10 Steps to Build a Strategic Business Collaboration for Women Entrepreneurs
In the world of female entrepreneurship, collaboration is one of the most powerful growth strategies you can embrace.
We saw it firsthand through the Women Who Lead collaboration—a dynamic group of entrepreneurial women coming together to create, share, and shine a light on each other's work.
If you've ever wondered how to design your own business collaboration, you're in the right place.
Creating a successful partnership isn't just about teaming up randomly; it requires intention, creativity, and a shared vision.
Here's your comprehensive guide to building a collaboration that boosts visibility, grows your network, and leaves a lasting impact.
The Women Who Lead Collaboration
Hannah Knight (founder of Always Flourishing Photography and The Studio on Sampson Photography Studio) and I began brainstorming the “Women Who Lead” Collab in early spring and the idea has developed beyond my wildest imagination.
I should have known Hannah would show up and show out because her creative brain is always brewing next level.
The anchoring conversation between Hannah and me — fresh photos for the Founding Females® website— turned into a mutually beneficial opportunity for all women involved.
In short, the Women Who Lead Collab showcases the incredible compounding synergy that takes shape when women link arms and team up.
The benefit for Founding Females®? We got to capture the magnetic synergy that’s palpable at our Founding Females® Meet Ups and in our Women’s Mastermind.
The benefit for them? They got to align themselves with a strong brand that totally on fire, receive high quality, branded photos to use in their marketing, and grow their visibility by tapping into eight other women’s networks.
Competition is out. Collaboration is in, especially when it comes to female entrepreneurship.
At the end of the day, collaboration isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a growth strategy, a mindset shift, and a powerful force for change. When women come together, we don’t just exchange ideas—we amplify them. We open doors for each other, build bridges across industries, and create space for fresh momentum.
The women we see crushing it in the entrepreneurial ecosystem? They aren’t trying to do it all by themselves…they’re leveraging other women’s networks, wisdom, and talents.
If collaboration is a new concept to you, check out 5 Things That Happen When Women Collaborate (And Why Collabs are the Missing Piece in Your Business).
The Women Who Lead Collaboration is composed of nine women who had never before stepped into a room together, but we left better versions of ourselves.
Our goal was to create next level visibility to market and spread awareness for each of our businesses with fresh energy in a way that is on-brand for women creating and growing original businesses.
Here are the values behind the Women Who Lead Collaboration:
Showcase real women of all industries and backgrounds
Create visibility for woman-owned companies
Incorporate real woman-owned businesses in our community for props, products, and studio space
Leverage each other’s networks
Repurpose content across marketing platforms (blog posts, email, social, and word of mouth)
Use and compensate female service providers (photographer, content creator)
Position women as the true leaders we are
Bring a fresh perspective to marketing and promotion
10 Steps to Build a Strategic Business Collaboration for Women Entrepreneurs
Here are the steps we took to envision, plan, execute, and market the Women Who Lead Collaboration.
1. Start with Your Vision
Before you reach out to potential partners, get crystal clear on your why. What do you want to accomplish? Whether it's growing your audience, launching a new product, generating content, or simply building brand awareness, your vision sets the tone for everything.
Ask yourself:
What problem are we solving together?
What story do we want to tell?
What outcomes would make this feel successful?
When everyone is aligned on the purpose, the collaboration has more meaning and momentum.
For us, Founding Females® had grown exponentially in the last year.
The photos on our website were a mix of stock photos and several brand photoshoots creating a fragmented experience as visitors browsed our website and social media. The editing style of the photos wasn’t consistent. The stock photos didn’t reflect our authentic culture.
It was time to level up, and I knew exactly who to contact: Hannah Knight, the boss babe energy branding photographer queen herself.
But here’s the most important part. I didn’t need models to pretend like authentic boss babe female entrepreneurs.
I needed to capture women who were already living, breathing examples of what happens when women camp out in each other’s corners.
We already had that at Founding Females®; we just needed to capture it visually.
I pulled Hannah aside at a Founding Females® Meet Up and tossed the idea of a collab out to her. I told her that Founding Females® had outgrown me being the face of the brand and it needed to reflect the community we had grown into. Over the coming months, Hannah and I exchanged voice messages back and forth and the idea started coming together.
2. Select the Right Partners
Great collaborations start with the right people. Look for women who bring complementary skills, diverse perspectives, and shared values to the table.
Key traits to look for in collaborators:
Reliability and follow-through - you don’t want to carry the momentum of the whole collab yourself —after all, it’s called a “collab” — so make sure to look for people who, in your experience, “do what they say they’re going to do.”
Strong, distinct brand identity - your brands should be distinct, but complementary. The value that connect all of us in the Women Who Lead Collab was our “community over competition” vibe.
Similar target audience - if your goal is visibility. there’s not much point joining forces with a collaborator who speaks to a complete different audience than you. When your strategic partners share their content, it should benefit you and vice versa.
Collaborative and positive mindset - when you choose collaborators, look for women who are problem solvers, “How can this work?” kind of people who can troubleshoot through challenges and create compounding results.
The place to look for ideal collaborators is in your existing network so look at your flock first.
Tap into your community. If you don’t have a community, this is your sign! A healthy pick of collab partners is one of the many benefits of joining the Founding Females® women’s business mastermind or attending a Founding Females® Meet Up. We’re a community of uplifting, ambitious women tapping into each others’ skillsets, networks, and experience.
Also think about your local business network, virtual business besties, or social media communities to find your dream team. Don't just focus on big names—look for partners who are aligned in energy, professionalism, and goals.
3. Define Roles & Identify Each Person's Zone of Genius
Once your team is assembled, take inventory of everyone's unique strengths. Is someone a killer photographer? A savvy marketer? A brilliant event planner? Let each person shine where they naturally excel.
Clear roles prevent miscommunication and ensure that each collaborator feels valued and purposeful.
Bonus tip: Document everyone's responsibilities so nothing gets lost in translation. In my experience, people want to rise to the expectations, but they need a clear idea of those expectations first to be able to deliver. Use your communication skills to check in with other collaborators to make sure no details are lost in translation.
4. Define Goals and Success Metrics
What does success look like to your group? Set specific, measurable goals so you can track the impact of your collaboration.
Examples include:
Increase social media followers by 20%
Gain 50+ email subscribers each
Secure media coverage or press features
Generate sales or leads from the collaboration
With shared goals in place, you'll stay focused and aligned and everyone can use the metrics to work backward as they execute to reach the shared goals.
5. Create the Concept & Creative Direction
Now comes the fun part: dreaming up the concept! Whether you're planning a photoshoot, social media series, event, or workshop, your collaboration should have a cohesive look and feel. For our shoot, Hannah anchored the vision in “Boss Babe Energy.” She created the vision and I compiled a Pinterest board to make sure I understood exactly what she meant. Then, we shared that Pinterest board for all the women involved.
Create a mood board, Pinterest collection, or collaborative document in Canva that captures the aesthetic, tone, and vibe you want to convey.
Ask yourselves:
What colors, themes, and locations feel right?
What message or emotion do we want our audience to feel?
How will each person's brand be represented authentically?
6. Develop a Marketing & Content Plan
Once you have your concept, sketch out your marketing plan. A well-executed collaboration isn't just about creating together—it's about sharing together.
Consider:
Social media content (Reels, Stories, carousels)
Blog features
Joint live videos or Q&A sessions
Email campaigns
Press pitches
Giveaways
Small Business Marketing Resources:
These articles are packed with actionable takeaways for crafting your marketing and content strategy!
How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy that Makes Your Business Stand Out
5 Essential Steps to Create a Marketing Plan that Turns Leads into Paying Customers
Pro tip: Use tools like Trello, Canva, or Google Drive to streamline content creation and stay organized.
Note: Of all the components of our collab, this is probably the piece where we left something to be desired, not becuase we didn’t know how, but because we didn’t quite plan ahead far enough in advance to get all nine marketing strategies on board.
In hindsight, we should have created the Marketing and Content plan before the photoshoot ever happened. If I had one thing to change about our Women Who Lead Collab, this would be it, so you can learn from our mistake.
The reason why is because entrepreneurs running successful, flowing businesses already have their content planned weeks or months in advance. Make sure you’re setting your strategic partnership up for success by allowing your collab partners to plan well in advance to make space in their content calendar.
7. Plan for Visuals That Captivate
If you want to run a thriving business, it’s a non-negotiable to have a strong online presence, so high-quality visuals are a must for any collaboration. That means photos and video. Depending on your budget, you can hire a professional photographer or get creative with smartphone photography.
For our Collab, Always Flourishing Photography handled the photoshoot and Maverick Marketing came in strong with the video content.
For professional shoots:
Create a detailed shot list
Plan wardrobe and props (Don’t sleep on this piece! Including unique-to-you props gives your shoot so much character. See our list of women-owned products and items we incorporated into the Women Who Lead Collab below.)
Choose a versatile location that fits the theme - woman-owned coffee shop, photography studio, home office, therapy office, coworking space, or in your downtown area are just a few ideas.
If you’re in the Central Illinois area, I literally hand-picked Always Flourishing Photography and The Studio on Sampson as our go-to for branding shots!
For DIY shoots:
Use natural lighting
Invest in a ring light or tripod
Focus on composition and storytelling
Visual content not only showcases the collab but also provides evergreen assets for everyone to use across platforms.
Planning to DIY? Minimally, invest in the Reels that Scale and Sell Course (not an affiliate link - just a course I’ve taken and loved). You’ll learn so much more than just Reels!
8. Execute with Communication and Flexibility
Execution is where your prep pays off. Keep communication open with regular check-ins and a shared timeline. Life and business can throw curveballs, so build in flexibility where needed.
Consider using platforms like Slack or Voxer for real-time communication, and Google Calendar to keep track of deadlines.
Don’t forget to leverage the skillsets and expertise in your group. If someone is particularly great at copywriting, social media, PR, or organizing, let her take the lead!
9. Launch & Promote the Collaboration
Time to show the world what you've built! Your launch should feel like a celebration.
Create buzz by:
Teasing content beforehand
Launching with coordinated posts across collaborators' channels
Hosting giveaways or contests
Going live together on Instagram or Facebook
Share not just the what, but the why behind your collaboration—the story, the connections, the behind-the-scenes moments.
Don’t forget that marketing thrives on repeat touch points. People need to hear a message across multiple fronts in order to consider buying. Since you’re sharing networks with your collaborators, see how many ways you can repurpose content across channels.
Our rule of thumb is this: If it feels redundant, you’re probably doing it just right.
10. Reflect and Share Wins
After the collaboration wraps, take time to debrief:
What worked well?
What could be improved next time?
Did you meet your metrics?
Celebrate your wins publicly and share the results. This positions you as a connector and collaborator in your industry, opening doors for future partnerships. When your audience knows you can rally strategic partners around a common cause, you’ll become the go-to for getting important projects done.
Meet the Key Players in the Women Who Lead Collaboration
The women you see in these collaboration photos were hand-picked with careful attention, and each one fills a unique strength.
In planning this collaboration, the women were tasked with one responsibility: Come take up space with your authentic energy. They were encouraged and empowered to show up not to play some hypotentical character, but to radiate their true authenticity. And that they did.
Meet the women behind the Women Who Lead Collaboration…
Kisha Woods, founder of Upgraded MindsetZ for business coaching, has a laugh that lights up the room and a gift for dropping soul-filling truths about living in your authenticity. She’s a walking pep talk and purpose reminder all in one.
Bre Henderson, founder of Henderson VA for women business owners, is the business strategist you didn’t know you needed—until she starts talking and your next five ideas come to life. Her brain is next-level.
Abbe Ogle, founder of Maverick Marketing for top notch digital content, is your Carrie Bradshaw meets business bestie. She’s stylish, sincere, and the kind of woman who will cheer for your wildest dream—and turn it into the perfect reel.
Hannah Knight, founder of Always Flourishing Photography for elevated brand photography and The Studio on Sampson, a rentable photography studio and creator space, is the captain of the hype squad, making every woman feel like a cover model. Every angle, every snap—she just gets it. (And her coaching is unprecedented because this woman knows posing.)
Andrea McGee, founder of T Candles - Central Illinois’ unique candle-making experience, is your high-energy, ride-or-die hype woman igniting the belly laughs. She’s magnetic, goal-driven, and makes everyone feel like they belong.
Dr. Kristen Strom, powerhouse coach and speaker, brings fierce, grounded leadership—the kind that’s not just heard, it’s felt. Every word, every move, wrapped in purpose and power.
Lindsey Kirk, founder of Lindsey the Ladysmith - an authentic hand-forged jewelry company, is a force. The loyalist. The one whose presence is calm, but whose brand speaks volumes. Authentic to her core.
Cassie Yoder, founder of Cass Concepts - a marketing, media, and events firm, is electricity in motion—bold, radiant, and the epitome of boss babe energy. She walks in and the whole vibe shifts (in the best way).
Of course, you can’t forget Intern Kenzie bringing all the good vibes and magical marketing ideas who snapped a few pics during the shoot so Hannah could step out from behind the camera for once.
And me? I just hope to be a little more like each of them. Because collaborating with women like this doesn’t just grow your business—it grows you.
For the complete resume on each of these women and why the Women Who Lead Collaboration couldn’t have happened without, read 9 Bold Female Entrepreneurs You Need to Know Inside the ‘Women Who Lead’ Collaboration.
In addition to the women who showed up big, you’ll also see carefully placed items intentionally incorporated from women-owned businesses.
Peep the following:
Gorgeous flowers by J. Blu Design
Coffee by Black Sheep Coffee Mobile
Hand-forged jewelry by Lindsey the Ladysmith
Fine custom jewelry by KM Jewelry Design
Gifts, stickers, and a handmade bag by The Wink House, Peoria’s favorite place to buy gifts
Enamel pins by A Perfect Promotion
From Havoc to Healing by Kisha Woods
Empowered Ascent Workbook by Dr. Kristen Strom
Wine glass by pottery artist Katie VandenBerg
Finding Community in Female Entrepreneurship
Who’s in your circle? If you don’t have a female entrepreneur community yet, it’s time to find your flock.
Collaborations begin in the circles you’re already part of, so if you aren’t part of a strong interconnected community of women, start there.
At Founding Females®, we have lots of opportunities to join a female entrepreneur community.
The Founding Females® Women’s Business Mastermind is more than just a group of women — it’s a community of bold, growth-minded women entrepreneurs who get it. Inside our private, off-social platform, we share insights, celebrate wins, and support each other through the real challenges of running a business.
Founding Females® Meet Ups - Meet Ups are free, monthly, in-person meetings where we focus the conversation around problem solving business challenges. Click the link to learn more about existing chapters of Founding Females® Meet Ups, or start one of your own.
Other communities we love:
Conclusion to 10 Steps to Build a Strategic Business Collaboration for Women Entrepreneurs
Collaboration is more than a marketing strategy—it's a mindset. It's about amplifying each other's strengths, creating meaningful connections, and building something bigger than you could alone.
If you’ve been dreaming of teaming up with fellow female entrepreneurs, this is your sign to make it happen. Start small, stay intentional, and above all, have fun. And when you do? Tag Founding Females®—we'd love to celebrate your collaboration journey and help create visibility for women doing amazing things.
Ready to design your own collab? Let us know your vision in the comments or shoot us a message—we're always here to cheer you on.
Related Women Who Lead Collaboration Articles
About Founding Females®
At Founding Females®, our mission is simple but bold: to help women build businesses that thrive—and feel good doing it. We create empowering spaces where women can openly share challenges, celebrate wins, and receive the kind of peer support that sparks real momentum.
Led by small business educator and unapologetic dream-chaser Francie Hinrichsen, Founding Females® offers a powerhouse lineup of resources including our signature online mastermind for female entrepreneurs, in-person business events (like our annual women’s conference and local Meet Ups), and the must-have guidebook Dream, Build, Grow: A Female’s Step-by-Step Guide for How to Start a Business.
Francie believes that any woman with a dream on her heart deserves a seat at the table—and she’s here to help you pull up your chair. [Click here to learn more about working with Francie.]
✨ Ready to stay in the loop with high-impact business tips, events, and support? Drop your email below to join the Founding Females® community:
If you've ever wondered how to design your own business collaboration, you're in the right place. Here's your comprehensive guide to building a collaboration that boosts visibility, grows your network, and leaves a lasting impact. Click to view...