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). Read the full story