Small Budget PR

The whole point of operating as a solo PR pro or small agency is the ability to build the business that is right for you. But let's face it, there are many people out there who are only going to be comfortable with a certain budget level. In this episode, we want to help you to think creatively about when someone comes your way and they maybe don't have the budget that you desire.

 

Bonus: information about the exciting Solo PR Pro offer courtesy of Lettuce.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:03):

Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with The VoiceMatters and my ever wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hello, Karen. We're here. It's another wonderful episode.

Karen Swim, APR (00:22):

We are here in the dead of winter, but thankfully here, the sun is shining today. How are you doing, Michelle?

Michelle Kane (00:31):

I'm doing well. Sun is shining here as well in southeastern Pennsylvania, thank goodness. And what are we, I forget what the name of it is, but we're technically at the halfway point, so spring is on its way. I believe the Phillies equipment truck is leaving for Clearwater today for spring training.

Karen Swim, APR (00:53):

That’s nice.

Michelle Kane (00:54):

We had Phil doing his thing a couple weeks ago and that's all well and good. He predicted in early spring. But the true mark for us, Philly people is when the truck leaves baseball's on its way,

Karen Swim, APR (01:08):

Baseball is on its way. And you know what? That is good news for all of us because we look forward to spring the new season with hopefully some milder weather and longer days. So that's good. Yay. Baseball.

Michelle Kane (01:23):

That’s good. It's good.

Karen Swim, APR (01:25):

Right. The start of our baseball season is typically a bit nippy, sometimes snowy, but it's okay because we know that when baseball starts up, spring is on the way.

Michelle Kane (01:37):

Yes, and we'll be complaining about the heat soon enough. But when I think of spring, I think of opportunity and that's a bit of what we're going to talk about today because sometimes you're presented with client work, a client who has, it sounds like it's going to be a great project to work on. You really want to help them because if PR people, most of us, we love to just help people, but we also need to make money and sometimes the budget's not the best fit. So we're just going to chat about how you maneuver that, how you might make that work for you, or how you just might say maybe next time.

I know we have often had those situations where, and I know it's crossed my path as well, where you'll be presented with a budget that's just like, it's just a no, it's a non-starter. You'll have those $500 tire kickers who say, well, my budget's very small. I either don’t know what it's, or well, last time we had $500. And you think, no, first of all, we recommend, unless God forbid, unless you have an electric bill that's overdue, don't do that to yourself. And secondly, my point of view with that is always I can't do the job you need for that low of a budget. So you're better off.

Karen Swim, APR (03:08):

And I think one of the things that we want to make sure that we do on this show is we want to always be upbeat, positive and support you in having the business that you want to have. And so I want to be clear that we are never about hustle culture or you have to want to be a millionaire. That is not us at all because we want you to be happy and that definition of happiness is different for all of us, but we also want you to value the work you do and the expertise that you bring to the table. But let's face it, there are many people out there who are only going to be comfortable with a certain budget level. So we want to help you to think creatively about when someone comes your way and they maybe don't have the budget that you desire.

Are there creative things that you can do without selling yourself short? So perfect example, $500 of course, please don't be out there running PR campaigns for $500, but can you consult with the client? Can you do an hour long conversation and provide some recommendations? That doesn't mean that those recommendations are then followed by some big PowerPoint or big report. They would have to pay for that. But is that something that you can offer them for a $500 budget? If somebody has a couple thousand dollars, can you write a press release for them and say, listen, I can't really pitch for this amount, but here's something that I can do. So it's okay. I don't want anyone to feel bad when you are just wanting to take projects that might be easy for you to do, but do it within. The one thing that we always preach in Solo PR Pro is that you should never negotiate your rate.

Whatever your minimum rates are, don't negotiate those, but you can negotiate a scope of work. So yes, even within a very small budget, sometimes there are things that you can do. Now, these are individual decisions. What I highly recommend is that you have your own rate sheet, and it doesn't have to even be shared publicly, but putting something in writing, having a typed rate sheet, maybe you post it in your office somewhere or have it on your computer of your minimum project budget, of your minimum hourly. What is your hourly rate? Knowing that and having it written down and designing your business around those things. User rate calculators, solo PR pro has resources. There are lots of rate calculators out on the web. MBO partners has one that you can utilize so that you're factoring in your overhead expenses. We forget about that. Remember, you've got to pay taxes, you've got to buy business insurance, you have to take care of your entity, you need to have savings for your business, you need to pay yourself all of those things.

Sometimes people are not charging enough to really allow them to live. You are putting yourself in a hole. So having what you need to live and what you need to pay your bills and take care of your business written down, gives you those boundaries. And then you can make decisions smartly when people come to you with a lower budget about, okay, what can I really do for that? If anything? And if you cannot help them, that's okay too. It's okay to say no, but we wanted to address this because again, we talk a lot about upping your budget and how to sell yourself into those bigger accounts, but we don't often talk about is there something that you really can do with small budgets and small projects? And yes, the answer is absolutely.

Michelle Kane (07:15):

Yeah. And you might choose to engage for a number of reasons and it could be this person that's contacting you has business relationships with other people you'd like to know you. That could be it. And I'm a massive fan of scaling to the budget. It's like, okay, well we can scale it to this and it'll still be effective for you. Anything beyond that? No. But if I can be of help to you and I still receive payment for my value, that's absolutely true. And I loved what you said about have a rate sheet, even if it's not something you publish or want to make known publicly, that's a promise to yourself. And it's a reminder in these times where you might look, because look, days are busy, we have distractions, we have deadlines. We might just get stuck and think, oh no, I really want to, and now I have to think about it.

And energy drain, energy drain, energy drain. Do you have that rate sheet that you can pull up and go, no, this is what I do and this is how much I will do it for. If we can make this work great if not, and that's okay. And I know we've been talking lately about, it's interesting. I personally have been finding a power in saying no, that no longer interests me having to twist myself into a pretzel to accommodate something that may not serve me entirely. I'm going to take a pass on that and that's fine. You never know what that is going to free you up for around the corner.

Karen Swim, APR (08:55):

Yeah, I will say it's that leaning into the power of no and really looking out for yourself is something that we don't all start off in business with, right? Because we feel some people, you're new when you're a new entrepreneur and you almost feel like you're at the mercy of others. But really learning to take care of yourself and your business just as everybody else takes care of themselves and their business is truly empowering. I also want to make sure that we caution you that whatever budget levels you're working at, it is so crucial to have a very defined scope of work. And if a client comes to you with a small budget and you decide that you have a scope of work that can fit that, don't be afraid. First of all to say that is below what I normally do for PR work.

I can do this for you, but I cannot do these things for you. If you want these things, I'm happy to do them, but they cost X and quote them your rate so that they understand. It's also important to not only set the client's expectations but your own. Do not ever take on a small tiny project that's below your minimum rates, devaluing yourself doing a bunch of work by saying, well, I can grow the account 90% of the time. That's not true when somebody hires you for cheap and trust me, they know that it's a budget rate because people are not stupid as to what PR costs. Not all the time. There's too many other people out there and they may have gotten to other people and gotten quotes and then they happen upon you kind sold who's willing to give it to them on the cheap, cheap.

People don't pay more money. They just don't. That's almost like telling somebody who shops religiously at the dollar store, you know what? I want you now to go and pay retail prices. They're not going to do it because they're cheap. And let's face it, there are clients out there who are just cheap and they're price conscious and they are never going to pay you more money. So you will be stuck in this cycle of somebody who constantly wants to pay you on the cheap. So set your own expectations. If you take on something, fix the scope of work, stick to it, put it in writing, set the expectations about what you can actually do for that budget and don't move off of that. And if they ask you to do more, then charge them more and let them know it'll cost more.

Michelle Kane (11:39):

Sorry, go ahead.

Karen Swim, APR (11:41):

No, I mean that's important.

Michelle Kane (11:44):

Yeah. There's another factor to this too. Maintaining parity within our industry. When we start lowering our prices just to meet a specific need, that's a detriment to all of us across the board, especially in this world where I'm sure many of you out there have had this have where people think, oh, I post to social media. I have ai, I can do your job, we can all this is a profession. And if you don't have your a PR and if you work more in integrated comms, no, we're not licensed like teachers. We don't have a doctor in front of our name. But it is a valuable skill laden experience season requiring profession. And one way to combat against reducing that or minimizing that is to charge what we as industry peers are worth charge what the work is worth.

Karen Swim, APR (12:54):

Yes. And I mean, here's the thing I love, love, love what you just shared because that is a good consideration. And many of us advocate for pay parity, for gender pay parity

Also, which is, our industry is overwhelmingly female. Think about as a whole what you do when you devalue yourself, you bring down the entire profession, as you said, we have to stop letting people believe that somehow when you hire a smaller agency that you're getting budget rates, budget pop, budget, Betty, we are not that also you said it, you hit it on the nose, people are not paying you for the task. Stop making yourselves tacticians. They are paying you for the depth and breadth of experience that you bring for the value that you offer, which is not just an hourly rate. And if I were honest over the years, I've talked to far many small business owners, n PR and out, who basically would make more money if they went to go work for Burger King because when you look at what they're doing per hour, their hourly rates, you would be better off.

Listen, you can go get a job at Target these days for $25 an hour. You would make more money, you would take home more pay, but you don't even realize it because you're not doing that calculation for yourself and you're undercutting yourself. You're doing so much. There are people out there, I'm just going to throw out a number, charging $2,000 a month for pr. They're doing media relations, they're writing press releases, they're writing bylines, they're managing social media, and they're meeting with the client for an hour. I want to tell you that I'm not trying to make you guys feel bad, and I'm not trying to value you, and I'm not saying that I don't want you to feel bad about the budget, but you're doing too much work for that budget. And so again, if that's, Hey, listen, if you want to charge $3,000 a month, but do you in a way that respects the value that you bring to the table, and that means the scope of work needs to fit that budget and adjust your scope of work. You're not giving them the world. And if you ever hope to grow your business and scale up and be able to have fewer clients to make more money, then you really have to think about your rate structure.

Michelle Kane (15:42):

Yeah. Yeah. And I think we're at a point in the economy right now where it's a good time to take a look at that. Really, they keep dangling the carrot of interest rates going down. And I was just on a call with a client who they perceive it's going to be a good spring. So now's the perfect time. We're coming the pandemic's farther in the rear view mirror, thank goodness. And it's just an ideal time. As we do, we look out the window and the sun is shining and it's feeling a little warmer. It does give you that energy, and we just encourage you to take a look at how your prices are structured, what kind of work you're either looking for or taking on, and just make sure that you are getting the best that is due to you. And if you've appreciated this time together, please tell other people. Check out solo pr pro.com. Is the membership door still open, Karen?

Karen Swim, APR (16:43):

The membership door is still open. And also I have kind of a sneak preview announcement today. So we are partnering up with lettuce, L-E-T-T-U-C e.co. We will have links in the show notes for a special promotional offer for our Solo PR Pro family. And we're also, stay tuned. If you're not on our email list, hop over to our site and join our email list. Keep listening to the show because we'll promote it here as well. But we are doing a special workshop with them all on S Corp. So whether you're going to start your business this year, you're at the start of your business, or you've been in business and you've been in business a million years ago and you never went the S Corp route because there's too many steps, this workshop is definitely for you. And the promotional offer is fantastic. So our partnership with them, they're doing something special for our family. So visit that landing page, we'll drop it in the show notes, and we're so excited about this and I'm happy this is the first time that I've talked about it out loud. So hey, hot off the presses.

Michelle Kane (17:52):

Fantastic. That's wonderful. Well, hey, see, it's worth blah, blah. I can't even talk right now. I'm so excited. It's always worthwhile checking in with us here at That Solo Life. And until next time, thanks for joining us.