Editor’s Note: YoungEntrepreneur’s Ask the Expert column seeks to answer questions about everything from starting a business to growth strategies. To follow the column on Twitter — and ask a question — use hashtag #YEask, or leave a comment below. Your query may be the inspiration for a future column.
Rebekah Iliff is deep in the start-up trenches everyday. Over the past decade she’s become a trusted consultant to entrepreneurs looking to launch and rapidly grow their businesses.
Through her San Francisco and Los Angeles-based company, talkTECH Communications, she has helped launch nearly 50 startups, reengineer corporate infrastructures and execute PR and marketing plans to facilitate growth and build brand equity.
Just recently talkTECH partnered with AirPR, a San Francisco-based tech platform designed to increase PR performance, making Iliff the director of product at the startup.
The PR industry is going through some major shifts and changes — the industry has one of the worst reputations and legacies from a measurement and ROI standpoint, Iliff says. In the startup world, PR is often referred to as the ‘black box.’ And no phrase with the word ‘black’ in it elicits feelings of unicorns and butterflies: black plague, black sheep, blackmail. You know? It’s not a good look.
Through talkTECH and AirPR, Iliff aims to change all that. Her goal is to make PR and marketing services available to all busy, cash-strapped start-up entrepreneurs.
As a mentor for Startup Weekend Bay Area, and an advisor for startups at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and StartX, Iliff is used to imparting her wisdom on young entrepreneurs. So, for this month only, she’s eager to tackle your burning-business questions each week. Feel free to ask small-business related questions, including queries about PR, marketing, social media, building a team and growing your business.
Submit your questions in the comments section below and those with the most likes from other readers will be answered. On Twitter, use the hashtag #YEask. Please include your first and last name, your location (city and state) and the name of your business in your comment.
