Wage war or Collaborate? Need Your Input
When I first started IM I was not making enough to cover my bills.
I had a student job at my university and I was approached by a guy who owned a marketing company to take photoshop designs and flesh them out into websites to be used on a CMS named LightCMS.
They basically outsourced to me development and then they would outsource SEO to another company.
At this time, I was not thinking I would start a marketing company of my own and so I gave them some advice. I told them the company they would outsource their stuff to sucked, gave them advice on how to do SEO properly, and strongly suggested that they switch to Wordpress as a CMS.
Apparently, not many ppl took them up on their services and I thought they went out of business.
Now, I have my own marketing company. I do similar work but all in-house. The design, development, SEO as a lead-in service. To which I then do consulting afterwards, set up JVs, mentor, and many more aspects of marketing and business development.
I got a call today from a guy at the first company that would outsource stuff to me asking if I was interested in doing PSD-to-Wordpress stuff and that he had four sites lined up. Naturally, I was a little offended because they promised me work 2 years ago then disappeared. I told him we would meet on Sunday.
Now, I have no interested in doing PSD-to-Wordpress stuff but I do find them to be competent designers. They have their little service that they provide which is charge a lot for a website and put them on an SEO plan which they do none of the work. They don't even understand SEO.
I do not want to ghost-work for anyone. I want my work recognized and I am not about to go build up the portfolio of a competing company.
Should I propose a form of Joint-Venture?
In an ideal world, we would share the recognition. They would be recognized for their design work and my team would be recognized for development and we could use the same client in both company's portfolios.
I do not want the situation where they think that I or my team work for them.
My company's main goal is to help is all aspects of internet marketing not just basic website/SEO which to me is child's play.
At the end of the day I think they do great design work and I do great development and SEO work. Enough so that my clients pay me $100/hr for consulting. I am not going to bend over backwards to bring another company to my level. I want to combine forces to add value to the end customer. Is it a good idea?
Or should I let the imperial side of me takeover and wage war in our marketplace?
I had a student job at my university and I was approached by a guy who owned a marketing company to take photoshop designs and flesh them out into websites to be used on a CMS named LightCMS.
They basically outsourced to me development and then they would outsource SEO to another company.
At this time, I was not thinking I would start a marketing company of my own and so I gave them some advice. I told them the company they would outsource their stuff to sucked, gave them advice on how to do SEO properly, and strongly suggested that they switch to Wordpress as a CMS.
Apparently, not many ppl took them up on their services and I thought they went out of business.
Now, I have my own marketing company. I do similar work but all in-house. The design, development, SEO as a lead-in service. To which I then do consulting afterwards, set up JVs, mentor, and many more aspects of marketing and business development.
I got a call today from a guy at the first company that would outsource stuff to me asking if I was interested in doing PSD-to-Wordpress stuff and that he had four sites lined up. Naturally, I was a little offended because they promised me work 2 years ago then disappeared. I told him we would meet on Sunday.
Now, I have no interested in doing PSD-to-Wordpress stuff but I do find them to be competent designers. They have their little service that they provide which is charge a lot for a website and put them on an SEO plan which they do none of the work. They don't even understand SEO.
I do not want to ghost-work for anyone. I want my work recognized and I am not about to go build up the portfolio of a competing company.
Should I propose a form of Joint-Venture?
In an ideal world, we would share the recognition. They would be recognized for their design work and my team would be recognized for development and we could use the same client in both company's portfolios.
I do not want the situation where they think that I or my team work for them.
My company's main goal is to help is all aspects of internet marketing not just basic website/SEO which to me is child's play.
At the end of the day I think they do great design work and I do great development and SEO work. Enough so that my clients pay me $100/hr for consulting. I am not going to bend over backwards to bring another company to my level. I want to combine forces to add value to the end customer. Is it a good idea?
Or should I let the imperial side of me takeover and wage war in our marketplace?