Diary of a PR Amateur

Saving Six Thousand Bucks

I was in talks with my PR firm about a specific project.  We wanted interviews set up for our CEO at a trade show taking place next month.  (As an aside, I love trade shows, because I’m really at my best in that element.  You see, I’ve become an expert at looking busy, so I do terrifically well at trade shows.  My managers always see me running from here to there with an urgent look on my face.  They don’t realize that I’ll run that way to the snack bar, or that I’ll run that way to the bathroom.  To them, as long as I look busy, I’m doing a whale of a job.  I’d even go so far as to say I’ve perfected this.  It’s all about finding the proper balance of furrowed brow, sweat, unkempt clothes and a handful of papers.)

Seven weeks in advance of the show, they proposed that they could do the job for $10,000.  So I figured I would make them wait a few weeks – so they were more desperate for the money – and then tell them they could move ahead for $6,000.

Well, this morning – less than a month before the show – I told them that we’re ready to move ahead if they can deal with a $6,000 budget.  They said no.  But that’s okay, because we’re no worse off  than we were beforehand, and I look at it like I just saved my company six thousand bucks.

Not bad, huh?