"I used to be in the agency game, and I just really felt like I was burning out," admits Stephen Elliott. "I wanted to manage less and have more creative experience," says Michael Schwager. "You can better serve the client because you don't have so many things going on," says James Goll.

Each of these public relations pros has his reasons for ditching the big-agency scene and striking out on his own. But they are consistent on the key message for their peers who are considering the same move: Going free agent enables you to take control of your PR career.

Elliott breaks away

Elliott learned the PR trade from front to back working at heavy-hitting agencies like Edelman Public Relations, first in Washington, D.C., then in Chicago. He also had his fill of frustration. "You're forced into a team situation where everyone might not be carrying their load," says Edelman, who is now a partner in Sagacity Communications Worldwide, a three-person shop based in Chicago. "You're at the mercy of people who don't manage clients very well."

Working in a very small group of colleagues who chose each other, Elliott is his own boss. "I pick my own [clients] and set my own price," he says. "At agencies, your work might be billed at $100 or $200 an hour, but you might not see much of that." With an ownership stake and lower overhead, Elliott can serve himself a bigger piece of the revenue pie. He bills on a project basis now, which he says would translates into an hourly rate about half that of big agencies.

Elliott also gains satisfaction from the level of service he offers to clients. "A lot of agencies are really missing the boat on customer service," a need that very small firms can fulfill, Elliot says. "I'm completely devoted to one or two clients, and they own me." He does offer one caution: When you're on your own, clients "are going to get to know your name, good or bad, and you have to watch that."

Schwager goes solo

Michael Schwager has looked at the public relations field from three sides now. First, he worked at big agencies like Burson-Marsteller and Michael Klepper Associates, both in New York City. Then he broke free to create his own agency, Media Relations Group, which employed a staff of up to 30. Now he continues to do business as Media Relations Group, but as a solo practitioner working out of Floral Park, New York.

"I had already had the experience of working for a large agency and helping to run a large agency," Schwager says. "I felt complete with those experiences." Schwager now focuses on creative work and on training executives and spokespeople for media appearances. His clients include both corporations and nonprofits.

Schwager says working on his own allows him to insure that his clients are served well. According to Schwager, sometimes the kiss of death for a project comes when an agency makes a big presentation, wins the account, and then turns over pieces of a project to less-experienced staff."

Goll works where he plays

James Goll had a taste of working for a global firm, Ketchum, but pretty quickly decided he wanted to go off on his own. Goll enjoys the variety of clients that come to Berk Communications, a very small New York City firm where he is associate vice president.

"We can do almost anything that comes our way," says Goll. His clients typically come from the worlds of sports, personalities, dotcoms and fashion. Goll has converted the owners of some of his own favorite entertainment hangouts into paying customers.

Still, Goll does see disadvantages in moving to a much smaller, more entrepreneurial environment. "One of the big advantages of being really big is that a journalist might call you because your firm has 30 or 40 tech clients," he says. But on the flip side, he says, "having worked with the media, they're totally receptive when we come to them."

There is at least one more downside to working at a very small or solo PR practice: the limited upside. The more you limit your size and bandwidth, the fewer accounts you can take on. And of course, if you want to be the next Ketchum or Edelman, you'll have a staffing problem to contend with -- all those talented folks who keep leaving to become free agents.