Three years ago, we started IN.Deed Communications Singapore.
The plan seemed simple enough: get clients, do good work, grow the business. But I’ve grossly overestimated how much work was needed.
IN.Deed Communications has been around in Malaysia since 2009, but Singapore was a new chapter for us. We had to build relationships, find our place in a crowded communications industry and, occasionally, send emails into the great black hole of unanswered emails.
Here are a few things I’ve learnt along the way.
- Nobody owes you their attention.
When we started, there was a lot of cold emailing, LinkedIn messaging and introducing ourselves to people who had absolutely no idea who we were.
Some replied. Many did not.
It was a useful lesson. Being a new PR agency in Singapore doesn’t automatically make anyone care about you. You have to give people a reason to.
That means having something useful to say, doing good work and, most importantly, following through.
- Relationships matter more than a good pitch deck.
A surprisingly large part of our growth has come through people recommending us.
A former client introduces us to someone. A friend remembers what we do. An ex-colleague says, “You should speak to IN.Deed.”
Those conversations have been worth far more than any beautifully designed credentials deck.
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! – It turns out people remember how you work with them. They remember whether you make their lives easier. And they remember whether you actually did what you said you would.
Also, nobody has ever said, “I loved that 27-slide deck you sent me.”
- Small doesn’t mean small thinking.
Being an independent communications consultancy means we’re small enough to stay close to the work, but that doesn’t mean we think small.
We’ve worked across healthcare, consumer brands, technology, culture and purpose, while building deeper expertise in healthcare communications.
The briefs may be different, but the questions are often the same:
What’s the story?
Who needs to hear it?
And why should they care?
That’s probably the part of PR I enjoy most.
- Your agency focus can change very quickly.
When we started IN.Deed Singapore, I thought technology, start-ups and non-profits would be a big part of our focus.
Then reality happened.
The tech and start-up world went through a pretty brutal period of layoffs, restructuring and tighter budgets just as we were trying to build our business. Singapore recorded 14,320 retrenchments in 2023, more than double the year before, with business restructuring a major reason.
And while we love working with non-profits, the reality is that many simply don’t have the budget for ongoing PR support.
So, naturally, the work evolved.
Healthcare started becoming a much bigger part of what we do, and three years later, it has become one of our key areas of expertise.
It was a good reminder that you can have a business plan, but your clients and the market get a vote too.
I think that’s one of the things I’ve learnt about running an agency: don’t get too attached to the version of the business you thought you were going to build.
Pay attention to where the opportunities are, where you can genuinely add value, and be willing to change direction.
Sometimes the detour turns out to be the road.
- The best part is still the people.
Three years in, the thing I’m most grateful for isn’t a particular campaign or piece of coverage.
It’s the people.
The clients who trusted us when we were still proving ourselves. The people who recommended us. The collaborators, creators and experts we’ve worked with. And, of course, the Singapore team that somehow manages to get things done while still finding time for coffee, team lunches and an unreasonable number of group photos.
Three years in, we’re still learning, still growing and still figuring things out.
Which, I suppose, is the point.
And honestly, we’re still having a lot of fun doing it.