Monthly Archives: November 2010

How To Introduce A New Data Management & Research Company

Starting Out

I am in the process of developing a Data Management and Research Company in London, UK. The company would provide services such as transferring data from forms, questionnaires, vouchers etc to computer, analyse data, present statistical data in a more meaning full form such as in a spread sheet or in the form of graphs and charts, take care of accounting and finance jobs that prove too costly if done in-house like filing of VAT returns etc, doing desk research for clients,summarizing currently available research to make it meaningful and useful for clients and bespoke research .

I want to approach other companies which would include larger research companies like TNS, KPMG etc. And companies in other sectors as well like EDF Energy, Shell etc . I am a bit nervous about cold calling and what my pitch should be. How to introduce myself and my services?

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Jay’s Answer: Instead of trying to cold call everyone, study one company well. Understand how they handle the task you’re looking to do for them. How can you improve their system in ways they can’t? Be able to answer how/why they should entrust their data to you, and what the ROI of working with you is. Until you’ve developed case studies for similar organizations, you’re likely to not get the welcome you’re hoping for.

Incentives?

Starting Out

Is it right to pay extra incentive for the salesmen when I launch new item?

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Jay’s Answer: Why would you need extra incentive for salespeople to push your product? If your product solves a need better than anything else, then your product should sell itself. If your product requires more effort to sell, then additional compensation may be required by the salespeople. However, the practice varies from company-to-company.

Tagline For Restaurant Serving Healthy & Tasty food

Names + Taglines

I opened a restaurant about one year ago. We deliver to a small area, but most of our customers are walk in. However we do not have a tag line. The name of the restaurant is Foodelicious. We are different from others in that we cook healthy food. we do not use anything with MSG or yellow butter. Yet our food is very tasty and customers keep coming back for more. Would like a tag that communicates healthy and tasty.

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Jay’s Answer: Perhaps a simple tagline that explains what your business is (since your name is clever, but ambiguous) in order:

  • Come For The Tasty. Stay For the Healthy.
  • Tasty Food Was Never This Healthy.

Business With Passion: The Inventors

Videos

Trailer:

Episode theme: People who earn a living licensing new products and technologies to corporations.

Howard Arneson has been issued over 45 patents. His best known patent was for the Pool Sweep, which launched the automatic swimming pool cleaning industry. Since then, he revolutionized offshore power-boating with the development of the Arneson Surface Drive, twice winning the Open Offshore World championships, and setting (in 1990) the still-unbeaten Mississippi River record (from New Orleans to St. Louis). At 90 years young, he continues improve his powerboat’s performance, a 46-foot Skater powered by a 4,500-horsepower helicopter engine, to over 170 m.p.h.

Website: Howard Arneson
Phone: (415) 485-0788

Joe Grand (aka Kingpin) is an electrical engineer, hardware hacker, and president of Grand Idea Studio, Inc., where he specializes in the invention, design, and licensing of consumer products, video game accessories, and modules for electronics hobbyists. He has also spent many years finding security flaws in hardware devices and educating engineers on how to increase security of their designs.

Website: Grand Idea Studio
Email: Contact Form

Want to see other Business With Passion episodes?

Business With Passion TV Show Logo

Freelance Ad Translations

Starting Out

Hello, I’ve been living in the USA for a while and I was wondering how could I work translating ads. My native language is Portuguese.

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Jay’s Answer: You have 2 basic choices: work/freelance for an agency or start your own business.

If you’re looking to try it on your own, look at businesses that are already (or are hoping to be) in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal, or São Tomé and Príncipe (countries whose official language is Portuguese). Furthermore, take a look at websites for these businesses – do they have a well-translated web site for English? If not, that can be one of your offerings.

Naming Our Party/Event Company

Names + Taglines, Starting Out

We are a group of recent Hotel & Restuarant Management graduates (there are 6 of us) who have a strong culinary background and are in the process of starting a catering company. As a niche we are going to focus on children and pre-teen parties and events, but we are also going to do other events (baby showers, bridal showers, etc).  We are going to be located in the DC/PG County area. We are focusing on the food component not the party experience.

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Jay’s Answer: The average children’s and pre-teen party probably isn’t going to hire a company to prepare food, unless you’re focused on a specific niche (whether that be food allergies, foodies, etc).

Perhaps you can tell the story of who’s going to need you, when, why they couldn’t create the food themselves, how much they’d pay for your services, etc.

How To Brand My Haircare Business?

Branding, Publicity, Starting Out

I am re-entering the world of haircare/styling as a result of being laid off for the fifth time in the last ten years. I will be renting booth space in a salon. The salon is nice and has a great, peaceful atmosphere. I need a name and I need to leverage myself as my brand and have a catchy tagline. My name is Dawn and the salon I will work at is called Ambiance Salon. As I am a booth renter, I want to focus more on me and incorporate the salon somewhere but I am not sure where. I have even thought of using my middle name (Rachelle) or a form of it to create another image or just use another name all together. I specialize in cuts, color and extensions. Any help would be appreciated.

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Jay’s Answer: Don’t try to be a brand – be a stylist. Let word-of-mouth (and some beautiful model headshots) help to bring people to you. Your tagline can be simply “Specializing in Cuts, Color, and Extensions”. That clarifies who would most want to seek you out. As for a name, why not use your name, such as: Dawn Does Hair, Dawn Of A New Hairstyle, or simply “Dawn Moore Dixon”?

New Retail Store Headline?

Publicity

I am one of the graphic designers for a retail woman’s clothing chain. We have 200 stores nationwide and are opening another in a few months! This new store will be in Tennessee and we really want to kick it off in a BIG WAY. I am talking billboards, direct mailers, live remotes, web pages, etc. TONS AND TONS MORE! We are working on quirky, catchy, tongue in cheek type marketing message to use throughout all our marketing pieces. The kickoff for these marketing pieces will be the billboards throughout the Tri-City area in Tennessee. For the billboard we are thinking of a simple photo, quick/clever tagline and logo. Any help or ideas on what direction to take for the verbiage?

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Jay’s Answer:

  • If The Denim Fits…
  • Denim That Flatters…
  • We’re Tops In Denim-ing Bottoms

Tagline For An Online Mortgage Company

Names + Taglines

I need help on a tagline for our online mortgage company (NoLoanOfficer.com)?

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Jay’s Answer: Based on looking at your website, here are some off-the-top ideas to consider:

  • Pick The Best Loan For You
  • Customized Loans: 1, 2, 3
  • Save More On Your Loan
  • Who Knows More About Your Needs Than You?

Tagline For Mobile Application Development

eMarketing

Can you suggest a good tag line for ‘Mobile Application Development’? We are a company providing Mobile Application Development services, and so, I need to place a catchy tag line on website related to this. We provide MAD services for all the Operating Systems.

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Jay’s Answer: Creating Solutions Everywhere