ESTABLISHING a trusted and recognised marketing firm is no easy feat.

And building a name in development of advertising campaigns and management of social media content are tireless tasks.

But Kristina Kerr (‘the organiser’) and Lyndsey McDonnough (‘the free spirit’) took their leap of faith when they started Market Me.

The company, which focuses on developing market strategies, creating concepts for advertisements and their placements, and posting content for companies on social media websites, officially started in February.

Yet the makings of the young firm may actually have begun well over a decade ago, when the two were children, growing up together.

They went their separate ways after high school — Mcdonnough into marketing locally for multinationals, such as Energizer and Pepsi, and Kerr, working in management in the US.

‘The organiser’ returned home in 2011 to find that the job offers she was getting weren’t to her suiting, right about the time that ‘the free spirit’ was coming to terms with a longing to do something on her own, even though McDonnough was already doing freelance work on the side for some time.

So last year, when the two ended up collaborating on a major event, the idea which would lead to the formation of Market Me, came into being.

“It came to a point where I saw opportunities coming to me and then I decided this is what I wanted to do,” said Kerr.

She left her job at an online magazine to pursue the business last June, taking on the day-to-day operations. McDonnough held on to her job up to March, but she too had to “leave the sure for unsure” as business demanded more of her time.

“Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith,” said McDonnough.

As a small company, a lot of business is got through word of mouth, and getting business that usually goes to well-established firms can be tough.

It does help that, in her freelancing days, McDonnough did a lot of work for free — they now get referrals from satisfied pro bono clients.

And the vision held by Kerr to build a dedicated, personalised boutique company, sets the bar lower to the reach, albeit only just by a little.

Word of mouth will carry them only so far though — especially now that they acquired office space.

“People want to know that you have office space,” said Kerr, who lamented over the high expense. Before, they were working from home or anywhere that there was wireless Internet available.

And if having to deal with potential clients balking at prices wasn’t difficult enough for the start-up, trying to get a toehold in the industry, going the extra mile and making all out marketing pitches to demonstrate, has led to some of their work being used without them getting the business.

A rookie mistake.

“You learn how to safeguard yourself,” said Kerr. “We now know that when we present our ideas to potential clients we are going to have a non-disclosure or disclaimer that says that this is property of Market Me… so unless you compensate us for this then you can’t use this.”

The focus now is to more aggressively pursue additional business.

Kerr has a strategy.

“We look at the business landscape, look at company products, and ask: ‘Do I know enough about it?’ ‘Do I feel like it has reached its maximum potential that it can reach in terms of getting brand awareness, or product awareness?'” said Kerr. “Then, we reach out to people and say we have these great ideas for your products.”