I’m always honored to have an opportunity to spread the word about the level of experience, professionalism, and expertise available in the Solo PR Pro community. I truly believe 2012 is the year the majority of those who purchase and hire public relations services will recognize that we’re all strengthened by the availability of top notch talent on a contract basis. It’s my mission to have this as part of the legacy of this blog – you all deserve it!

Do you agree with my premise? Was there anything I missed? Please share your thoughts in the comments!

This post contributed by Content & Community Specialist Heather Rast.

The early weeks of every year can be pretty symbolic. We give ourselves a pass to shirk the poor work habits of just a few weeks prior. Hopes abound that a big red “re-do” button will let us start anew on the lists of tasks gathering crumbs on the edge of the desk. A fresh start to make smart choices, and all that.

By now we know that some well-intentioned efforts falter, just as others prevail. With this realistic point of view in mind, I hope to improve your odds of saying goodbye to some small but significant hazards to leading an independent career, and instead wring a little more out of your annual planning.

Money

Stop avoiding discussions about money. Businesses large and small have to make money, and you have the right to ask for some when giving counsel, discussing plans, and pitching in. Yes, sometimes it can be awkward to inject a clarifying statement (“Sure, I can write up some of my thoughts on that so you can review recommendations against your budget.”) but I’ve found it only gets stickier if you allow your anxiety to grow, impede interest in immersing yourself in the work, or cloud your objectivity.

Time

Chances are, one of the things you enjoy most about being your own boss is the flexibility of managing your own time. Even while client obligations drive some aspects of scheduling, I’ve found happiness in a more fluid concept of “work hours” than I experienced as an employee. Riding tandem with my ability to walk away from my desk for a few hours is a greater importance on time management. Dare I say, when you’re working for “the man,” a bit of time at the coffee machine or digesting the latest mass-emailed joke is of little concern. When you work for yourself, it’s better to avoid those time-sucks and find shortcuts for routine chores. Working 12-hour days isn’t healthy or sustainable, and it can be hard to stop the spiral.

Resources

Hand-in-hand with making the best use of your time is the need for the right tools for the job. In the time I’ve been in business, I’ve tested and trialed my way through a fair number of tools and apps that were seemingly must-haves for solos.

I’m keeping: Freshbooks and Hootsuite.  I tossed: LinkedIn Gold, Scribe SEO, Sprout Social and Zoho Projects.

In my experience the premium LinkedIn subscription didn’t net me better access or more insight. Any number of good WordPress plug-ins can rival Scribe SEO. And while Sprout Social has some neat features for finding potential connections, I’ve found at the mechanics of scheduling outweigh potential data mining. Besides, I use a BuzzStream trick for that. Oh, and Zoho Projects is like having surgery to remove a splinter. Try Asana or Get It Done! instead.

Before reading on, think about your recurring monthly expenses – what are you dragging your feet on cancelling or downgrading? If unnecessary costs add up to $25 per month, that’s $300 a year you could allocate to a more worthwhile line item. Like a new ergonomic chair.

Protection

Now’s the time to stop thinking about business insurance and start retaining business insurance (trust me, I’m admonishing myself at this moment as much as advising you). Do you have life insurance? Medical insurance? So if you understand the concept of risk, why bet your assets and future earnings on any number of simple incidents that could devastate what you’re trying to build?

Planning Ahead

One of our many jobs is that of an engineer. Part of making growth plans for the business includes understanding the fundamentals – and fluctuations – of our earnings. Some of the best dollars I’ve ever spent went to tax counsel and accounting delivered by a professional. While I tried a CPA at first, I quickly realized her company’s methods and billing structure were better suited to a $8 million/year business. I turned to my local SCORE chapter and quickly got a lead on a savvy accountant who takes on the lions’ share of thinking and doing for me, and at a reasonable cost.

These are some recommendations I’d make to any indie aiming to get a leg up on 2012 planning. What would you add? What did I miss?

2011 Has been a great year for Solo PR Pro. We grew our readership (which means we’re helping more indies get the information they need) and participation in our weekly Twitter chat (thanks to everyone spreading the good word with the #solopr hash tag) expanded to include more people in related marketing communications disciplines. Our Solo PR PRO membership site was launched, and we added to our team.

With so many good things happening, it seems fitting to take a look back over some popular content here on the blog to reflect on what’s important to our community. Maybe you’ll re-discover a jewel post you’ve already enjoyed (hey – share it with someone you know!), or read a post where you can offer a fresh, constructive dissenting opinion. Let’s continue to push our smart, vibrant community of independent practitioners with thought-provoking dialogue, and lend our support with sound advice and tips.

We’re glad you’re a part of Solo PR Pro and look forward to helping you achieve even greater levels of success in 2012!

Most popular blog posts of the year

How to charge for social media services
Get It In Writing! A guide to writing contracts for your business
Setting rates: A field guide
Whores, pimps, and the people who love them
What you need to know about PR today
10 foolproof ways to waste money on PR
10 foolproof excuses to network and reconnect
Cost, price, and value – there is a difference
How to build a name for yourself
PR stands for pack rat: The highly ineffective habits of storing our work
44 Tools for the PR consultant’s toolbox

This post was written by Heather Rast.

It’s that time of year again. The time where independent consultants think about this year’s work and how to move into the new year with sound footing.

Over the last three years, we’ve had several blog posts and Twitter chats related to reducing tax liabilities and managing expenses. Below are some highlights from the most-loved posts and the Solo PR Pro community.

Collecting on unpaid bills

Ensuring you’re paid for the work you do is a critical step to solo success. As you look to do this more effectively in 2012, a few top tips from our March 2010 #SoloPR Twitter chat on this topic include:

• Build collection term language into your contract
• Follow up repeat requests with notice that bringing in your attorney will be your next step to resolving the collection issue
• Screen new clients very carefully; request a deposit for services up front
• One accountant’s position: an LLC can write off tangibles, but not debts related to unpaid invoices for services

Tax and expense help

In a past post for for laid off workers, we shared these tips that apply to anyone:

• Be sure to track any and all expenses while performing work independently. Every parking stub, mile driven, and notebook purchased can help lower your tax liability.
• Be careful not to underestimate your taxes while solo. You’re now responsible for the full amount of FICA instead of half (when employed, your company paid the other half). This can be a rude wake-up call if you don’t set aside enough of your solo earnings for taxes when its received.
• Not sure how long you’ll stay solo, because it wasn’t part of your master plan? You can still earn income consulting if you operate under your own name and use a Schedule C when filing your taxes.

Passing along expenses to clients

During a recent #SoloPR chat, we discussed how to bill expenses to clients, and participants shared the following advice:

• Have a monthly “Administrative” line item for retainer clients that covers consulting-related expenses. Those expenses are built into the hourly fee charged project-based clients.
• Some advised that every expense is different. Some are direct billed, others split between clients, while still others are considered the cost of doing business (and accounted for within the rate).
• Consider passing expenses along as a clear, detailed line item on the invoice after pre-arranging in advance for the expense in the contract.

Accelerate Expenses

• Consider “accelerating your expenses” by buying things you know you’ll need (and can afford) now instead of early 2012. By doing so, you’ll enjoy the tax break of the expense now. Investments like desks, an ergonomic chair, a secondary computer, or new printer can be bought now so that the expense shows up on the 2011 ledger. If you pay for them in January 2012, chances are you’ll have incurred no interest on the credit card charge plus have received the tax break.

What are your favorite year-end strategies? Let us know in the comments!

Working with Kellye, you learn early on she’s smart about servicing clients. A recent project got us talking about ways to build trust after finding a new client and how vitally important it is to a successful relationship. This is a long post, so let’s dive right in!

Respect Their Time

As our society in general loses some of the courtesy and respect previous generations showed one another, I think we are well served to raise our awareness of other people’s time, personal schedule, and needs. This concept translates to:

• Promptly returning phone calls.
• Promptly replying to emails and thoroughly addressing all points raised.
• Log on to a scheduled call 2 minutes in advance of start time.
• Hold fast to estimated call end times, or (near scheduled end time) inquire if attendees are free to keep going.

Conform To Their Work Style

You’ve read how some people get all their writing in as the roosters crow? Or maybe heard the phrase “Call me anytime – I’m always working”? Consider establishing communication preferences part of your new client onboarding process.  Sure, you may intuit somewhere around week 4 that your contact is always available at 8:30am except on Thursdays – but if you establish preferences for modes and times (Call? Email? Skype? Breakfast meeting?) early, then that demonstrates you’re thinking of all the details and willing to take some steps to accommodate the client.

Keep Your Commitments

This concept ties in with respecting someone’s time, but goes a bit further. Consultants can’t accomplish work without input (feedback, tangible assets, consent, etc.) from clients. You can’t expect a client to do their part to uphold a timeline if you’re not toeing the line yourself. This translates to:

• Keep appointments.
• Promptly getting back in touch with any follow-up items promised.
• Regularly communicate progress made toward an established deadline (this is a great way of demonstrating you’re always thinking of the client and it keeps the client up to speed in case others ask them about status).

Listen For Their Pain Points And Relieve Them

It can be hard to dig down beneath the basic barriers to being more productive we all share – too little time, too many meetings, too much bureaucracy. But if you listen closely enough for underlying root cause, you may just find ways to make your client’s life just a little easier. And that’s just one way to demonstrate your commitment and gain some trusted ground.

• Does your client have to take data you report and mash it into a bigger aggregate report for use by internal stakeholders? Offer to format your information so it slides in easily. Or offer to do the admin work yourself (if it makes sense to do so).
• Find flaws in your client’s processes they didn’t know they had, and improve upon them. What, he can’t give you an editorial style guide for the blog you’re assigned to write? Then offer to use the bits and pieces of info they can feed you and write a draft of one for them.

Establish Level Ground

Sometimes people can articulate the problems they want to solve. Other times they just know the outcomes they want. Come closer to delivering on client expectations when you:

• Ask them to thoroughly complete a project brief at the onset of working together. Some people will try to avoid it, saying it takes too much time. Those people will be very hard to satisfy because they haven’t zeroed in on their priorities.
• Get them to talk about projects that they consider to have been successes. What variables contributed?
• Get them to talk about projects that failed. What were the communication failures? Administrative or logistic failures? Learn from what worked and what didn’t.

Communicate Clearly And Openly

It’s true: we all have different attention spans and information requirements. Some people like to be carbon copied on all activity, even if they don’t have an assigned deliverable. Others don’t want the full picture, only to be looped in if a problem arises.

The way I see it, part of my responsibility (and maybe yours, too) as a contractor to push information out to the group public. This may mean:

• Writing conference reports detailing phone discussions or in-person meetings where decisions and task assignments were made and outstanding questions raised. I first experienced this early in my career on the agency side. Still a good practice, maybe more so with less frequent in-person meetings.
• Maintaining a central repository of messages and associated files. For projects or ongoing assignments with clients (not a simple, quick info exchange), I rely on project management tools like Asana to be a “hub” with clients. We’ll write more about collaboration and project tools later.
• Never assuming information/requests sent was received. “Well, I emailed her but didn’t hear back” is weak. Passing a hot potato doesn’t absolve one of responsibility.

Deliver The Unexpected

This may be where “nice to have” really adds value to a relationship and goes a long way to engender trust. I have a client for whom I do social media management. She had a Facebook presence before we started working together, but didn’t find much value in it. Of course the problem was a lack of understanding how the page could be used as a channel to inform and entertain fans as part of a larger digital marketing strategy.

In just under 6 weeks, we saw a huge jump in fan participation, Facebook check-ins, and new fans. Status updates are now reaching a much wider local audience, and people have started to use our Deals to save money at checkout. For a consumer retailer, these are great baby steps to improved word-of-mouth.

She didn’t ask me to explain how Facebook could help her business. She trusted me because she believed in the whole marketing plan I presented. But knowing her uncertainty, I generated a simple but very telling report to demonstrate the dramatic change with the Faebook page.

I gave her more than she asked for, something unexpected. And my little report reassured her I was looking out for her interests by making certain my work was moving the needle.

How do you help build trust with clients?

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This post contributed by Heather Rast, Content and Community Specialist for Solo PR Pro. Heather is Principal of Insights & Ingenuity, a Cedar Rapids digital marketingcompany. She develops brand identity and marketing communications plans for small businesses that distinguish them from the competition. Her content planning and online community-building work for larger organizations helps them better serve their consumers.

If I’d given birth to a human baby (rather than a virtual, business baby), that child would now be old enough to drive! As I’ve said many times, being an independent consultant is most certainly a viable long-term career path.

This entire blog, and now its sister, premium PRO membership site, is dedicated to the many tips and lessons learned – by both me and the rest of our community – over the years. But if I had to boil down what separates long-term successful solos from those who flourish for a time and then go back to traditional employment, I believe it comes down to the following:

1. Avoiding burnout – Regular readers have seen me beat this drum a million times: you have to proactively arrange to take breaks and vacations. Finding ways to unplug periodically is the only way you can recharge and keep going if you want this to be a marathon, and not a sprint!

2. Keeping cash reserves – This one can be challenging, especially in a difficult economy. But you never know when a client is going to be late to pay or a check will get lost in the mail. Having at least some liquidity will help you minimize panics, which in turn will make you happier with your business overall.

3. Challenging yourself – As an independent consultant, there may be times when you look up and realize you’ve been doing the same kind of work for a while. When this happens to me, I usually come to the realization that I’ve been subconsciously bored for some time.

Pushing your boundaries by finding new services to offer, pursuing different opportunities, and making new connections are all important ways to stay fresh in the long run. For me, this has included things like taking technical writing projects, launching the Solo PR Pro blog in 2008, and most recently the Solo PR PRO member site.  It’s not easy to reach beyond our comfort zone, but as long as you’re doing this, it’s unlikely a corporate job will compete with the excitement you can make for yourself!

To all of you: my friends, colleagues, clients and co-workers, thank you so much for your support. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of champions and heroes to get to this point, and I’m humbled when I think about the journey.

If you’re in need of a pep talk or a champion, let us know in the comments (the Solo PR Pro community is here for you)! If you have additional tips for long-term success, please feel free to share below.

In that time, there have been some opportunities missed because of the public nature of our various channels. Many of you have also stated this – there are things you’d prefer not to send out to the whole world, but you’d be happy to exchange this information with others in our community.

To meet these needs, we’re happy to unveil the premium Solo PR PRO membership site, now in public beta (at special beta pricing). Specifically for us, this premium PRO content offers road-tested deliverables and downloads, a members-only Forum, a special upcoming Show Me the Money! series on setting rates, and much more.

Why do we need a PRO membership site? I did a quick video to explain the reasoning, and some of the benefits:

If you can’t view this video, watch it on YouTube.

Though some of the Solo PR PRO membership site features won’t be available until after the first of the year, we wanted to go ahead and share this beta content with you at a low initial rate (locked in for life for those who sign-up early), which will increase slowly over time for new subscribers as more content is added. That way, you can start putting the current content to use as you plan for 2012 (never too early to start!).

What does it cost?
As indie consultants, price is always a key consideration – as it should be. Though we’ve seen membership sites that cost $50 a month or more (and they have generic content that often doesn’t apply to indie consultants like us), we’re doing our best to keep costs low so everyone can participate.

The deal: While we’re still in beta for the next few weeks, you can join for just $14 a month, and be a Charter member! The cool part is: you’ll lock in this monthly rate for as long as you maintain your PRO membership (but, at the risk of sounding like an infomercial, you can cancel any time). We’re also offering a money-saving Annual Subscription for just $120 for the year. In addition to the price break, the Annual Subscription offers the tax benefits of purchasing now for the year ahead.

For more details of all the offerings and to sign-up, just visit: Become a PRO Member.

We’re excited to offer something that can help you be more efficient, effective, and profitable in your business, and we fully expect that this content (especially the fee-setting info) will help many PRO members increase their profits by thousands of dollars in 2012. That’s the mission that will drive everything around this effort.

If you have any questions, just let us know in the comments. Hope you can join us!

When one of the industry’s top bloggers (and my good friend), Beth Harte, chose to sunset her blog The Harte of Marketing this summer, I was interested in hearing more about her reasons behind this decision.

A marketing and PR professional and adjunct professor, Beth recently landed her dream job after a months-long job search that included some difficult lessons. We’re lucky she’s agreed to share these thoughts and experiences with us here in this mini-interview!

1. Some people suggested that if you took steps to “dumb down” your resume, you might do better in your job search. Of course, they were wrong! What lessons do you think the rest of us can learn from your persistence?

Yes, it’s true! I received many suggestions to “dumb down” my resume by removing my experience, education, speaking, and social media assets (my blog, Twitter, etc.). The reasoning behind the advice was that being “too experienced” and “too much of a thought leader” could be scaring less experienced hiring marketing and PR professionals. While I understand that our current economy is making a lot of folks nervous, I never understood why a smart company would want to hire a “dumbed down” employee. But more importantly, why would I want to work for a company that thinks like that. I resisted the advice and kept using a version of my resume that highlighted both my experience as well as the results I had delivered. Sticking to my guns helped me to land in a position that met, no exceeded!, everything I was looking for in a new job. My colleagues are not only extremely smart and talented, they understand today’s customer and how our digital age has changed business.  If I had “dumbed down” my resume, I think I would still be unemployed today.

2. It’s easy for anyone in business to get caught up in one-upmanship, and it can be especially hard for independent consultants — who earn a living based on reputation — to know where to draw the line. What did you learn about the usefulness of outdoing the next guy?

Well, you sure know how to get me on my soapbox! The one thing I should have mentioned above is that my “social standing” or “personal brand” did absolutely nothing to get me a job. NOTHING. What did? A recommendation of someone who I worked with over ten years ago! Reputation can’t be formed online…because we can be anyone we want to be. People have an image of “who we are,” but it’s often not very accurate because they have never worked shoulder-to-shoulder with us. There is a propensity in social media to think we know someone purely based on what they write or share in a blog post, on Twitter, on Facebook or in a forum. Sure, someone can form a perception of who you are… “The gal that shares great information and advice.” Or, “That guy has a witty repertoire.” But does that really reflect what you are like to work with or if you have integrity in business dealings? No, of course not. It’s important to keep in might what is reality. Just because someone has a large following, a high Klout score or are listed on something like AdAge doesn’t necessarily mean they actually understand business or know how to deliver strategies that drive business or change sentiment.

A solo PR pro would be better off spending more time making sure they understand their clients and deliver impeccable service. That is, being “other-centric” versus “self-centric.” Get back to to “old school” methods of networking and developing a first-hand reputation.

3. You’ve noted that when times are tough, you find out who your real friends are. In hindsight, do you think there’s any way to know this before the tough times hit? Any tips for knowing who is trustworthy?

I think if someone’s ego gets wrapped up in being socially popular, they tend to think everyone is their “friend.” It’s hard to know who really cares enough to help you when the road gets rocky and who has their own agenda. When I reached out to my network to find a job, I was often completely ignored or I received the “I’ll help you if you help me” response. (And, you guess it, they never returned the favor!) Run away from those people! I think the one way to determine who is truly interested in working together is to ask certain people–when you need it least–about partnering, sharing networks, collaborating, etc. Select an activity that will give you a sense of their knowledge, experience and work ethics. If they resist or ignore you, you know it’s time to move on to finding folks who truly understand the point of having a solid network and partnerships.

4. Do you think the culture of social media has impacted our professional networks? How?

Based on my personal experience and what I hear from others, social media used to develop professional networks usually leads to very weak ties. Prior to social media, professional networks were stronger because they consisted of people that actually knew or worked together in some capacity. There was face time and on-going communication via networking events or e-mail. Now, because you can tap into anyone, anywhere in less than 30 seconds there is a false sense of “friendship.” Sure, someone might know many people, but when faced with the question “Can you recommend?” or “Do you know?”  or “Can you help?” the limitations of one’s network usually surface. In fact, the other day I was asked for some agency recommendations… I had a hard time coming up with more than one that I actually knew and could recommend their work.

5. How and what did you decide is most important?

Most people don’t know this, but the last three years of my life were pretty much hell. Blogging and speaking to try and drum up a job or freelance business did nothing for me except take time away from the things that should have been most important — my family and friends. It also created debt. When a conference doesn’t pay someone to speak, who do you think picks up the tab (keep that in mind next time you pay to attend a conference and the speaker is self-promoting –they most likely aren’t getting paid and feel they don’t have a choice). I learned the hard way that people will always take what they can get for free (I should have known better, right?).

It’s amazing that when I stopped being involved with the crazy, time-sucking  social media world how everything ordered itself! Today, my priorities in life (in order) are God, family, friends and work and I have never been happier. Not to mention that I have a lot more time for reading, which is one of my favorite things to do. There’s a whole lot of goodness in life/work balance.

Beth is the Director of Marketing for Advent Global Solutions, Inc. and oversees marketing  strategy, marketing communications, and public relations for the customer-centric reseller and integrator of SAP, IBM and Oracle software.

Solo pros, is there room for one more on this journey?

Like many solopreneurs, I started my business on the side, freelancing for a few years while safely tucked under the wing of full-time employment.   About a year ago, I made the leap.

Since then, I’ve packed at least four years post-secondary education into figuring out the ins and outs of running a small business. More than once I’ve had moments of panic; an equal number of times, I’ve done the Snoopy dance around my home office, bursting with fresh pleasure at a new contract or project.  Sound familiar?

Joining Kellye and the crew of Solo PR Pro is one of my fist-pumping occasions. On the technographic ladder of the #SoloPR community, I’ve hovered around the “Spectator” rung, reading the newsletter and occasionally jumping in a chat here or there, enjoying the community’s topics, knowledge flow, and the camaraderie. This opportunity to work with Kellye will undoubtedly help increase my involvement in the Solo PR Pro community as I research issues, write, and share what I’ve learned.

Few people get to actively work on programs that feed their interests, advance their business, and help them grow professionally. I look forward to all the Solo PR Pro community has to teach me, and thank you all in advance for your generosity!

—–

Heather is Principal of Insights & Ingenuity, a boutique digital marketing agency. Heather builds brands by planning and producing thoughtful content that helps grow rewarding online communities.  She’s involved in several vibrant groups and organizations around the web, including Social Media Explorer, Workshifting, and MarketingProfs. Get acquainted through Twitter or Facebook.

The amazing Jennifer Spivak started with us as an intern and continued as a community assistant – her energy and drive have truly been a constant inspiration! As she continues down her path toward becoming a full-time independent consultant, Jennifer’s decided to share some of the insights she gained as part of our community.

For the last 10 months or so, I’ve worked part-time as a community assistant for the queen of #solopr, Kellye Crane. As we’ll soon be parting ways, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my experience and share what I’ve learned with all of you, the wonderful independent PR & marketing pros who help keep this thriving community alive:

• Internal deadlines are a must.
• In #solopr, EOD actually (and awesomely) means 11:59 p.m.
• If you’re directing a conference, you’ll probably get sick the day before it begins.
• We DO have collective power!
• And of course, even independent PR practitioners need a vacation sometimes.

But more important than the real-world insight I gained through my work with Kellye and my time at #solopr is the affirmation that working independently is without a doubt what I am meant to do. And the best part? When I do go solo – which I don’t think is more than a year or two away from now – I won’t be starting from scratch, wondering how it’s done and where to turn when I need guidance.

I’ll know to look to Get It In Writing when I approach my first client. I’ll remember that the best way to get an overflow of answers from some seriously smart people is to pop in to a #solopr chat. And I’ll most definitely know that the #solopr community is always there; to encourage me, to inspire me, and to remind me that THIS is what I want to do with the rest of my life.

Though the last time you all heard from me I was still in school, I have since graduated and starting working at a small social media marketing agency while pursuing freelance projects on the side (of which I now have several). I know I’m not there yet, but at some point in the future I’ll be ready to transition these side projects to becoming my only source of income.

The idea of this, I’ll admit, is somewhat terrifying to me. But that fear isn’t something that’s going to stop me. Remember my name, solo PR pros – I’ve got big plans and big dreams, and with a community like this one, I think its safe to say I just might be unstoppable.

I have no doubt that Jennifer is right! The fact that she is planning her entire career with the end goal in mind is a testament to her maturity and self-awareness.

What would you have done early on, if you knew independence was in your future?