Great businesses,
have even greater people.
The founder’s experience.
Connecting
career dots
Without a founder, there can be no business. It's the founder who plots the way forward, drawing on their experience, know-how, and passion.
In 2005, Steve Jobs told students at Stanford University about the importance of connecting your career dots. A calligraphy course he took later inspired the look of the first Mac.
For every founder, career dots are what set them apart, and Simon's own career dots led him to CompellingStory.
Read about four of those below.
“ Every business is as unique
as its founder's story ”
Simon Saunders | Founder, CompellingStory
Enterprise Nation | SME Mentor
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The Challenge
As a volunteer mentor with Enterprise Nation, I gave one to one support to founders in the early stages of their businesses. They came for help with their sales and marketing messages. They could describe their products, services and prices, but not why anyone should choose them.What I Found
Every business had something genuinely different about it. It was just buried under a list of what they offered.What I Did
We moved the conversation away from products. Why did you start this? What do your customers say about you? What do you do that others don't bother with?The Outcome
Founders left with a clearer reason to be chosen, drawn from their own story rather than invented for them.The Insight
This wasn't one founder's problem. It was almost everyone's. It became the foundation of CompellingStory.
The Invitation Factory | Founder
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The challenge
We sold event stationery to individual customers. Every order was a one off, and the time spent winning each one was out of proportion to what it was worth.What I found
Corporate event stationery lacked creativity. Businesses held events year after year, but their invitations rarely reflected who they were.What I did
Ran a direct marketing campaign that told a story. Rather than listing products, it invited each recipient to a viewing of invitations designed in their own corporate brand.The outcome
A business that ran for 20 years, with repeat clients including the Houses of Parliament, BT, Rolls-Royce, Braun UK and Deutsche Bank.The insight
Who you tell your story to matters as much as the story itself.
The 4UK Group | Sales & Marketing Director
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The challenge
We were a printer, but our clients were marketing people. They wanted more than print.What I found
They didn't want another supplier. They wanted someone who understood what they were trying to achieve.What I did
Helped reshape the business into The 4UK Group, adding branded merchandise and creative services for print and digital, and telling that bigger story.The outcome
Existing clients began allocating more of their marketing budgets to The 4UK Group, with services cross sold across the group.The insight
When your customers change, your story has to change with them.
Kisharon | Head of Social Enterprise
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The challenge
Kisharon ran four social enterprises: a bike shop, a gift shop, a print shop and a sweet shop. The gift and print shop shared a prime location next to M&S in a wealthy neighbourhood. The bike and sweet shops were tucked away off street, a few miles away.What I found
Walk into the gift and print shop and you'd never know it was a charity raising money for people with severe learning disabilities. The most powerful part of the story was invisible where the most customers were.What I did
Brought the enterprises together in the prime location, displaying children's bikes and selling sweets bagged and packed by the people the charity supported. Told the charity's story with images of those people working within each enterprise, and introduced a loyalty card and newsletter for customers across all four.The outcome
Greater awareness of the charity, with customers from the gift shop's neighbourhood now travelling to the bike shop.The insight
A great story only works if it's told where people can see it.