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Small business partnerships – Stronger working together

As a small business, The Independent Education Consultants' working relationships with other small businesses are of significant strategic importance on both the client service side and, perhaps more importantly, to generate growth. Working with other small businesses who offer services to the same target client, but do not compete or conflict with ours, has been the most important factor in our business’ success over the past 12 years.


In this video interview, The Independent Education Consultants Founder, Catherine Stoker chats with Siobhan Skaife from The Guardian Family Network about why they both feel the partnership between the two businesses has been so successful.


Do you think your business would be good fit to partner with us? Get in touch with us today to understand more about our partnerships and expanding on our businesses together.

What makes a good small business partnership?

  • The same ethos and approach to client services, in our case, the child’s happiness is at the heart of everything we do.

  • Efficiency in that each business in the partnership delivers in line with promises made to clients effectively.

  • Trust, so each business in the partnership delivers confidently in their area of expertise, knowing that their partners will not seek to develop competing services, having learned from their partners. Each partner maintains their expertise in their area.

  • Listening and being open to new ideas to change or introduce a new joint strategy for growth and client services, making changes where necessary, for the good of the whole partnership.



Why seek a partnership instead of expanding into offering an extended range of services yourself?

  • Keeping the business focus on one service area allows specialist delivery of expertise without diluting it, with the risk of doing several things in an average way, instead of one thing exceptionally.

  • Maintaining a small business due to growth via partners allows focus to stay on the delivery of a high-end service, where each client family is an individual. Getting to know our customers is one of the most rewarding parts of our job.

  • Reduces the investment needed to grow the in-house team to support a wider range of services.

  • In the client service business, we’re keen to provide an all-inclusive solution, referring to partners, or working with partners to deliver a comprehensive service.

Working in partnership with The Independent Education Consultants


If you are interested in partnering with us, please do not hesitate to get in touch with our Partnerships Manager, Georgina Hanford who will be happy to discuss this with you.


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