Our Story: Becoming PR Consultants

02 Oct Our Story: Becoming PR Consultants

We began our business in the year 2000. Joy had just graduated from Pepperdine University with a degree in public relations  and had done some in-house work in a public relations firm as well as some PR consulting on her own. Jenny had been in the workforce for 10 years doing advertising, fundraising, and public relations. The year before Joy graduated from college, she began interning with Jenny, and we quickly realized that we were a great team, both professionally and personally. And so, Fujita & Miura Public Relations (FMPR) was born.

We created a business plan and talked about our hopes and dreams in both business and life. We read books about starting a business and becoming a consultant. We asked family, friends and colleagues for advice. We talked every day.

In our first year of business, Joy was the primary agent of our consulting business while Jenny was still working full-time as the PR person for Kaua`i Electric. Right after Jenny had her first baby, she transitioned into the business full-time.

Our client base was short at first. The good news was, our competition was minimal. We both had close ties in the community, in different sectors. And, we were well bonded. We cared about each other and the success of our livelihood. We were committed to making our business work.

Today, our business is thriving and we are like family, even though we now live on two different coasts (Hawai`i and Pennsylvania). Our business provides each of us with a generous salary and bonus, retirement, health insurance, a leased car (plus insurance, tune-ups, registration and gas), cable, internet, a mobile phone with unlimited data, a laptop, a printer, and all the other office equipment and supplies we need to run our business, from software to copy paper.

We have a client base we love, with new inquiries coming in weekly. Many of our clients have been with us for years and most of them came to us by word-of-mouth referrals or by visiting our website. Leaders in our community turn to us for strategic counsel. We sit on some of the most well-respected boards in our communities. We have well-established scholarship and intern programs.

More importantly, FMPR has given us a way of life that we could never have gotten by working for someone else. We are independent. We choose the clients we want to serve. We do business our way. We make decisions and take responsibility for them. We make our own schedules so that we can be there for our families and take care of our homefronts. We love being consultants and if our story resonates with you, we know you will, too.

If you want to work from home as a PR consultant, own a business, and maintain independence and flexibility in your professional life, our Your Public Is Waiting™ PR consulting franchise may be the opportunity for you. We are an award-winning firm with over 16 years of successful PR consulting experience. Visit our Be a PR Consultant post for more information about what the franchise fee includes and the qualities you need to be a successful PR consultant.   Email us today to inquire more about how you can own a low-overhead, high-profit family-friendly business.  Your Public Is Waiting™.