Background information of NE
Name & surname: Lieke Kessels
Country: Netherlands
Sector of activity: Writing and publishing
Have you already started your business?: no
Name of business: And Other Words…
What is your future business? Offering storytelling workshops to individuals, communities and companies.
Background information of HE
Name & surname: Victoria Gosling
Country: Germany
Sector of activity: Writing and publishing
Experience in running a business: 10 years
Name of business/website: The Reader Berlin / www.thereaderberlin.com
What is your business? The Reader Berlin offers English-language creative writing workshops, editing services and writing holidays. It is also the founder of the Berlin Writing Prize.
Period of Relationship: 01/03/2019 – 31/08/2019
Duration of Relationship: 6 months
How did Victoria Gosling manage to increase the promotion of her business “The Reader”?
Victoria Gosling is the founder of “The Reader Berlin”, a business which offers author and publishing services. The business runs creative writing workshops, events and seminars and offers manuscript assessment and editing and translation services. The host entrepreneur’s main motivation for the participation in the program was her plan to extend the range of workshops they offer and the wish to host a young entrepreneur as a source of exploring new possibilities for The Reader Berlin and for gaining useful know-how for the business.
Thanks to the programme “Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs” Victoria started an international business relationship with the new entrepreneur Lieke Kessels.
Victoria wanted to get support for the promotion of The Reader, as well as for new events and workshops she was planning to host. Her objective was to utilize and learn from Lieke’s PR and marketing experience, especially with regards to the creation and execution of a PR and marketing campaign for the 2019 Berlin writing prize. This campaign developed into the main project of the collaborative work between both entrepreneurs. As Lieke had already accumulated a lot of PR experience beforehand, she successfully ran this campaign under the supervision of Victoria. Although the number of entries for the competition decreased in comparison to the year before due to the change of theme, the overall The Reader Berlin’s network amongst literary establishments increased and the engagement was up. The overall success of Lieke’s PR campaign therefore contributed to Victoria’s long-term goal of establishing a world-renowned writing prize.
Victoria valued the impact the relationship had on The Reader as very satisfying and positive, as all of the set objectives were met during the stay and Lieke showed a high level of commitment to her work for The Reader Berlin. Victoria was able to gain useful knowledge in the field of PR and marketing through this collaboration. Due to the excellent working relationship both entrepreneurs had, the two intend to stay in contact and hope to develop the Lieke’s business through future cooperation with the possibility of subcontracting.