Gift of Gab : Self-Promoter’s Persistence Pays Off : LEARNING CURVE: DONNA M. GREEN & ASSOCIATES
In the five years she has run Donna M. Green & Associates--which sells promotional corporate gifts--founder Donna Green has learned the value of bold self-promotion, the advantage of maintaining a part-time job while getting her company off the ground and the benefit of persistence. Green was interviewed by Karen Kaplan.
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I’m a very in-your-face person. I’m very good at schmoozing. That’s really important because my company is based on advertising and promotion.
We specialize in corporate gifts. We can do anything you can imprint a name on. We do mugs, pencils, brass desk accessories and stress balloons [mini-beanbags for kneading], which are very popular these days.
I always like practical gifts. There’s a place for novelty, but if you’re trying to build your business you should shoot for practical. You can give your clients something like a stopwatch and they’ll have your name out in front of them all the time. Magnets with temperature gauges are also very popular.
We put the company’s name, phone number and a catchy slogan on the gifts. Sometimes I’m sitting here at midnight, going through catalogues and contemplating a slogan. I go through them and think, “This will work for so-and-so; let me shoot them off a fax.” I love it. It’s fun.
I send out a newsletter to my regular clients and people whose business cards I’ve collected. I give them ideas, little tidbits I pick up. The newsletter is not to sell, it’s to inform, but it still gets me clients. My total client list is up to 50, including the Gas Co., AT&T; and the city of Pasadena.
At a vendor fair, where you go to look for clients, I stop and talk to everybody at a table. It’s persistence. People say, “Let’s get this woman some business, please , because she’s never going to leave us alone!”
I do not take no for an answer. Companies would say to me, “We have so many people who do what you do.” I’d say, “That’s OK,” and I just kept calling them. I send them newsletters hoping something might hit their fancy. Sometimes I have breakfast, lunch and dinner on the road, trying to get new customers. Tenacity is important and you have to be sure of yourself.
I used to be an administrator at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, but there was no outlet for my creativity. Our customers wanted promotional stuff and we used to go through somebody else. I said, “I could do this myself.”
When I started my own company, I arranged to work part-time so I could keep my benefits. On my days off, I went to vendor fairs to find clients. After about a year I left JPL altogether. I still had my health insurance COBRA [one-year extension] and I knew that as long as I had health insurance, I was OK.
Networking is very important. It makes me the best marketer for my business. When I go to events, people know me as Donna M. Green & Associates.
On the value of persistence . . .
“I do not take no for an answer. Sometimes I have breakfast, lunch and dinner on the road, trying to get new customers. Tenacity is important.”
On why she prefers practical gifts . . .
“If you’re trying to build your business, you should shoot for practical. You can give your clients something like a stopwatch and they’ll have your name out in front of them all the time.”
On maintaining a part-time job while starting her company . . .
“I arranged to work part-time so I could keep my benefits. After about a year I left JPL altogether. I still had my health insurance [for one year], and I knew that as long as I had health insurance, I was OK.”
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AT A GLANCE
Company: Donna M. Green & Associates
Owner: Donna Green, 47
Nature of business: Sells customized corporate promotional items such as coffee mugs and sport watches
Location: Green’s home in Altadena
Employees: Two full-time, one part-time
Revenue: $375,000 expected this year
