Small Business, Large Clients

This article was written by Laura Tiffany of Entrepreneur.com

Does size matter? It's a cheeky question, but also a valid one. As a small company, can you take on a large corporate client and serve them just as well as -- if not better than -- a big vendor can?

Michael Fallone can offer a resounding "yes" to that question. After all, he and his co-founder, Doug Bartow, 39, and just four employees developed the design and creative foundation and executed many of the elements for the Harry Potter & the Deathly Hollows U.S. marketing campaign.

A self-promotional mini-poster got Fallone's creative agency, id29, in the proverbial door at Harry Potter publisher Scholastic. Serendipitously, Scholastic's creative director plucked the poster from the mailroom where it was wallowing, as it was addressed to someone who no longer worked there.

Fallone and Bartow were invited to submit a proposal for the Harry Potter project. "We were up against some stiff competition, and Scholastic ended up choosing us based on our ideas and the creative we designed for them," says Fallone, 40, who expects $1 million in 2007 sales for his Troy, N.Y., firm.

A Safe Bet

Gloria Irwin already had some big-business connections from her career in the hospitality industry when she started her two businesses in 2002. Her one-person promotional marketing firm, GIA Marketing, counts Harrah's Entertainment, Boyd Gaming and Isle of Capri Casinos as clients. In 2005, Irwin's research and tenacity paid off when she attracted her first memorabilia-products client in the gaming industry: The World Series of Poker.

Irwin had previously dealt with more straightforward promotional items for her clients, such as items to promote Mother's Day. But after meeting football great Gale Sayers through her casino promotional work and helping him create memorabilia items for signings and events, she was inspired to bring that same style of products to the gaming world.

"There was really nothing there [for memorabilia products] except for this little thing called The World Series of Poker," says Irwin, 36, who also does software consulting for the gaming industry from her home in Schererville, Ind. "Over the course of two weeks, I did not sleep, my mind [was] racing about what products we could put together."

Irwin put up money for samples and secured a meeting, and the company loved the items -- coins, scarves, commemorative plaques and more. "It was definitely a matter of good products, right timing and being able to get myself in the door," says Irwin, who expects more than $500,000 in sales between both of her companies in 2007.