EnTrends

of the impact they have economically.
In the past, Smith worked as a
consultant for television shows
focused on entrepreneurs. Smith has
helped clarify for the staff of these
shows what it means to be an
entrepreneur and the characteristics of
most small businesses.

Smith says, "For example, one show
had a revenue parameter of $100
million or more in sales. With that,
they had eliminated a great deal of
their potential stories. I introduced
them to Scott Olson, the creator of
Roller Blades, who had considerably
less revenue, but a great idea for a
product and they placed him on the
show. The show wound up dropping
their revenue parameter and
eventually eliminating it. Our firm
wound up having more clients on the
show than any other PR firm after
that."

Making it past the first five-year
window has been Smith's greatest
success with Entrepreneur PR. "It is
amazing the difference it makes when
you have established yourself. In a
mater of a few phone calls, you can
turn things around, even when the
chips are down, as it was last year for
the industry. If you do good work and
you know the right people, things will
happen. There is not a city I can to
where I do not know a reporter to
pitch clients to."

When asked about the frustrations of
the public relations industry, Smith
says that receiving payment from
clients can be difficult at times.
Sometimes, because the businesses
are small, they try to offer
unconventional payments such as
equity in their company. During the
Dot Com era, Smith says a number of
companies

offered equity instead of financial
payments. This wound up being very
beneficial if the company succeeded,
but as we all know, many of them did
not.

Smith says that some clients want to
pay-for-performance. Smith says that
this model fails in that it is very hard
to evaluate the outcome of media
placement, and clients are not always
willing to share the fact that they
received media exposure with the firm.

Smith says that the actual clients can
be the primary problem at other times.
"We have had clients lie to us, scream
at us, and then expect us to say
positive things about their company. I
refuse to misrepresent a company to
my media contacts. No client in the
world is worth throwing your ethics
out the window. If a person is not
pleasant to work with as a client, I can
only imagine what they are like to
work with as another vendor. So, now
we screen our clients by personality
type as well."

by phone calls. This is because a
majority of his associates are on the
East Coast and have print deadlines to
meet. The afternoons are left for
appointments with clients. "I am
consistent, but I do not work at a
fanatic pace. I try not to work all night.
I don't want to build my company at
the expense of my health. Therefore, I
have a great home gym that I utilize."

When asked what he enjoys most
about being an entrepreneur, Smith
responds, "The best part is having a
vision of something you would like to
do and then just doing it. There are so
many things that don't make sense on
paper but work great in the real world.

The corporate environment is not
conducive to those sorts of ideas."

In his free time, Smith tries to base his
hobbies on business ideas. Often
times, he will travel to meet with media
people. He is also an advanced
amateur photographer and likes to
travel with his girlfriend.

In terms of his financial success as an
entrepreneur, Smith says, "While I
don't have a huge bank roll right now,
when I get there, I will most likely look
into acquiring some collectible
automobiles and vacation property. I
come from a single parent household,
so I would also like to help my mother
acquire a better house."

Smith also enjoys giving back to his
community. "Helping young people
get through the transition in life is
rewarding. I grew up in a gold mining
town outside of Yosemite National
Park. It was a great town, but
definitely far removed. When I first
moved there, we had ten family party
lines. When you were on the phone,
neighbors were always picking up the
line. You constantly got interrupted.
My neighbors even had outhouses.
It's good to have that background
because when you see someone who
has a challenging situation in life, to
be able to help them out with it is a lot
of fun."

When giving advice to other
entrepreneurs starting out, Smith says,
"Network better. Whatever field you
are in, get to know other people in it. If
you are going to open a restaurant for
example, join the Restaurant
Association and your local Chamber
of Commerce. It's not necessarily who
you are that makes the difference, it is
who you know."