It goes without saying that any business operating today needs to have an effective public relations presence. That is, the organization needs to interact positively and continually with the public through advertising, marketing, promotions and community service. Whether the PR effort is large or small depends on the organization. How you plan and initiate it is up to you.

There are both advantages and disadvantages to having your PR work taken on by an agency. These advantages and disadvantages are especially clear in the world of small and home- based business. First, the disadvantages:

Public relations firms are expensive. PR firms are typically engaged by business for a monthly retainer fee, under the terms of a contract which runs a minimum of three months and often as long as a year or more. Monthly retainer fees for a full-service PR agency range in the thousands of dollars. Additionally, PR agencies often pass along to the client all "hard copy" costs - the costs of photography, printing, postage, telephone, and other fees related to production of material for the client.

Even PR agencies that work by the hour are costly. Ten years ago, the 1992 Writer's Market compiled average fees for public relations practitioners and found that agencies charged between $200 and $500 per day, plus expenses. Press releases alone went for $85-$300. A media kit would run $500- $3,000, and copywriting for advertising could cost $20-$100 per hour. While these fees haven't increased as dramatically through the 1990s as other business costs, PR work doesn't come cheaply regardless of how it's billed.

PR agencies are often geared toward complete campaigns. They are not accustomed to doing projects "one at a time," or do doing work that doesn't integrate into a total communications package. This puts the small business owner at a special disadvantage. The small business person who, say, needs only to obtain media exposure through news releases and an occasional feature article can't be served effectively by a PR agency which is oriented toward doing complete campaigns with promotion, advertising, marketing research, evaluations, etc.

There is, however, a growing number of professional public relations consultants who are gearing themselves toward small business needs and concerns. Many deal almost exclusively with small businesses. They offer a variety of services, from marketing research to copy writing and preparation of speeches and publications, selling their services either on a "per piece" basis or through a monthly retainer. They can tailor their services to fit the needs of smaller and more specialized clients because their agencies are small (low overhead) and concentrate on services for a specific kind of business or industry.

If you're a small business and you're looking for a PR firm, don't discount professional help entirely until you've checked out the individual consultants and smaller firms in your area. Look for them in the telephone directory, through the Chamber of Commerce, through your local university (many professors do outside consulting and marketing work), through your local Public Relations Society of America chapter, or home-based business association.

I speak often to business groups about contracting with public relations professionals for business publicity and promotion. As a general rule of thumb, I tell business people that if they feel comfortable with the "do's" and "don'ts" of publicity, if they have at least four to six hours a week to spend on developing their company promotions plan, if they have desktop publishing skills, and if they sure about exactly what they want for their company PR effort, then, they should feel free to go ahead and engage their own in-house PR plan.

If they do not feel comfortable about any of the above factors, though, I recommend professional PR help.

Whether you seek help through a large PR agency, a small firm, or through employing a consultant, there are some definite advantages to having help from the outside to establish your public relations campaign.

Initially, just having someone "from the outside" can bring a breath of fresh air into your business. Too often, we spend so much time ourselves thinking about our businesses, mulling over our products and our ideas and considering options which we develop ourselves that we unwittingly close ourselves off to new ideas. Someone from the outside can keep this from happening by presenting new options and alternatives which you may have never thought of before. You might find new solutions to some old problems. Perhaps you'll come up with productive ideas which have never been used before in your business.

Making use of professional PR help will also bring a significant amount of outside technical and labor expertise into the equation for your business. You'll be free to concentrate on the business of doing business, while letting the PR firm manage the day-to-day creative and administrative aspects of your public relations effort. In other words, you can mind the store while your PR firm dreams up new ideas, tests those ideas, works them out on paper and does all the detail work for putting your PR message before the public.

In terms of technical expertise alone, a PR firm (whether it's a big one or a small one) brings the compilation of years of media, management, marketing and administrative skills together to work for you. Researchers, copy writers, graphic designers, computer support specialists and account administrators are just some of the people available to manage your PR effort and take the burden off of you for developing a campaign.

In summary, PR professionals can do a lot for your organization, if you have a lot of work to be done and the financial support for your effort. A good PR firm will work with you to create effective ideas for a public relations campaign and transform those ideas into workable projects. The agency or individual you consult will plan, develop and orchestrate the projects, making use of their many contacts in the business and media communities. There will be an evaluation of the results of your PR efforts. Finally, they will formulate a plan for continuing action.