Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Hello, all! I am in need of a second opinion about a personal marketing issue for a sole-proprietor consultancy that I am re-establishing for personal reasons. I had to shut shop a few years ago when it became necessary for me to move to Malaysia for family reasons (my wife is originally from there and we have an extended family there). I just mention this in case you find this fact to be relevant to your forthcoming comments.

In earlier trading circa 2001 to circa 2007, I worked as an independent, Australian sole proprietor business consultant trading under the name Chiron! the business doctor.™. My tag line was ‘… relieves business pain!™. My primary focus over that period was to help the owners and directors of small and mid-size companies to become investment ready and investor friendly and then raise equity capital for business expansion. My clients also had access to a number of complementary services that my clients found helpful.

I worked in accordance with the Australian Corporations Act 2001 and a Class Order (viz. , a set of regulations) issued by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). ASIC is the Australian Government’s securities industry regulator. It is the Australian equivalent of the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission and has similar supervisory, regulatory & prosecutorial powers.

In Australia, it is illegal for individuals or companies to raise equity capital from the public without first issuing an expensive prospectus or product disclosure statement that has been registered with ASIC, unless they issue such offers through a person who is legally exempted from that requirement. Under the ASIC Class Order, I have a direct personal exemption from that requirement. Consequently, I provide my clients with three crucial imperatives:

- the ability to raise capital by selling securities (that is, by selling shares in their companies),
- the appropriate framework for doing so without breaking the law, and
- the capacity to raise the capital at modest cost (that is, without incurring the high cost of preparing an expensive prospectus or product disclosure statement and funding a small stock exchange float, the total cost of which can easily exceed $USD 150,000).

Within that background, my earlier business activities were moderately successful and relied heavily on an online presence. However, my analysis of the market in this field today is that it is much tougher. That has raised my interest in reviewing my name as a promotional tool. Promotion of Chiron! the business doctor.™ has a very useful medical analogy through both ‘Chiron’ and ‘business doctor’. Both terms have strong medical overtones that were important from a marketing point of view.

A couple of days ago, I conducted a quick Google search on the terms ‘business doctor’ and ‘business surgeon’.

With ‘business doctor’, Google identified 42 separate discrete businesses with the term ‘business doctor’ in their name within a 10-page drill down. Interestingly, one was located about one hour’s drive from my location. On the other hand, ‘business surgeon’ only threw up 2 businesses in the first 10 Google-pages (all other entries were medical clinics); and these were both CPA accounting firms who would not be considered as competitors to me.
My question therefore is this. What do professional and/or experienced marketers think of my proposed change of name from Chiron! the business doctor.™ to ‘Dr. Chiron! business surgeon.™. Such a change can accommodate my existing tag line.

All comments will be valued.

chiron34