In the PR business for yourself or creating a PR business?

Thinking about heading out on your own in the PR industry? Whether your focus is traditional full-service public relations, broadcast media relations, social media or some other PR specialty, you have quite a few decisions in front of you. But one sticks out above the rest and demands your attention early:

Are you going into the PR business for yourself, or are you creating a PR business?

There is a difference, so decide early on, and adapt the proper mentality. Ten years down the road, is it your goal to be a self-sustaining solo PR practitioner, or do you plan to be at the helm of your own PR firm with a significant client base and multiple employees? There are pros and cons to both, and one is not necessarily better than the other. It’s a very personal decision based on your own strengths and weaknesses, and only you know in which environment you have a greater chance of success and happiness.

From the onset of Lyons PR, I knew that I wanted to create a PR business. I didn’t have much intention of going at it alone for my entire career, or even more than a few years. That said, I didn’t wake up on day one with employees, offices and a water cooler. Rather, I worked alone in my frigid basement putting in 60+ hour weeks for nearly two years before I hired my first full-time employee. But I always had that goal in mind of creating something bigger than just myself.

If you have ambitions of creating your own PR business, I say go for it. And once you have that big decision behind you, to successfully develop your business into something larger than yourself, there are a few things I recommend to keep in mind. Mainly, you need to stay focused on a few key elements of the business side of PR:

1. DELEGATE–Decide when it’s appropriate to outsource or sub-contract. If it’s your goal to grow into a larger business, it will be worth the expense to sub-contract certain aspects of client work to somebody you work closely with and trust. Even if this means you’re not making as much profit, or any profit for that matter, if you can afford to, it will allow you the time to work “on” your business, rather than “in” your business. But don’t forget, you are ultimately responsible for any and all work done under your company banner, so manage closely.

2. SELL SELL SELL!–Congratulations, you’re the company’s #1 sales person.  You’re also the only salesperson. Communication professionals are extremely adept at filling many different roles and completing whatever job needs to be done. However, sales is not always one of them. New business development is a fact of life when you are actively trying to grow your company, and you must be proactive about it. There are so many tools available now, you don’t need to take the George Costanza approach to selling. But you do need to be savvy about how you are conducting your new business outreach, and you need to get comfortable very quickly with the notion that selling is part of your job.

3. COUNT YOUR PENNIES–Get set-up with accounting software from day one. Even if you have zero money coming in, and zero money going out initially, it will be well worth it in the long-term to take care of your finances the right way from the beginning. Once you start adding employees and clients, you’ll be more than glad you did. I know several small business owners that didn’t set themselves up until they had already been in business for a while, and it’s a huge undertaking to go back and enter in all the data. Do it on day one.

4. NO ESCAPE–A luxury some independent PR professionals have is the ability to take jobs when they want, and schedule themselves to be completely free of any work while on vacation. If you have ambitions of creating a larger business, take a nice long vacation now while you’re working for somebody else, because those days will soon be gone. PR is a profession that is all about relationships, connectivity and responsiveness. And when you’re at the helm of a public relations small business, you always need to be available.

During my seven years heading up Lyons PR, no client has ever received an “out-of-office” auto-reply from me. No client has waited more than a day to get an email or phone call returned. With modern technology, it’s incredibly easy to stay in touch, even on vacation, but you truly never get away.

So decide early on. Are you going to be more successful and ultimately happier as a PR consultant, or do you have loftier goals of launching a full-fledged public relations business. Only you know what’s best, and deciding from the start of your business launch is the first step in reaching your ultimate goals.

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