Five Things Solo PR Pros Should Do Before The New Year

That Solo Life, Episode 274: Five Things Solo PR Pros Should Do Before The New Year

Michelle Kane [00:12.505]-[00:30.431]: Hello, and thank you for joining us for another episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves. Like me, Michelle Kane with Voice Matters, and my wonderful co-host Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi, Karen. We are here yet again for another wonderful episode. How are you doing?

Karen Swim, APR [00:30.431]-[00:32.812]: I am doing great, Michelle. How are you?

Michelle Kane [00:32.812]-[00:41.695]: I'm doing well, doing well. I cannot believe that we are looking at quarter four already. It just seems crazy.

Karen Swim, APR [00:42.695]-[01:09.320]: Well, what month is this? Yeah, it actually is Q4 already. Yeah, we're well into it. Yeah, we're one month in. Gosh, we have almost one whole month down of Q4. I had to really think about that because the months have gone by so fast. It seems like we're going to be starting October, but that's not true. We are ending October in just a few days, which is crazy.

Michelle Kane [01:09.320]-[02:16.903]: Yeah. As of this recording, yeah. And it's, you know, it's, I do chuckle with myself sometimes because there are some things I have to do for clients on a quarterly basis. And, um, it's like singing the alphabet like Jan, Feb, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November. Yes. Which quarter am I in? Oh, what's going on? So yeah, but we thought, for our wonderful listeners, we would talk about what are five things you need to know for quarter four. We've got some good tidbits for you in this one. And the first one is the BOI reporting, the Corporate Transparency Act. And you I know we've touched on this before, and this might be on your radar from other sources in your worlds. But I know I have a client that was looking at pending legislation of, are we going to have to do it this year? But it's looking like, yeah, yes, you're going to have to file it this year. And all it really does is just say, hi, I am who I say I am. This is my company, and I'm being transparent. It's not a big deal, but yet it's one more hoop to jump through.

Karen Swim, APR [02:18.180]-[04:17.741]: It is and I, you know, the reason that we're doing the reminder is because this act went into effect on January 1 of this year, and it hasn't been widely promoted, I guess and so I. I thought everybody knew about it. And then I saw on a forum that people are like I had no idea about this., I know if you have your business insurance company, they have made mention of it. there have been other sources, but it's easy to miss it. I agree that they haven't done the best job of letting small business owners know that, hey, this is for you.

I do want to caution you and we have to say throughout this episode, everything that we say is not taking the place of financial, legal, tax advice, anything that we should talk about, but these are our experiences and we're information sharing with our audience. I use Gusto for my payroll and they're one of the companies that will offer to do it for you for a fee. I want to tell you that it is so dead simple. It takes about six minutes and you really just need to have handy a photo ID. So do that before you start the process and it'll go even faster. You just are basically putting your name and your address, your business information. Um, I think your business tax ID number, I can't remember what else, but that it's basically it. And it's just, and you can do the whole thing online. We will put the link in the show notes. It's super, super easy. And if you're questioning whether or not you have to file the website, the FinCEN website has a little quiz on it that will walk you through whether or not you need to do it. It is, but it's so easy. It's not a big deal. Get it done before year end and check that off the box.

Michelle Kane [04:21.269]-[05:02.793]: Yeah, I mean, pretty much if you registered in 2024, if you've created your business this year, you only have 90 days from the date of creation to do it. So it may be more on your radar if you're a new entity. But the rest of us, those businesses that were in existence prior to December 31 of last year, you have till the end of this year to file. And yeah, like you said, it's simple. It's just that one more thing to do that we tend to keep bumping to the next day's list until you realize, oh, I better do that. Yeah. So that's number one. What's number two?

Karen Swim, APR [05:04.280]-[05:50.192]: Number 2 is, what are your values? Because that's going to be an increasingly important question going into a new year where that is helpful to be a values-driven organization. And I know we talk about this a lot for clients. We talk about company culture. We help people to align their actions to their values. But for us, it's also going to make a difference. I mean, we, we look at how people buy. Buying behaviors now focus on those things. They, you know, people want to know what you value as a company. But even though we may not be B2C organizations, I believe that that's going to become increasingly important for B2B as well.

Michelle Kane [05:50.192]-[06:37.936]: Yeah. And I think also, um, it's important from that outward-facing view, but I think also for yourself, deciding what business to take on. I know I was one of the nonprofit boards I've served on. We had great guidance in making sure that you have your values and mission in order. That way, you have this prism. So even though let's say work going through, you know, sounds fantastic and you really want to do it, but you're not sure, you know, put it through your own personal prism and say, OK, does this serve me financially? Does this serve me ethically? Does this serve me even just for bandwidth and time?

Karen Swim, APR [06:40.130]-[07:39.925]: 100% and this is, I think that this is really important because it helps you to be precise in your targeting. So I agree the benefit to you is having documented values and putting that forth in your marketing will attract the kinds of clients that you truly want to work with. But I encourage you to think about a lot of the things that people are asking. What are you doing to be sustainable? What are you doing to be secure? I mean, look around you and see what your clients are doing and don't be afraid to adopt some of those things and address them in your marketing. and how you present yourself as a company. Because even though you may be a small business, and it may just be you as your only employee, it still matters. And we want to be able to showcase to clients that we have done that thoughtful work that we're asking them to do as well.

Michelle Kane [07:39.925]-[08:35.833]: Yeah, I mean, if, if nothing else, it helps you establish that you're trustworthy. And with trust as an ever eroding commodity, it doesn't hurt to tell people, Yeah, you can trust me. Yes, I think that's huge. That is huge. Another thing that we're looking out for, No. 3, is KPIs and just your analytics. And, you know, I'm saying this to myself as much as I'm saying this to everyone listening, make sure you know your stuff, because more and more decisions are being data-driven. And more and more marketing efforts are certainly, you know, the data is more important than ever. And just crafting the way and making evaluations. And I know some of us have clients who wouldn't even know where to begin to measure, but that's OK.Jst start where they are and help them out in that way, too.

Karen Swim, APR [08:35.833]-[10:35.554]: Yeah, we've said this for years, but it's really becoming more and more important. And I want you to really take this to heart. Many of the people that are your contacts at your client organizations are being measured. Their jobs depend on KPIs. That means that you have to understand what they're being measured on, and you have to be able to show how your work impacts their KPIs.

And so if you are not that great at data, this is the time that you really want to use some of the natural slow down time of the end of year to really get comfortable. Take some courses. Take a course. There's lots through LinkedIn. There's lots of courses out there. You can take free courses through Google. HubSpot has wonderful resources. get it, understand, really understand how to do those analytics for yourself, and report on them. I know that this year, I've probably done deeper dives into analytics than any other year before for clients. And so I actually spend a lot of time at the end of each quarter, (because most of them prefer quarterly reporting) on just presenting the impact of our work. And so I'm seeing, you know, that demand for things, and it's increased a lot over the years. And I just want you all to be prepared, because we are all doing good work. And I know that in the past, the PR industry often struggled with measuring the impact and tying it back to the bottom line and tying it back to what our clients wanted. But you need to get good at it. You really do need to embrace it. And it's not necessarily something that you can hire out. It's something that you really need to understand how to do. And it's not that scary once you really start to dig in and you learn what to look at and how to report it.

Michelle Kane [10:35.554]-[10:42.619]: Yeah, so very true. So very true. All right, that's 3 under our belt. What's No. 4? I feel like Casey Kasem at No. 4.
Karen Swim, APR [10:45.649]-[10:58.809]: Let's see. Well, we talked about in our last episode with Chip, we talked about raising rates, but now we want to hit pricing from a different standpoint. And this is the mindset of pricing for 2025.

Michelle Kane [11:01.252]-[12:19.161]: Oh, so true, so true. I know the retainer packages may be harder and harder to sell. We know that clients and companies are not just interested in more flexibility, but maybe they just need it. Now, we're not saying to totally give it up and, you know, totally transform how you model your business, but maybe, and I know this has been my experience, it's so easy to say, well, just set it and forget it. This is a retainer. But a lot of times their needs are particular and you can't just throw a blanket monthly number on it. You know, we all know where the waterline is of of a budget and versus needs. And sometimes it's a delicate dance. But I think if we show that we're being more flexible, more creative, that too is yet another way we're communicating that, hey, we know what your needs are. So we have the edge over someone who doesn't. We're not just blindly coming in and saying, write us this check and we'll do things. You know, we need to know that they want to know that will work with them.

Karen Swim, APR [12:19.161]-[14:49.079]: And I, I want to say this kind of tracks what's happening with consumers. As a consumer, a lot of people have subscription fatigue. You don't want to just keep paying for things over and over and over again. You want to pay for things when you want them, when you need them. Again, this does not mean that retainers are going away in 2025. But I do think it's smart to have some flexible pricing options under your belt.

We're not saying that you need to charge less. That is not what we're saying at all. But we are saying, you know, things like maybe having flexible budget amounts per month. I've done this with clients where actually at the start of the year, we lay out a budget month by month. Some months are higher than other months to track with, you know, different initiatives that we'll be undertaking. So we get more budget in the month where we're going to be doing a little bit more. And then there's a base budget for some of the other months. That's one option.

You may want to look at, you know, having some project pricing under your belt, three months, six month projects, because everyone does not want to have that ongoing bill that could swing back, because we know how things you know go fall in and out of favor, but the economy has been rough this year.

I think the consensus across the board, whether you are a large, medium, or small agency is that there has not been a ton of new business flowing through the doors. Clients that have money have hoarded it, and organizations that clearly don't have as much money have been finding ways to reduce their budgets. We want to be sensitive to that, and we want to be able to continue to work for our clients. So think about having some different options that allow you to protect your livelihood, still thrive as a business owner, and get the value that you deserve, but build a little flexibility into it.

And I think the other side of this also means being super clear on your contract terms and making sure you are protecting yourself to get paid. I mean, that's something that we don't talk a lot about, but you want to make sure that your contracts are solid, that they're always countersigned, and that deal is done, and there's nothing that can come back to bite you where people can question your invoices at any time.

Michelle Kane [14:50.332]-[15:12.980]: Yeah. And don't forget, it's an election year. And so many times, especially when it's the presidential cycle, people are holding off on a lot of things because they don't want to get ahead of themselves without knowing what's in store for the next four years. So there's that. So I think we may see some of that dust clearing soon, hopefully.

Karen Swim, APR [15:12.980]-[15:24.376]: We're holding our breath because when this episode airs, will we be the baby? the day before the election, actually. Maybe, maybe, yes.

Michelle Kane [15:24.376]-[15:28.817]: So yeah, that's fun. Yeah. We're fine.

Karen Swim, APR [15:28.817]-[17:08.167]: Everything's fine. I think we're all waiting to like, exhale. Because, you know, as you noted, there, you know, election cycles do create so much uncertainty with, you know, the economy, because you don't know what the policies are going to be. And so everybody sort of, you know, things get really weird. They do. They do. It's kind of like a wedding. Be ready for any administration by having some flexibility that you've already thought through. Because you don't want to be put on the spot by a client and not have thought through this and have something ready to go where you can respond to it. So now's a good time to start thinking about that and mapping out like, what other options could I offer? I will say that one of our solos really shared a beautiful benefit of doing project work. And it's one that I love as well. She's moved more to client work. And as a result of that, she was able to wrap up some projects and take a two week vacation. So she went out of the country and had a fabulous time. And then she can come back and she can ramp up again. Now, we can also do that on a retainer. But when you have a project, there's that extra layer of building into your schedule blocks of time where maybe you have free time, really free time, because you are done with everything. And so can you imagine being away for two weeks and not having to check email, not having to pick a computer, not having to worry about one single thing because you have no one waiting for you to do one single thing. That's, that's kind of beautiful.

Michelle Kane [17:08.167]-[17:14.688]: Not going to lie. That would freak me out probably at first, but I'm sure I could get used to it.

Karen Swim, APR [17:14.688]-[17:17.109]: Yeah, exactly.

Michelle Kane [17:17.109]-[17:20.190]: And I'm not going to do a drum roll, but number five.

Karen Swim, APR [17:21.723]-[20:22.139]: Number five, AI disclosure. So as we integrate AI more and more and more into our day-to-day, I hope we're doing that.. We really make that distinction between AI as a tool and AI as fully producing or doing something for us. Yeah, my belief is that most PR pros really are using AI as a tool. And so the distinction to me is, we use a calculator, but we don't disclose to a client like, hey, I added this up with a calculator and not in my head. Because there's no need to, because the calculator is just a tool. It's not doing the work for you. If you research something using a good old-fashioned encyclopedia, you're not going to put that in your contracts or say, hey, I use an encyclopedia to look this up. Use AI as a tool. Make sure that if you're using AI to do research, which I do, I use Perplexity and some of the others, Arc. And it's beautiful because it can just sift through so much data so much faster than I can use still things because you do not want to create something based off of information that you got that ends up causing harm to your client.

But we want to think about tracking what we're doing, where we're pulling things from having actual sources to back it up. It's why I love it's why I love things like perplexity because it'll give you something and then they'll have the sources for you so that you can just go to that link and hit the source and you can check yourself really quickly. Make sure that you're doing that and make sure that you're looking at your contracts and talking with your advisors about ensuring protection for yourself and your business. And this means training your contractors and people that you're using, you don't want to have a contractor use AI to completely create something without your knowledge. And now you're handing it off to a client as work that you did, and then something comes along the way. So just get better about really discerning when you need to disclose that it was used in the process. And then how you use it and have clear, documented policies for the people that you hire and bring on about how AI is used. Because it's a beautiful thing, and it really can streamline your work, and it can do so many things faster than we can and give us more time to do the things we're really good at. But it also, I think that we have not seen yet the beginning of the lawsuits and the trouble that it will cause as well. Because It is happening far faster than regulations can keep up.

Michelle Kane [20:22.139]-[20:33.592]: Well, exactly. And, you know, just even ethical principles of use. It's just there really aren't any boundaries other than what you know intrinsically to be right or wrong. Right.

Karen Swim, APR [20:33.592]-[21:02.728]: So we haven't established that. It's hard to escape AI. Even if you still use Google for search, right at the top of Google is an AI, you know, summary of things. And I've seen this in almost every tool that I use, you know, AI plays a role in it. And so it really, you have to really check, you have to verify and validate things. But You know, overall, I am a huge fan of AI as a tool.

Michelle Kane [21:02.728]-[22:12.058]: Exactly, as a tool, because it's not always right. It's not always factually correct. So it is good to check, but at least to get you to a point. Like you say, work smarter, not harder. And it does open you up to, my goodness, wouldn't it be nice to have time to just think broadly about your clients and bring them fresh ideas and perspectives, that higher level thinking, that's gold. That's gold. And it serves them better as well. I agree. So hey, we hope you enjoyed our top five roundup of things you should know. Sorry, I'll get out of my cheesy announcer voice. But we truly hope that you got some value. Let's all file our corporate transparency reports and get that done so we can move on to bigger and better things. And if you did get benefit from this episode, please do share it around. We would love that. You know, give us a review of the podcast. That helps us too. Check out soloprpro.com for more information on all good things to help you build a better business. And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.