Managing a Public Relations Firm for Growth and Profit

A complete guide, Managing a Public Relations Firm for Growth and Profit describes in detail how to manage and market a public relations firm successfully. The only book of its kind on the market, this volume is bursting with tips, instructions, philosophies, theories, and guidance, all to help you steer your firms to success. It demonstrates how to market, promote, and sell a firm to attract, win, and hold the right clientele. You will learn how to manage a new or existing firm so it is productive and profitable and has a long-range future. Information in the book is based on Author A. C. Croft's extensive experience in the field, including ten years as a consultant to PR firm principals and more than 25 years as employee or principal of three medium-sized, successful PR agencies.Croft begins each chapter with a brief profile of a seasoned and successful PR firm principal from a mid-sized firm. These professionals tell of their successes and also relate early mistakes that you would do well to avoid. Chapters are grouped into two main sections, “Marketing Your Firm for Growth” and “Managing Your Firm for Profit,” and discuss pertinent topics such as:

• keys to new business success
  
• management strategies for success
  
• communicating to prospects
  
• installing efficient systems and procedures
  
• managing staff productivity
  
• managing profitability
  
• client budgeting
  
• recruiting, training, and retaining staff
  
• crisis planningCovering everything from billing practices and self-promotion to the use of computers and student interns, Managing a Public Relations Firm for Growth and Profit is one guide you are sure to refer to again and again for practical advice. It is must-reading for owners of small and medium-sized PR firms; senior managers of small, medium, and national firms who wish to expand their management knowledge and ability or who are considering starting their own firm; lower-level staff members who want to increase their knowledge of agency management; and university public relations professors who would like to include a primer on PR firm management in their classes.