Business projects are the individual campaigns that enact out and or support the aims of your business model. If you want to gain more customers, you’ll create a marketing campaign. If you want to attract more professional clients, you’ll go on a pitching and presentation tour. Whatever your aims are, they are only given the sharp tip of the spear by an organised project. They are complex and very intense mobilisations of your teams, departments and the senior management. All systems are go and you have to anticipate everything that could go wrong. For many small businesses owners, going on campaign or leading a project is a lean on the go type of thing. It’s something that they may never have done before or even thought about doing. No doubt if this is your first time, then you will be out of your comfort zone. This could be especially true if your project is about public outreach. You’re showing everything, baring all about your business to the public. You’re going to meet strangers and try to convince them to buy a product or service of yours. Putting your best foot forward in all aspects requires you to foreshadow any holes in the model of your public outreach project.
The baggage line
Much like many military campaigns, the logistical line is literally an artery that should not be severed. It is the entity that will power forward your campaign both on the ground and online. You need to get your teams to the locations, whether it be at a public market to hand out leaflets and give free testers or go to conferences to set up a stall and meet professional clients. Have you worked out how much it will cost for their transportation? How much if any, will the ticket price be for each of them if they need to enter a venue? These are all part and parcel of the baggage line. They will need supplies, such as promotional gear like t-shirts, keychains, online rewards and more. Equipment for setting up a presentation also needs to be transported. Will this be done via suitcases or will you hire a professional to move the things that you need to the team’s location? No doubt by now, thinking of all these things you can surmise that it will cost a lot of money to fund these various expeditions.
One clear way to figure out how much funding each team needs is to have meetings with the team leaders and their teams. Painstakingly work out the basics and the various possibilities. The travel, the fee if any for transporting the equipment they need, and then move onto the gear, samples, testers and any other things like TV screens, projectors, posters, computers etc. then once you have an idea of the costs, factor in an emergency fund. For a simpler way of calculating this, set aside an extra 20-30% of the overall cost of each team.
The bigger picture
What happens if you can’t get enough people to pay attention? Even some great advertising campaigns fail because they simply didn’t get enough exposure. Online pay-per-click videos and banner images are good for the slow and steady game. But if you only have a few weeks to carry out your campaign before the funds run out, then you need quick and massive publicity. It doesn’t matter if it’s done in a more simpler fashion, you just need rapid exposure.
What better way is there to be noticed than when you’re scaled up? Take aim at the biggest and best electronic billboards. They project digital images and videos such as advertisements and can usually only be found in capital cities. So if you’re in the UK, you can have your advertisement in the London Piccadilly Circus digital billboards. They’re right in the heart of the city, where millions of people walk by them every year. The first thing you need to do is to devise a still image of your campaign and it’s aims, and then create a 5 to 10-second video that will be played every so often. How can you sum up your campaign? What are your central narrative storylines for the public outreach decision you made? Answer these questions in an artistic nature to create your billboard.
An extra day or two
No one can accurately predict the amount of success you’re going to have. Even if you get everything right, sometimes there are things out of your hands that have the overbearing effect on a project. You may find that from the beginning almost to the end of your campaign the notoriety of your business has stayed the same. However towards the end it suddenly shoots up and you start to see the kind of results that you wanted to all this time. But you’re due to end the campaign shortly, when now preferably, you’d like to carry on for a few more days. If your funds are running out and you need a quick supplement, then cash loans are an alternative that you can use. With short-term cash advances of up $500 you could continue on paying for hotels, food and travel. However you can always increase your credit limit if you need to and go beyond the norm to carry on operations. It’s a huge help when you find yourself in a tight spot. Getting noticed by some great clients towards the end is a bit of a catch 22. You need to close your campaign but you could sign the best deal on the last day and in the last minute.
Public campaigning projects are some of the most exciting in all of business. You are truly having to fly the banner of your company and get out into the real world to meet clients and customers. It’s a lot of pressure but the logistical line and planning will ultimately guide you through all the bumps in the road. If you need an extra day or two out on the road but are struggling with funds, there are always options for quick cash releases to your account. Campaigns can begin to lose momentum for a whole slew of reasons but one way to make them unforgettable is to advertise them on giant electronic billboards, right in the middle of a stampeding capital city.
