Jenna Guarneri - You Need PR: An Approachable Guide to Public Relations for Early-Stage Companies

PRAISE FOR

YOU NEED PR

Jenna Guarneri has written a must-read for all entrepreneurs needing PR for their startup. Read this bookand learn from one of the best.

MICHAEL MCFALL, co-CEO and cofounder of Biggby Coffee and author of Grind

This book is a distillation of the wisdom and techniques Jenna used to get my startup covered by some of the biggest names in media: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR, The Economist, and others. With the strategies outlined in this book, she helped me craft the story and spread the wordto great effect!

KATHY HANNUN, founder and president of Dandelion Energy

PR can be a daunting undertaking for any entrepreneur, especially those who are in the hectic phase of exponential growth, and tends to fall to the end of the to-do list. Paradoxically, its also probably the most powerful level-up tool a business builder has in their arsenal. In You Need PR, Jenna shares her formidable expertise and makes this crucial practice approachable and executable for every startup.

NICOLE PORTWOOD, C-level brand builder

In the early days of building a startup, to spend or not to spend on PR feels like a life-or-death decision. You Need PR takes that decision off the table for companies that need the toolsbut dont have the budgetto build the foundation of a great PR strategy. Add this book to the short list of must-haves for startup founders!

KENDRICK NGUYEN, CEO and cofounder of Republic

Jennas You Need PR is a must-read for any business venture, especially startups. Following her own business-building success story, her book is personal, practical, and easily readable. Every entrepreneur should have You Need PR on their desk.

HOWARD GELTZER, cofounder of Geltzer & Company and counselor with the SCORE unit of the Small Business Administration

The analogy that its a marathon, not a sprint is so true in running a business, and nothing can help on that long-term journey more than a rock-solid PR strategy from the start. Jenna Guarneri is an expert in the field, and You Need PR is an amazing resource for startups to help them plan their path in how to tell their story, leverage success, and find the right partners along the journey.

EMILY DARCHUCK, founder and CEO of Wheyward Spirit

You Need PR is a comprehensive guide full of important information for startup founders and CEOs who want to begin their PR journey and dont know where to start. Jenna offers valuable expertise and advice that was tough to find until now.

SUSAN STONE, CEO of Ubiquitous Energy

PR is the fuel that helps early-stage startups truly take off. In You Need PR, Jenna Guarneri shares the strategies and tricks that she used to get UrbanStems off the launchpadall in an easy-to-implement format that you can start right now!

JEFF SHEELY AND AJAY KORI, cofounders of UrbanStems

Take a seat with this book and make moves! You Need PR is a fantastic guide for startups to identify and execute their strategic vision.

DR. TIFFANY MOHR, director of PR program at Collins College of Professional Studies, St. Johns University

Every entrepreneur needs to read You Need PR. What Jenna Guarneri understands is something that is highly valuable.

DARNELL SUPERCHEF FERGUSON, celebrity chef and restauranteur

An Inc. Original

New York, New York

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Copyright 2022 Jenna Guarneri

All rights reserved.

Thank you for purchasing an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright law. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder.

This work is being published under the An Inc. Original imprint by an exclusive arrangement with Inc. Magazine. Inc. Magazine and the Inc. logo are registered trademarks of Mansueto Ventures, LLC. The An Inc. Original logo is a wholly owned trademark of Mansueto Ventures, LLC.

Distributed by River Grove Books

Design and composition by Greenleaf Book Group and Mimi Bark

Cover design by Greenleaf Book Group and Mimi Bark

Cover images used under license from Shutterstock.com/

Arramdhani Design

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication data is available.

Print ISBN: 978-1-63909-004-4

eBook ISBN: 978-1-63909-006-8

First Edition

To my parents, Linda and William Guarneri, and my grandparents, Jerry and Paca Scarpati

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

OSCAR WILDE,The Picture of Dorian Gray

I need PR.

I often hear these three words from business owners after I tell them I run a public relations (PR) agency out of New York. I could have just met the person, and as soon as they hear what I do, their eyes light up, and they immediately open up about their business and how they are struggling to get their name out there. Its as if Ive become their therapist for their brand-awareness issues. By all means, I thrive on these conversations, so feel free to stop me at a networking event or even as Im walking down the street in NYC. But from that initial quick reaction I receive, I can tell the person never really had someone to ask these types of questions of or even a resource they could refer to for guidance.

This makes me think of when my company, JMG Public Relations, was in its infancy and I was much greener as an entrepreneur. I didnt go to business school, so my skill was in my craft as a publicist. As I grew and became wiser, I learned that being an entrepreneur wasnt just about being good at my trade; it was also about being good at human resources, accounting, marketing, and so forth. To succeed, I needed to know enough about each category to run the department efficientlyor adequately enoughmyself until I had the funds to outsource it to the top professionals who did it for a living.

This is where I find early-stage entrepreneurs are with PR. They want more exposure, but they dont have the funds to hire a PR company, and what they know about PR themselves is generally minimal. So, if they attempt to do PR themselves, they can only get so far. A goal for most is to be able to hire a PR professional to take it over for them, but most PR firms require a six-month to one-year commitment consisting of a monthly retainer thats in the thousands. Its a high cost of entry for a bootstrapped or early-stage company, but the results that can come from PR can bring high value to a brand, which is a great return on the initial investment.

As an entrepreneur, you focus on innovation and on growing your brand while being conscious of your bottom line. You also look at your return on investment (ROI) and strategies that will create instantaneous results. And you focus on developing your product (or service), building a team, executing a sales strategy, and even pushing out marketing. But what always comes last on the list is the development of a PR strategy and the hiring of adequate PR professionals. The reason for this is that many times founders compare PR with marketing, and while marketing is quantifiable, PR is not, and its results really come to fruition over the long term. These results come from cultivating relationships with the media and building trust in your brand with consumers. Thus, when PR does not produce a direct sale or an instant uptick in traffic back to your website, as the founder you may prematurely assume PR is not worth the investment.