Lisa Figlioli, PR Counselor – lfiglioli@verizon.net
Lisa Figlioli, a public relations consultant from Cos Cob Ct, has made her living by being a member of several virtual organizations. “It’s all very loose – we are all sole proprietors – mirror images of each other. We hire each other when we have overflow, picking and choosing team mates based on the needs of the particular project. When an opportunity comes my way I get a sense of what the project might be, I choose my people, and we pitch together as though they work for my company.” Being virtual is no longer an issue with clients, because many are virtual themselves. Besides, they know they are getting a great deal.
The most important aspect of making virtual teams work is that she knows and trusts the people she is dealing with. “We have no formal agreements, and I’ve never had a problem. To make this work you need to be very skilled with at least 10 years of experience in PR. Having a specialty is a good thing. Mine is high technology.” “It’s difficult to have a virtual business without many contacts – both vendors and partners – you need to be an established person.” Over the 15 years she’s been in business, Lisa has built up an impressive database of client and media contacts. Team trust is paramount. She’s been very lucky – her network has been pretty stable for many years though it has evolved.
Her virtual teams all have a similar structure and business arrangement. The person who closes the deal serves as administrator and project manager. They are the point of contact with the client and they review all team deliverables before sending them on to the client. In exchange for their services they get a higher hourly rate (for example, they might get $150/hr while the rest of the team makes $120/hr). Lisa carries her own professional liability insurance. People within the network pass leads to each other, but no one is paid for leads and they typically cover their own travel expenses to new-business meetings. She tries to visit each of her major customers in person at least once a year and to spend time with each other. “There is still something important about human connection… it makes things easier.
She’s only once had a problem getting paid, though getting paid quickly has been a challenge because clients can be late sending the check. To help with cash flow, they arrange to have vendors bill clients directly for big-ticket out-of-pocket expenses, such as wire-service distribution of press releases. Over time it has gotten easier and cheaper to be a virtual company. Communication costs are much less today than they were when she started her business. Her long distance phone bill was hundreds of dollars each month. Today it is practically nothing. The teams rely mostly on e-mail to stay in touch. When they need to do a phone conference they use free & low-cost services like FreeConference.com and ReadyConference.
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