Along with many other industries, the practice of public relations is changing due to the rapid growth of email and social networking. As a whole, this change is good for those working in the PR field. Emailing allows a pro to work with multiple clients at once, it logs a record of all conversations so it’s easy to go back and double check any information, and it helps experts prioritize all of the work that needs to be done. You can email someone when it is convenient for you, and they can email you back when it is convenient for them. Social media is also great for the PR pro because it allows for the same type of convenience on a more personal level. You’re always connected to your clients through social media and can help promote your clients’ company through these popular channels.

However, this technology has distracted from the importance of face-to-face communication for many solo PR pros. I much prefer email because it’s faster and more convenient than setting up a meeting, yet this doesn’t mean that face-to-face meetings aren’t sometimes the best option.

There are certain situations where talking with a client face-to-face is necessary for success. Although many PR pros try to solve problems electronically, face-to-face interaction can add a lot to a conversation including facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice. Consider some of the topics that warrant a face-to-face meeting for the best results:

1. Miscommunication – If you’re going back and forth with a client about a problem or an issue, and you simply can’t seem to understand each other, it’s time to call for a face to face meeting. Although these take a bit longer at the outset, they will help both parties solve the problem quicker and with less frustration overall.
2. Negotiation – Negotiation is supposed to be a back and forth. You don’t always want to give your clients time to talk themselves out of a potential new business arrangement, and email makes this easier. In addition, body language and eye contact can be important when negotiating, and this is lost with a phone call. Face-to-face meetings will help make sure that you can negotiate successfully, the way it was meant to be done.
3. Apologies – There is typically an idea that goes awry, or something that backfires, at one point in a PR pro’s career, and this often warrants an apology. A face-to-face apology shows that you’re willing to put yourself out there and do what you can to make things right. An email can sometimes seem cold and it can be hard to hear sincerity, so a face-to-face meeting will certainly make the apology more heartfelt.  
4. Celebrations – If you’ve been working with a client on a project that has concluded successfully, celebrations are in order. A thank you email will seem anti-climactic, and you want to make sure they know how much you appreciate working with them. Taking them out for lunch or after work drinks helps strengthen your human connection.

It’s up to the PR pro to decide when face-to-face communication is appropriate and when digital communication will do the trick. Although it’s often easier to sit behind a computer screen and interact, it’s important to remember face-to-face meetings can make a difference.

Amanda DiSilvestro writes on a wide range of topics for Business.com, the leading business directory that gives advice to small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Find a PR Consultant and New Business Leads

Many of us are contacted by companies looking for PR assistance, and we find they aren’t a good fit for our own businesses. In the past, when you didn’t know where to send them, it could create a sticky situation. Or perhaps as a solo PR pro yourself, you’re looking for a collaborator in an area where you don’t have any current contacts.

A new solution is here: the Solo PR Pro Find a PR Consultant public form, and the associated PRO member New Business Leads feature. The fact that new business leads submitted through this form are posted exclusively for the savvy Solo PR PRO premium members provides a key benefit to those using it – it means the organization (or you) won’t be bombarded by every Tom, Dick and Harry looking to make a buck.

There’s no fee for either the submitter or the consultant, and Solo PR PRO does not act as an intermediary. This service is simply provided as an easy way for organizations and independent PR consultants to find each other and begin the discussion/proposal process (both sides are encouraged to do their due diligence).

Show Me the Money, Part Four: Project/Value Pricing, Retainers and More

The Show Me the Money! course now includes almost 80 pages (and counting) of detailed, specific advice on how much to charge and how make your business as profitable as it can be. In the fourth installment, released today, we look at how to move beyond hourly billing to more lucrative arrangements. Checkout the Learning Center to see all the educational materials now available – more added each month.

Some of you may be thinking this is a weird way to do a launch (even a soft launch) – providing all the announced features and a ton of content while there’s still a day left to get in on the beta. Of course, you’re right! We just wanted to make sure our regular readers and community members have every opportunity to see what’s available and take advantage (you can cancel any time).

We have a lot more planned for the membership site in the coming months, so stay tuned and please let us know if you have any questions or suggestions in the comments below!

By Kellye Crane and Heather Rast

PR consultants that move away from excessive team emails and adopt a useful solution for collaborative project management are able to take on bigger and more lucrative client work. In this series, we help you make sense of the myriad of options by sharing our experience with a few of the top systems.

In Part One, we covered free collaborative project management tools. In Part Two, we focused on “freemium” and low cost options. In this third and final installment, we look at three tools designed to meet more robust needs, including those of larger groups servicing multiple projects or campaigns.

Basecamp

The granddaddy of project management software, this 37 Signals product is road-tested and large team approved.  You can get a taste for the software by signing up for a free trial which allows you to create one project with up to 10MB of storage for files.

Pro tip: Break big (even if they’re ongoing) projects down into more granular components like month, quarter, or subset. It will be easier as time goes on, messages stack up, and milestones get added, to go back and find something later.

PROS:

• No contract required, pay as-you-go. Plans start at $24 per month for 15 projects and unlimited users
• Recommended by 98% of the people who use it. That’s a remarkable satisfaction rating, and the fact that it’s so widely used means your subcontractors and/or clients may already be familiar with using it
• Provides a calendar feature that allows both events and milestones to be applied. If your work is date-based, then these can be good ways to capture progress to completion
• Create lists of standard tasks and assign people to complete them. Re-use the list on your next project or create new task lists based on milestones or whole projects

CONS:

• The dashboard can be jarring to someone joining a project mid-stream. Unless you’re familiar with a projects’ background and goings-on, the dashboard doesn’t really help orient new users at all
• It doesn’t provide a way for a project leader or administrator to view all tasks assigned to a specific team member
• Available via mobile browser, but no native mobile application

Central Desktop

Central Desktop is a full-featured online collaboration tool offering many of the same functions as Basecamp, plus some additional benefits, including online diagrams such as flow charts, org charts, and wireframes. You can also open, edit, and save Microsoft Office documents while within Central Desktop.

PROS:

• Extremely powerful program, with excellent tutorials and help documentation
• Allows custom branding (colors and logo), a nice way to extend the look and feel of your brand into the tool touched often by employees, vendors, and clients
• Integrates with Microsoft Office products (Office, Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• A mobile app is available for iOS, Android, and Blackberry operating systems to help you stay current while on-the-go
• Keep engagement high by pushing out messages to team members via Twitter and Facebook

CONS:

• The price is out of reach for most solo PR pros. Workgroups start at $99 per month and jump directly to enterprise-level workgroups (price isn’t published). The basic workgroups allows for up to 30 users and 50 GB of storage with 5 workspaces. On a price point level, Central Desktop is expensive compared to Basecamp and DeskAway
• The Wiki-based interface is very customizable. While the flexibility is a definite advantage, it could easily be a case of not knowing how you’d really like spaces to be arranged and organized until it’s full of information and active members. At that point, it could be cumbersome to pivot

DeskAway

DeskAway (affiliate link) is used by the team here at Solo PR Pro. After a lot of research and trials, Kellye decided DeskAway was the best blend of powerful features, usability, and price to serve as the central hub for work across all her projects and teams, including client programs, business projects, the Solo PR PRO Premium membership site, and the Solo PR Pro blog (she even uses it for personal tasks, as well).

Want to dip your toe in the water to understand why she digs it? While all the plans have a 30-day free trial, there’s also a limited-functionality free account that offers access to 1 project for 2 users, with 25 MB of file storage (unlike others with a 30-day trial, there’s no time limit on that one — upgrade at any time).

PROS:

• Simple sign-up process, and a credit card isn’t required (who likes giving that info before committing to buy?)
• On the$25 per month plan, subscribers receive access to 25 projects and 20 users, sharing 2 GB of storage space and 5 project templates.
• Unlike Basecamp, DeskAway provides Getting Started videos and how-to links directly on user dashboards. This makes it easy to set up a new user, then allow them to get acquainted with the system at their own pace
• Numerous options for sharing information among teams (from an internal blog to file uploads) means you can pick the methods that work best for you
• One of the few collaboration solutions that allows you to easily view all the tasks assigned to a single team member, and it includes powerful reporting options
• Includes a basic time-tracking feature, that can be integrated with the Freshbooks invoicing solution
• Provides for 3 levels of user permissions (Super, Regular, Limited), which offers tight team member controls
• Branding is available; use your own logo and colors to customize the look of your work space
• Synch your Google calendar with your DeskAway calendar to simplify scheduling
• Import Basecamp projects into DeskAway should you decide to migrate from one tool to the other

CONS:

• It’s not very intuitive, so there is a learning curve initially, and the user interface isn’t beautifully styled
• There are a lot of options packed into each tab and sub-menu, making it easy to get lost or derailed from the activity you set out to perform
• The mobile version is lacking (Kellye gets around this by using the full Web version on her iPhone)

All of these programs integrate well with email, meaning users can reply to tasks by email and their comments are stored within the system. That makes this most basic functionality easy to use for new (or more limited) team members, without requiring them to dive into the more complex features.

No matter which tool you choose, once you’ve entered your projects and timelines, the process becomes much easier — get started today for a more organized tomorrow!

What’s your favorite project management solution? Let’s learn from each other in the comments!

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks

For me, I purposely selected this day to release some new deliverables and features for the Solo PR PRO Premium membership site (including Part Three of the Show Me the Money! course, which includes comparison info on what other PR consultants are charging, and our new PRO Premium members-only searchable database). I’m also taking this opportunity to announce that the PRO Premium site will emerge from beta one month from today, on March 29.

Though a bit cliché, sometimes these little calendar reminders can help remind and prod us to pause, reflect, and take the next step down our career paths. Setting the above Leap Day goals for myself certainly served as an ongoing motivator for me.

What would you like to accomplish by the time the next February 29 rolls around, in the year 2016? What can you do to start leaping ahead today? Be sure to let us know your goals and accomplishments in the comments!

As we mentioned in Part One of this series, effective project management is important for all professionals, but for solo PR pros, it can be a key to profitability. Making better use of your time means you can take on more work and increase revenue.
In Part One, we covered free collaborative project management tools. In Part Two, we focus on “freemium” and low cost options below.

Manymoon (Do)

Do Screenshot

Once Kellye’s favorite for smaller projects because of its Google integration, Manymoon is transitioning to a new product called Do, now owned by Salesforce. The service claims to retain the features Manymoon users love, adding in features including task notes, real time notifications concerning activities for tasks and projects, and iOS support.

Because there is a lot of change going on with this product in light of  the acquisition (potentially including the pricing model), we recommend keeping an eye on it, but not adopting it until the migration is complete.

PROS:

• Integrates with Google Apps and Salesforce. Add Google docs to your task updates; create Do tasks directly from Gmail, and more
• The application works on smart phones, tablets, and of course, computer browser
• The ability to opt-in (subscribe) to a particular task without bothering with the whole project, or to view an activity feed for an entire project, and comment on any activity.

CONS:

• Do opened in December 2011. While it’s part of Salesforce – which probably means access to smart people and good technology – there may be some drawbacks as the company must first develop, test, then refine new features and functionality.
• No reminders for upcoming due dates or Android application yet.

Get It Done

Get It Done Screenshot

Get It Done is software based on the popular productivity book titled Get Things Done by author David Allen. GID will look familiar to those of us who have heavily relied on analog to-do lists in the past.

PROS:

• Clean drag-and-drop interface, and tasks sync to Google calendar
• 15-day free trial, $39.00 per year thereafter for unlimited users.
• Accessible via web browser and webapp (iPhone and Android), also for the iPad
• Receive daily email updates of tasks due, send “push” emails to people assigned to new tasks, and email GID to add new tasks to your lists
• Useful as a central repository for tasks, even long-term objectives. Set the due date so something you’d like done in 2013 is out of the way until later

CONS:

• Teammates must have (and pay for) their own GID account in order to collaborate on your tasks (receive push emails, check items as completed, etc.). This may not be optimal if you have a large or seasonal team
• While not “buggy” per se, the JavaScript-based interface can lag a little (as when clicking to add a new task) if you’re not using a strong Internet connection
• When something is marked as “done,” it moves to the trash. You may wish to keep a history and therefore may find checked items in the trash less than ideal

Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects Screenshot

Zoho offers a lot of software products, from project collaboration to CRM to invoicing. This “baked in” integration can be smooth if you need some of the extra functions, though you can use them on an individual basis, as well.
Zoho Projects lets customers choose from several pricing packages: Express, Enterprise, and Premium. The free version allows you to set up a single project with unlimited users.

PROS:

• Clean interface and robust reporting capabilities, which can be customized with your logo and colors of preference
• Includes Gantt charts — a visual way to track a projects’ progress over time
• Allows for centralized filing, including a search function, version control, and sharing
• Opt to receive email notification of project updates or changes
• The tasks function allows you to set dependencies – meaning one task must be completed before the next one starts (typically an advanced feature in other programs)
• Imports Microsoft Project and Basecamp data files
• Offers a webapp for iPhone and Android smart phone

CONS:

• With more features comes a steeper learning curve (true for all the products)
• Cancelling your paid service isn’t a simple point-and-click. The link to the cancellation page could be more visible and in a more intuitive location. An email request to customer service isn’t a simple solution; we were redirected to the website to take care of it ourselves

The freemium/low cost project management solution space is an extremely crowded field – this list is not all-inclusive, but focuses on the tools we’ve tried and our experiences with them. What are we missing? Let us know about your favorite tools in the comments!

Next week in Part Three, we’ll look at solutions for larger teams, including Basecamp, Central Desktop and Deskaway, so stay tuned!

By Kellye Crane and Heather Rast

The secret to earning a highly profitable income as a successful PR consultant often comes from an unexpected place: effective systems for collaboration and project management. You either have a solution that allows you to easily track who-is-doing-what-when, or you may find yourself buried under deadlines, hunting for your notes.

The need to go beyond a simple to-do list becomes even greater as our teams expand to include subcontractors and other professionals that help us efficiently meet our clients’ needs. Whatever the reason for your interest in discovering useful collaboration and productivity tools, there’s an overwhelming array of products to choose from.

In this three-part series, we’ve done some of the legwork for you, providing the pros and cons of useful free tools, freemium/low cost options, and fuller featured paid solutions (so you can do a deeper-dive into the solutions that meet your needs).

First up, the free!

Though there are some compromises necessary when using them, if you’re looking to organize your own work, collaborate on a limited basis, and/or share timelines with your clients or subcontractors, you may want to consider creative uses of some of the many free online tools. Four of our favorites follow.

1. Google Docs

Google Docs is a relatively easy way for Google account holders to share several types of files. It’s free of charge, making it a good option for distributed and multi-person teams collaborating on deliverables, especially those that need a central information repository to help you manage the project to completion. Common uses of Google Docs include client reports, contact lists, editorial calendars, event schedules, master resource lists, articles/posts and press release drafts.

PROS:

• Most users are already familiar with the format
• Automatic saving helps prevent accidental loss of data
• Automatic inventory list of Docs you have access to or created yourself
• Mirrors Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint programs with basic functionality
• Allows multiple users to edit single documents with version control
• Readily available on Android-powered devices, and easy to use the web version on most smart phones

CONS:

• No powerful tools for tracking changes (as in Microsoft Word)
• Requires Internet access and performance may lag sometimes if you’re a browser tab power user
• Lacks some of the fine-tune styling and formatting functionality you may be accustomed to in standard word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs

Facebook closed group

2. Facebook Private Group

For collaborative groups, especially those with loose social connections (such as a committee of volunteers for a pro bono organization or a team of writers for a company blog), a private Facebook group can be a simple route to informal sharing. These groups can help you avoid the crazy-making reply-all hell that happens when you have too many email recipients, and photos and documents may be uploaded to the group for members to view and comment upon. Just mark the group as “secret” to make it visible to only those you invite.

PROS:

• Most users are already familiar with the format
• Good for threaded, short message bursts among groups of people united around a topic, role, or event
• A Facebook account holder may create as many private groups as they wish
• Relaxed environment – a conversational voice is acceptable and perfection in communications is not expected

CONS:

• Members sometimes get chatty, which you might need to control, and you may find you have more Facebook notices to scan through than you care for
• You’re unable to share photos and documents with smaller, select members of the group – items are shared with all
• Not designed for document collaboration; suited for simple “push” Docs/photos

Workflowy

3. Workflowy

Workflowy is a minimalistic-style task management tool well suited for people who wish to capture to-dos quickly and easily with few needs for categorization.

PROS:

• Browser-based, one of Workflowy’s strengths is its simplicity. There’s virtually no learning curve, and the short tutorials walk a new user through setting up a list in under a minute.
• Most closely mirrors the standard handwritten to-do list, with stripped-down visual formatting
• Logins may be shared with collaborators like clients and subcontractors, keeping one Workflowy list as a central to-do activity hub
• Allows for personal, anecdotal notes to be added by task, which is helpful for tasks that evolve over time and for the supplemental details you may wish to recall later

CONS:

• For someone accustomed to a date-driven task list, Workflowy may leave you wanting. By appending the hashtag “#today” to an item, a very long, detailed list may be distilled into your most immediate tasks. That may be useful if you’re in “urgent only” mode, but less helpful if you’re trying to keep an eye on rolling priorities
• May not be as robust a solution as some might need. Does not allow for file upload/task association and doesn’t offer more advanced team management features
• Available via mobile and online only; does not offer a native application

Asana

4. Asana

Asana (Heather’s favorite) is full featured for a free tool, allowing users to create projects under defined teams (possibly helpful if you have several subcontractors working on separate client projects). Within projects, users can set up tasks categorized by sub-headings, establish due dates, attach files, and assign tags for easy search and cross-grouping. A user can assign tasks to other users and elect to follow a tasks’ progress through completion. An activity feed reflects comments and questions for each task.

If you need help managing your personal life in addition to your work, Asana may be useful there, too. Create projects for client work, business development, and personal projects all in one place. Used to manage the whole of your life, Asana may help you stay better organized and able to see the breadth of all commitments as well as the daily depth.

PROS:

• Tasks and categories can be “grabbed” by your cursor to move around, or use quick key short cuts
• Each task has an activity feed associated with it, and users may choose to subscribe to receive email updates each time an activity or a task is updated
• Assign specific dates to tasks and receive reminders via email and/or syncs with several calendar formats, so you can stay up-to-date while on the go
• Free of charge for up to 30 members
• Link to tasks or projects from within Asana
• Offers a native app as well as a browser version for the multi-deviced professional

CONS:

• Lacks the ability to view by team member – rather than seeing all the tasks assigned to a single person in one place, you’ll have to click through your different projects (problematic if you’re managing an extended team on numerous projects)(Corrected per Kami Huyse’s comment below)
• The dashboard, while fairly clean and attractive, takes a bit of practice to master
• It lacks a centralized filing system. A user must search for files, tasks, or assignee names by using tags or natural search operators (so take care to be thorough and consistent when setting up your tasks)
• The steel blue and gray colors aren’t particularly exciting to look at. It’s also a little challenging to discern items on the page. This, however, may not concern people for whom color/design isn’t important

What are we missing? Are there any other free collaborative project management tools you love? Let us know in the comments!

Next week in Part Two, we’ll cover some of the top freemium and low cost options, including Do (formerly Manymoon), Get It Done, and Zoho Projects. In Part Three, we’ll look at solutions for larger teams, including Basecamp, Central Desktop and Deskaway, so stay tuned!

As social media becomes more integrated with PR services, the need for mapping activity to strategic objectives, efficient tactical workflow, controls to ensure on-brand messages will continue to grow.

In a recent #SoloPR Twitter chat, we talked a bit about approaches and tools used by some community members.  While a few participants voiced their experiences, a lack of comment by many (plus a few questions by others) suggest there’s room on the table to lay some pieces out.

Birthed from the editorial calendar, the conversation (or social media) calendar can be instrumental for both the planning and tactical aspects of social media planning. Like many techniques, there’s no hard and fast “right way” to develop one. But there are several components many consider to be essential. I’ll list them here to get your brain going, then share more detail below.

1. Objectives
2. Vision
3. Voice, Style, Tone
4. Tools
5. Channels
6. Planning Content
7. Logistics
8. Closing The Loop

Objectives

If the scope of your client consulting arrangement includes social media, it’s critical to understand how that activity supports broader business objectives. Without knowing whether your piece of the pie is expected to serve as a preemptive move in the event of a crisis, or as a means to nurture open communication with brand advocates, you can’t be effective at your job.

Vision

It may sound hokey, but I think it’s important to establish an operating vision for the social and community-building work consultants do. Without a common agreement on vision between you and your client, it may be difficult for them to understand your recommendations for content. Be careful not to assume.

Voice, Style, Tone

Although the messages you’ll develop will be online and not a printed element you can hold, the import of how the brand is perceived is just as important. Ask for your client’s brand bible or style guide early in your planning. Learn accepted language, terms, tone (how it’s said), voice (what’s said), and style. A bank, for instance, may lean toward a conservative tone and voice, and avoid statements that might be construed as commitments or guarantees. A children’s clothing retailer might prefer to cover topics ranging from child rearing to choosing day care facilities, and might want to do so in a friendly, approachable tone.

Tools

Some of our community members reported liking Sprout Social for setting up work flow and identifying audience prospects. Others prefer Hootsuite’s feature set, and some folks like CoTweet.  All three (and there are others) offer free versions to try out while you determine which best suits your needs. The learning curve with each can take several days to truly grasp all features, so be sure to give yourself some time in order to make an informed decision. Plus, getting comfortable with a tool means you’re more apt to actually use it once you pull the trigger with your assignment.

Channels

When digging through your client’s brand bible to gather intel for voice, tone, and style, you’ll likely come across customer profiles or personas (if not, be sure to ask for them), or any demographic/psychographic research that may have been conducted. These things can help you determine which channels – from Facebook to Twitter to Pinterest and on – might be where your client’s ideal customers hang out.

Planning Content

Your client may be able to list some industry or trade publications which serve as information resources for them. Through some research, you should be able to identify competition and allied interests, and ferret out blogs, media companies, research, and other useful sources of content. Whether it’s appropriate to link to this content, re-broadcast tweets and other messages, or use the information as a springboard for new original writing, consider developing a broad mix of content types and sources. Google Reader can be used to collect and share RSS feeds from target sites, and Diigo or Delicious can be used to tag and catalog good finds for reference later.

Logistics

Who is the account owner? Do both the client and the consultant know the log-on credentials? Are the volume of messages so high as to warrant shifts or teams for updates and responses? What’s the ideal rate of frequency for sharing links versus carrying on spontaneous conversation? Logistics concerning the accounts to the firing of messages needs to be considered. It’s likely the process may need some fine-tuning so don’t expect to get it perfect right out of the gate.

As for the work product of all of these steps, I’ve seen conversation calendars in the form of Excel documents and Google docs. When combined with a tool like HootSuite, even shared Google Calendars can serve as a means to keep client and consultant stakeholders apprised of planned content. Another tool I’ve tried to capture dates and tasks is Tom’s Calendar which uses a Gantt-style approach to mapping out information.

Closing The Loop

Concentrate too much on the messages and activity that originates with you, it may be easy to overlook – or underestimate the attention needed – the return loop. Who is responsible for following up on incoming messages? Is there an escalation policy? What about routinely evaluating analytics to determine performance for ideal time of day, popular content, etc?

Planning and managing social media as part of a company’s overall communications efforts requires a lot of research, thinking, writing, analysis, and coordination. A conversation calendar can be a useful tool for you and your client when care is taken to cover the groundwork recommended above.

What would you add to a social media conversation calendar? Kellye has a couple of examples in one of her PR/social media presentations posted on SlideShare (see slides 15-16).  Other good reads include posts from: Arik Hanson, Ian Smith, Debbie Williams, and Joan Damico (be sure to check out her sample spreadsheet).

In addition to showing clients that yours is a “real” business and not a sofa sideline, the right kind of business insurance policies can protect you from a rainy day and give you peace of mind, too. Though this post is not a substitute for the advice of an insurance professional, by educating yourself now about the types of business insurance available, you can be ready if/when you need it.

Commercial General Liability
This is the “business liability” insurance that clients most often ask you to have. Why? Because this type helps covers them if, for example, you injure someone while driving on business on their behalf.

The first time a potential client says you must carry $1 million in general liability coverage (or more) to win their business, the tendency is to freak out! But, no need to worry. Fortunately, your homeowner’s insurance carrier can usually provide this for you, and it’s typically only a couple hundred dollars a year.

Professional Liability Coverage (Errors and Omissions)
Because of its relatively high cost, whether to purchase “E&O” insurance is a tough judgment call for many independent consultants. It’s designed to protect you from any financial loses your work may inadvertently cause a client, due to negligence or inadequate quality controls.

When you analyze your options, take into account the industries you serve and the amount of litigation in them, as well as your level of exposure. This type of insurance is best purchased through an insurance broker (as providers vary by state) – ask your homeowner or car insurance provider for a broker recommendation.

Business Property Coverage
This insurance protects your building, its contents, and against loss of income. If you work from home, a certain amount of business property coverage may be included in your homeowner’s policy, so be sure to ask. If you need additional coverage, the same company can usually provide you with both – at a discount.

Business Interruption Coverage
This coverage protects against losses due to a temporary shutdown (as with a fire), and provides reimbursement for lost net profits and necessary continuing expenses. Though it sounds good, be sure to crunch the numbers and read the fine print: sometimes you must be out of work for several months before it kicks in, and you’d be better off putting the money this policy would cost into savings (which you could tap in the event of an emergency).

Personal Liability Umbrella (Excess Liability Policy)
This insurance provides protection once the limits of a standard liability policy have been met. Though this is not technically business insurance, it can sometimes be combined with your other policies at a given insurance carrier (if you have both business and personal with the same company) at a steep discount, giving you more liability coverage in all aspects of your life.

What’s been your experience with business insurance? Do you have some minimal coverage? Any tips for saving money? Let us know in the comments.

This week on the Solo PR PRO Premium membership site, as everyone prepares for 2012, we’ve released Part One of a multi-part series called Show Me the Money!, which steps members through the process of managing expenses, setting rates, and maximizing profits with multiple 20+ page ebooks, worksheets and templates. Being able to produce resource-intensive courses like this is why we launched the Premium site in November, so we’re excited to birth this baby!

As we worked on this course, we’ve identified some of the most common mistakes consultants make when setting their fees. I had a chance to sit down with Show Me the Money! co-author, Jenny Schmitt (@Cloudspark on Twitter) and chat about this critical topic. (note: there were technical difficulties and the video on my end wasn’t recorded, but that’s OK — Jenny is the one you want to see!)

If you can’t see the video, you can watch it on YouTube here.

Do you agree? What mistakes have you seen consultants make, and what issues do you still struggle with when it comes to setting your rates?

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!