Last week a mate of mine sold his internet business for millions of pounds. He’s rich. Surprisingly, no one who knows him is Seething With Jealousy. Ok, everyone is.
One of his many skills is being excellent at PR. He’s a natural. It’s also a role he long since deputised to others.
We were talking about this in between pouring premium strength petrol down his throat to get him to admit to how much money he had just made.
By his telling, the PRs he hired are excellent, really smart. I don’t doubt him. The thing is, when he was just getting his business going, before I knew him at all, I read everything he sent me, returned every phone call. He was good value, good for gossip, good at promoting himself and his business.
I haven’t opened a single email or responded to a single phone call from his new PR folk. In the longer run, that can’t be good for the new owners of his nifty little business.
The joke goes: a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. I don’t think the same applies here. A businessman who does his own PR might be entirely wise.
Some business folk find the whole concept of the media and how it operates totally baffling, which is where you come in. For those who get it, the personal touch goes an awfully long way.
