Nona Pederson launches new marine business development service

Nona Pedersen, has launched Yessss — a new business development service for the marine industry.

Yessss, which is based in Auckland, New Zealand, describes itself as being ‘dedicated to helping small- to medium-sized businesses thrive through fast and effective growth.’

Pedersen’s new venture specialises in strategic business planning, marketing, sales growth, international expansion, go-to-market strategies and funding.

“What is Yessss? It is the feeling and sensation that success brings,” says Pedersen. “The problem that we see is there are some brilliant products and services out there; unfortunately, what happens is these companies get to a point where they know they need to take it to the next level. However, they may not have the resources or know-how to get there. With Yessss, our clients will achieve their goals faster, maximise the use of the resources available, and ultimately do more with less.”

After eight years in the marine industry Pedersen has developed hands-on experience and says she is dedicated to helping other businesses achieve their goals. Yessss currently has three different service offerings: sessions, projects and ongoing support.

‘Sessions’ is a series of sessions designed around business strategy, planning and growth. While each programme has a framework, Yessss says it works with clients to create a method and process that best fits their needs.

‘Projects’ is for companies that need extra support or resources for special projects. The Yessss team says it will work with clients to scope the project, determine goals, help with the execution, and deliver a positive return on investment. These projects can range from trade show and event management to setting up new distributors or trade customers, to building a new website and setting up social media pages.

Yessss also provides ‘ongoing support’ services for marketing and business development. This includes filling in as marketing manager, business development manager, or go-to-market strategist, without the associated costs of hiring and training a top-end executive. Yessss says it has a wide bandwidth of support options that can be tailored to a customer’s specific needs.

Service offerings will grow and expand as the company does.

“We are doers, not ‘consultants’,” continues Pedersen. “Our goal with our clients is to make ourselves redundant. We want to get them to the point where they no longer need us, however, we hope they want to keep working with us.

“An easy example of this would be a business that has a great product, they have some good distribution channels, and they now need a marketing manager, who also knows the marine industry inside and out – but they can’t afford the salary of a great one. What tends to happen is they hire a university graduate to save money, but the real cost is the time they have lost to get that person up to the level they require.

“What Yessss can do is fill the gap, and provide marketing manager services until the business is financially in a position to employ someone who will hit the ground running from day one.”