It’s all about getting noticed

Sep 22 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

HOW I… Is a feature run in conjunction with the Entrepreneurs’ Forum that looks at the gems of advice shared by our top entrepreneurs on dealing with issues in their daily lives.

Each column explores three or four different takes on an issue and we look forward to their advice on everything from How I… raised finance, How I… market my business, How I… dealt with disaster and many more.

How I… PROMOTE MY BUSINESS

1. I wanted to promote the business in a completely different way to what everyone else was doing. We took over Blackfriars restaurant and offered to fill it in the night time. We got four life models, blocked out all the windows and put the word out to people that it was invitation only, to come along and have a life drawing class.

By the evening the restaurant was full. We had a fantastic night, everybody joined in and people were putting their drawings up around the restaurant. At the end of the night we couldn’t get the models to put their clothes back on and we couldn’t get people to leave. The Press coverage we gained was outstanding. In business, everybody has to be creative.

Carol Metcalfe – Musa Fine Art Ltd

2. To get our name out as quickly as possible, we sponsored a few events hosted by the CIPD which is the professional body for HR. Suddenly our name went out to 2,800 HR professionals and was associated with a well run body. People started to ring up and said they’d never heard of us before, but were impressed by the website and loved what we stood for.

Mark Ions – Exclusive Human Resources Ltd.

3. The main hurdle that I faced was not what to do, but how to do it. Selling food gift sets via a website seemed the ideal solution, I had envisaged the website as my main route to market, but have found this not to be the case.

Before Christmas I was given the opportunity to do some party selling and sales were very good. I had planned for my product selection to change and expand, with seasonal additions and this is an ideal way of introducing these products whilst encouraging party hosts to book again.

Following the success of this theme, I’ve started to do some direct selling, which involves a temporary set up in local businesses and nurseries. I sell directly to the workforce and parents and give a gift or cash to the business, normally for charity or towards the cost of equipment.

Nicole Race – New Tastes

4. The name Sadie the Bra Lady was given to me by Alan Robson on Metro Radio. My Mam asked if I’d ever listened to the night time show because people rang in all the time. She said, “Why don’t you ring in and talk about your campaign for every woman to be wearing the correct bra size?”

At the time, I didn’t think it would make much of a difference, but they were very interested and I held a 20-minute interview. The next week, my sales went up, and people were coming from miles. I then started spending money on advertising. We decided to put my head and shoulders on massive posters on the back of buses to promote a brand new fitting service.

I’d had a small bit of coverage on the TV so in the corner of the poster we put, “As seen on TV”. It caused quite a bit of a stir and was followed by TV programmes where I was picked to fit bras for different women. Sadie Ayton

Sadie the Bra Lady

For more How I… tips go to www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk, which is inspired by the Entrepreneurs’ Forum