Beverly Bond PR is celebrating four years in business, and we spoke with founder Mallory Molinski on the agency's milestones to date, plus her key learnings and entrepreneurship advice.
Reflecting on the first four years of your agency, what are some top milestones that stand out?
After starting an agency entirely on my own, a milestone within itself is reaching four years in business, especially amidst a global pandemic. Outside of that, a few milestones that really stood out to me were getting our first official office and showroom space. After working out of my house for years, this was a huge accomplishment – to be able to have a space to host and showcase brands and in general to create a separation of work and home. Another accomplishment was building out a team, although it took some time, I am so proud of the team I’ve created and their dedication to BBPR.
What are your three most important learnings to date that you would impart on a fellow business owner?
1. Under promise and over deliver. It is always important when starting out to be realistic with yourself and your clients. Do not promise the world, promise what is attainable and go from there – it is always the best for everyone in the end.
2. Scale as you go! I’ve made the mistake of having too many employees and not enough clients or too many clients and not enough employees. I am finally in the space of having a small but mighty Rockstar team, and putting our budget towards other expansion of the company like events, office space, etc. Grow as you grow – don’t get ahead of yourself.
3. BE AUTHENTIC! I cannot stress this enough, at least for me. Do not try to be something or someone you are not, do not sacrifice your ethos for anyone or anything. It is so incredibly important to stay true to yourself as your business grows – you end up working with the clients you should and being in the spot you were meant to be in.
You added marketing and social media to the company’s services just over a year ago; what made you decide to expand, and how has your business evolved since?
It was never my intention to add social media and marketing to Beverly Bond, but it just fell into place. A lot of our clients were always asking for our advice when it came to brand image, newsletters, social and so on. Instead of referring a third party, I realized that a lot of our team could manage this on their own. Hence, we introduced it as a category at BBPR. It also helps to have everything under one roof, to make sure the branding, outreach and all our efforts are aligned. We have a very creative social and marketing team, and it has been such a blessing!
Tell us a bit about your female-led team and the ethos behind your client list (and the many female-founded businesses you represent).
We do have a fully female led team, again not intentional but it is where we are and I love it! Each of our team members has so much to offer with different backgrounds, expertise and insights. There are only four of us, but we each work so hard in our categories and come together all the time for feedback and support. As for clients, almost all of our brands are female owned. It’s amazing to see what happens when women support one another in all aspects of business, and I’ve created some amazing lifelong friends out of it. I don’t seek out “female-led” brands, but we have so many, and they are all so inspiring! What I do look for in a brand partner is that they are unique, hands on and supportive – also that they are open to feedback and collaborating, because we act like a real partner in the business and want to always feel connected to the clients we represent.
What are a few projects you’re working on now that you’re excited about?
There are so many exciting projects headed our way (some I can’t share yet, unfortunately). A few things that I can share are that we just signed some incredible new clients I cannot wait to work with: Minnie Lane, Gemist, Propaganda, The Wolf Gang and Barton Perreira. They are all diverse to one another, but so special and fun to explore. We are hosting a preview in our showroom next week of their new designs, and working on some interactive spaces with other brands that will pop up this summer! I actually have a personal passion project launching this summer that I CANNOT WAIT to share with The PR Net…stay tuned!
What are a few future goals or plans for the agency?
I would love to expand our hospitality and brand clients overall, diversify even more from what we currently have in terms of categories and eventually move into a larger showroom space. Another important goal for Beverly Bond is to continue building an incredible team, expanding our social and marketing sector, and big-picture for me is to have an office space in New York and London one day!
