At Podengo HQ, we are proud to say that we support small. We are all about community. Our passion is helping others through connection and communication. We help you to provide the best product or service you can by connecting you with your target audience. We are a small business, and we love to see fellow small businesses supporting and helping each other. So in today’s blog edition, we’ll be talking to some of the businesses that have caught our eye, whilst working together. With a focus on collaboration over competition.

Bears and Babies

Specialising in newborn baby photography, we’ve spent many days cooing over the adorable pictures of newborns snapped by Kate, of Kate Priest Photography. Equally, we’ve followed Rhian of Honeybee and Jack the Rabbit, on her beautiful craft journey since the beginning. So when the two crossed over, it really was pure magic.

Rhian, founder of Honeybee and Jack the Rabbit –

“I make bespoke crochet animals for all ages and since my amazing collaboration with the lovely Kate Priest, I haven’t been able to stop making little palm-sized crochet bears. They are so incredibly sweet. I had previously wanted to message Kate after we met at a party but she beat me to it and asked if I’d be willing to make these little bears for her newborn photo shoots.

“I’ve loved working with Kate and seeing her photos of perfect little babies snuggled up to my bears. It has inspired me to try new crochet and unexplored avenues in the world of photo props.”

Kate, founder of Kate Priest Photography –

“One of my clients asked for a teddy bear for her baby’s newborn shoot. When I started to look online it was very difficult to find such intricate bears. I found a few companies but delivery time was months away. I then had a brain wave and thought about Rhian and remember seeing her cute crochet animals on Facebook. So I got in touch and we then spoke about how we could work together.

“I have a lot of newborn photographer followers on my Instagram/Fb and I hoped that tagging her bears would create more business for her. My clients also love to buy the bears after their shoot, a little souvenir if you like from the session. It’s very difficult to find such cute tiny bears that don’t look massive next to a newborn baby. These have to be handmade. And Rhian’s bears are just perfect!” 

Kate Priest Photography is based in Brighton and was established in 2010. Specialising in newborn baby photography, as well as babies, families, maternity, and location family shoots. Find her on Instagram here.

Rhian is a Brighton based artist, using many different mediums of art to express herself over the years until Honeybee and Jack the Rabbit was officially launched in 2019. With a continued love of crochet throughout, since the birth of her second child, it has become her greatest passion. Click here to see Rhian’s bears.

Two businesses, One mission.

Next, we spoke to female founders, Sally of Ducky Zebra and Clare of Not Only Pink and Blue. Recognising the detrimental impact gender stereotyping can have on children, both businesses have made it their mission to challenge these stereotypes in their own unique way. We have been following them both on Instagram for quite a while now and so seeing their fun collaboration quite literally stopped us in our tracks.

Sally Dear, founder of Ducky Zebra –

“Instagram is brilliant, but meeting up in person is so much better. Especially when you have so much in common and lots to discuss. So, we decided to meet halfway and talk about all things related to gender stereotypes. And, while we were together, we thought we’d make some joint-content as well. I was thinking of something vaguely informative. Clare on the other hand was thinking of dance.

“I’m so glad we went with Clare’s suggestion. It was so much fun prancing about in a field with various dog walkers passing by. We then shared the dance on Instagram as a collaboration. Our collaboration goes beyond that though. We have a similar audience and similar messaging. By supporting one another, rather than competing against one another, our voice is so much more powerful.” 

Clare Willetts, founder of Not only Pink and Blue –

“Ducky Zebra will be in our directory of fabulous businesses and we will be working together on webinars, Insta lives and more. When we finally met up in person again after 2 years, we thought it would be fun to do something a bit silly and so recorded a reel in a field in Hampshire! With no signal we had no music, so we had to do it without music and hope we got it in time!

“We had fantastic engagement and lots of comments which were great. There were extra followers as well which is always nice. The main thing for me though was that it reminded me that meeting up in person is so important. We had a great session on ideas for our businesses which was so helpful. We also had several other businesses ask if they could be in the next one!” 

Ducky Zebra is an Oxford-based startup with a mission to inspire kindness and confidence in children aged 0–6 years, no matter what their gender, through colourful, sustainable clothing. Ducky Zebra’s unisex designs are free from gender stereotypes. Its clothing is fun and colourful with child-approved designs, showing characters working together, playing together and being kind towards one another. All items include an embroidered splash motif, often hidden inside a pocket, as a reminder to be kind and confident even at times when this might be hard.

Not Only Pink and Blue is consciously challenging stereotypes and change starts with educating parents and supporting in bringing up their children free from the social coding. believe that all colours are for all children, all toys are for all children, and that all children should see themselves in the books they read. Let children be children.

In July of this year, we finally launched our small business support network, Eureka – the community of dreamers and doers. Our founder Gemma had the idea to create a space where fellow small businesses or freelancers just starting out can network, promote their products/services and ask for advice. It’s been a slow and steady build but we are now seeing more and more businesses supporting one another and utilizing the free space. Life is hard and in a post-pandemic, Brexit economy, the importance of shopping local and supporting small is more prevalent than ever. After all, there’s more than enough space at the table for everyone. It’s so nice to see businesses amplifying one another and we love it! Do you have a business collab story to share with us? Please share it with us in the comments below. Thank you.

Podengo are not affiliated in any way with the above businesses. Nor, do we receive any affiliated fees if you decide to book or use the services of the above businesses. We are simply providing a spotlight for fellow small businesses. If you would like us to feature your business in our blog, please contact hayley@gopodengo.com