ACPR Blog

A piece of press coverage won’t always lead to sales. Just like a single advert won’t always make people buy, or sales at an event don’t always cover the cost of the stall, one article may not create an increase in business.

 So, why bother with PR?

Well, all the different ways you get exposure for your business WILL add up to sales. It can take 6 or 7 sights of your business offer before consumers actually buy. It takes time to build up trust in a brand, and being seen in a magazine or newspaper gives consumers a third party opinion that they do trust: they can see that a journalist rates your products or services.

If you do feature in a magazine, make the most of the coverage by asking the mag if you can use a favourable quote from their review, link to their coverage or put ‘as seen in…’ next to the item. See our article on Using Clippings on Your Site for more ideas and guidance.

Craft Business magazine this month includes an article on reaching male crafters, with a few tips from ACPR. Read on to find out how you can extend your business to reach more men: (more…)

Woman and Home are seeking “a 50-something who has turned her passion into a business or new career. Please send a photo if possible. “

Email me if you might fit the bill - but you’ll need to get in touch by 5pm today

A new website is looking for articles from self-employed mums who have specialist expertise in pretty much anything that other mums might be interested in. To contribute, email jo@learningbalance.co.uk

I’m in the Bexhill Observer this week after the launch of Family Friendly Working, and just did a short interview this morning on BBC Radio Solent. It’s nice to be back on the radio again - hopefully there will be a few more interviews in the next few weeks. The Radio Solent researcher found me on Expert Sources - check it out if you want to be called on as an expert.

There was an interesting email interchange on th UKPress group today about using clippings on your website, which is useful for anyone running a small business and trying to get PR coverage. Journalist Stephen Pritchard came up with some good advice, “If you post the whole article, whether a scan, a PDF or posting the text as HTML, you need a copyright agreement with the paper. In general the nationals will grant this, as long as they in turn own the copyright or have a syndication agreement with the contributor. They will ask for a fee. This will vary according to the piece and its use, but it is usually from about £50 to a few hundred pounds. Best people to speak to are in syndication or for a smaller title, the publisher.” 

Family Friendly Working: Inspiring ideas for making money when you have kids by Antonia Chitty

Publication date 18 February 2008

Every mum makes a tough decision about returning to work after having a baby. Having a second child can make the cost of childcare outweigh what you earn. And it’s hard to combine being there for your schoolchildren with a full time job. Mother and small business advisor Antonia Chitty has put together a guide for parents which is full of case studies and ideas for finding work that fits comfortably around having kids. She advises not only on starting a business, but also on working for someone else or freelancing, with lots of advice, pros and cons and contributions from other parents who have been there before. If you have had enough of trying to do too much in too little time, and feel torn between work and spending time with your children, this book will guide you through the options. Do you make something that might be saleable? Have you got a skill you could use to earn in the evenings or while the children are asleep? What courses might help you retrain AND still be there when the kids get home from school? Whether you need to earn something just to boost the family budget or have ideas for a business that could support your family if only you knew how to get started, this is the book for you. Buy it now from www.familyfriendlyworking.co.uk, www.acpr.co.uk or www.amazon.co.uk. Order from your local bookshop, quoting ISBN 978 1 905410 26 2 

Family friendly working is officially out on 18^th Feb, but we have had some coverage in advance in Prima AND Prima Baby magazines, as well as a review in Families Magazine.

Review of Family Friendly Working from Families magazine

If you find yourself, as so many mothers do, back in the office trying to squash five days work into four, not seeing your children as much as you’d like while spending almost your entire salary on childcare, this is the book for you.

Family Friendly Working principally sets out a list of options open to the mother (or father) who intends to work but doesn’t want to miss out on her child’s early years. From turning a cake-making hobby into a thriving business, to training as an antenatal teacher or becoming a house-to-house rep for an established company, the suggestions are limitless. It also covers the basic principles of setting up your own business such as applying for patents and protecting copyrights, finding manufacturers and creating websites. A thorough list of web addresses provides back-up support and ideas, all for occupations that can fit neatly into family life. Although the book concentrates on setting up your own business in some form, whether it be selling knitted tea cosies over the internet or buying your own franchise of Monkey Music, it also offers valuable advice on negotiating a better working situation with your existing employers through flexi-time, job sharing and compressed hours, an option definitely worth considering. It’s not all rosy out there in the world of the small business, as the author points out, but with some compromises having both a family and a job – and enjoying both – can be done. FSW Rating: Four Stars

I was feeling uninspired about what to blog, but got a nice boost this afternoon when I picked up a copy of Junior Pregnancy & Baby magazine, which contained an article about starting a craft business. I spoke to the journalist a couple of months ago and she mentioned my book, A Guide to Promoting Your Business, in the article alongside some PR tips which you can read below:

Wise up to PR. Mother of two and PR guru Antonia Chitty advises women with small businesses. Here are her top five tips:

1. Get inspired. Join online business forums, or find a parenting website with a section for work-from-home mothers like www.mumszone.co.uk, www.netmums.co.uk or www.babygreenhouse.co.uk.
2. List all your ideas for promotion on a wall planner so you have activities planned for each week. By planning ahead you’ll see when you need to start promoting an event you are attending, for example.
3. Do one PR task every day. Even when you are very busy, find 15 minutes to make a call or send an email. Attacking promotion in small chunks makes it more manageable
4. Build up good contacts in the media. Call journalists to find out what sort of story they want and send out press releases on a regular basis. It can take several mentions of your business name before people start to buy.
5. Cultivate your customers. Every time someone buys from you, ask if you may add them to your mailing list. Send regular newsletters to clients and potential customers so they know about your sales, events and promotions.

I sent a press release about my PR book to a range of trade magazines, and as a result Accountancy Age asked me to write an article. The article has now appeared on three different websites, here, here and here, which I hope will get a few accountants and IT pros to check out and buy the book.