SCORE Minnesota

SCORE Boosts Small Business Image

May 13, 2010

I started working with Linda Froiland because she and her original SCORE counselor had difficulty coordinating their schedules. Linda said she had a good experience with her first SCORE counselor and was eager to get started with me.

After an initial phone call when I learned more about her business we scheduled a face to face meeting. That first meeting lasted nearly two hours while we discussed Linda’s business and her overall strategy to market and sell her services.

As an Image Consultant and wardrobe stylist, Linda helps her individual clients with personal style, wardrobe selection and clothes shopping. She also provides corporate image and dress code consulting as well as workshops. The business was a natural progression for Linda who started sewing at five, subscribed to vogue at twelve and ended up working for the Guthrie Theater in costume design. Linda has been dressing musicians, actors, models, and executives for films, commercials and live events for 20 years.

When Linda and I began working together she had been in business as an Image Consultant for a year but didn’t feel that she was progressing fast enough to be where she wanted to be. Although she had proven the value of her services with individual clients, she was confident that she also had a market in the corporate sector working with companies to align their brand image with how their employees represented them in the market place.

The first area we worked on together was developing her sales strategy. We started by developing a list of industries that could use her services, such as pharmaceutical companies and Realtors. Then we devised a strategy for determining who would be the right person to target within these companies. Linda created a list of companies and contacts she would target first. We also discussed her pricing strategy. She was also very aggressive using her contacts and trying to make connections with people who might have contacts within her network.

Next, we built a plan with deadlines so Linda could keep her momentum going. Linda appreciated having the support. “Mary helps keep me accountable for the things I need to accomplish. I called her on a Sunday night several weeks ago and asked for her help keeping me accountable for the next 2 weeks to accomplish what I needed to get done” said Linda. During the next two weeks, we spoke often. Soon, she began to see indications that her efforts were paying off in the form of positive feedback about her services.

In the past, Linda had done a lot of pro-bono work to build name recognition. But, now she wanted to pull back on this type of work so she could start to build a sustainable business. She already had a website, printed marketing materials and was actively sending out sales kits and approaching companies. Considering the positive responses she was getting, she knew that her business was viable.

Linda had been working with a publicist to get some articles either written about her or that she could write to establish herself as an expert. As a result of those efforts, Todd Nelson, from The Star Tribune, became interested in Linda’s business because it was different from the other types of companies he had been profiling. During her interview with Todd, Linda spoke about the importance of working with SCORE and how her SCORE counselor really pushed her to develop a sales strategy.

Todd also wanted to interview me so he could learn more about my work with Linda. Since he was already familiar with SCORE, he was interested in finding out more about Linda’s business and what we had worked on together. The full page article Todd wrote featuring Linda’s business that was published in the Star Tribune in the Business Section on April 12, 2010 created quite a marketing buzz.

Something that Linda told Todd was left out of the article, but, it describes what a SCORE counselor may have to do to help  their clients succeed. “My SCORE counselor kicked my butt”.

The article generated several phone calls and e-mail inquiries which was great. Even though Linda’s business is on track, we still have touch base 2-3 times a week whether in person, by e-mail or on the phone. She has a lot going on with her business right now and we often spend time discussing the pros and cons of the different options she is considering”.

To me, Linda represents someone who had a great business idea but needed help from SCORE to turn her business plan into a reality. I am fully confident that she is on her way to building a good business.

About her SCORE experience, Linda had this to say, “I would advise anyone who works with SCORE too keep trying to find the right counselor-don’t give up. My first counselor and I had a hard time connecting so we decided I should work with a different counselor. I knew that I wanted to work with SCORE”.

To learn more about how to start, operate and grow a successful business contact SCORE by clicking the link on the right to the office nearest you or click here to request free face to face counseling.

Have you ever considered volunteering for SCORE? Our members help millions of new or existing small businesses succeed each year by sharing their knowledge and experience. Click here or the link on the right to the office nearest you to learn more.

Mary Jacobs, St. Paul SCORE
View more posts by Mary Jacobs

Filed under: SCORE Success Stories

Tags: Corporate image, Marketing Buzz, Sales Strategy, score, SCORE Counselors, Wardrobe consulting