Today’s Sunday Saying is from Any Warhol:
Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art of all.
There is only so much someone can teach you about small business. You can learn about how to market, how to keep your business books, how to collect money, but there is something intangible that you can’t learn from someone else.  It must be part of you.  Some people would call it “The Art of Business.”  Others believe that great business people are born, not made.
In fact, there is book with that title by James L. Fisher and …read more

Myth: Entrepreneurs are risk takers, like Evel Knievel.
The Truth: The derivation of the word “entrepreneur” includes the concept of ‘risk-taking.’ And many people assume that entrepreneurs (small business owners) are risk-takers. But look carefully at this assumption. What kind of risks does a new business owner take that the “average” person working for a company not take?
Which is more risky? Well, you could lose your company if you don’t do a good job of managing cash flow and getting in customers/clients. But, if you worked for a big company for 30 years, you could get laid off just before …read more

The Just Make Money Challenge I am doing was inspired by Shai Coggins, Just Make Money Online Challenge. The challenge I am facilitating here in Baltimore, Maryland is for a group of entrepreneurs who meet monthly to discuss business ideas, challenges, success stories, referrals, and more. The challenge I gave to our entrepreneurs was Just Make Money in 2009. Increase your business revenue this year. Each participant decided what they wanted to make in their business between January and December. If they made no money in 2008, than the challenge was to make at least $100. If they made some …read more

Lately, I’ve been shocked at the number of people who claim they can do public relations – and charge people for it.
I’m not talking about skilled PR professionals who have studied and honed their craft. I’m talking about writers, online marketers and virtual assistants who basically say anyone can help get someone publicity.
It’s just not true.
Most of these people chargge a very low fee to write a press release – and claim you get get meida coverage by posting on the various press release sites on the Internet.
You can’t. Media are really hanging out at those sites – and frankly, …read more

A recent survey from Pew Research Center has found that the Internet has now become the main news source, other than TV, for most national and international news. The survey has found that 40% of respondents use online sources to get their daily dose of news.

So this can only mean that newspapers are going to die and publicity seekers will have to focus their PR efforts elsewhere, right?
No way.
What it does mean is that as there are more sources for news, you’re going to see newspapers (and other media) doing more niche-focused news. And that’s when a savvy publicity seeker …read more

Happy new year everyone.
The other day on my free PR teleclass, someone asked me what my crystal ball had to reveal for the PR and publicity field in 2009. I thought you’d like to read my predictions:

It’s an exciting time in public relations, as the landscape will surely be evolving and changing.
And the one thing that’s going to impact publicists and public relations professionals is how more consumers (people in our target markets) will be interacting and shaping what we do. With instant responses via social media, PR folks can monitor and see reactions quickly – and if they are …read more

It’s the time of year when calendars start to crowd out the books and magazines in bookstores. But there’s a special kind of calendar that all good public relations professionals use – the editorial calendar.

Except for the year and the names of the months, these calendars bear little resemblance to the glossy hang-up calendars in the stores. No swimsuit-clad models, lush scenery, puppies, kittens or cartoons of Dilbert. Editorial calendars are usually bare-bones lists of upcoming issue topics and major features—or at least the cover stories or special sections. Not much to look at—unless you’re a PR pro trying to …read more

Common Sense PR is back.
After a hiatus, I have been asked to take the ‘reigns’ of Common Sense PR.
Who am I?
Glad you asked.
I’m Shannon Cherry, APR, MA and I’m known as The Power Publicist. I’ve been in the PR and marketing business for more than 15 years… ok, closer to 20, but I didn’t want to reveal my age :).
I did start my career while in college, however, as a reporter and anchor for a small television station. I learned the ins and outs of the media business first hand. So when I decided to change careers, public relations was …read more

It’s not every industry that gives away what would ordinarily be the key proprietary assets: source codes, communication protocols, content.
In the spirit of barcamps and podcamps before it, Jeremiah Owyang is offering to hold an impromptu trade-show-cum-unconference that defies the rules of trade shows. Instead of the vendors’ products and services being at the centre of things, this event would bring vendors of content management systems together to explore opportunities for common standards, joint action, even mergers and acquisitions.
All in response to his blog post about the research report he’s writing about vendors in the content management/social networking field.
Yes, this …read more

It’s great having a mentor.
They give you the benefit of their years of experience.
TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington was happy to offer Loic Lemeur and his start-up company Seesmic the following advice, in a posting published to TechCrunch Saturday. (Arrington was furious that a Seesmic plug-in brought down TechCrunch three times when a Steven Speilberg promotion saw traffic on the consumer-generated video site spike.)
TechCrunch, May 17, 2008
“…But never withhold information from your partners and tell them that you have no idea what is causing downtime when you know exactly what the problem is. As exciting as getting Steven Spielberg on your …read more