Rembrandt's PR and Writing Blog for Startup Success – Shakespeare Squared Shares PR Success Tips

Kim Kleeman, Shakespeare Squared, Inc. President, created a successful development company serving educational and trade publishers by using the power of PR. In our interview, she shares her success tips:

1.      Tell us a little about your business and why you started it.

I co-founded Shakespeare Squared in 2003. Shakespeare Squared specializes in PreK–12 educational materials and customizes teams of staff editors and freelancers from its network of more than 400 educators and professionals with extensive education experience. The company delivers excellence to publishers by engineering innovative product development through proven editorial and production expertise.

Before I co-founded this business, I was an educator (my husband is also an educator). During the time my husband was student teaching, it really strained our budget. He couldn’t work anywhere else. We worked as subcontractors for an educational publisher, proofreading textbooks after we put our children to bed.

It turned into much, much more work than we ever imagined. At the time I was looking for more flexibility in my schedule, as the mother of three young children. So I decided to utilize my teaching and entrepreneurial skills to create a full-time business.

2. Why do you think PR is an important part of overall business success?

Media exposure earns my businesses more credibility than advertising would, and it is more cost-effective. Publicity is very important, as it shows new and existing clients that we are at the forefront of education and publishing issues. PR also helps attract top talent and boosts staff morale. The Inc.Top 500 and Working Mother distinctions have brought more awareness to our company than we could have ever imagined. Companies can also leverage any publicity they receive to seek out other opportunities.

3. How have you generated publicity for your new business?

We applied for the Inc. 5000 list through WPO, Women Presidents’ Organization and the Working Mother 25 Best Small Companies list for 2007 and were fortunate to be accepted on both lists. Inc. ranked Shakespeare Squared No. 5 in Top Companies in Education and No. 329 overall.

Both of these distinctions have generated an enormous amount of awareness for our company and have also led to a great deal of media attention. I am now leveraging this to generate additional publicity, as well as pursue speaking opportunities, for all three of my companies: Shakespeare Squared, Inc., Shakespeare Squared Foundation and Upgrade Education™. I am doing this with the assistance of an outside PR firm and in-house marketing efforts.

4. What low-cost PR efforts provided the best results for you?

Qualifying for the Inc. 5000 and Working Mother 25 Best Small Companies didn’t cost anything, just time and effort. The challenge for us is to take advantage of these distinctions to our best advantage. I recommend joining associations that expand on your own PR efforts; for me it was WPO. This has saved me a lot of time and money.

For more of Kim’s PR success secrets and valuable tips for small business success using PR, check back on Wednesday. In the meantime, feel free to send me your comments, questions and suggestions below or register for my free newsletter at www.rembrandtwrites.com.