3 VERY Annoying Business Names
4 months ago
When coming up with a new business name you want to be unique. You want to stand out. You want to create a brand that people will remember.
Sports Campaign. That’s the name I decided on. Short, descriptive, memorable and most importantly, unique.
What I could have done, like many others, is gone with one of these tried and tested names:
Sports ‘R’ Us
This one would usually come with a backwards ‘R’ in the logo, just like the original, Toys ‘R’ Us.
LM Sports
A name featuring the initials of the owner. Genius!
Sports 4 Kids
The ’4′ shows that you’re down with the kids.
I see these 3 formats used in company names hundreds of times in every town! Are people really lacking imagination that much or do they genuinely believe they’ve come up with something amazing?
Sadly, I think it’s the latter.
How I Made Money Working for Free
4 months ago
A few months ago I spent a day at a local family gala offering games and activities for free while other companies offered their services in return for a small charge.
The school holidays were fast approaching and I had places on my summer sports camps to fill. In my experience, fear of the unknown is the biggest reason for kids not to come along, so the idea was to get as many kids playing the games as possible.
Offering the activities for free meant that everyone could watch, see what goes on and then join in without having to pay a thing. The result was hundreds of kids playing sport, enjoying the games and leaving with a leaflet, money in their pocket and the biggest thing for me, no more fear of the unknown.
Many of those kids later booked onto the summer camps, who wouldn’t have done so had they not had that free taster. Most of them have also booked again for the Halloween sports camp.
Instant success is always fun but sometimes planning longer term can be far more rewarding.
Why You Should Work for FREE
8 months ago
Most people think working for free means spending time and effort and getting nothing in return.
Those people are wrong!
Working for free can be the best thing you can do for your business.
People are naturally scared to try something new and might never come to you but what if you were to put on a free event where people could come with their families for a fun day out?
Those families would get to meet you, try your product, see that you’re not scary.
What if those families like what you have to offer? You would have several new customers who could potentially be your customers for the rest of their lives.
Next month I’m organising a free event and will publish a post here explaining what I did, why I did it and how successful it was.
Today, Someone Stole My Business
8 months ago
In the school holidays I run sports camps for kids. There’s a lot of competition but everyone else does the same old thing over and over again and most of them are struggling to get numbers through the gates while my business goes from strength to strength.
Today, I discovered a new competitor. One that was offering the same sports in the same town at the same time for the same price. They weren’t the only things that were the same though.
This guy was also using the same name as mine and had the exact same promo material that I had spent weeks designing, with the contact details changed (and not even in the right fonts to match the rest of the flyer!)
Should I be worried? I’m not. Quality and honesty will always win out in the end. In fact, I’m pretty sure this guy will be out of business before the next camp even begins!
If you’re running a business. Be original, be unique and most importantly, be yourself!
Ask Your Customers, Not Your Family
9 months ago
You’ve got a new idea that you think could boost your business but before going with it, you run it by family and friends to see what they think.
They give you their opinion, which you then disagree with and spend the next 20 minutes trying to explain why they’re wrong.
Here’s the thing, unless they’re your target market or know your business like you do, their opinion doesn’t carry much weight. Give their poor ears a break, get out there and start asking the people that matter. The people who are actually buying from you.
3 Things that Make a Great Entrepreneur
9 months ago
Great entrepreneurs aren’t born that way. Being born with good genes helps but I genuinely believe you can become brilliant at anything, if you want it badly enough.
Having a passion for what you do
Without passion, you’re already fighting a losing battle. There is no way I could ever run a successful business cleaning windows or arranging flowers. It might work for some of you, it works for my mum who lights up whenever she’s making a bouquet but if you can’t get excited about something when you wake up in a morning, the effort just isn’t going to be there and that is no good in business.
Working as hard as you possibly can
Passion is one thing but it has to be backed up with hard graft. When you’re naturally lazy like me, working hard doesn’t come easy. Yeah, I run a successful business but I can guarantee it would be a thousand times more successful if I worked my socks off every single day.
Treating clients or customers as “people”
I wrote the word people in quotes there because everyday I see business owners putting on an act when dealing with their clients or customers. These clients or customers are regular, everyday people! Just be yourself, talk to them like you would your friends and you won’t go far wrong.