Are you ready for PR?

This is a tricky question, but an important one. Most of my experience has been working with emerging or mid-size companies in the technology sector, so I'll start there. You only get one chance for a first impression, so you want to make sure that your positioning, messages, spokespeople, and sales teams are prepared. Yes, eventually, once the "PR sales cycle" starts to take, you might get some inbound interest. If you're a boot-strapped start up, I highly recommend spending some money on having a savvy marketing pro review your press-worthy sales deck (this differs from any PPT's used for investors) and partner with a PR person to ensure that you're buttoned up before a debut.

You should have a good Web site that includes an "About Us" page with the leadership team's bios, as well as a Fact Sheet of sorts, if your company overview is not on your home page. The About Us should include references to how the company is funded and should clearly state your product or service's unique value propostion and the (already established) market/category it most closely fits into. How does your service benefit X audience - and what are the long-term market drivers? It's also very helpful to have a few paying customers on your roster - even if you can only refer to them generically, such as "one of the top 3 regional banks in New England," or "a top university in Boston." Even better if one has agreed to speak with 2-3 press. As painful as it might be in the sales process, offering a discount you can bear, in return for a customer reference to be used selectively, is worth every penny of the investment. (It's better to have a customer agree to 2 brief press interviews about how your company is helping them achieve X, than to just get a static quote for a press release.)

If you don't have these core components lined up, and don't have a competing company nipping at your heels to get there first, then sit tight and focus on sales and advertising first. It's very tough for a tiny private entrant to get media attention with these pieces in place, and even harder without them - so don't exhaust effort or budget on a PR launch until the time is right. Once you start the publicity engine, you need to keep it going. It can take months of repeat news and buzz to finally get a target reporter to write about, or include, your company in a story. Remember, there is a PR sales cycle and turning the faucet on and off is unwise.