Getting PR and Investment on Dragon’s Den

For my Canadian entrepreneur friends…

Fresh off the highest-rated season yet, CBC Television’s DRAGONS’ DEN is embarking on an epic audition tour. The show gives aspiring entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a panel of wealthy Canadian moguls who are entrepreneurs themselves. The prize is real cash and real investment – from the Dragons’ own pockets!

This is a fantastic opportunity for entrepreneurs and small business owners to come down and pitch their business concept for the chance to appear on national television.

As extra incentive this year — entrepreneurs with an eco-friendly business, invention or idea could qualify for a $100,000 Greenvention prize from Sun Chips.

Our socks by mail company actually appeared in a sister show called Fortune Hunters back in 2007, shortly before we got bought out

There are over 40 stops in the audition tour. Visit www.cbc.ca/dragonsden for more information.

Interview with Marybeth Bond on Author PR and Oprah

It was so fun to chat with Marybeth Bond, the expert in women’s travel who has adventured her way through 70 countries! She is an award-winning author who has written 11 books including 50 Best Girlfriend Getaways in North America, and Gutsy Women.

Marybeth is a nationally recognized travel expert and media personality, having been interviewed on over 150 TV stations, and 250 radio stations including CBS News, CNN, ABC, NBC, National Public Radio and National Geographic Weekend.

With her book Gutsy Women, Marybeth was a featured guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show and she shares with us her journey towards getting booked on the show, which took her several years of creative persistence!

Marybeth shares lots of golden nuggets in this interview, including how to take No as an answer (it just means not yet!), how to use your website as your business card, creating multiple streams of income, using soundbytes in interviews and how women can help each other to build business relationships.

Checkout her information-packed website at www.gutsytraveler.com and listen to our interview here

Interview with Pam Slim and Getting PR for Authors

I first met Pamela Slim online when she covered our “monthly socks by mail” company in her Top 10 Christmas gifts back in 2006.  We’ve since sold the company and I’ve continued to follow her fantastic blog, Escape From Cubicle Nation, which helps people in corporate jobs trying to make the leap to becoming an entrepreneur.

Pam’s site is one of the top career and marketing blogs on the web, and she has now published a book of the same name.  I also love that Pam is certified as a master coach with “the best-known life coach in America,” Oprah Magazine columnist Martha Beck!

Having been covered by the New York Times, CNN, Business Week and Wall Street Journal just to name a few big hitters, I asked Pam how she started out getting PR.

“I helped behind the scenes and provided sources for stories even where I wasn’t quoted,” says Pam.  “Journalists need us as much as we need them, they’re constantly looking for good angles for stories and they need sources.  I make it a priority when a journalist contacts me to get back to them because I know they are working on a short deadline.”  The lesson here? Work in partnership and collaboration with a journalist way before you need them!

Pam has a great press page for you to look at. She makes it easy for reporters to contact her and write about her by offering clear and organized information, a compelling bio and a list of story angles and interview questions for a reporter to ask her.

Listen to my interview with Pam Slim and how getting PR has helped her as a blogger, author and coach:

Getting PR for Coaches

For my coaching community, listen to my interview with Emmy award winning TV reporter and news anchor Mark Joyella as he talks about his beat as the first Community Supported Journalist covering the field of professional coaching worldwide.  At the Coaching Commons, Mark writes and reports on coaching, creates multimedia content and engages participants across various media platforms and social networking sites.

In our interview, Mark shares the types of articles he writes to address common concerns of coaches (such as how to build and grow your coaching business, debates on whether coaching should be regulated, top 10 coaching books) and we have a fun discussion about Twitter and whether it’s an appropriate coaching tool.

Mark suggests that coaches – or anyone trying to get PR – should first get a really good sense of how a reporter is already telling a story about your topic. Coming to the Coaching Commons website allows coaches to see what’s newsworthy around the world and tailor that story pitch to use in your own local or national PR efforts.  It’s a great tip for coaches on how to do your own media pitches without re-inventing the wheel!

Mark can also be found on Twitter as @coachreporter and suggests PR newbies join the Monday evening live discussion between journalists and PR on Twitter by following the hashtag #journchat.

Entrepreneur.com's Lisa Druxman on Getting PR

Lisa Druxman is the Mompreneur columnist for Entrepreneur.com which covers any and all challenges relating to starting a business. She is also the founder of  Stroller Strides, the largest fitness program for new moms in the US as well as being the author of LEAN Mommy.

Listen to Lisa as she discusses how her business has grown by “putting more effort into publicity than any other form of marketing” and how getting PR “has brought us to the tipping point.”

Lisa will also talk about the importance of getting PR in your local press and how to use that as a starting point towards getting publicity in national media outlets.  Having been on NBC’s Today Show, CNN, The Montel Williams Show, Access Hollywood and profiled in magazines such as Entrepreneur, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Self and more – she knows what it takes to get the publicity that generates credibility and awareness!

Lisa Druxman on How to Get PR:

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.