Any type of public relations or promotion depends on a full arsenal of tools that you will use to get the job done. Any time you start out to build something you use tools. When my husband and I built our deck we used lots of tools from electric saws to hammers! The same is true for your personal promotion plan.

Your tools work with your natural charisma and charm to make it painless for you to continue your self-promotion success plan. By having tools at your fingertips youre creating fail-proof ways to keep your PR machine moving without having to reinvent the wheel every time you work on a new promotion. Your tools will be handy and easy to get to whenever you need them. Back to when we built our deck it wouldnt have been too efficient if we had to run to the store to buy a new hammer every time we needed do drive a nail.

Heres a sampling of tools to include in your PR tool-chest (for a comprehensive list and lots of help building the tool-chest, watch out of the Ultimate Pet-Care Business Home Study System to be released this fall):

1. Your personal story. What makes you unique and newsworthy? Spend a few hours or an afternoon and write out your life story. Yep. The whole thing. Think about what it is about you and pets that makes you unique. What are the reasons you had for starting your business? What other stuff do you know ? What makes you different (in a neat and fun way)? Are you a world Scrabble Champion? Do you do crossword puzzles every month? Maybe you ride a Harley?

2. What you KNOW and LOVE. Write a list of all the topics youre uniquely qualified to speak or write about. Maybe youve created a disaster-preparedness program for your clients do you think that could help other pet-owners? Why not write an article about it!

Remember, even if you only serve a small geographic area, being perceived as an expert across the country is still a GREAT thing! Your clients and potential clients are more likely to read about you when they are reading articles of interest and they are going to be really psyched to see that you are in their neighborhood!

3. Professional photo. Youve got to have one. In this day and age theres no excuse for not having a picture as part of your tool-kit. You can likely get away with a candid shot for some of the sections of your website, but you want to make sure you look like a professional for your PR kit.

And the saying a picture is worth a thousand words is really true when people are looking for someone to come into their homes and care for their animals. Before they pick up the phone to call you, or send an e-mail to inquire about your services, theyre going to love having an idea that you look trustworthy, fun and nice.

4. 60 second commercial. Another time-tested tool in your PR arsenal is your 60-second commercial, sometimes referred to as an elevator speech. Even though you may think it sounds sales-y, this is truly an amazing tool. Its the quick introduction youre going to use to get tons of people to ask Wow! That sounds fantastic, tell me more! when you first meet them.

That sounds pretty fabulous doesnt it? Wouldnt it be great if people literally begged you for more information about your business? What if they said, Hey, Im getting ready to head out of town and have been so worried about what to do with my cat Ralph he hates the cage at the vets!

I thought youd like it! So thats what an elevator speech does for you. It opens up tons of conversations and requests for your business.

And its pretty easy. One of the facets of our PR coaching is talking about you what you do, how you solve peoples problems? Well, thats all you want to do in your introduction. Its called an elevator speech because its supposed to be everything you can share with someone in the time it would take for you to ride from the lobby to their floor on the elevator so it better be brief and to the point.

There are more tools and tips for PR included in the forthcoming Ultimate Pet-Care Business Home Study System -- drop me a line if you'd like to be on the notification list when it's off the presses!

(c) 2006 Peggie Arvidson-Dailey

Peggie Arvidson-Dailey

Peggie Arvidson-Dailey is the owner of Peggie's Pet Services (one of her region's BEST Pet-Care companies selected by The Washingtonian Magazine. She's also the Pets in the City Columnist for The Del Ray Sun and an engaging and lively speaker on topics related to the love affair between dogs and their humans. She's an advocate for happy and healthy homes for all species and is eager to assist in creating them. If you want a monthly dose of tips and golden nuggets of information on living with and caring for your pet throughout his life, be sure to subscribe to "The Care of Pets" e-zine on her website.