Ah, the cheapskate client. How do I loathe thee? You may know him/her well. S/he masquerades as a serious prospect and raises everyone’s hopes. S/he requests a full-on proposal with no intentions of pulling the trigger. Or the worst: s/he orders the work and signs a contract, but never pays the invoice.

While seemingly harmless at first glance, the cheapskate client is quite dangerous. The CC wastes inordinate amounts of time and resources. Heaven forbid you have team members you have to pay (graphic designers, admin help, copywriters). Dealing with a cc, you could even end up in the red.

But during a recession, everyone wants to believe in the promises of the CC, because we’re all chasing that elusive (perhaps fictitious) pot of gold. We all want to believe in good intentions and the upfront promises that (my personal favorite) this will lead to “more work later down the road.” But since the CC can end up costing you in the end, it’s better to steer clear altogether. Here are a few ways to spot them. And once you spot the CC, please run. You were warned.

They Hint About Brokeness:  If you’re interviewing a potential client and they actually use the words “We don’t have a lot of money” or “We’re waiting for a grant to come in…” or worse yet, “We’re just starting out , so our budget for this is small….” please run. A lack of funds at the onset of a project probably means there will be a lack of funds when it’s time for you to get paid. And remember that blood is thicker than water: if an organization or company is financially struggling, they’re going to make sure they pay their own in-house staff before they take care of the consultants. That’s just how it is. Read the full story

Many Type-A personality types find their way into entrepreneurship, lured by the idea of being the boss. And given the detail-oriented and creative nature of the public relations profession, PR entrepreneurs find themselves at the mercy of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, our Type-A /take charge/make it happen personalities allow us to get tons done.  But our somewhat control-freakish entrepreneurial tendencies also hinder us: we often keep our projects on a short leash.

But keeping projects close doesn’t serve us in the long run because we end up spending loads of time on mundane tasks that we can’t bill for.

Lately I’ve been pondering the subject of growth, and what’s needed to make growth a reality for a service-based entrepreneur.  For many public relations and marketing pros, and now social media specialists, not only are we charged with managing client projects from start to finish, but we’re also responsible for handling the day to day operations of running a business.  We’re the mailroom, accounting department and janitor. We are the community relations person and publicist for our  practice, and it falls on our shoulders to get the word out about the business. Read the full story