Start-up Profile: Payton Communications

Hearing a story about someone who gets handed lemons and makes lemonade is always inspiring.  That is the tale of Bev Payton of Payton Communications and is the focus for this week’s Start-Up Profile:

After working five years as a developmental editor and project manager for a large multi-national medical publishing company, I was laid off in the fall of 2007 at the start of the economy bust. Prior to that, I was a print journalist for more than two decades.  I couldn’t go back to the newspaper industry—no jobs or money there.  The medical publishing industry was contracting, too, and the few places that were hiring were looking only for entry level candidates. So my chance of getting a job that was commensurate with my education (I hold an M.A. in journalism.) and experience was slim at best.

So, last year I cared for a dear elderly aunt who is like a mom to me. She never said, “I don’t have time for you,” when I needed her, so it broke my heart to watch her became increasingly frail and housebound and know that my work schedule didn’t leave me with enough time to help her. During the year that I cared for my aunt, (she is in a nursing home now after suffering a stroke) I also became closer to my cousins who helped me help her. So, the layoff turned out to be a blessing for improved family relationships.

In my free time I learned as much as I could about the business of running a business. I also took advantage of numerous professional development opportunities through the Public Relations Society of America. I learned a lot about public relations best practices, especially in using social media and developing a strategic communications plan.  Right now I’m using my knowledge and skills to help a few nonprofit organizations whose causes I am passionate about.

Question and Answer:

Q: Have you ever started a business from scratch before?
A: Well, I was a freelance writer way back when my kids were little. Bad, bad money. Nevertheless, I liked it because the work was intellectually substantial, and I enjoyed researching and writing about topics that fascinated me.

Q: When you first loss your professional job, was creating a new business the first thing you thought to do?
A: I had toyed with the idea—off and on—for many years before my layoff, but for the first six to eight months I did hunt the online job posts and applied for full-time jobs that seemed to be a good fit.  But after a while I realized this was diluting my time and energy away from what should be a laser-focused goal of starting my own public relations firm.

Q: What is the largest challenge you have had as you started a new business?
A: I would have to say laying down the proper infrastructure. For example: researching  how much to charge, getting my client and vendor contracts in place, setting up a business bank account, learning QuickBooks (I’m still learning), applying to the state for an EIN number, joining and participating in appropriate professional and business networking organizations.  Now, I can’t simply hand off tasks to an administrative assistant or send my travel receipts to the bean counters in accounting. I’m my own administrative assistant and my own bookkeeper, and my own janitor…etc.  I was naïve about how much time this would take.

Q: What is the largest lifestyle change you had to do undergo as you moved to being an entrepreneur?
A: I would say that initially it was changing my mindset from that of an employee who got a defined sum of money in exchange for time spent working to being a business owner whose time investment will pay off sometime in future after I build a sufficient client base and hone a rock solid reputation for delivering high quality service.  The other challenge was realizing that I can’t simply rely on the knowledge and skills I gained in the past. Public relations is a dynamic field, and I will have to work hard to stay current with best practices.  So, I am currently pursuing accreditation in public relations (APR) and learning as much as I can about social media for audience engagement.

Q: Do you ever see yourself going back to the corporate world?
A: No, never. I recently heard someone say that an entrepreneur is someone who is willing to work 18-hour days for him/herself in order to avoid having to work 8-hour days for someone else. So true.

Q: When will you consider yourself a success as a start-up?
A: I’m already a success because I’m happy with my decision and feel secure that I’m moving in the right direction both personally and professionally.  Success is not only about money but in enjoying your day-to-day life and having a healthy balance between work and play and nurturing relationships with the people you care most about.