The Declaration of Independents

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In fact, membership in Thanexus doubled within a year of its launch, in January 2000. As Beebe speaks of the changes and consolidation that have beset funeral homes, he could be talking about almost any industry in which small companies compete. "No one has enough creative or financial capital to deal with all this," he says. "It really requires the resources large companies have, so how do you stay independent?"

A More Perfect Union
The spirit of independents means something different to the 24 women and 6 men of the PRConsultants Group, each of whom owns a public-relations firm. They're not fighting sprawl malls or pooling their purchasing dollars. That's not what they need to thrive. What they need is quality people across the country, and now they have them. By pooling their talents and experience, they have won prestigious projects that none could have gotten alone, says Marisa Vallbona-Freeman, the San Diego­based cofounder of the group. While the PR industry has seen its share of megamergers, the group's 30 entrepreneurs seem to be competing just fine.

Still, the birth of the PR union was somewhat serendipitous. Call it the 7-Eleven connection. Almost all the members of the group had represented either 7-Eleven or Blockbuster, which is how they'd come to know one another in an informal network. In July 2000 they decided to take it several steps further. "It's one thing to go into a [client] presentation saying you have a good network and can provide the service required," says Vallbona-Freeman, "and it's an entirely different thing to go into a presentation with a network name, logo, Web site, and concrete examples of successful client work completed by the network. Our names are all there under the network banner. It says that we're all committed to the network and we have staying power."

Vallbona-Freeman and the other group cofounders -- Barb Harris in Phoenix and Solveig Thorsrud in Las Vegas -- handpicked the current members, whose experience in the field ranges from 10 to 25 years. Shortly after making it official, the group was put to the test. Harris got the chance to bid on a large job for Barnes & Noble.com -- a traveling technology exhibit that would cover 25 cities in nine months. The group quickly agreed on a budget, on how to split the workload, and on how each would be paid. On the strength of the network, Harris's company got the job. Did PRConsultants Group deliver? "Even we were amazed by how smoothly everything worked," says Harris.

Since then, members have tapped one another to work on other large accounts. Basically, they take turns being "boss," or project manager, depending on who brings the client to the group. They also attend to their own businesses. (Some are soloists, and the largest has 10 employees.) And it doesn't seem to matter that many of the members have never met face-to-face; they "E-chat" all day long.

Other PR professionals are intrigued by the model. Since last summer PRConsultants Group has been inundated with calls and E-mail messages from small PR firms that want to join. But getting in won't be easy -- the members want to protect the good thing they've got. The group even received a feeler from a potential investor. The members considered the offer, briefly. "We all decided we didn't want anyone breathing down our backs," says Vallbona-Freeman. "We don't want to be accountable to anyone but our clients and our families. Most of us left the stressful environment of a big PR firm and don't ever want to go back."

The Women's Technology Cluster in San Francisco is yet another kind of network. Former Cisco marketing executive Catherine Muther founded the WTC to help female entrepreneurs compete more effectively in high tech. Muther's idea is simple: united we're stronger. WTC members, who occupy a building on the industrial side of the city's Potrero Hill, gain access to capital and expertise that they might never get without the collective connections of the group. Members meet monthly to swap war stories, brainstorm, and perfect their pitches to potential investors and customers.

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