesn’t succeed in the end, you can walk away with a sense of pride that you at least gave it a shot when so many others would be too afraid to try. So, my advice is to give it a go because you never know what might happen.
How can readers get in touch with you?
If you would like to get in touch with me, please send me an email to rachel@pinelinkagency.com Whether you have a question, you want to find out more about Pinelink, or you just want to chat, I would love to hear from you.
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