Sydney-based PR agency Dennis Rutzou Public Relations (DRPR) is launching a new training and mentoring program for small businesses, PR Mentor, to kick off on Friday, 17 September.
PR Mentor is a cost effective 12-week group training and mentoring program specifically tailored to small busineses and start-ups. It provides participants with the knowledge and tools required to start raising the public profile of their organisation, in an interactive collaborative environment.
Kim Larochelle, account director at DRPR and developer of PR Mentor, said the concept behind the program came from the frustration of seeing the great PR potential of small businesses and start-ups which are often not able to commit to a full public relations program.
“There are about 650,000 small businesses in NSW only and micro business is one of the fastest growing sectors in the state’s economy. Although PR can make a significant contribution to their growth, these small and micro businesses have traditionally been under-serviced by the PR industry,” Kim said.
“From a PR perspective, small businesses are faced with a challenge: most of them have a different and interesting story to tell and are very passionate about their business, yet they don’t have the time, skills and resources to promote their business.
“PR Mentor is the result of many discussions we had with various small business owners and networks which helped us identify the most cost-effective structure for our program,” she added.
The program consists of a series of six three-hour group workshops held fortnightly over a 12-week period as well as three one-on-one sessions of one hour each. It is limited to six participants from different small businesses who come to share experiences and ideas and learn new skills to promote their business.
Each group workshop includes training and mentoring from Kim, tangible exercises to start developing your public relations program, practical PR tools to take away with you and an exchange of ideas among like-minded business owners.
PR Mentor takes participants through a range of PR concepts including components of a communication plan, elements of a successful website, liaising with the media, effective media releases, social media and more.
The program begins on Friday, 17 September and runs fortnightly on Fridays from 8 to 11 am at the DRPR office in Chatswood, NSW.
