All posts by Jay

Looking For A New Company Tagline

Names + Taglines

Our company Bartizan has been in the data collection business since its founding in 1970. Every year tens of thousands of exhibitors and millions of show attendees interact using our hardware and software.

Recently, we have shifted our business away from hardware based to being information based. Meaning, we used to sell equipment that facilitated the exchange of contact info at tradeshows, now we are essentially selling just information. Our new lead retreival product. iLeads works on exhibitors own smartphones, so they pay show management a data access fee as opposed to paying a lead retrieval equipment rental fee.

Hope you can help, and thank you very much in advance! We’d love a fresh tagline that celebrates our new focus of being in the information business and away from equipment rentals.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • (More) Leads At Your Fingertips
  • Get Leads Wherever You Are
  • The Hub Of Business Lead Distribution

 

How To Start A Pie-Making Business

Starting Out

I bake pies and am creating a delivery only business.  I have ADHD (but, I find I am not alone). I can’t seem to “finish” my business plan.  Is this project ongoing or is it me? I would like to sell my pies on craigslist.com.  I plan on keeping my job so I meet my business obligations.  I have several people to help with the baking and delivery but I have a problem with being afraid of people ripping me off. Are these all normal concerns?  I have a lot of family and associate support.  Were do I put my foot first?

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Jay’s Answer:  Your concerns/fears are normal. Keeping your job going is also a very smart move. So how to proceed?

  1. Make sure you’re using a commercial kitchen. Your local health department has the information you need to understand why it’s necessary (both legally and from a safety perspective).
  2. Form a legal company. You’ll want to either talk to a lawyer or at least do your own research (starting with Nolo Press – http://www.nolo.com). The point is that if someone were claim to have gotten sick from your pies, they might sue you. And you don’t want to lose your house because of your pies. The right company structure can help protect you financially. (Note: I’m not a lawyer, and this isn’t legal advice).
  3. You’ll probably need a business license to sell your goods (again depending on where you live). Getting your license to sell your baked goods will also probably necessitate working with your local Health Department to ensure you’re following packaging and food safety regulations.
  4. You’ll want to make it easy for people to pay you for your goods. These days, an easy way to solve in-person payment is a mobile credit card processing machine. People could then pay you either in cash or with an instantly validated credit card.
  5. Since you’re delivering the pies, you’ll probably want additional insurance to protect the pie delivery vehicle and driver. You’re operating a business, and if there’s a problem, your normal auto insurance provider might not be too happy.

The last steps were all to protect you and your business. Now, you need to market your pies to the public. Craiglist is the easy way to sell something, but it might not be the most efficient/effective. How about your local Farmer’s Market? Or, working with your local charity (they take orders for pies, they get payment up-front, you deliver).

All of these steps take time and money. Taking shortcuts might save you time and money short-term, but may cost you dearly long-term.

Name My New Event & Wedding Planning Business

Names + Taglines, Starting Out

I am starting my wedding and event and wedding planning.  I am very creative and have the ability to create high class events and weddings and still keep it on a budget. What name would you think best describes this service?

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Jay’s Answer:  You have some conflicts I wanted to point out. People who are looking for wedding planners don’t think about event planners. People looking for event planners, don’t think about wedding planners. To you, both are parties with guests. But you’re dealing with a very different clientele, and they have different needs (wedding = emotion/love, events = celebration/money).

Also, it sounds like you’re targeting people who don’t have a big budget but want to look like they do. That’s fine, but it’ll limit how your profit (how small a budget are you willing to work with?).

Here are some names to consider:

  • Weddings To Treasure
  • Events For a Song (or Weddings For a Song)
  • Thrifty Events (or Thrifty Weddings)

 

Tagline For India Hardware Products Company

Names + Taglines

We are looking for a TAG LINE for our a new company selling a range of HARDWARE Products in India. These are handles, door closers etc. We want to give the feel of a Trustworthy, Solid, High Quality, International product line. The Indian consumer will probably not like (currently) a witty or casual tag line as they would like to feel they are associated with an EXPERT for these rather technical products. Our company name is RINOX KAUFMANN Limited (Kaufmann indication German connection). Some current suggestions: Premium International Hardware, Premium Building Solution, or Professional Hardware Systems.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Premium Precision Architectural Elements
  • Brilliant Precision Architectural Elements
  • Beautiful Construction Hardware Systems

Tagline For Shipping Discount Gateway

Names + Taglines

Our company offers substantial discounts to small and medium sized businesses off of published rates for major US and global couriers. We desperately need a tagline for voicemail greetings and marketing materials. Want to emphasize that it’s not just a discount service, but an amazing one! We’re trying to bring a little hospitality to transportation and logistics. Something like that yet not as cheesy. Jay, company name is Transportality. We differ from other companies because we offer access to couriers at significant discounts, don’t charge anything to our clients for our services, and handle all of their shipping issues (disputes, etc.) through a dedicated account representative. Our services are fulfilled by major US and global couriers and our gateway is protected by 128 bit SSL encryption.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • The Discount Business Courier Solution
  • Shipped Everywhere. Savings Everyday.

Clarifying The Mission & Message Of Our Organization

Clubs + Associations, Names + Taglines

Working with a website/marketing/social media organization. The CEO wants to craft the mission statement of the company; for internal employees and to publicize his philosophy to the world. The original idea was “Changing the Way Businesses Behave”, but that really isn’t what they do; he wants to discover the core heart of a company and share clients’ marketing/social/human face to the world. He is sold on the word remarkable —not meaning amazing, but meaning that others will remark, message, refer, tweet, and share about the organization. He wants to discover the heart and soul of his clients’ organization and message their their unique brand via social media and get others to “remark” about them. Any mission/tagline thoughts on this one? I am stumped.

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Jay’s Answer: Mission statements tend to be an exercise in futility. You get something that everyone agrees on, says nothing, and does nothing for the people in the organization.

As for a tagline, consider: “Our Business Is To Make Your’s Remarkable”

How to promote my resort?

Publicity

Can you give me some tips to help me promote my resort?

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Jay’s Answer: The key to promoting anything is understanding who exactly would love your offering, and describe how/why they would love it.

1. “Who” isn’t “everyone who’s visiting in your area”. It’s what type of people enjoy your resort the most. Age? Travelling alone? Budget? Luxury? Convenience?

2. Based on people’s experiences in the past, why did they choose the resort? No doubt there are some logical reasons, but the emotional reasons are even more important (color, room size, staff helpfulness, specialty food prep, etc.).

3. How do the people you’re targeting research resorts in your area? Online? Travel agent? Magazine? Word-of-mouth? Put your advertisements where the right people look.

4. Interview your (prospective) guests. Find out their needs/expectations. If you can meet/exceed them, do it. Positive word-of-mouth is the best marketing. If you ask at the end of your stay “was everything okay?” it’s too late.

5. Close the loop. Follow up with your guests (you have their contact information, right?). Find out how their travels went (not just your resort) and find out what other local merchants/services they used. Co-market with these local businesses in the future.

New Event Planner Needs Business Name

Names + Taglines, Starting Out

I’m in the process of finishing a course to become a wedding and event planner.  Once completed I intend to start out with my own business.  The problem is I am stuck on a business name.  I am after something that is professional enough for corporate events but also has the right feel for wedding planning, many that i think of are already taken, any help would be great.

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Jay’s Answer: Congratulations on finishing up and best wishes in launching your new business. I get a lot of requests about naming a wedding/event planning business; in most cases my answer’s the same:

http://www.manygoodideas.com/2010/07/21/name-my-wedding-planning-business/

New business owners are excited to launch a new business, print business cards, create a website, and start trying to get business as soon as possible. That’s understandable – you’ve got an idea, passion, and see an opportunity for yourself to make some money. However, if you don’t think ahead strategically, you’re likely going to find yourself stuck. You’ll have a website, business cards, a business phone number, and you’ll be waiting for the phone to ring or emails to arrive. Or, you’ll be handing out your cards to anyone who’ll take them, hoping that they’ll contact you. That’ll quickly lead to frustration and disappointment.

Instead, imagine yourself in the future with your ideal client(s). Who are they? Where are they located? Why did they contact you specifically? What about your personality, skills, knowledge made them choose you from your competition? How much are they paying you? What do you love about working with them? What challenges you in working with them? The clearer you can describe your future, the better you can plan for it:

http://www.manygoodideas.com/2010/09/01/what-is-your-ideal-business-day/

This is probably not what you wanted to hear – you wanted simply a name. But a name alone won’t truly help you unless you’ve done your planning ahead homework (marketing/business strategy). And I do want you to succeed, so throwing out something “cute”, clever, or “catchy” won’t be of long-term benefit to your business.

If you need help developing a strategy, I can help you. If the person who’s teaching your course has given you wise counsel for marketing, you might have the information you need at-hand. If not, save yourself time & money now. Plan for your own success.

Tagline For A Pawnshop

Names + Taglines

Need a catchy tagline for a pawnshop to encompass their pawnshop/money remittance/send money abroad services. Something along the lines of: “For your total money needs” or “Your financing partner”

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Jay’s Answer: “Put Your Money Where You Need It”

Holidays Tagline

Names + Taglines, Publicity

I work for one of the biggest travel agents in Ireland, we sell package holidays to all the sunny spots in Europe, Med, Greek Islands etc. We are launching our national ad campaign in January, I am relatively new with the company and want to make a big impression with this. One initial idea i had was a big of flip flops laying on a beach with the tag “Step into Summer” hasn’t been ruled out yet but i could use a few more options, any suggestions much appreciated. The focus this year is on family holidays.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Book Your Sunshine Now
  • When Was Your Last Vacation?