Owner/President: Roshann Parris
Company: Parris Communications
Address: 4510 Belleview Suite 110, Kansas City, MO 64111
Phone: (816) 931-8990
Web site: www.parriscommunications.com
Type of Business: Public Relations/Strategic Communications Consulting
Year Founded: 1988

Parris Communications is a strategic communications company that creates public relations and marketing communications strategies in a rapidly changing, sometimes crisis-driven environment. Our broad range of services includes media relations, strategic communications planning, speechwriting, crisis communications and training, media training, advertising campaigns, community outreach efforts and special event management.

What we hope sets Parris apart is our unique blend of strategic and crisis communications expertise and our out-of-the-box thinking. We like to say that we combine focus with spirit, tenacity with passion and strategy with intuition.

Personal Wealth
When I began my business in 1988, I was motivated by many of the traditional circumstances so many women have faced: I had a new baby at home and wanted to be able to better balance a career and family. Three months after starting my business from home, it had grown enough that I had to open an office and hire staff.

That said, the flexibility that inspired me to start my own business, and the continued ability to set my own life priorities has, without a doubt, been the most invaluable contribution of my business to my own personal wealth. There is no dollar figure that can be attached here. Instead, the opportunity to be there for my children, to schedule my day around a doctor’s appointment or major moment in their lives, has, I am convinced, made me dramatically more productive for my clients and staff over the years.
I am often asked how I had the “courage” to start my own business, from a financial stability standpoint. There has never been a time when our family finances didn’t rely heavily on my income, so it was not a move I made lightly. When I made the leap, I was fortunate to have had a few clients lined up who together replaced the salary I was making. In those 15 years, my earnings have increased dramatically.

But with the increase in earnings comes important byproducts. There is the sense of accomplishment, the sense that clients will only pay for that in which they see value. So by definition, when business grows, not only do revenues increase, but there is a complimentary sense that you are offering real value in the marketplace. That is the most gratifying byproduct of growth.

The increase in personal wealth has also enabled me and our business to: (1) take a leadership position in the non-profit community through a dramatic commitment to pro bono efforts, (2) spend eight years on the White House staff of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, traveling the world with her as Lead International Advance person and (3) have the chance to serve as mentor to women in other organizations and walks of life who might aspire to the same opportunities.

Community Wealth
As businesses grow in any community, they have an important and positive impact on the health and well-being of their city. We’re proud that we’ve been able to contribute to the community as we grow and thrive.

We’d like to think our most important contribution to the wealth of our community is the work we do on behalf of our clients as they endeavor to impact their own businesses. Over time, through our work, we’ve had the chance to support the largest sale of a health care system, Health Midwest, in the United States, help preserve 250 jobs as the Kansas City Arthur Andersen office moved its people to KPMG, assist Aquila, formerly the area’s largest company, in its rebuilding and restructuring efforts, and most recently, work with Sprint as it endeavors to continue growing in a dramatically changing telecommunications environment.

And as we grow, we continue to purchase the services of the many business partners and vendors we have throughout the community, whose services enable us to offer ours seamlessly to our clients. We appreciate all of those relationships.

Social Wealth
Muhammad Ali said “service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth,” and at Parris, we live by that credo. Without question, our ethic of giving back to the community has long been a mainstay of business. We have offered pro bono services to countless organizations and will continue to ensure that our contributions to community organizations exceed both our expectations and theirs. We recently had the privilege of being named 2003 Small Business Philanthropist of the Year for our efforts.

Some of my personal efforts include serving in the Office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, The White House, eight years (chose to accept unpaid staff position vs pay) and serving on a variety of board positions, including the vice chairman of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce; Children’s Mercy Hospital; Boys & Girls Clubs of Kansas City; Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City; Kansas City Women's Employment Network and the Central Agency for Jewish Education.
Recently I was honored to be named 2003 Kansas City Woman of the Year.

Financing
We are fortunate in that we have never taken a business loan, though we have a line of credit through United Missouri Bank available to us should we ever need it.

Our first office was 1,100 square feet in the Fairway Office Park and then, as now, everything we had was bought and totally paid for. In our most recent move, we financed construction of our new 6,600-square-foot office space from earnings, and have continued to fund equipment and office improvements the same way.

We also maintain a strong ethic of paying our vendors in a very timely fashion, under the notion that when they do back flips for us in this deadline-oriented business of ours, our appreciation should be expressed with equal enthusiasm.

Of all the things I am grateful for, I am most appreciative of what I call the Sleep Easy Factor. There has never been a night when I’ve gone to bed wondering how I would pay a salary, or a vendor invoice or a commitment to the community we have made. We’ve always operated the business in a way that ensured that we met every obligation effortlessly and with the same integrity as those with whom we’re privileged to work.

Support Systems
I am a firm believer that in this world we all have the chance to learn equally from one another. The challenges of business owners, whether male or female, are very similar. Interestingly, I also have learned as much or more from leaders in large businesses as I have from those in small businesses.

My greatest “classroom” is the opportunity to get out in the community and listen. There is simply no substitute for a deep understanding of what challenges others are facing. The question is not having access to that kind of information; the question is always what we, as small business owners do with it; how we apply it and how we leverage it to create new opportunities for our own business.

There is nothing more exhilarating than the chance to learn someone else’s business. It’s a constant test of whether we can be that good, that smart and that strategic. When it comes to sharing intellectual wealth, this is a very gracious and generous business community.

Most Significant Accomplishment
That’s a tough one. But, I would have to say that it’s the chance to make an impact; on my company, my clients, my community, my family and my friends.

I’d like for people to say that everywhere I went, every place I touched, something good happened. Something important changed. Something got better. Something works easier. Something is being done a wiser way. The most I could ever hope to achieve. is that we left things in a far better condition than they were when we arrived.

Greatest Challenge
In a word, sleep! In an effort to do it all for clients, community and family, the constant challenge is in the juggling. But in that challenge I also find my greatest exhilaration.

My best advice on the challenges of managing time, sleep, family and walking the dog, is to find those people and places with whom you find your greatest outlet, and endeavor to weave them into your life at intervals when you need it most.

I’ve always found that if you structure time away well, in a place that gives you the respite you need, with people who mean the most, then it’s much less about the work than it is the chance to have the flexibility that being a woman business owner provides.

If I had the chance to go back into a corporate environment that gave me a set salary so that I didn’t need to worry about managing a staff, a balance sheet, rent or 18-hour days, I know I’d shrivel up into a useless nothing. What sets me on fire is the opportunity to climb the next highest mountain off in the distance.

And if the chance to climb that mountain comes with a price tag that says, “deduct a little sleep,” it’s a price I’m more than willing to pay for the opportunity.