Tightrope: Think twice before slashing your PR budget

— -- Hi, Gladys: For the past year I have been paying close attention to my business expenses and I have been successful in reducing a lot of things without cutting pay or laying people off. I was talking to one of my buddies the other day about cutting my public relations, marketing and advertising budget and he said that was the worst thing to do. He claims that my business will suffer drastically. Is there truth to my friend's statement? — Vincent

I can't tell you whether to cut your budget. However, public relations, marketing and advertising are the things that keep you and your business in the public view.

Often when I do marketing and public relations workshops designed for entrepreneurs, I remind them many times throughout the course of the day how important it is have visibility. One example I like to use is McDonald's.

There is seemingly a McDonald's drive through on nearly every corner around the globe. Each month you can peruse magazine racks at book stores and find at least a dozen ads for McDonald's. You can also find a McDonald's television commercial every day. And I would imagine the same is true of radio. And their community involvement with the Ronald McDonald charities also gives them high visibility.

I doubt that there's a human on earth that hasn't either eaten at McDonald's or at least seen one while driving or walking. So, if everybody knows that these restaurants exist — and, for sure, McDonald's success is real — why does the company bother to keep such a highly visible marketing, advertising and public relations campaign?

The answer is simple — executives know that without that consistent visibility the company would eventually become just another restaurant chain.

If reducing your budget is necessary for the life of your business, that's understandable. However, you must continue to be as visible to the public as possible.

Sometimes when we are short on money we have to make good use of creativity.