Yesterday I spoke with my friend and mentor Karen Alston over at Alston Marketing Group. I knew someone who was looking to do a national marketing campaign and I couldn’t submit a proposal (due to a conflict of interest) but I knew Karen’s firm would be perfect. (See tip # 4) Anyway, she was getting my thoughts before she prepared her proposal, and we began to chat about how things were going in her world.

I love Karen: she is frank and honest and will let you know when things aren’t going so well. She said she can gauge how the overall economy is doing by her phone. If the phone rings, things are okay. If it sits there silently, things are definitely not good.

Not surprising that her phone hadn’t rung in months. But what you may find interesting is that she’s noticed a little bit of an upswing.

Just this week she’s gotten 4 calls to bid on new work.

And she’s apparently not the only one. The Firm Voice just posted an article about 2009 budgets. They’re saying that businesses aren’t arbitrarily cutting PR and Marketing budgets, because those businesses still recognize the value of their PR and Marketing programs. (Someone in our industry must be doing their job!) Business and organizations are however, focusing more on results and added value (see tip # 1).

So economically, are things looking up? Certainly for Karen they are. Who knows, maybe it was just a fluke of a week and next week the phones will go dead again. (I hope not!) But maybe the economy is slowly starting to get back on its feet. Maybe people are optimistic about 2009.

Or…maybe people are anticipating that things will turn around since Obama is only weeks away from taking the oath of office. Which brings me to a question: Are you doing anything different business-wise to prepare for the new administration? Are you acquiring new personnel or thinking of offering new services? Will your business be greatly affected by having Obama and the Democratic Party in power?

I for one, am looking forward to all of the sharp, progressive and impressive YOUNG PEOPLE that will be moving to DC. They’re going to change up the game for real. Happy hours and networking events won’t be the same.

Hmmm…maybe I’ll add some event planning to my current list of services…