Flying solo in Public Relations
By Alyson Preston
Name: Benita Kenn
Title: Independent Public Relations Consultant
Location: Menlo Park, Calif.
Years as an Independent Contractor: One year
Monster.com What kind of independent contractor are you?
Benita Kenn: I work in high-tech public relations. Most of my clients are small to mid-sized high-tech companies.
Mc: What job did you get through MTM?
BK: I've been working for Chipshot.com since August doing consumer public relations. They needed someone who would be able to work with publications from Ladies Home Journal to Esquire and everything in between. I like it because it’s a little bit of a departure from high-tech and online public relations.
Mc: How was your MTM experience? How well did it work for you?
BK: I was already signed onto Monster and had my resume on the site. I received an email shortly after Talent Market was launched, and I filled out the form and kind of forgot about it until I received an email informing me that Chipshot.com, a well-known company, had bid on my services. It came at a time when I had just completed a project and had time to take on more work.
Mc: What inspired you to go out on your own?
BK: I wanted to have a little bit of flexibility in terms of time and which clients to work with. I was at the point in my career where I didn't want to be married to one company. Previously, I had long term jobs with several companies and I feel strongly that you are more creative and have fresh ideas when you are working on different projects on a regular basis rather than on one for an extended period of time.
I'm also a musician and another consideration was that working independently would perhaps free up some time to allow me to work on my music. I am recording a CD and I knew that I would be working on it for at least for a year. I wanted to try the experiment of working independently to see if I could balance everything. I've been able to do it successfully so far.
Mc: At what point did you realize that you could actually make a living as a freelanceer?
BK: I think that you need to have at least a few potential clients and a network of contacts. My biggest advantage, at least in the beginning, was people I had worked with who had also gone freelance. They gave me excellent advice, encouraged me and recommended me to my first couple of clients.
Mc: How does your skill-set translate to working as a contractor?
BK: A public relations executive is only as good as the kinds of relationships he or she has with the press. I have made many valuable contacts over the years and nurtured relationships with prominent journalists who, like me, were just starting out a few years ago. My relationships with them have grown as the industry and our careers have grown.
Mc: What has going solo meant for you professionally?
BK: Working independently has meant disciplining myself in many different ways. For example, I didn't have to worry about facilities, maintenance or equipment when I was a full-time employee at a large company -- it’s all taken care of. Learning how to be self-reliant has been a bit of an adjustment.
There certainly are trials when working by yourself from your home. My first major problem was with my computer; my hard drive kept crashing and I was losing files. If I had been at a company, the IS guy would have taken care of it immediately. You learn to troubleshoot and deal with problems that are not issues in large offices.
The beauty of working for myself, and the thing that makes it so appealing, is that I am only responsible for myself. It's a change to be totally self-reliant, but I don’t have to worry about employees and managing a team of people. I know what my parameters are when working with clients. I’ve learned to become much more organized and self-sufficient.
Mc: Any advice for your fellow soloists?
BK: My advice is to be sure -- before you go out on your own -- that you are confident in what you're doing and that you have the resources to be able to accomplish what you want: working for clients on your own. It can be scary when you first start, but there is work out there for people with strong PR skills and connections in the high-tech world.
