It’s been an interesting couple of years for the business world. The global recession has impacted us all. Marketing, media and public relations firms, perhaps more than some other industries.

Most of us are looking at fourth quarters that are pretty slow, especially if our clients have had their budgets cut. But, perhaps like us, you are seeing an unprecedented number of RFPs issued for January start dates. (If only they paid us to write these wonderful proposals!)

The Council of PR Firms released their third quarter survey. It indicates that most firms thought their revenues would be lower or flat against 2008, but also indicated they expect client budgets to be higher in 2010. Leading economists say the recession is already over and that’s good news for everyone, so I’m passing that along as much as I can and believing in the power of positive thought.

A couple of years ago I authored a piece on success for members at Pinnacle Worldwide and I think it still holds true, so with your indulgence, I’ll reprint it here:

Success

“I think all of us who are successful in business share common traits. First, we have a vision of what we want our companies to be and we stick with it. Second, we stay committed to the concept of lifelong learning for everyone in our companies. It makes employees better at their job, moves them along the education curve, and encourages them to grow as professionals. Third, we are pioneers. We go above and beyond what everyone else is doing. We create cultures and workplace environments that break the mold. Finally, we have made a commitment to doing business responsibly and ethically.

Mixing Good Work with Good Works

Success in business is only a part of true success. There is added satisfaction if we also make our communities better places. In that spirit, we participate in numerous causes that are important to our employees, our companies, and our communities. We serve on boards, we give money, we loan our executives and employees to good causes and we try to make a difference.

The Three C’s

We all understand that our competition is not only other PR and marketing firms in our respective areas, but the national and international companies that play in our space. We need to think and act globally so we can get our piece of the action, and we need to innovate to create new action. To effectively do this we have three “C’s”:

Communicate – we need to know what types of work we are all doing and how we can better work together to snag big clients, share best practices and share information with one another quickly and easily;

Consult – we all have experiences – both positive and negative – as well as different areas of expertise that we should share so we collectively get better and smarter individually, and as a network; and

Cooperate – we should be looking for opportunities to pass on leads and potential work to our peers in other markets and to find ways to collaborate.
A successful industry is a benefit to all of us. It’s in our collective best interest to make it work.”

I am President of Pinnacle Worldwide (PWW), a group of independently-owned PR and advertising firms from around the world. PWW as an organization has always been about helping one another. And, our partner in the Phillipines—Romeo Virtusio of Virtusio Public Relations along with his staff, friends and neighbors– has endured a typhoon and torrential rains that have caused loss of life and property. Although Romy reports that his family and staff are fine, we recently announced we were collecting money to send to Romy to use to help his fellow countrymen rebuild. If you haven’t already, please click here to donate.

We have major challenges and opportunities in the coming year. We won’t know what a recovery will look like and how our clients will respond. But, one thing we can be sure of…it’s going to be interesting.