During our weekly #PRsUnite, this week we discussed advice we’d have given ourselves when we were starting out alone.

A number of people contributed and I got agreement to publish our collective responses in the hope it will give you some insight into how start-ups feel, in hindsight.

Invest in staff when you need to, not before. Don’t staff up for business until you’ve got the contracts signed
Don’t be so soft. You need to be a bit tougher when it comes to business. You’re not there to make friends
Look after yourself
Pay yourself
Clear communication between everyone
Know your worth
Be confident in your value
Trust your gut
Use your personal brand to shine a light on your business
Keep on top of your own development – be able to have conversations about technical and financial things with clients or even your own board
Be confident in yourself – you CAN do it!
Know that different brands and personalities are a good thing – there’s room and a place for everyone
Honesty. Be a decent human being
Don’t hide who you are
Think about how you can do things differently
Think of the proof points to support the brand
Keep coming back to purpose
Be strict (ish) on payments and invoicing and not over-servicing too much! Use software to automate

If you’ve not been on to #PRsUnite, please join us. It’s a global community of PR and communication professionals, each contribute as little or as much as they want. We’re there to check in on each other and lend support when required. Just sign up to PRFest emails to get the link.

With thanks to John Wilkinson, Anne Groves, Padraig McKeon, Adam Driver, Charlotte Dimmond, Andy and anyone else who chimed in!