Creating win-win situations

A quick Google search reveals the meaning of ‘Collaboration’ to be ‘the action of working with someone to produce something’. At Opendoorz HQ we are big fans of collaboration. In fact, we’d go so far as to say that collaboration is what makes Opendoorz tick, it’s at the heart of our ethos and is one of the clearest markers of success we have.

We’ve seen first-hand what a powerful business tool collaboration is through our members time and time again and despite the curveballs that 2020 has thrown at us there’ve been some brilliant recent collaborations going on between Opendoorz members. Why collaboration works so well within Opendoorz is down to the emphasis we put on our members really getting to know, like and trust each other. Our members are able to confidently collaborate with and recommend each other because they understand each other’s business offering inside out, trust that person to deliver and believe in the value their service adds.

Collaboration in action

Oxfordshire based accountancy firm, Wellers, work in partnership with their clients to help support and educate them, as well crunching the numbers. Partner, Debbie Austin, has recently been collaborating with fellow Oxford Group member and business coach, David Haimes, from The Henley Coaching Partnership on a joint education piece. ‘What you need to know to Sell your Business’ offers sound advice and information relevant to both Debbie’s and David’s clients. The piece has been widely shared across both sets of contacts and to the wider Opendoorz membership. It’s a great example of two complementary businesses working together to enhance their offering and widen their customer base.

Opendoorz members also collaborate to leverage each other’s expertise and specialist skills. Sales Coach, Nick Hughes, from Dynamic Coach knew just who to work with when he wanted to use video marketing to engage with his audience. Nick spoke to Will Littlewood of RAW Pictures because he had gotten to know Will so well through their twice monthly North Oxford Group meetings and was confident Will and the team would deliver a first class service. Nick was not disappointed! Within 48 hours of agreeing the scripts for 6 short videos they were shot, recut, edited and raring to go.

With the support of group members sharing, liking and commenting on Nick’s videos he’s been able to reach audience levels he’s never seen before. Not only was the content being highly praised amongst Nick’s audience but RAW Pictures were getting a huge amount of publicity for the quality of the videos.

Architect, Liz Sparrow, from Ridge has just tipped the Opendoorz record books following her successful, ongoing collaboration with Justin Rhodes of Chris Lewis Smart Homes. Liz and Justin have been working together for a while on joint opportunities for their complementary services and also referring potential clients to each other. Whilst both have been clocking up new business thanks to their collaboration, Liz has just invoiced over £250,000 for phase 1 of a project Justin introduced her to – that’s an Opendoorz record!

Whilst Liz and Justin both knew each other before joining Opendoorz they both agree that seeing each other at the twice monthly meetings has helped to keep the relationship active and meant the conversations and opportunities for new business have escalated beyond anything they could’ve expected.

Henley group members Rebecca Woolmington from HR Central and Accountant, Catherine Bond, from Blue Peak Consultancy have been working so closely together with old and new clients it’s almost as though they’re one and the same company. Not only do they jointly pitch for work together, they’ve also become great friends.

Rebecca says ‘We have identical approaches to the way in which we treat our clients meaning our customer service is seamless. Catherine, like me, goes above and beyond with delivery which means I know my clients will never be disappointed. I do the HR and she talks payroll and accountancy – it’s such a powerful collaboration.’

Collaboration doesn’t just occur amongst members of the same group though. Across all eight Opendoorz groups there are great examples of members collaborating and reaping the rewards.

Aaron Rudman-Hawkins owner of The Evergreen Agency and Trinity group member works with several Opendoorz members from across other groups to support their SEO and PPC online marketing. In fact Oxford group member, Ben Gardner from Ecology by Design, reported only recently that they had seen a 600% increase in enquiries through the work of Evergreen. ”

We work hard to ensure that our members have a broad range of skills to ensure maximum opportunity for collaboration. Reading group member, Mark Van Rol from Action Coach needed to overhaul his marketing strategy during lockdown and whilst already working with Henley group member, Henry McIntosh, from 2112 Marketing, he decided to double his investment with them. Mark’s been so impressed he’s now recommended Henry to one of his clients.

We could go on, and on, and on about collaborations between Opendoorz members! The number and quality of collaborations, discussions and business opportunities is always the stand out feature our members tell us sets Opendoorz apart from other professional networking groups.

Creating that environment for great business collaborations to happen is something we work very hard at. Great networking doesn’t just happen. We carefully structure meetings, facilitate discussion and ensure our members are not only high-calibre business owners, directors or partners but align with our values and ethos. They have to see the value of surrounding themselves with experts from a variety of businesses who can be part of their team, support the needs of their clients, give honest and trustworthy advice and bring business opportunities to them.

As you can tell, it’s a formula that works!

If you’d like to explore the Opendoorz potential for you and your business, along to one of our guest events – we’d love to welcome you along.