February Cleanup: Last Chance to Get a Mom’s PR List

I think the theme for me in January was “creating” and “cleaning up”. I spent a lot of time creating systems, teams, content and starting a couple of PR campaigns for high-profile entrepreneurs. I also got to look at my business with fresh eyes and decided a bit of clean up was in order – so a few products are getting retired.

Since February is the love month, if you have a Mom-related business, product or expertise, you’re going to love this sale.

http://prinyourpajamas.com/mom-media-list/

Until February 28th, you can buy the Mom’s PR Media Lists at 50% off. You’ll also get a bonus “How to Be a PR Maven” tip book to help you maximize using the media list.

I’m doing this because these lists were compiled in 2009, and I don’t want to update them anymore.  Of course, you could compile your own list of journalists who are interested in Mommy matters. But why spend your precious time doing that when you can get a Mom’s PR Media List right now at this incredible deal?If you’re at all interested, do grab the list of your choice now, because I’m pulling these lists off the market — forever.

Business Baby Shower

When I heard Traci Bisson and Lucinda Cross launching the Business Baby Shower, I knew it was the type of contest I’d like to support.

Although I’ve been working with very large companies for years, once I had my own children, mompreneurs and smaller businesses took over my heart. Starting and running a business is hard enough under any circumstances, having toddlers afoot wanting your attention and love while you’re trying to close a deal takes an infinite amount of patience, resourcefulness and grace.
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What is PR? A Simple Definition of PR

They say it’s always good to start from the beginning…

On Twitter today, @unmarketing asked the question, What’s a good definition of PR?

If I give you the textbook definition or what PR people say to each other, I’ll just confuse you. Which is probably why when I ask most entrepreneurs about startup PR, they give me a blank look. They know it’s important, but can’t really explain why. Many don’t use this secret weapon in building their business because there’s always been an aura of mystery around getting PR.

I think this is a simple definition of PR:

PR builds awareness and credibility for your company, product or service – which is critical for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Awareness is built by sharing company news or information through your key influencers (let’s say reporters and bloggers), in order to reach customers, potential employees, joint venture partners, investors and anyone else who needs to know about you.

Credibility is built when the reporter or blogger writes about you in the paper, magazine or blog because they are an objective third-party reviewing and hopefully, singing your praises.

The resulting action is that people go to your website or store to evaluate the information for themselves, and perhaps join your company, pitch you on a potential partnership, invest as a stakeholder or buy your product or service. The resulting actions would depend on what your PR messages are, and how it’s delivered.

I hope that helps in lifting the PR mystery!

Anyone else care to share their thoughts on what PR is?

A Virtual Pajama Party

On Tuesday, April 14 from 8-11pm CST, join me in a virtual Pajama Party hosted by My Mommy Manual to help raise money to help empower women in Kenya.

I’m so excited to be on the same speaking panel as Guy Kawasaki, venture capitalist, marketing guru and my professional crush! Too bad it’s virtual and we are skyping in from different parts of the world but it’s a honor nonetheless. Thanks to @riasharon for putting this all together!

I will be on at about 8:40pm to talk about getting PR for mompreneurs so join the party in your PJ’s from home for laughs, live music, entrepreneurial tips and get a chance to win my book PR in Your Pajamas for Entrepreneur Moms!

See you there!

What is the Difference Between PR and Advertising

I had a meeting recently with a fairly savvy entrepreneur on ‘how to do PR’ and during the conversation I realized that they had no idea what PR was all about.

You cannot ‘buy’ PR in a newspaper or magazine. You cannot have the reporter say exactly what you want them to say. That is advertising. Both PR and advertising are important in the marketing of your business, depending on what stage your business is at.

The difference between PR and advertising is that PR builds awareness of your product or service which is critical for startups and entrepreneurs, and advertising supports the brand when it gets known.

With PR you get:

• Free Placement
• Less, or no control- a journalist can write what they want no matter how you position your story
• A story that runs only once or twice (exceptions are when a newswire picks up the story)
• Credibility because it’s viewed as a third-party endorsement
• No guarantees and it can be time-consuming

With Advertising you get:

• Paid Placement
• Complete creative control
• Your ads will run as often as you’re willing to pay
• Savvy consumers know it’s an ad, and tend to be skeptical
• A guaranteed date the ad will run and it’s easy if you have money to spend

PR builds credibility, Advertising builds visibility. What’s cool about getting PR is because it’s written by a journalist, there’s instant credibility and other people become more interested. If you’re a small business, it can turn you from a nobody into a somebody who can compete against a bigger business.

For a small business owners, entrepreneurs or moms just starting out, just know that a thousand dollars is not a very big ad budget – it might afford you a small ad in your local newspapers or magazines for example. But the same money spent on PR if you get hits in several newspapers or magazines, can mean the equivalent of 5 to 10 times the advertising cost in those publications.

PR can be time-consuming and with no guarantees, but well worth the effort. If you’ve been successful with your PR, please share with us what you did and what it’s brought to your business.

For more tips on how to do PR or if would like to explore doing PR yourself, you can check out my ebook for entrepreneurs, moms and small businesses.

“Elena, I loved it!…YOUR BOOK WAS THE BEST AND THE MOST VALUABLE LESSON I HAVE LEARNED SINCE I STARTED MY BUSINESS.”

Natallia Antanovich
Organic by Nature
(Editor’s Note: Those capital letters, written by Natallia. More testimonials here)

5 Key Lessons from a Serial Entrepreneur

Serial entrepreneur, lifestyle entrepreneur, entrepreneur mom. Actually, I’m more of an accidental entrepreneur.

It started tragically with my father’s sudden death. My dad was a cowboy entrepreneur, he had no processes in place, and closed deals on the strength of a handshake. I wouldn’t recommend this style, but I sure learned a lot.

Below, I share 5 lessons I’ve learned for mompreneurs and small businesses, from 5 different companies that I’ve been involved with.

Lesson #1: BUSINESS IS ABOUT BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Here I was, at that time 27 years old and suddenly stepping into a man’s business – selling car paint to customers like Honda, Toyota, BMW – all the major car manufacturers. You can just imagine how ridiculous it was because we had no idea about marketing and entrepreneurship. My 20 year old brother and I went around with a briefcase with nothing inside, meeting all our customers and telling them nothing will change in their service and experience with us.

Now I don’t know if everyone felt sorry for us, but you know what? They gave us a chance. We made a lot of mistakes, but they kept giving us a chance and eventually (with a lot of help) we even sold the company at a profit. If my father hadn’t had such strong business relationships in place, everyone would have abandoned us in the beginning and we would have lost it all.

How are you building relationships and customer loyalty?

Lesson #2 – FOCUS ON YOUR NATURAL GIFTS

So 11 years ago, after selling my father’s company, my husband and I move to Canada. Although I had lived and worked in the US, in the UK and in Asia, I could not for the life of me get a job in PR, which is my background. Again, kicking and screaming, I had to start working for myself and took on PR clients.

After the first year, I had one person working with me. After 5 years, I had an international PR agency with about 20 contractors working on various projects for clients. By focusing on my natural gifts such as business development and creating winning teams – the things that I am good at, enjoy doing and bring me energy – my business took off. I also look for this when hiring people. For my team members, I work with those writers who love to write, graphic designers who love to create and publicity people who know how to do PR and love talking with the media. It sounds simple, but I can’t tell you how many people out there do what they do because they “have to” or tell me they can do “anything”. They have no passion for it, and it shows in their work. When each member of your team focuses on their talents, everyone is happy and your business thrives with ease.

What are your natural gifts?

Lesson #3 – BE PASSIONATE

In university, I had considered getting a psychology degree so it’s funny how life brings me back full circle. I stumbled onto the coaching profession and now I am passionate about coaching women and entrepreneurs who want to make both money and meaning in their lives.

Are you passionate about what you do? If you’re doing something for money, when times get rough – and it will, passion and belief in what you are doing will get you through. My coaching is my business that makes the least money, but I need to have it in my life. The fulfillment it gives me allows me to work on the other businesses with renewed energy.

Whatever you are doing now, ask yourself, would you be doing what you are doing if you made half the money? If not, what do you really want?

Lesson #4 – DON’T BE AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES

I’m a recovering perfectionist, so this is especially difficult for me. But don’t wait till your product or service is perfect. Just do it, learn from your mistakes and move on. When we started an e-commerce business a couple of years ago, we had numerous challenges – the glue we used turned out to be inferior so our packaging fell apart in the mail, our stocks ran out, we had a very clunky back end and manual logistics, we even tried vacuum packing our clothing product with a machine designed to vacuum pack food to save on costs! We tried a lot and laughed a lot. And we learned so much that we wouldn’t learn if we weren’t willing to make mistakes and just go for it.

Despite all this, we were getting PR in local and national media. We were profitable in the first quarter, and one of those media hits attracted a buyer for the company less than a year after launch.

So, what’s the biggest mistake you are willing to make, in order to succeed?

Lesson #5 BUSINESS IS ABOUT PROFIT, NOT REVENUE

Finally, I know lots of us start businesses to have the freedom and flexibility to enjoy the lifestyle that we want. However, you are still running a business. Don’t get dazzled by people building companies in the millions of dollars (they are probably also millions of dollars in debt). If your revenues are $50,000 and your profit is only $5,000, you need to take a serious look at your business model and why you are doing what you’re doing. My dad started his company with $2000 and grew it to seven figures. I’ve started companies with $2000 – $5000. It doesn’t have to be fancy, you just have to have a customer!

Check on a daily basis whether you are on the right track when you prioritize your work day using the 80/20 rule – did you know 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts? Stop reacting, and start planning.

You can work on long term goals, but also ask yourself – what’s the fastest path to money today?

I’d love to hear what key lessons you’ve learned as an entrepreneur, so do leave a comment and share.

Mompreneurs, help Stop the Silence

One of the reasons for blogging, I believe, is so that anyone can have a voice and be able to make a difference in the world.

Whether you are a parent or not, I invite you to support the work of www.12for12k.org which is raising money for Stop the Silence – a nonprofit that focuses on the heartbreaking work of dealing with the sexual abuse of children.

Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) in the US alone affects one-third of girls and one-sixth of boys by the time they are 18 years old. Although many countries have not yet conducted the research to identify the extent of CSA, we do know it is a worldwide pandemic and that prevalence rates have been identified as high as 60 percent in some places, and as low as 2 percent in others. As a mother, even 2% is too high, and something I cannot even bear to think about.

Unfortunately, most CSA is never reported (due to shame, fear, stigma, and other factors). Many suffer in silence for most of their lives and deal with severe depression and anxiety. We all privately or publicly know survivors who have not only survived, but thrived; it has taken work for them to get there.

Stop the Silence has a three part mission to stem this epidemic. They are committed to exposing and stoping child sexual abuse and help survivors heal worldwide. The charity’s overarching goals are to:

1) help stop child sexual abuse (CSA) and related forms of violence;

2) promote healing of victims and survivors;

3) celebrate the lives of those healed.

www.12for12k.org has made it their mission to raise money for this worthy cause during the month of February. I will support them and ask all Mompreneurs and anyone else who reads this blog to do the same. Even $10 can help.

Please join me, spread the word if you have a blog or by email, and make a difference in the life of a child.

A Blog for Mompreneurs and Pajama Entrepreneurs

Join me if you’re a Mompreneur or Pajama Entrepreneur whose business falls into one or more of the following categories:

Time Minimalist - you want to earn an income without spending a lot of time on the business.  You do this through outsourcing, automation, information products or drop-shipped products.

Location Free – your Number One aim is freedom of location and working from anywhere in the world whether it’s a cafe, the beach, or on safari.

Doing What You Love – perhaps it’s still a hobby for now, but you are doing what you are passionate about and marketing and entrepreneurship are part of your lifestyle, not separate from it.

I’ll be exploring ways to be successful and creative with how to do PR, online marketing and branding, in order to achieve your business goals.

I’ll share with you the fun, the challenges (and sometimes the pain) of learning new concepts, technologies and mindsets that mompreneurs need to succeed.

All while you’re working in your Pajamas!