All posts tagged Entrepreneur Magazine

On Vacation: Gen Y, You're Doing it Wrong!

by jaywalk1 on August 31, 2009 in Gen Y, Thoughts, Work with 3 Comments

According to an article in the latest edition of Entrepreneur Magazine, Gen Y-ers are “Young and Bummed”… and basically unable to take a real vacation.

working-man-on-beach1

A Ranstad “Work Watch” Survey of 2,000 employees showed that taking time off for vacation was stressful for people between the ages of 18 and 34.

  • Over a third of respondents said that it was difficult to unplug and give out work responsibilities.
  • Over 50 percent stressed about preparing a boss or co-worker for their time out of the office.
  • 14 percent were upset that no one missed them while they were gone.

The first two stats are interesting, and on some level, I can relate. The third stat is just sad.

I have to admit that going on vacation has always been challenging for me. Summers at PR agencies in DC are usually slow in terms of work (or so I was told). This summer has been anything but. With the current economy, you can’t really complain. When people ask me how things are going, I generally say “Busy, but good.”

Eventually, I got to a point when I needed a break, not just from work, but from DC. After trying to find the perfect time for vacation (which does not exist), I just decided to disappear from the District for a week. Once I was on the road, I thought: “This feels great. I should do this every year…wait normal people do do this every year…it’s a vacation…it’s healthy.”

Even though I was in the land of REAL pizza and the Bronx Bombers, I still found a way to cheat. I kept some responsibilities for myself because I thought I could do it quickly, it would be easier than transitioning the project for one week, the client/team wouldn’t know the new person….and the list of excuses goes on. I snuck into the NY office for a new business meeting that I convinced myself I just could not miss AND I committed the ultimate vacation sin – checking email.

Have you allowed (or forced) yourself take a real vacation recently? How did that go?

Maybe I broke a few vacation commandments, but I did manage to enjoy my time away and get the recharge I was looking for. No need to completely unplug this time around…I’ll save that for when I’m on a beach like this.

1635648-2The only thing I’ll be doing from here is sending a twitpic or two…

A Ranstad “Work Watch” Survey of 2,000 employees showed that taking time off for vacation was stressful for people between the ages of 18 and 34.

Entrepreneurs: It's time to get a PR Firm when…

by jaywalk1 on June 8, 2009 in PR, Public Relations, Resource, Resources with 2 Comments

Entrepreneur magazine’s June 2009 issue featured a short piece titled “Get Thee to a PR firm.” In the article, 5 Entrepreneurs shared thoughts on when they knew it was time to hire a PR firm. Stories varied, but here’s when it clicked for them:

  • People started talking.
  • The specialty niche became a trend.
  • The entrepreneur dreamed of going national.
  • Sales came to a halt.
  • It just became too much.

So, is there a specific point in the business growth process when you should hire a PR firm?

No, I think that’s clear from the range of responses provided from this small sample of entrepreneurs. Each business and circumstance will be a little different, and you will be looking to communicate a variety of different things from updates on the business to awards to new focus/products/services/offerings and the list goes on.

There IS, however, a specific point when you should engage a PR professional.

When? Five minutes after you begin to think about engaging with the public.

Why five minutes? It’s enough time to figure out if you’re ready to take that step (budget), but not so much time that you begin to brainstorm and become wedded to your own ideas. That’s why WE are here!

I was being a bit cheeky there, but in all seriousness, it may take days, months or years before you truly need a firm to assist you, but  you should be engaging a PR consultant from the very beginning to discuss your strategy.

How can a PR consultant help? There are millions of ways, but here are a few keys areas:

  • Providing an outside perspective on messaging - How are you describing your business and the service it provides? Is it as effective as you think it is?
  • Defining and Targeting audiences – Most of the entrepreneurs whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting generally have a great sense of who they would like to target. However, knowing who your audience is does not directly translate into knowing the best ways to communicate with that audience.
  • Strategy and Solutions - PR pros rarely get the credit we’re due for strategic thinking. We are, at our core, strategic thinkers who come up with solutions. Note that I didn’t limit this to communications solutions. The truth is, depending on the pro, we do a great deal more than that. Our work and experience can blend in other functions (marketing, advertising, fundraising, etc) and several sectors (health care/ health policy, technology, corporate responsibility, etc).
  • Getting Funding - This one comes straight from Entrepreneur. According to a survey they conducted, “Companies engaging in PR campaigns were 30 percent more successful in attaining funding within 1 to 3 months than companies without a campaign.”

It may be wise to hold off on hiring a firm for long-term work, but a working relationship with a solid PR consultant is definitely an extremely valuable thing to have in your arsenal as you set out to grow your business or organization.

Great Minds Irk Alike

by jaywalk1 on June 2, 2009 in Just Fun, PR, Public Relations, Resource, Resources with No comments

I may not have many things in common with Alltop founder and walking success story Guy Kawasaki, but it turns out that we share a common distaste for a few things that people do online.

frustrated

His June 2009 Entrepreneur magazine piece titled “Website Marketing Turnoffs” lays out 13 “silly and even stupid ways some companies are hindering adoption of their products and services.” One place where I’ll deviate from Guy’s thinking is his application of these things to companies. To me, this applies to everyone  online, companies and definitely anyone blogging. As I read the list, I couldn’t help but think: “Yes! Right! Seriously! EXACTLY!!”

A few that made me mad just visualizing the offenders in action include:

#1 Forcing immediate registration: Requiring a new user to register is a reasonable request—after you’ve sucked him in. The sites that require registration as the first step are putting a barrier in front of adoption.

I hate this. As a PR guy, I know the value of capturing the email, but as an online PR guy, I also know how fast a visitor can click off a site if something jumps between them and the content they seek. Something to think about…

#3 Windows that don’t generate URLs: Have you ever wanted to point people to a page, but the page has no URL? Did the company decide it didn’t want referrals, links and additional traffic?

Yes, yes…oh and yes! And bloggers, please do both me and yourself a favor, make it easy for me to point to specific posts. There is nothing like trying to send a post to someone only to find that my sole option is sending the main URL with a date and title.

#6 Limiting contact to e-mail: Don’t get me wrong; I live and die by e-mail. But sometimes I want to call or even snail-mail a company. Many companies only let you send an e-mail via their “Contact Us” page. Why can’t companies be honest and just call it “Don’t Contact Us”?

I agree with Guy, but I’m going to take this one in a slightly different direction. When I’m reading up on bloggers, there are times when I’d like to share info or ask a question that is not suited for everyone’s eyes. I have little faith in contact forms (that they work and that they get read), so please people include an email address. Gmail is FREE! Open a new account just for people like me and maintain your privacy with your personal account. You don’t have to check it every five minutes…every ten will do.

Those are just a few that jumped out at me. You can read the full list here.

*Flickr Photo Credit – PaloAlto