"I can't afford public relations to build my company's reputation." Really? If you aren't building a reputation, customers won't view your company as reputable, and will visit your competitors. You are either losing or gaining a good reputation every single day. Guess what's happening to your business if you are ignoring it?
"Money is tight. There's a recession coming." Money will get even tighter if your customers stop using your products or services because they don't know how they will benefit from using them or they don't grow to like your company.
"PR isn't effective." it may seem that way in the very beginning, but even short-term PR campaigns can reap great benefits by changing perceptions of your company or the services that it offers.
"the PR people on the internet promised to get my name in the paper a few times for a flat fee." Public relations, when done right, isn't just an ad or mention placement service. Anyone with media contacts can get you into Dog Journal or a community shopper or other irrelevant media that won't drive sales, and PR is meant to be a long-term relationship in which the professional gets to know your business and its needs.
"We tried public relations once, but they charged too much and it wasn't effective." The fact that you overpaid, probably for people who were new to the profession, doesn't mean you should judge an entire field on one bad experience. Generally, you get what you pay for. But there are some people who price gouge in every field, whether it's your mechanic, a hospital, or a fancy restaurant. You wouldn't hopefully judge all mechanics, hospitals and restaurants based on those bad experiences. And it's hard to believe anyone would say, "I tried a mechanic once, but they charged too much. I'm never going back to one."
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