Glass Half Full
New clients: one
Possible appearances on national TV: one
No. of Christmas presents bought despite being 'off work': hardly any
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The past week must count as the best so far in the brief life of Shiel Communications, what with a possible cameo appearance on Newsnight, a couple of meetings that could bring me some interesting projects next year and, best of all, securing my first client in the drinks industry.
Superstition prevents me from naming my new client until the ink has dried on the contract, but it feels very good to win some business. Now I can start 2009 with my head held high, a PR programme to deliver and a much-appeased bank manager. My glass is suddenly looking more than half-full!
When the call comes in confirming the contract, it strikes me, not for the first time, that my search for clients isn't that different to a licensee's search for customers. In both cases, success lies in getting out into the marketplace, doing your research, understanding who your potential customers are and tailoring your offer to appeal to them. It's not enough for me to simply print some business cards and wait for the phone to ring, any more than it is for a licensee to open his pub doors and expect customers to walk through them. We both have to work hard to attract that business in difficult trading conditions, and then work just as hard to keep it.
Which is why, far from resting on my laurels last week, I visited Gordon Ramsay's 'Taste of Christmas'. Or 'Taste of F***ing Christmas', as he would surely have it. I figured that the exhibitors at the shows, who tended to be smaller food and drink producers, might be in the market for a smaller PR supplier. It was uplifting just to chat to some of these stallholders, who were, to a man, (or woman) deeply passionate about their product. Some already had PR consultants on board, others were open to a follow up discussion. They all now have my business card and, hopefully, some idea of how I could help them. I'd say the chances of anything coming from it are probably slim, but still greater than if I'd not made the effort to go to the show.
15 seconds of fame
The Newsnight connection came out of the blue at the beginning of the week and, whether or not it leads to my moment of TV glory, it demonstrates how influential the web is in journalistic research these days. It seems my blog had made it onto the internet radar of the show's editor, who was interested in how a high maintenance ex-PR would make the festive season happen in her new, straitened circumstances. A few days later, I had a crew from the Beeb in my kitchen filming a 'credit crunch Christmas' sequence.
Not being the world's most arty-crafty person (I was the only pupil in my class to be banned from taking Art GCSE), the whole home-spun, 'knit your own X-Box game' approach to Christmas is a little alien to me. But I am, after all, a PR, so I rose to the challenge and, with the help of my rather bemused but game son, made a couple of surprisingly decent presents. They have a bit of a sub-Blue Peter feel, but the recipients will genuinely appreciate them and, by spending a bit of time and effort, we managed to save some money.
And it certainly wasn't all a charade for the benefit of the cameras, even if they did need five takes to capture me putting a photo into a home-made frame. We are, if not quite on our uppers, having to make some sacrifices. We're sharing one Advent calendar between the four of us for example, and I'm thinking of putting those damn Christmas stockings through a hot wash to make them a size more appropriate to our reduced income. Though the jury is still out on my favourite 'credit crunch Christmas' tip of saving the money we would spend on petrol to visit the in-laws by not visiting them.
