Developing and Marketing Your Plain Language Business
By Presentation by Robert Gentle
Plain Business Writing
http://www.plainwriting.co.za.
Reported by Debra Isabel Huron
Plain Language Service Manager
National Literacy and Health Program
Canadian Public Health Association
Email: dhuron@cpha.ca
Robert Gentle began his presentation by saying that he was not going to give us a "clinical list of do's and don'ts". Instead, he hoped to share the story of his company, Plain Business Writing (based in Johannesburg, South Africa), with us.
Robert described himself as a mixed-up guy who had been running his own public relations firm for 3 years when the desire to do something new struck. He had also been a journalist, an engineer, a trainer and a computer analyst/programmer, and had lived in 5 different European and African countries in 18 years.
In presenting his ideas to us, Robert told us what he was going to tell us, and then used an uncluttered and concise PowerPoint slide show to help deliver his message. Robert moved from slide to slide, elaborating on the bare bones ideas on the video screen. This told me that:
- He knows how to market his ideas, and himself, and
- He was practicing what he was preaching! (His presentation was clear and logically constructed, which made it easy to sit back and just take in what he was saying.)
The 3 main points Robert covered in his presentation were:
- The big picture:
Robert told us that a serious love of writing, a 10-year track record in the corporate world, good media and corporate connections and first-hand knowledge of the lousy writing out there in the world were his strengths at start-up. He knew he wanted to have his own business that would specialize in helping the corporate world sweep the cobwebs out of reports, correspondence, annual reports, etc. So, he developed a step-by-step approach to success. He got financial banking from Leo Burnett, a South African advertising agency that agreed to take a 12 % share in his company and provide start-up capital. He developed a product line composed of 5 booklets on different aspects of corporate communications and a CD-ROM for self-directed training (to be used with the books). He also needed to figure out how he would distribute his products worldwide.
- The day-to-day stuff:
With a staff of two (him and a temporary office assistant), Robert launched his venture by producing and publishing the 5 books in his series, promoting that product line and pricing it reasonably. Promoting the line involved talking about plain language to anyone who would listen, using his media contacts to get coverage in the national press, sending out flyers in the mail and advertising to his target audience. To avoid burnout, he only took on what he could handle, passed work on to others and did not work on weekends.
- The lessons learned:
Doing what you love, (not what will bring you money), being optimistic yet patient, trusting your intuition and never losing sight of the big picture are the lessons Robert learned from the last 2 years. To date, 700 companies have bought his products, and he is poised to distribute his line of books (and the CD-ROM) in the international market. His advice to others is: do what works for you!