Back while I worked for the Beer Store and still just a part time employee, the union for the Beer Store wanted to partner with them so they could raise more money for their charity of choice, the Leukemia Society of Canada. This was the birth of the Returns for Leukemia Bottle Drive, the world’s largest bottle drive.
Back when we first started with the Bottle Drive, my manager at the time convinced me to step up and become a “Team Captain”. This was the title given to the person that organized and ran the store’s efforts in raising money and making sure there were enough volunteers on Bottle Drive weekend.
At that time, a fellow Beer Store employee from a different store was just as passionate about the cause as I was and we were both “Team Captained” our respective stores helping to raise money for the cause. At first it was all about the 2 of us competing and trying to one up each other until we decided to work together and see what we could do as a team.
After the two of us teamed up and worked together we started to see more volunteers, getting other stores more help as well as working as a team to get more promotion for the bottle drive in the Windsor area. This is where my journey as a social media manager started.
At that time, I started a Twitter account and a Facebook Page to help promote the Windsor efforts of the bottle drive. This in turn was so successful that we then used that for the entire province and collaborated with the Beer Store and Leukemia’s marketing teams.
Seeing that we could raise more money as a team, we took our ideas to coordinate our district to the Beer Store corporate office and the bottle drive planning committee. This was the birth of the “District Coordinator” and the start of yearly planning meetings with people from every district coming together as a team to make this event even bigger.
To put it in perspective, the first year the bottle drive raised around $200,000 and the year I left the Beer Store (2016), about 12 years after the first bottle drive, we raised around $1.7 Million as a Province.
It’s no secret I am a huge supporter of working together with others and helping to build entrepreneurs up. That’s why I started the Entrepreneur Momentum Facebook Group. It’s a group where I share as much value as I can so you’re able to use that to help grow your business.
That said, for me working in the digital information industry, I don’t have to compete and can work together with those in the same industry. If you have a physical product that might not be the case for you.
How you market your product is the key. Even though you have competition that doesn’t mean you have to make enemies with your competitors and might be able to, in a way, work together to promote the industry as a whole and that in turn could bring in more customers.
A great example of that is how BIA’s work. Having a BIA that is there to promote an area of the city you’re in and bring in customers.
Telling your story and using that to help relate with your audience will go a long way as well and in doing that, you can be very professional and not have to even mention others.
Are you one that loves the competition or do you like working with your competitors to grow together? I’d love to have that discussion on Facebook!
If you’re like me and like working with like minded entrepreneurs, our Facebook Group Entrepreneur Momentum is for you!
Be sure to check out the group by clicking that button below!
