RSS feedsAlthough only into her third billing month, Katy Hymas is confident for the future of her public relations start-up Cherry Pie PR.
Her business plan and targets are straightforward for the coming couple of years – by year-one she hopes to have billed £30,000, growing to £50,000 by year-three.
Frustrated by the lack of ambition and growth with previous companies she had worked, Hymas sees Cherry Pie PR as an acorn from which to grow a significant business.
‘Since graduating I have worked for various small design, PR and advertising agencies. The good thing about working for a small company is that you get an overview of how everything works,’ Hymas explains.
But small companies were often happy with their size and had no desire to expand; something that left Hymas feeling somewhat frustrated.
‘It got to the point where I was bringing in business and I thought it would be enough to start my own company,’ she says.
Cherry Pie provides corporate PR services, which cover a raft of areas. ‘The accounts I have worked on have been quite gritty and certainly not at the glamorous end of the PR spectrum.’ But this is the bedrock of the UK economy – Hymas has worked with people who expect a no-nonsense approach. One of Cherry Pie’s first clients is a start-up company that is launching a range of organic cosmetic products.
Hymas appreciates the benefits of working with smaller companies where decision making can be quick. ‘You can’t work with a company and not look at the full 360 degrees of it,’ she says. ‘We are not being nosey, we are doing our homework. We make it our priority to understand what our clients are about; no assumptions, no guess work, just careful analysis.’
She adds, ‘We’re not just big on ideas, we’re big on detail as well,’ Hymas adds.
The philosophy behind Cherry Pie is simple – it takes a broad approach to public relations, believing that while press relations are important, they are j ust one part of the overall communications mix. For its clients, Cherry Pie will seek to create newsworthy events, hunt out suitable sponsorship opportunities and speaking engagements and will even help clients enter industry awards. But in whatever area the clients needs support, Cherry Pie will aim, above all, to work closely with the client.
‘We don’t believe in jargon, egos or empty promises, and we don’t believe in one size fits all,’ says Hymas. ‘We believe in targeted, intelligent PR that mixes creativity with realism.’
Hymas believes an integrated campaign will help her clients to control and
protect their brand.
Currently, Hymas is based in Buckinghamshire, but is in the process of moving to
west London.
One area that Hymas is keen to be advised on is some of the nitty gritty of running the business – how should she be charging her clients, how will she know whether she is either under charging or overcharging, so that she can feel sure-footed, knowing that her pricing is fair? ‘I believe I am offering a valid service and I believe I can deliver, otherwise I wouldn’t do it,’ she explains.
Should she go for billing on a retainer basis, on a fixed fee per project, or include an element of time so that fees are based either purely on timesheets or a combination of time, retainer and project work?
To help her with this, is there an accounts system that allows her to input time at one end, delivering an invoice at the other? Currently, she is working with a system of spreadsheets, but she recognises this will not be sufficient as the business grows.
‘I want to have as flexible an approach as possible,’ she says. ‘The more retainers the better, so that I know I have got ‘X’ amount coming in at the end of each month. But then people are suspicious of that, especially in PR, as clients will want to know what they are getting for their money. A lot of it isn’t tangible – it’s awareness, it’s background – and this is an industry-wide problem.’
The main challenges
- Fair charging policies for clients
- Putting the right accounts processes in place
- Should she use retainers or a fixed-fee based on time or a project basis
Click here to read what our experts from HSBC think Katy Hymas should do to move on
