When I first began networking with entrepreneurs, the response I got when I first told them what I did for a living was always the same.
I’d say, “My name is Vanessa Besack, and I am the founder and CEO of Besack & Associates, a public relations and strategic marketing firm geared toward raising the profile of small businesses and increasing their bottom line.”
Everyone in the room would smile politely at me, nod their heads, and look over to the next speaker for his or her 30-second spiel. I didn’t quite understand why I wasn’t getting a response—or, at the very least, even one person coming to me to ask how I could help them. In my mind, these were the very people who needed more visibility for their businesses, yet none of them seemed interested.
What I didn’t realize back then was that they didn’t understand what public relations was or how it could help them as small business owners with a limited budget. So, after a lot of thought and deliberation, I changed my elevator pitch to:
“How many of you have turned on the TV or flipped through the paper and seen one of your colleagues being quoted? How many of you have wondered how that person got the interview and how you could get the media to interview you instead? My name is Vanessa Besack, and that’s exactly what I do: I get my clients media attention, and I could do the same for you.”
I got my message across in a way that people could understand. But what I wasn’t telling them was what one simple TV interview, newspaper clip, or mention in a magazine could do for their business and their bottom line. Media exposure like that costs businesses, on average, thousands of dollars monthly if done through traditional advertising. But media coverage is free. There is an initial investment to purchase a few books or find an expert to create a public relations campaign for you, but the cost is still well worth the return and a lot less than most people think.
Despite how affordable it really is and how much it can help launch or move a business forward, many entrepreneurs still believe that public relations is really only for large corporations. Small businesses are the ones who have the most to gain from public relations, yet are the least likely to include public relations in their marketing plans. Instead, many experiment with other, more expensive items such as direct mail, advertising, or pay-per-click banners.
As someone who interacts with small businesses consistently, and as a small business owner myself, I decided long ago that I was going to do my best to set the record straight and educate entrepreneurs nationally on tactics and techniques that could help them make their businesses profitable. To a large extent, I’ve already begun doing this in Southern California, speaking to organizations and small business owners directly about the benefits of public relations and how to create wide exposure on limited budgets. But even with those speaking engagements, I was still reaching only a small fraction of the 51 percent of small businesses that comprise our nation’s economy. As a result, I decided to write a book—one that could help spread my message to more people and give small business owners the knowledge and empowerment needed to take their businesses to the next level.
However, due to the economic crisis we are facing at the moment, I realized I needed to get the information out quicker. Many people today are losing their jobs and will attempt to start their own business as a way to make ends meet, while others, who already have formed their own business are struggling to make ends meet. Thus, this blog.
With that said, this blog isn’t a “how to” guide. There are already plenty of great books available that describe how to write a press release or how to approach the media correctly. Instead, my goal is to help you create a campaign with your overall goals and objectives in mind and to teach you how to use the different public relations tools available to help you reach those goals more quickly. Through this blog (and later with my book) you should have a clear idea of how public relations fits into the big picture—and how it can help you to overcome or even avoid the most common challenges faced throughout the first seven years of the business development cycle.
And please, as you read this blog, send me your success stories and the adjustments you had to make. I will use these as case studies in my book. I don’t want this blog to be one-sided, instead, I want it to be interactive — a community of like-minded individuals helping each other succeed.
Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” This blog is written to help all small businesses, from startups to those already generating millions of dollars in revenues, use what they have to attain more profits and reach higher levels of success. If I can help just one business do that through public relations, then I will have been successful in my own right.
Here’s to your success.
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