It's a phrase I hear over and over again from many entrepreneurs, small businesses owners and inventors: "I'd love to hire someone to launch our publicity campaign professionally, but we can't afford it, so I'm just going to have to do it on my own."

Over past several months, I have been conducting an informal survey among entrepreneurs and business owners who have contacted me about my services. I have found that due to their lack of information or knowledge on topic, many businesses typically over-estimate or over-budget cost of a prospective public relations/publicity campaign. During my PR consultation with them, I asked: "How much do you think it will cost to launch a solid, effective PR/publicity campaign for your product/business?" Of 102 people I've queried:

· 11% - Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $10,000+ per month · 32% - Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $5,000-$10,000 per month · 39% - Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $3,000-$5,000 per month · 12% - Thought a professional PR campaign would cost $1,000-$3,000 per month · 6% - Thought a professional PR campaign would cost less than $1,000 per month

The truth is -- you can get a publicity/PR campaign in all of those prices ranges. What you get for your money and how effective campaign will be is real question? It is true that more you pay more you get. But getting most publicity/PR exposure doesn't mean you have to get most expensive PR agency or specialist.

A good rule of thumb is to align yourself with a PR business that best reflects your business size. Most times their rates will be in line with your prospective PR budget. If you are a small business owner with two employees, you need not hire a high-dollar PR agency with dozens of employees. Find a PR business whose office size and capabilities closely resemble your business.

Case in point -- there is a large PR agency in a fancy building downtown a few miles from my office. Frankly, we are not even competition to each other - in fact we have even referred clients to each other. Why? They typically work with large corporations and implement campaigns of around $10,000 per month. My business works with smaller businesses/individuals -- a PR/publicity campaign with my company would be about $10,000 for an entire year - not just a month. Mechanically, downtown firm and my business do same thing when it comes to PR campaigns: professional media release composition; extensive media market research; articulate personalized distribution to media; months of media relations (article placements/interview scheduling/media request fulfillment, clipping racking of media placements, etc.).

Signing up with big firm doesn't mean you'll necessarily get an experienced associate working on your campaign. So are you getting what you are paying for? A friend of mine who works at a major PR firm gave me following breakdown of billing fees in his office:

There is a popular line to effect, "Do what you love and money will follow." Like most pithy statements, it gets tossed around as though it's a truth. It's very American, and it may even be true if you are convinced it's true. Outside U.S., statement would be viewed as laughably ludicrous. There is a more European version, "Whatever do you, love it."

If there is any truth to our exuberantly American statement, it's that when you love what you do, there is a greater chance you will do your work with great enthusiasm, thus increasing your likelihood for success. Launching an enterprise requires intense effort. At same time you're putting in long hours, you are also learning new tasks, whether it's marketing or hiring and employee management. One entrepreneurial friend noted that to succeed with your own business, you need to get very good a lot of different jobs. Just try this if you don't have a passion for you're work.

Most successful entrepreneurs love what they do. They jump into their work and they encourage those around them to bring zeal to effort. They are like crusaders who are out to convince world that it will be a better place with their product or service. Enthusiasm is contagious. Entrepreneurs need great amounts of enthusiasm to generate loyalty from their employees and to spark interest and foster confidence from their customers.