Three Lessons I’ve Learned From Building a Business From the Ground Up

On a recent episode  of the Business Spotlight Podcast, I sat down with Kay Cote to discuss my experience building a boutique PR agency for four years.

In this blog post, I’ll share a few lessons I’ve learned along the way and the long-term work required to build a business that lasts.

What’s most inspiring to me is watching businesses that have been around for a decade or more truly put in the time and ultimately see success as a result.

When you’re first starting out, it’s so tempting to be hard on yourself and feel like you need to be an overnight sensation. But the reality is that overnight success stories don’t really exist; that idea is largely a myth.

Someone might go viral or have a moment as part of a news cycle, but truly successful, sustainable businesses and brands take time to build. 

Building a business has taught me many lessons, and I hope some of them resonate with you. 

Here are three things I’ve learned: 

1. We Value Strategic Partnerships, Not Transactional Relationships

We’re in a business where people sometimes think of PR as a moment in time or something transactional, and that’s really not what we’re looking for.

What we want is a collaborative team of people who are interested in bringing us into their strategy and having real conversations about how PR can support their business goals. 

They don’t have to know a lot about PR, but we do want to be true partners, ensuring the work we’re doing from a PR standpoint complements the work happening inside their company.

Many of us on the team—myself included—have experience in both corporate roles and on the agency side. One of the biggest challenges inside a company is finding the time to manage an agency and be a true collaborative partner. 

That’s why it’s important for our clients to engage with us regularly and provide input. When we maintain that dialogue, we do our best work together, and the strategy evolves naturally over time.

We typically plan in 90-day increments, which aligns well with the seasonality of news, though things can move even faster. Testing and refining a strategy over a 90-day period works well for us. During that time, we seek feedback and clarity on goals: What does the next quarter look like, and how can PR best support those objectives?

Over the years, we’ve found that the best clients—the ones we’ve had the benefit of working with long term—are often people we’ve connected with through personal referrals or individuals we’ve worked with previously. Those relationships tend to have real staying power.

2. We Prioritize Profitability, Not Vanity Metrics

Developing the discipline to manage finances is a learned skill, and it takes time and support to build.

Don’t be afraid to bring in someone with financial expertise who can be a true partner in shaping the financial side of your business. Most of us aren’t taught this skill—myself included. I wish it had been part of my school coursework, but it wasn’t. I studied journalism and writing, so I didn’t learn any of this along the way.

Finances only get more complex as your business grows, especially as you build out a team.

 If you’re in professional services, that can be challenging, but even if you have a physical product line, it’s complicated too. Regardless of your business type, you should never neglect your financial picture.

If you don’t understand it intuitively, find someone who can help you. There are plenty of successful founders who have built billion-dollar companies and have shared the same advice: don’t worry if you don’t understand a P&L. You can learn it, and someone can guide you through it.

What is critical is having a business that lasts and is truly successful. So don’t neglect this part of your business.

3. It Takes Time To Discern Who You’re a Good Fit For

It’s important to make sure your external marketing channels truly reflect who you are, who you’re a good fit for, who you’re not a good fit for, and all of those foundational elements. Doing that well takes time, but it’s worth it.

Building your website takes time, and you really can’t rush it. Yes, you can start the way I did, by building your own Squarespace website, and that’s completely valid. There are also AI tools available that let you create a website yourself, and those can be helpful starting points.

But having gone through this process while working in brand roles previously—and now doing it the proper way for myself—I’ve learned that it takes time and patience. That’s often the hardest part, especially when you’re excited and deep in the brand, messaging, and positioning process.

I’m working with a creative partner I’ve collaborated with earlier in my career, and it reinforces how important it is to find the right partner. Don’t think about it as a transactional relationship—whether you’re bringing someone on for PR, a website, or something else.

There’s real value in having thoughtful conversations about strategy, rather than assuming you can snap your fingers and have everything come together instantly—even though, of course, it would be nice if it worked that way.

If you need help growing your business coverage, our team can help. Book some time with us and let us help you make a Splash!