CYBERTORIAL* The E+I Empowerment Trust is open for applications as it seeks to support business growth for entrepreneurs in advertising, media and marketing.
Advertising, media and marketing holds attention-grabbing and effective solutions to not only sales and marketing, but to complex socio-economic problems. This is according to Paul Middleton, managing director of Ebony+Ivory, who believes that to be able to do so powerfully and successfully, we need to fast-track talent faster.
Geared to fast track growth
The industry needs to provide an environment that is conducive to enabling start-ups to grow into sustainable media and creative entities, and the confines of compliance mentality fall way too short for the challenge. “What’s needed is for us to take smarter, faster ways to grow independents who have the skills and experience, but who need fundamental commercial support for business expansion,” he says.
Middleton was one of the original members to serve on the MAC Charter Committee and he has an unquenchable desire to help others succeed. His integrated advertising agency launched the E+I Empowerment Trust in 2016. Embedded in the agency structure and with a commitment of 25% of agency shares to the initiative, it funds the provision of administrative and mentorship resources to qualifying creative professionals across the agency spectrum.
Seeding symbiotic relationships
The E+I initiative therefore gives creative, marketing and media business owners a resourced space from which to seed business growth. It is open to designers, copywriters; production managers; PR professionals; digital/social media specialists; media strategists/planners; audio visual/film making communities; and account/project managers.
Media specialist Si Nyuswa, who operates from the Trust, explains that this approach to growth is driven through “symbiotic collaborative partnerships that provide advice and support, especially for non-core areas in which the start-up agency is not an expert. It not only provides the necessary skills transfer, but ensures that the entrepreneur can focus on learning and growing their business in a highly competitive industry.”
Middleton projects that this hybrid approach to building up independents has the power to unlock more depth and breadth in the industry skills base. He sees significant developmental power therein “as the incoming industry talent pool grows in tandem with the entrepreneurial venture.”
Call for applications
E+I is calling for new Empowerment Trust applicants.
Those interested in applying can share their vision for their business with the team via trust@ebonyivory.co.za. “We are looking for experienced freelancers; independent professionals in search of an agency-centric workspace from which to run their own business,” concludes Middleton.
Let’s get growth working.
*Cybertorial is sponsored content
