1
COVID-19 IMPACT
Looking back at these disturbing last few months, we can now confirm that being a 100% online based business we were clearly not impacted by COVID as much as many companies in sectors like travel, leisure, catering and energy.
We saw countless companies large and small collapse, among which were many TravelTech, FoodTech startups which were funded with $1MM, $20MM or more. Now in many cases all is lost for investors…
On the contrary, we have been exceeding our monthly sales targets by far during the months of lockdown (April/May/June 2020) at 173% on average. 222% in April, 143% in May, 156% in June. We have already reached 38% of the July target on July 7th. Amidst global changes, and major disruption in the world economy, we do see a bright future for us that is full of business opportunities.
2
GROWTH
There is now a multi-threaded sales strategy in place for all our entities (YA-HUB TRANSLATIONS, YA-HUB DIGITAL, YA-HUB CONSULTING and our SaaS platform):
1/ Expansion:
Our partnerships with IPSOS, a global research firm, and media giants WPP, HAVAS and DENTSU AEGIS position it to rapidly scale and expand its activities in connection with the current global shift to remote and on-line communication.
There are hundreds of subsidiaries in each of these groups. By 2021, our plans to be fully present in these groups and this will increase the number of customers from 250+ to nearly 3,000 in more than 100 countries in 5 continents. Obviously, as a result our global revenue and profits will rise substantially too.
As it stands, our penetration rate in IPSOS group worldwide is already 32%, HAVAS group 36%, OGILVY (WPP) 38%, WUNDERMAN (WPP) 39%, YOUNG & RUBICAM (WPP) 21%, AKQA (WPP) 20%, GREY GROUP (WPP) 17%, and within GEOMETRY GLOBAL (WPP) we have a staggering 64% penetration rate!
2/ Prospection:
Now through all our entities and thanks to the hard work of our expanded business development teams, several new business (recurrent) deals are expected to be closed by the end of Q3 2020.
We are currently undergoing a sales outreach campaign towards the pharmaceutical sector in France, Switzerland, Germany, Bulgaria, Canada, UK, US, through referrals, proposing our translation services, as we know this sector is among the ones that are standing strong during COVID.
Thanks to our great collaboration with e-commerce brands like ANSIO on the translation services side of things – ANSIO is a brand partnering with AMAZON which orders have literally skyrocketed this year – we are now expanding through them using referrals. ANSIO in return gets to see their translation pricing adjusted accordingly, as new other e-commerce businesses recommended by them start doing business with us. Other perks could also be offered, part of this scheme.
3/ Tenders (Requests for Proposals and Requests for Quotations):
We have submitted several bids recently among which are the UKHO (UK Hydrographic Office), the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) in South Korea and more recently for the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) in Kyrgyzstan. Contract size up to $300,000 per contract. Decisions expected for the end of the summer 2020.
4/ Social Media
We do have a regular presence now on all main Business to Business oriented social media networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. We currently post articles every week day, 6 times a day and our regular audience is therefore growing tremendously. Blog articles are still being posted twice a month (1st week and last week of each month), subjects are around the broad “language” topic.
3
NOW AND BEYOND
We have put forward an emotional approach in our sales process and we take care of our clients. We hope to get more testimonials like this one as receiving such comments truly makes us proud as a team: “Wow! All 30+ concepts translated? That’s a great surprise!!! I can’t believe it! Thank you so much!”. This message was sent to us by IPSOS SA (Switzerland) back in May.
Driving client’s satisfaction and encouraging referrals is certainly in our opinion the most powerful weapon for companies in these times of uncertainty. No doubt, this is our bet for the future, for the near future at the least.
Diversifying our offering outside translation (i.e. in digital and market entry) more than ever, by hiring new business developers has proven to be a very efficient strategy so far as only a few weeks in we already see results and our first major (and recurrent) deals are expected to close right at the end of the summer. Soon, this company will be in a position to multiply its reach (hence revenue and profits) by 3 or more, thanks to diversification.
What more to say? Well, when the major investments will be secured, the platform will be launched, and sold to customers by our business development teams too. That will be another way to monetize and generate business faster, with less effort through SaaS subscriptions. So, there will be passive income too very soon. Yes, the future of this company does look bright!
July 07, 2020 update.