‘An Entrepreneur Must be Ready to Fall Down and Always Get up Again’ - Nicole Capper

An Entrepreneur Must be Ready to Fall Down and Always Get up Again

- Nicole Capper

Primarily professional networks. I was in the nutraceutical industry for some time, so naturally, the initial client base came from there. As our successes grew, so did our profile and referrals to other industries started coming in. As our clientele in each sector grew, so did our brand. So, whilst we did invest in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and used social media well, our primary marketing was via network meetings, publication of thought leadership pieces and diligence when referred. Word of mouth is a powerful tool.

What would you say ensure your success in this business?

Nicole Capper is the Managing Director of MANGO-OMC, one of South Africa’s fastestgrowing public relations and marketing agencies. Within seven years in business, the CapeTown-based brand had expanded to other cities. However, one of the most challenging times in the life of the company was when she had to take 100% ownership of the business from a partnership arrangement.

Nicole shared her journey with Business Elites Africa in this interview. She talks about failure, marketing strategies and the biggest mistake she made when she started her business.

Did you set out to be a Public Relations professional from the onset or stumbled upon it along the way? Share your growth story with us.

My career actually kicked off many decades ago as a Brand Manager within the world of Nutraceuticals. Public Relations was one of my responsibilities, and I worked with an agency for product launches whilst also directly engaging with the media. It was an element of my job that I loved, and when I left the company I’d been with for some time, I ventured into freelance PR with the agency we had employed. I took to it like a duck to water, and although I subsequently went back into brand management a year post-my-next-job, I left and started my own one-woman agency. This grew very quickly, and within seven years, we had satellite offices in two different cities and a head office in Cape Town. I took full ownership of the agency from my business partner in 2012, and pre-pandemic, we were making a name for ourselves by truly understanding integrated communications.

What strategies did you first use for marketing in your business?

It is knowing that you will always be learning and being humble. The nature of communication is that it is ever-changing, and the second you become complacent or arrogant, you are almost ensuring your own demise. Another extremely important value is that of ethical collaboration. I have always believed there is enough work for everyone, and we collaborate widely, even with competitors, and always with an ethical, client-centric mindset. If you prove value, you get referrals, and sometimes that value needs to come from various specialists – so why not collaborate? It has worked immensely well for MANGO-OMC. We never steal clients, we share ethically, and we add value. We, therefore, receive far bigger contracts than our size warrants, as potential clients understand that we will bring in the best and run the project efficiently. It doesn’t matter where the skill comes from as long as it’s there.

Have you ever felt like quitting, and how do you move on regardless?

I’m sure that everyone in communications has felt like quitting. It’s the fourth most stressful career to have! The only way through those long dark nights of the soul is self-care. Operating on deadlines daily,

with many different clients and demands, requires energy, clarity and health. You cannot guarantee those without a work-life balance. To anyone in communications, it’s a good practice to start that early and stick to it. Burnout is very real, and the balance may be difficult to keep, but it’s essential. What are the challenges you’ve had to surmount in your journey?

The single biggest one was probably moving from a business partnership to sole ownership. Very important lessons were learned there as I was the engine room and not the face of the business. So, building a personal brand from almost scratch was extremely challenging. Communications is usually the first item on the business agenda to get slashed in challenging times, so recessions, political volatility and an unprecedented pandemic affect business opportunities and sustainability. In this business, proactivity is key. It is important to have an ear to the ground at all times and be able to proactively pivot as required. As the digital era exploded, if we had not had that value system, we would not have survived the transition from traditional PR to digital communications without that value system. However, not only were we prepared, but we were also implementing way before many other agencies were.

How have your priorities changed from when you first started?

Probably not that much. I have also been client-centric, so giving value to clients and media (which I view as clients) has been and remains my biggest priority.

Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently from when you first started?

I would have immediately hired very good accountants!

Why is PR so important in the life of a business or organisation?

Any business or organisation needs to understand that consumers and stakeholders have a relationship with them. The days of shouting messages at your target audiences from a mountaintop are long gone. People can choose what they listen to, read or view and when. So, if your brand is not engaging, mirrors the value systems of your audiences, and is not being seen in the right place, at the right time, with the right message, then you’re not competitive. In the congested marketplace of today, that’s a death knell.

How do you develop branding or PR strategies for organisations?

With a lot of research, internally and externally. The most important thing to know is what the business aims to achieve within the next two years. And then to dig deep and find as much detail as possible. Tech is magical, it gives us access to so many analytics, so my start is always deep diving. And then to extrapolate a strategy from a holistic understanding of the business itself, who their target audiences should be (or are), and how to reach them. A very important element of any branding or PR strategy is truly understanding the business (including their resource) and writing clear, realistic strategy that they can implement. I am often asked to revise strategies that are impossible documents and put forward suggestions that are inappropriate for the client’s resources or the environment in which they operate. I do not ever produce strategies such as those. They need to be achievable and pragmatic.

How do you deal with failure?

By understanding that there is a lesson in everything. Any failure results in a comprehensive debrief of what we have learnt. This is not only to avoid repeating any failure but also to ensure that there is constant learning.

What’s unique about your company?

Probably the fact that we are so collaborative. We collaborate with the client and often become part of the team. We collaborate with their existing suppliers and our own network to bring specialists to the table where required (and more). It takes a certain type of creativity combined with pragmatism to get that right. And it looks like we do that right.

What advice would you give to someone trying to build a career in PR?

Find a good mentor and stick with them for a bit. Too many people enter PR with the idea of swiftly climbing the ranks. That results in an ill-rounded career experience and a severe lack of holistic skills. To consistently learn from the best and to recognise your own limitations whilst acknowledging your skills is vital in the PR game.

What, in your opinion, are the qualities a good entrepreneur must possess

Tenacity, resilience and a very good sense of humour. Being an entrepreneur is not for everyone. It is not an easy road, even though it’s very fulfilling. Without the ability to fall down and always get up again, entrepreneurs would not exist!