Oct. 27, 2025
Succeeding at Business Development in a Tough Year
The player is loading ...
TSL 319: Succeeding at Business Development in a Tough YearEpisode Summary
In a challenging economic climate, consistent business development is more crucial than ever for solo PR and marketing professionals. Hosts Karen Swim and Michelle Kane dive into practical strategies to refresh your approach and build a strong pipeline for the coming year. This episode moves beyond basic tips, exploring how to leverage AI as a strategic partner, the importance of going back to fundamentals, and the daily habits that separate thriving consultants from those just surviving. Learn how to define your ideal client, track your efforts, and adopt a problem-solver mindset to make your business development efforts both effective and enjoyable.
Episode Highlights- [01:03] The Current Challenge: Business development has become an uphill battle in the uncertain 2025 economy.
- [03:15] Back to Basics: The importance of creating a strategic plan for your business development with measurable, time-based SMART goals.
- [05:28] Redefining Your Goals: Why it's critical to re-evaluate what you want from your business, the industries you want to serve, and the type of work you enjoy.
- [06:20] Using AI as a Strategic Partner: How to use AI for more than just content ideas. Use it to research industries, identify trends, perform SWOT analyses, and build detailed buyer personas.
- [08:15] The Power of Daily Habits: Commit to spending a small amount of time, like 45 minutes, every single day on business development tactics.
- [08:48] Tracking Your Success: Analyze your past successes to understand what works. Identify the characteristics of your ideal clients and what made them choose you.
- [10:31] The "One More" Rule: When you think you've done enough for the day, make one more call or send one more email. Persistence is key.
- [12:21] Sales is Just a Conversation: A mindset shift to view sales not as a pushy tactic, but as a conversation where you are a problem solver.
- [14:22] Get Out of Your Bubble: The necessity of networking outside of the PR industry to connect with and understand the clients you want to serve.
This episode builds on themes of business growth and strategy. For more insights, check out our previous episodes on client management and positioning your brand.
- That Solo Life, Episode 313: Strategies for Securing New PR Business in 2025 .
- That Solo Life, Episode 275 : Get Proactive with Acquiring New Clients
- That Solo Life, Episode 278: Key Lessons from Tiny Businesses that Made Big Moves
That Solo Life is a podcast created for public relations, communication, and marketing professionals who work as independent and small practitioners. Hosted by Karen Swim, APR, founder of Words For Hire and President of Solo PR, and Michelle Kane, Principal of Voice Matters, the show delivers expert insights, encouragement, and advice for solo PR pros navigating today’s dynamic professional landscape.
We're interested in learning about the steps you're taking to revamp your business development! Connect with us at soloprpro.com.
If you found this episode valuable, please share it with another PR pro who could use the encouragement. Don't forget to subscribe to "That Solo Life" on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review to help others find the show
TSL 319: Succeeding at Business Development in a Tough Year
Michelle Kane (00:18):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with Voice Matters, and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro, the group that unites us all. Hey, Karen. How's it going today on this gloomy day here in the northeast? I don't know about you.
Karen Swim, APR (00:39):
Oh, hey, Michelle. Yeah, the sun is shining here in Michigan, and I'm thankful for that. I'm doing well, thank you. How are you doing?
Michelle Kane (00:47):
Good, good, good. When this hits, oh my goodness, when this hits, we might be looking at the end of October. Wow. Scary. Scary on so many levels, but we want to talk about something today that should not be scary, even if it feels that way in this economy where every day is a new uncertainty. So it's business development has definitely been an uphill battle. So we just want to dish about how you can, should think about using AI beyond just what should I write about in this blog? Give me some ideas. No, sometimes you just need to step back, take a step back and look at some of the creative uses of it to drum up more business. So here we go.
Karen Swim, APR (01:38):
Yeah, and I think this topic, and we'll go beyond AI because we can't just rely on ai. We want to just address business development as a whole, because this is probably the biggest question that PR pros have had this year. Where is business coming from? How do I develop new business? What's working? What industries are growing? It's a constant refrain because it's not been the greatest year in business, PR business period. It's just 20, 25 has been an interesting year, so we want to cover that.
Michelle Kane (02:17):
Yeah, definitely. And mainly just because every day it's a new uncertainty, and businesses love to plan. They love to know what's ahead, and it doesn't mean that every business is doing poorly. They're just being cautious, which makes perfect sense. However, the need to reach your audiences remains. So I think part of this is making a solid case for that and why, yes, you may have these regular spends planned, so you do need to continue with them.
Karen Swim, APR (02:55):
And I think with business development, I'm going to say that a lot of business owners, not just PR pros, a lot of us can sometimes forget the basics. And not that we forget it, we put it to the side because we're putting our head down, we're doing the work, and we forget to follow the same principles for ourselves that we know our best practices and that we would advise for clients. So your business development efforts should obviously start with a strategic plan. Who do you want to reach? What are your goals? Have some smart goals. That means that they need to be measurable, they need to be something you can act upon. They need to be time-based by Q1 2026. What do you want to have locked in so that you can then analyze your business development efforts, which I don't believe enough people do.
(03:49):
Now, full disclosure, I was in a sales role. I actually was a sales manager, so I come from that background and understand how to work a sales process, but even I sometimes have gotten lazy and stopped doing the things that I know work. So this is to encourage you that whether you are a business development master, you feel like you've got this down, you're a ninja, you do all the right things, or you're somebody who shies away from the process and is relied on referrals or you're somewhere in between. I just want to encourage us all that you can definitely do better and you could do better right now to set the runway for a great 2026.
Michelle Kane (04:32):
Yeah, definitely. And I think your experience as a sales manager is, wow, that is a secret weapon because I know many of us, even someone who comes from a background, my background's more account management, project management, just regular comms management. You don't necessarily have that quiver of sales in and of itself,
(04:58):
Which is so valuable. And like you say, yeah, I'm so guilty, have my head down. And I think too, it sounds strange to still be saying this in 2025 coming out of COVID, but it just feels like now I don't know about anyone else out there that I'm finally, I have to get out there and meet new people in business. I need to pop my head up again and get past survival mode and look toward thriving Again, it's time. So even if that means widening your circle, like you say, get strategic about it, what kind of work do you want to do? Kind of industries do you want to work in? What's the type of work you like to do? Do you want to focus just on ghost writing? Spend some time with yourself? Because if you haven't done that in a while, it could change. It could definitely change
Karen Swim, APR (05:59):
100%. I think that
(06:03):
You should accept that what you want probably has changed over the past couple of years. And if you've been in business a long time, you probably pivoted more than one time. Our preferences evolve over time. Yeah, and I love your advice, Michelle, and I would say this is where you can really use AI as your strategic partner, because what you're talking about is really building a solid buyer persona. And so you can use AI to research different industries. You can use it to research trends even in skills like what's in demand, what are the skills that will be in demand five years from now? Because you want to really be thinking about future proofing your solo business, not just now the right now, but what's going to bring you ahead. You want to start to look at the industries that you want to target. They may be a little bit different. Are they growing? What's going on? What are the opportunities? What are the challenges? Do many SWOT analysis for an industry so that you really understand this information is really going to help you as you start to do your outreach.
Michelle Kane (07:16):
I couldn't agree more, and it's so important. And I'll also add that as solos, we are often a tiny bit ahead of things just because we have to stay aware of things to survive, and we're not held back by large corporations and those limitations, but we still need to dig in and use this information. And my goodness, that is so true. Definitely we know, of course there's downsides to using ai, there's downsides to so many things, but I think having that at your literal fingertips is going to really help us stay ahead and just to help us know what's happening in our industry and setting that pace and getting ahead and don't think you have to do it all at once. Again, if you're like me, you're like, well, I want it all done now because then I can exhale. Oh, well, too bad. But commit to spending the top 45 minutes of every day on some kind of tactic for business development, whether that's seeking out a webinar of something you want to learn or where's a new meetup group, or is there a trade organization maybe I should join. We always talk about that. Get involved in the organizations of the industries you're trying to focus on for clients rather than yet another trade org within our circle.
Karen Swim, APR (08:43):
And I think we also need to track our business development efforts. So that means what's worked
(08:51):
When you look at your ideal client, the client that you were just delighted, or maybe they're a current client that you're so delighted to serve, what characteristics stand out for you? Is it the size of the company? Is it the roles that you get to interact with? Is it the professional skill sets that you're getting to apply? Is it a geographic location? You need to write all those things down. And then those ideal clients, how many have you had? Look at maybe the past three years, ideal clients that you have served. What closed them? How long did it take to close? Because you want to have this, again, this information helps you to lean into what worked well for you, what was the reason? Did they hire you because you set yourself apart with measurement? Did clients really hire you because you were bilingual and could serve multilingual markets?
(09:45):
Think about the things that people really chose you for, because those are the things that you need to focus on as you're doing business development. As Michelle said, it's cute to think that we can maybe spend an hour a week on business development. No, you need to work on this every single solitary day. Devote some time to business development. This is not the year. This is not the year to be here and there about it and scatter. You really need to be intentional, purposeful. That's why digging in and knowing who you're going after, having a list of people that you want to target and doing it, and every single day when you think that you have picked up the phone because picking up the phone still works and made more than enough calls, make one more. If you have sent out emails and you feel like your fingers can't type a single one, send one more, do more.
(10:41):
Because the people who are winning, they're winning because they're not giving up. That next phone call may be the one that leads to your next contract. That next email could be the icebreaker that opens a floodgate of business. So don't let up. And you have to find a way to make this fun for you, but it really is just seeing possibility and seeing opportunity and being willing to dig for it and get after it consistently. Because the only difference between you and somebody else whose business is booming is that they just put in more effort. It's not that they're smarter than you, it's not that they're more special. It's not that they have some superpower that you don't know about or there's some secret stream of revenue that you're missing. It's just that they're doing the work. So we all have to, I know for a long time we coasted on referrals. We coasted like business coming in, and the inbound was good and people were referring us, and we barely had to do anything. And we called a business development.
Michelle Kane (11:47):
Darn.
Karen Swim, APR (11:49):
I know. I loved it too.
Michelle Kane (11:53):
And when I was working in house comms, I had a great relationship with the sales manager at our copier company because that was kind of a big deal. And it also showed that a smaller nonprofit, you wore many hats. But he was trying to coax me into going into sales there. And I was like, yeah, I don't know. And it's funny because I'm like, oh, sales, I don't know. He goes, it's just a conversation. And I thought, you know what? You're right. So if you're not sure where to start, here's a challenge. Find someone in your day-to-day circle, and not to discount the guys that are listening, but women in business, we have unique paths. Just find someone in an industry that you're like, you know what? She's a real go-getter. I'd love to get to know her better and either invite them to a zoom or a coffee.
(12:44):
Have that be your first step in the hour because not only will it help you dust off your social skills, because I notice on mornings where I have the dreaded 8:00 AM in person meeting, I feel better afterwards than if I was just my head and my coffee and just, okay, let's get this started. So we're just going to challenge you to take one step forward and let us know at solo pr pro do com, because we want to hear all about it. We really do. It's not just saying like, oh, email us. We want to know.
(13:17):
Yeah. And I think, Michelle, what you said is taking one step forward is you said something key about sales because people have this weird feeling about sales. They feel like they're imposing their will on someone, or you're convincing somebody. No, you have to approach it as being a problem solver. That's all that you're doing is you're looking for problems that you actually can solve. And I just had this conversation with a friend last week. If you were a doctor and somebody was sick, would you just not tell them about yourself because you didn't want to seem like you were bragging? No. You would absolutely help someone in need. So you really have to see yourself as a problem solver and look for the problems that you can solve. And that's where you can look at other industries. What problems are they having? How can communication solve that? What are the trends that are going to be happening for those industries? Sometimes we get in our little PR bubble and we only network with other PR people, and we only go to PR conferences and we only read PR books. But you need to get out of your bubble and talk to the people that you're actually going to serve and be in their circles as well. And that's not to discount. We need both. We need our people,
(14:29):
We need our PR people, but we also need to be networking and talking to and understanding those industries that we're trying to serve and what they're going through, and how you as a PR person can actually provide some solutions
Michelle Kane (14:44):
And seen Exactly. Said it any better myself. Definitely not. But anyway, we hope this was valuable to you, and please do share this episode around so we can help as many PR pros as possible set themselves up for a great 2026 and yeah. Yeah, we're ready for a fresh new year, and thanks for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life.
Transcribing live conversations can be tricky so please be forgiving of any typos or errors that you find. Love something here and want to share? Great, please keep reading!
You are more than welcome to share the transcript (up to 500 words) in media articles (e.g., PR News, O’Dwyers), on your personal website, in a non-commercial article or blog post (e.g., Substack), and/or on a personal social media account for non-commercial purposes, provided that you include attribution to “That Solo Life” and link back to the soloprpro/podcast URL. For the sake of clarity, media outlets with advertising models are permitted to use excerpts from the transcript per the above.
But please note that no one is authorized to copy any portion of the podcast content or use That Solo Life’s name, image or likeness for any commercial purpose or use, including without limitation inclusion in any books, e-books, book summaries or synopses, or on a commercial website or social media site (e.g., Facebook, X, Instagram, etc.) that offers or promotes your or another’s products or services.
Got questions? Email us at info@soloprpro.com.
Michelle Kane (00:18):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with Voice Matters, and my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro, the group that unites us all. Hey, Karen. How's it going today on this gloomy day here in the northeast? I don't know about you.
Karen Swim, APR (00:39):
Oh, hey, Michelle. Yeah, the sun is shining here in Michigan, and I'm thankful for that. I'm doing well, thank you. How are you doing?
Michelle Kane (00:47):
Good, good, good. When this hits, oh my goodness, when this hits, we might be looking at the end of October. Wow. Scary. Scary on so many levels, but we want to talk about something today that should not be scary, even if it feels that way in this economy where every day is a new uncertainty. So it's business development has definitely been an uphill battle. So we just want to dish about how you can, should think about using AI beyond just what should I write about in this blog? Give me some ideas. No, sometimes you just need to step back, take a step back and look at some of the creative uses of it to drum up more business. So here we go.
Karen Swim, APR (01:38):
Yeah, and I think this topic, and we'll go beyond AI because we can't just rely on ai. We want to just address business development as a whole, because this is probably the biggest question that PR pros have had this year. Where is business coming from? How do I develop new business? What's working? What industries are growing? It's a constant refrain because it's not been the greatest year in business, PR business period. It's just 20, 25 has been an interesting year, so we want to cover that.
Michelle Kane (02:17):
Yeah, definitely. And mainly just because every day it's a new uncertainty, and businesses love to plan. They love to know what's ahead, and it doesn't mean that every business is doing poorly. They're just being cautious, which makes perfect sense. However, the need to reach your audiences remains. So I think part of this is making a solid case for that and why, yes, you may have these regular spends planned, so you do need to continue with them.
Karen Swim, APR (02:55):
And I think with business development, I'm going to say that a lot of business owners, not just PR pros, a lot of us can sometimes forget the basics. And not that we forget it, we put it to the side because we're putting our head down, we're doing the work, and we forget to follow the same principles for ourselves that we know our best practices and that we would advise for clients. So your business development efforts should obviously start with a strategic plan. Who do you want to reach? What are your goals? Have some smart goals. That means that they need to be measurable, they need to be something you can act upon. They need to be time-based by Q1 2026. What do you want to have locked in so that you can then analyze your business development efforts, which I don't believe enough people do.
(03:49):
Now, full disclosure, I was in a sales role. I actually was a sales manager, so I come from that background and understand how to work a sales process, but even I sometimes have gotten lazy and stopped doing the things that I know work. So this is to encourage you that whether you are a business development master, you feel like you've got this down, you're a ninja, you do all the right things, or you're somebody who shies away from the process and is relied on referrals or you're somewhere in between. I just want to encourage us all that you can definitely do better and you could do better right now to set the runway for a great 2026.
Michelle Kane (04:32):
Yeah, definitely. And I think your experience as a sales manager is, wow, that is a secret weapon because I know many of us, even someone who comes from a background, my background's more account management, project management, just regular comms management. You don't necessarily have that quiver of sales in and of itself,
(04:58):
Which is so valuable. And like you say, yeah, I'm so guilty, have my head down. And I think too, it sounds strange to still be saying this in 2025 coming out of COVID, but it just feels like now I don't know about anyone else out there that I'm finally, I have to get out there and meet new people in business. I need to pop my head up again and get past survival mode and look toward thriving Again, it's time. So even if that means widening your circle, like you say, get strategic about it, what kind of work do you want to do? Kind of industries do you want to work in? What's the type of work you like to do? Do you want to focus just on ghost writing? Spend some time with yourself? Because if you haven't done that in a while, it could change. It could definitely change
Karen Swim, APR (05:59):
100%. I think that
(06:03):
You should accept that what you want probably has changed over the past couple of years. And if you've been in business a long time, you probably pivoted more than one time. Our preferences evolve over time. Yeah, and I love your advice, Michelle, and I would say this is where you can really use AI as your strategic partner, because what you're talking about is really building a solid buyer persona. And so you can use AI to research different industries. You can use it to research trends even in skills like what's in demand, what are the skills that will be in demand five years from now? Because you want to really be thinking about future proofing your solo business, not just now the right now, but what's going to bring you ahead. You want to start to look at the industries that you want to target. They may be a little bit different. Are they growing? What's going on? What are the opportunities? What are the challenges? Do many SWOT analysis for an industry so that you really understand this information is really going to help you as you start to do your outreach.
Michelle Kane (07:16):
I couldn't agree more, and it's so important. And I'll also add that as solos, we are often a tiny bit ahead of things just because we have to stay aware of things to survive, and we're not held back by large corporations and those limitations, but we still need to dig in and use this information. And my goodness, that is so true. Definitely we know, of course there's downsides to using ai, there's downsides to so many things, but I think having that at your literal fingertips is going to really help us stay ahead and just to help us know what's happening in our industry and setting that pace and getting ahead and don't think you have to do it all at once. Again, if you're like me, you're like, well, I want it all done now because then I can exhale. Oh, well, too bad. But commit to spending the top 45 minutes of every day on some kind of tactic for business development, whether that's seeking out a webinar of something you want to learn or where's a new meetup group, or is there a trade organization maybe I should join. We always talk about that. Get involved in the organizations of the industries you're trying to focus on for clients rather than yet another trade org within our circle.
Karen Swim, APR (08:43):
And I think we also need to track our business development efforts. So that means what's worked
(08:51):
When you look at your ideal client, the client that you were just delighted, or maybe they're a current client that you're so delighted to serve, what characteristics stand out for you? Is it the size of the company? Is it the roles that you get to interact with? Is it the professional skill sets that you're getting to apply? Is it a geographic location? You need to write all those things down. And then those ideal clients, how many have you had? Look at maybe the past three years, ideal clients that you have served. What closed them? How long did it take to close? Because you want to have this, again, this information helps you to lean into what worked well for you, what was the reason? Did they hire you because you set yourself apart with measurement? Did clients really hire you because you were bilingual and could serve multilingual markets?
(09:45):
Think about the things that people really chose you for, because those are the things that you need to focus on as you're doing business development. As Michelle said, it's cute to think that we can maybe spend an hour a week on business development. No, you need to work on this every single solitary day. Devote some time to business development. This is not the year. This is not the year to be here and there about it and scatter. You really need to be intentional, purposeful. That's why digging in and knowing who you're going after, having a list of people that you want to target and doing it, and every single day when you think that you have picked up the phone because picking up the phone still works and made more than enough calls, make one more. If you have sent out emails and you feel like your fingers can't type a single one, send one more, do more.
(10:41):
Because the people who are winning, they're winning because they're not giving up. That next phone call may be the one that leads to your next contract. That next email could be the icebreaker that opens a floodgate of business. So don't let up. And you have to find a way to make this fun for you, but it really is just seeing possibility and seeing opportunity and being willing to dig for it and get after it consistently. Because the only difference between you and somebody else whose business is booming is that they just put in more effort. It's not that they're smarter than you, it's not that they're more special. It's not that they have some superpower that you don't know about or there's some secret stream of revenue that you're missing. It's just that they're doing the work. So we all have to, I know for a long time we coasted on referrals. We coasted like business coming in, and the inbound was good and people were referring us, and we barely had to do anything. And we called a business development.
Michelle Kane (11:47):
Darn.
Karen Swim, APR (11:49):
I know. I loved it too.
Michelle Kane (11:53):
And when I was working in house comms, I had a great relationship with the sales manager at our copier company because that was kind of a big deal. And it also showed that a smaller nonprofit, you wore many hats. But he was trying to coax me into going into sales there. And I was like, yeah, I don't know. And it's funny because I'm like, oh, sales, I don't know. He goes, it's just a conversation. And I thought, you know what? You're right. So if you're not sure where to start, here's a challenge. Find someone in your day-to-day circle, and not to discount the guys that are listening, but women in business, we have unique paths. Just find someone in an industry that you're like, you know what? She's a real go-getter. I'd love to get to know her better and either invite them to a zoom or a coffee.
(12:44):
Have that be your first step in the hour because not only will it help you dust off your social skills, because I notice on mornings where I have the dreaded 8:00 AM in person meeting, I feel better afterwards than if I was just my head and my coffee and just, okay, let's get this started. So we're just going to challenge you to take one step forward and let us know at solo pr pro do com, because we want to hear all about it. We really do. It's not just saying like, oh, email us. We want to know.
(13:17):
Yeah. And I think, Michelle, what you said is taking one step forward is you said something key about sales because people have this weird feeling about sales. They feel like they're imposing their will on someone, or you're convincing somebody. No, you have to approach it as being a problem solver. That's all that you're doing is you're looking for problems that you actually can solve. And I just had this conversation with a friend last week. If you were a doctor and somebody was sick, would you just not tell them about yourself because you didn't want to seem like you were bragging? No. You would absolutely help someone in need. So you really have to see yourself as a problem solver and look for the problems that you can solve. And that's where you can look at other industries. What problems are they having? How can communication solve that? What are the trends that are going to be happening for those industries? Sometimes we get in our little PR bubble and we only network with other PR people, and we only go to PR conferences and we only read PR books. But you need to get out of your bubble and talk to the people that you're actually going to serve and be in their circles as well. And that's not to discount. We need both. We need our people,
(14:29):
We need our PR people, but we also need to be networking and talking to and understanding those industries that we're trying to serve and what they're going through, and how you as a PR person can actually provide some solutions
Michelle Kane (14:44):
And seen Exactly. Said it any better myself. Definitely not. But anyway, we hope this was valuable to you, and please do share this episode around so we can help as many PR pros as possible set themselves up for a great 2026 and yeah. Yeah, we're ready for a fresh new year, and thanks for joining us for this episode of That Solo Life.
Transcribing live conversations can be tricky so please be forgiving of any typos or errors that you find. Love something here and want to share? Great, please keep reading!
You are more than welcome to share the transcript (up to 500 words) in media articles (e.g., PR News, O’Dwyers), on your personal website, in a non-commercial article or blog post (e.g., Substack), and/or on a personal social media account for non-commercial purposes, provided that you include attribution to “That Solo Life” and link back to the soloprpro/podcast URL. For the sake of clarity, media outlets with advertising models are permitted to use excerpts from the transcript per the above.
But please note that no one is authorized to copy any portion of the podcast content or use That Solo Life’s name, image or likeness for any commercial purpose or use, including without limitation inclusion in any books, e-books, book summaries or synopses, or on a commercial website or social media site (e.g., Facebook, X, Instagram, etc.) that offers or promotes your or another’s products or services.
Got questions? Email us at info@soloprpro.com.