Start-up Manufacturer

This Sarasota-based start-up is preparing to market toilet tank retrofit products designed to dramatically reduce water consumption. As part of its launch, the company seeks to raise $500,000 in investment capital through a private placement offering.

The company founders brought in members of the Trusted Advisors to consult on all the disciplines necessary to acquire the funding and launch the company with an effective sales and marketing program.

Patricia Meringer of Meringer Law Firm, LLC set up the corporation, including structure for the stock allocation. She consulted with the principles and wrote all the partnership and consulting agreements, the private placement memo and reviewed all documents related to the offering. And she further consulted on the patent process for the products.

Jim Martin, Managing Director of SB Consulting wrote a comprehensive business plan including projections of capital requirements, cash flow and income through the first four years of activity.

Michael Sisti, VP of Sisti & Others met with the founder and inventor of the products. He quickly convinced him to abandon his market positioning and take a different direction. Instead of a better line of retrofit products in the commodity plumbing category, Sisti recommended branding the product line as an innovative, water-saving system that take toilets to a new green standard. From there, he developed both the sales and marketing strategies; created the brand identity, packaging and advertising format; and assisted Jim with the writing of the sales and marketing modules of the business plan. He also prepared the AV presentation for the investor meeting.

Gayle Williams, CEO Vision PR & Marketing wrote the plan for the social media initiative. She also prepared the outline for a regional and national public relations campaign.

Joe Brachle, President of CSI Networks designed the website; created the email accounts; and researched and recommended the software and hardware configurations of the company’s computer system. He also installed an offsite backup system for real time recovery in the event of a data interruption.

When the company began a search for a national sales manager, it engaged Jerry Donella, Principal of Right Fit Profiles, LLC. Jerry advised the partners on selection pitfalls and provided them a interview booklet that included a questionnaire specifically designed for sales executives. He further conducted online profile testing of the finalists for the position, providing analysis and interpretation of the test results.

As a result of this cohesive effort, the company is poised for success. The branding effort has positioned the company as a savvy, green innovator, and attracted talented staff, vendors and potential customers. It has produced an impressive investor package. And even prior to the scheduled investor presentation, a preview of the documents has generated pledges of a substantial amount of the necessary investment capital.

The product offering, including the marketing support and packaging has garnered purchase commitments from several major prospective distributors.

Vocational School

When the housing market collapsed and the economy went into deep recession, a major casualty was one of the largest vocational schools in Florida. This school’s most popular curriculum by far, was for its real estate courses. And when this enrollment dropped by over 50%, the school president struggled to find a solution to save his business.

While floundering for a few years, he anxiously awaited the anticipated recovery while burning through his reserves. When he realized that business would not return to previous levels, he hired James Martin of SB Consulting to develop a plan to salvage the company. Recognizing the need to quickly get the business stable, SB Consulting renegotiated the leases at all four classroom locations, reduced salary expenses through a consolidation of responsibilities, and lowered other operating expenses achieving break even within 3 months. Jim then set up a new budget and carefully monitored all expenditures and tuition income.

To improve their customer relations, the company brought in Top Line Coach Larry Venable. He worked with the entire staff developing a consistent method of customer communication. He trained them in better techniques for assisting callers, identifying their needs, and persuading them to enroll in courses. This effort has resulted in a higher than average closure rate for those students inquiring about specific courses.

Joe Brachle, of CSI Networks, Inc. who had been providing IT management services to the schools, suggested the need for a new website. Upon approval of his proposal, he created a site that highlighted some of the lesser known courses offered by the schools, and set up a secure online enrollment page for incoming students. The new website allowed credit card payment for classes, and it gave the school’s administrative staff the ability to continuously update the contents of the site.

At this point the owner brought in Michael Sisti of Sisti & Others, Inc. and Gayle Williams, the CEO of Vision PR & Marketing to create a multi-faceted marketing program to increase enrollment. Working together, they developed a new brand image, incorporating it into the advertising and other communications materials. All standard format publication-set ads were replaced with the new ads featuring the updated logo for more impact and recall. They also introduced a promotional program to generate sales through referrals, and simultaneously launched a social media initiative and a public relations campaign.

In the short time that this team has been working together, student enrollment is increasing substantially, overhead has been reduced dramatically, and the turnaround is taking place.