Know-How Exchange : Taglines/Names

Great questions and something for me to chew on for sure.

I have done numerous projects for a vast network of friends, past colleagues, employers, etc., and so had assumed that they would be my walking sales force to begin with yet certainly see your point.

Beyond having impeccable references from an employee stand point, I suppose I do not have a whole lot to offer at the moment that differentiates me from the competition really. Having been in the workforce for so long and seeing what passes nowadays for quality work and customer service, I KNOW that I can surpass expectations yet need a handful of projects to gain testimonials I suppose.

Marketing plan is humble at the moment. Basically word of mouth and social media such as Facebook. I'd like to begin as a standalone yet work towards the ideal of having a number of fellow contractors to work with who can supplement what I can do on my own. While a team player, I enjoy working more on my own in an autonomous environment where I can control the quality of the service being provided.

I am a sponge and open to your suggestions on the best place to start :)

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FWIW, I agree with Jay regarding "Sage Project Management" as a name. When I first read it, I thought of the sage plant. And then when I considered the other meaning (i.e., wise), I thought that's the wrong descriptor for a project manager. I'd want someone meticulous, careful, precise, organized, etc -- not so much sage.

You are only going to name the company once. Take the time and put in the effort to get it right. (Maybe hire Jay to guide you. He's very good at this kind of thing.)

Hello, and thanks again for the valuable feedback.

For much of the past ten years I have been responsible for the planning and implementation of events that range from company wide training events to sports tournaments to charity fundraisers. Within the planning and logistics there is always a need for either paid staff or volunteers to take on a variety of roles at the event itself. I coordinate this as well.

You've highlighted for me that my plan to offer event management and coordination services is not as straight forward as I had assumed and I am thankful for this. Because we tend to internally refer to events as 'projects', I had thrown the term project manager in there. Perhaps a smarter descriptor would be event management and coordination? I do not at this moment aspire to get into the world of large scale events with 1000+ attendees but rather cater to the small/mid-size company or government branch or non profit etc., who has a term need to contract out as opposed to having someone in house.

It also sounds like I should narrow my focus in too as I cant be everything to everyone can I? The problem here however is that I would have a hard time choosing which areas to pursue as I have experience in such a wide array of events. I enjoy the employee/community training as much as I do the fundraisers and tournaments and so forth.

From a service perspective, I would be open to working with teams already in place or managing the entire process (turnkey as suggested by one).

Where to go from here as it sounds like I am back to square one.

I'm sitting here and mulling over what sets me apart from others when it pertains to my roles in the past and have come up with the following:

True relationship builder. I enjoy people and have gathered a strong fan list over the years as I am service oriented, empathetic and able to see all sides, able to provide win-wins, great sense of humour and outgoing. A salesman of sorts who can say all the right things but who is genuine and generous at the same time.

Resourceful and creative. Out of the box thinker who can problem solve with ease and generally unflappable.

Tenacious in a good way. I don't give up and have proven numerous times that where there is a will, there is a way.

Astute learner who picks up on things very quickly and more often than not, implements new procedures or practices to better meet the needs of others whether it be employees, clients or stakeholders.

A professional generalist of sorts. I am not a true expert in one area but rather well versed in many.

How do I bundle this up and create a name/tagline/statement that is marketable and illustrative of who I am and what I have to offer?

You are definitely making progress.

When you describe what makes you different, the list is a list of your characteristics. See if you can rephrase each of those things so that they reflect the benefit to your target audience. Why does a client care that you are tenacious or resourceful? What is the BENEFIT for them? (Those terms are descriptors of you, not benefits for them.) That will begin to move this toward a possible positioning statement.

As for a narrowing of the target audience, the goal should be to include the fewest candidates possible. Each individual in the target audience will require time/money to reach. If you only have the capacity to serve, say, 50 clients a year, why spend the money to market to 10,000? Narrow the focus to an audience of perhaps 200, and see if you can close 25% of those. The marketing time/cost will be reduced by 98% -- a significant savings for a small company.

Also, in your business it probably makes sense to concentrate your efforts in a geographic area that you can easily reach within, say, 2 hours. You can always expand to a larger area later if you want. Initially this will let you meet all your clients face-to-face without having to travel a lot.

These are the kinds of things you need to think about as you begin to develop your marketing and business plans ... and the name/tagline.

You ask: "How do I bundle this up and create a name/tagline/statement that is marketable and illustrative of who I am and what I have to offer?"

My response: "Your clients don't really care who you are or what you have to offer. They want a certain result. You need to identify that result and demonstrate that you can deliver what they want better than anyone else."

This is a common mistake new service providers make. They are so focused on what they want and what they do and who they are, that they forget to look at the business proposition from the perspective of the customer.

This made me chuckle because you have pointed out to me that I AM thinking too much about myself at the moment. As an employee I've succeeded in servicing clients by always concentrating on the 'what's in it for me' from their perspective. It's rather ironic that I am now allowing myself to forget that while attempting to create a business for myself here. Thanks for the gentle nudge.