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Y is for Yo Sushi (and other stories)

Guest post by: Helen Dowling

Article Overview: Well, this article isn’t exactly about Yo Sushi! It’s about the fact that if you pay attention to the big companies around you, it’s very likely that you’ll find ideas that you can apply to your own business. Remember, big companies can afford to do things – they can afford to hire the best marketing consultants; the best design agencies; the best social media experts; the best advertising companies.

Y is for Yo Sushi (and other stories)

Well, this article isn't exactly about Yo Sushi! It's about the fact that if you pay attention to the big companies around you, it's very likely that you'll find ideas that you can apply to your own business. Remember, big companies can afford to do things - they can afford to hire the best marketing consultants; the best design agencies; the best social media experts; the best advertising companies.

Now, I'm not for one second suggesting that you should spend the type of money that the big boys are spending. What I am suggesting is that you learn from them and adapt some of the ideas that their very expensive marketing consultants have come up with to your business.

Let me give you some examples:

Costa coffee and a lot of the other coffee chains have loyalty cards. You buy one coffee, get a stamp and when you have five stamps or so, you get a coffee free. This is really easy to adapt and apply to your own business. Can you run a loyalty card scheme too?

Prezzo (the Italian restaurant chain) have done wonders with their Facebook page. They encourage people to get involved by taking photos in their restaurants and posting the photos online. They also send out vouchers to all of their fans and recently did a campaign where they said if they got 50% more Facebook fans, they would give additional discounts to everyone. Could you do something similar?

DFS run a 4 year interest free system whereby you get the first year for free for any sofa in their store and then pay the rest back over three years. Very clever campaign as they have made buying what could be an expensive item affordable for everyone. How could you apply this to your business?

Renault (who I recently bought a car from) sent me a letter last week inviting me to pay for my services on a monthly basis. From just £26 a month, I could have every service done for me plus if the tyres or anything not covered by the warranty failed, these would be replaced too.

Paying attention to what the big boys are doing is a great way to get new ideas in your business and with a little bit of creative thought, you can often apply the same idea without spending very much money at all.

So next time you're out and about on your high street, instead of ignoring big chains, try visiting them and paying attention to what they're doing to market and promote their businesses. You never know...you could get some fantastic ideas for your business that you hadn't previously thought of.

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Article Tags: big companies, marketing, small business, yo sushi



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Re: Birthday Day Off With My Wife - Evan, I like Nami too! It's where I got engaged with Leanna last year. The chef hid the ring within Leanna's Sushi dish and I was kinda nervous she'd eat it 'cos I had no idea where in the dish it was. But, he created a rose with some red turnip and placed the ring in there and caped it off with a cucumber shaped like an umbrella. When she picked up the cucumber umbrella there it was dangling from a string.. she loved it.. I ended up sending them a basket of gourmet deserts for that one! SOC of course.
Re: Why Did You Become An Entrepreneur? - Yes, Alan. These real stories will inspire others to think and act. People really need a lot of life transformation stories in order to make their life towards achieving the dreams. In this process, some may turn into Entrepreneur. Thanks Robert
Canadian Entrepreneurs - Hi Evan, I think you should profile Anita from the Body Shop. Is she Canadian? It would be nice to get a Canadian perspective for all of us who are starting businesses in Canada. Do you find th stories of the entrepreneurs vary depending on country? Thanks for all these great stories - it helps inspire us! Jessica
Dropped Out Of School To Startup! - I wanted to announce it here first that I dropped out of my university program to start my own business! I finished reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad and some of the other success stories of Bill Gates and Michael Dell and now it's my turn! I know my business idea is better than everyone else in my industry and I'm going to prove everyone wrong. Does anybody have other drop out stories of big entrepreneurs that you can share with me? Thanks!!! It's day #1!
Have You ever helped a complete stranger? - Have you ever helped a complete stranger? If so, how? Have you ever had a complete stranger help you? What impact did it have on your life? I am looking for testimonies and true stories for a new book. Submittals of testimonies & stories is giving permission to reprint. Remember, Do something good for someone else,Let's start to turn this economy around - Pay it forward....................... Thanking you in advance, Diane Griffin


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