SNAPSHOT:

Manager: Yana Tabakova
The company: Profile PR
The job: General manager
In brief: Profile PR was established in 2004 by Nasko Lazarov. Today the company provides public relations services to actors, businessmen and other public figures in Bulgaria. Profile PR is also engaged in representing clients such as night clubs, luxury hotels, restaurants and beauty salons. Among their most notable clients are Sofia Airport, the night club Escape, the fish restaurant eX'use Me, Nail Bar, EXXO and Shoe Art.

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Two weeks ago an interesting e-mail came to The Sofia Echo. It read: Yana Tabakova is the new general manager of the agency Profile PR. At first the information seemed little different from any other corporate handout. But what was stood out was that the new general manager is 23 years old.

"I know that many people will have doubts about me being only 23, taking such a responsible position," Tabakova says with confidence.

"I am not afraid because I feel well prepared to respond to these prejudices. I have my ideas and I think that nowadays you do not have to wait until you are 30 or 40 to take on more responsibilities."

Tabakova quickly adds that she did not come to this business with no experience. Indeed, for someone of 23, Tabakova has a lot to show in her CV. Born in the town of Pernik near Sofia, Tabakova graduated from the local English-language school. At Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski, she got a bachelor's degree in television journalism, and added a master's degree in public relations.

Tabakova describes the time at the university as a big advantage in her current role.  "The atmosphere in my faculty was extremely creative. I had the chance to study with people who were musicians, actors, painters, and we were all united by the idea of writing, and that we wanted to demonstrate our work to the world."

As for the professors, Tabakova is positive as well. "They let us say out loud the craziest ideas we had and discuss them. This, I think, could not happen in any other faculty of the university. This helps me a lot today in what I do, which is to give and appreciate ideas."

The phrase "I started working really young" is true in this case. Tabakova's first real job was during her second year at university. This was when she joined the private Balkan Bulgarian Television (BBT) as a news reporter. "Before that, I took a reporting course organised by the Promedia broadcasting training centre foundation. "BBT was interesting for me, not only because it was my first real journalistic job, but because there I met the famous journalist Boryana Dimitrova who previously worked for Bulgarian National Television. She gave me good advice, and in a way she opened the doors for me."

At BBT, Tabakova discovered that being a journalist was more about practice than theory.

"A journalist learns every day. You can never say that you have reached the top. Life goes on every day and you cannot allow yourself to slow down."

While at BBT, Tabakova embarked on another passion. She started making documentaries. "It was a big surprise when one of those movies won a prize at the Osmata Muza (The Eight Muses) media festival." The director had decided to enter her in the competition without telling Tabakova. "That's why it was a surprise for me, a pleasant one of course," she says. The film, called   Sunuvam teatur (I dream about theatre), is about the dreams of an old woman working in the theatre, but not as an actor, Tabakova explains with enthusiasm.

Her first job experience taught Tabakova some truths about the business as well.

"If you take the job as something sacred, something that you want to dedicate yourself to, then no one can stop you from doing it right.

You should not mix personal relations with professional ones. You are hired to do something specific and everything else simply does not matter."

After BBT, Tabakova went to another private TV station, TV7. In addition to that she started writing for several magazines, including ClubM and Beauty magazine. For the past two years, she has been the organiser of ClubM's Man of the Year ceremony. Not bad for a 23-year-old, one might say.

Her new role as general manager means having to make decisions.  Tabakova says she is grateful to the influence of several people during her career. "As a journalist I have learnt from my colleagues, especially from Boryana Dimitrova and Zhanet Pashalieva, who was head of news at BBT.  At TV7, my producer Megi Savova showed me a lot. Hristo Peev, ClubM's publisher, is also among the people who influenced my life."

As a manager, she emphasises the importance of a personal approach. "At Profile, my approach is to motivate people," she says.

A positive outlook is the key to being a successful leader. "You must also know what you want so that you can achieve concrete results."

There is a great deal of creativity involved in the work of a good PR professional, meaning that employees must be motivated to think and associate themselves with the company they are representing.

"I know that everybody is working for money, which is not a bad thing. However it is always better to feel the fun of the work, to treat it as a cause and to be motivated, and last but not least, to be proud of what you do. I want my employees to always feel that they are important."

For Tabakova, her stint in journalism bore fruit. "That is how I started working for Profile." Nasko Lazarov, owner and founder of Profile, recruited her. "We had been acquainted previously, having met socially a number of times. As a journalist, I went to many events organised by Profile, so I knew how Lazarov operates," she says.

This is why, when the proposal came, Tabakova did not hesitate. "First, I like Lazarov's work and his ideas, and second, I make decisions quickly and with little hesitation."

Two weeks into the job, she appreciates the additional responsibilities that it means.

"The main difference today is that I no longer have set working hours." Tabakova says she is entirely dedicated to what she is doing.

"My life has become my work. Maybe this is mainly due to the enthusiasm I put into my new position and my desire to see all my ideas come true." Her favourite aspect of her new job is the opportunity to meet people. "I have the chance to be creative, to do new things and to satisfy clients with my work." Although Profile does not have a large staff complement, Tabakova says that good PR is a result of team efforts and "good co-ordination and organisation".

The other key is to treat the customer as a god.

"When a client comes to our office, in most of the cases he comes with his own ideas. We let our clients talk. After we agree on something, we start working on how to achieve the set goal."

This is where teamwork comes into play. Because of the variety of clients, Profile works with different directors, photographers, actors and screenwriters. This requires good co-ordination to achieve the desired result. "The fact that we work with people from art circles is very rewarding because they themselves give ideas and it is great watching them being provoked and inspired by something."   

"You have to persuade the client to trust that you will deal with his business in the correct way. Taking into account the client's needs, we offer options. All I know is that I should make things happen."

Tabakova has her own view on what a professional PR person should be. "When I think about PR, I always imagine this situation: a boy enters a disco club. He is handsome, he looks and feels great, and wants everyone to know this. He might succeed, but it will be limited only to a few people. However, if the DJ announces the boy's arrival, everyone will want to speak to him just because the boy's name was mentioned by the DJ. The PR expert is the DJ and the media is the microphone." This is not all.

"You have to be always on-line, so to speak. People are different, and so are their businesses. To always be well informed, the good PR person must pay attention to what is happening in every business and sphere of life, to be able to respond to the needs of the clients."

An example of the range of clients represented by Profile is the February 14 re-opening of a famous Sofia night club, while the same day, Profile has another event planned for a customer in Bansko, a luxury hotel. Another client is a fish restaurant in Sofia. A beauty salon adds to the colourful list. "All these clients ask for a different approach and we must know what is happening in these businesses."

Profile's big clients include Sofia Airport through its office in Cyprus. At both airports, Profile provides advertising opportunities.

She says that PR is the intermediate link between journalists and a company. A PR person can influence journalists' decisions about what is important about a person or an event.

She says that her reason to choose PR instead of TV journalism was that, having had a view of both professions, she is most motivated by PR.

Tabakova, however, insists that she is first a journalist and then a PR professional.

"I intend to do TV journalism in the future, and even now I am involved in several TV projects. I also write for several magazines, so journalism is present in my life."

Journalism gave Tabakova contacts that she now uses as a PR specialist.

Her present occupation brings her together with former journalistic colleagues, with the difference that now she is the one providing the information. "This is what I like. It feels nice to tell people about something they do not know."

Negative PR, she says, is not something unfamiliar to Bulgaria. "It can help you, but it can ruin you. We all know that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but personally, I would not use negative PR."

Profile is open to every client, Tabakova says: "Every client is a challenge." This answers the question as to whether Profile would have doubts about representing people or companies of a controversial reputation. The company's corporate policy is clear.

"For us the client is everything. For example, if we had to represent former prime minister Ivan Kostov two years ago when he had withdrawn from public life and was almost in exile, we would have accepted the offer as a great challenge."

So far, Profile has not worked with politicians but Tabakova is ready to do so. "I can always tell when a politician is using the advice and direction of a PR professional. It is obvious in the politician's manners, language, gestures, and overall behaviour in public, especially when he is on TV."

A good choice of suit is not just the benefit of having a wife with good taste, Tabakova says. It is a result of if not one, than at least several, PR professionals.

"If a politician who is usually out of public view suddenly appears on a certain TV show, this is not by chance, but a well-directed move."

An example of a smooth move is what Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov did last year when he won ClubM's Man of the Year award.

"Borissov's decision not to accept the award but donate it to actors was a definite PR move. There is no doubt that Borissov has a PR consultant. Borissov himself is one very good PR product."

Tabakova admits that she herself probably would have advised him to do the same thing with the donation.

"For me it was a good PR decision since this was not Borissov's first Man of the Year award. After all, Borissov got his publicity, with cameramen crowding his office, when we presented him with the certificate."

She says that in recent years she has seen people in Bulgaria begin to appreciate the meaning of public relations. Until recently, people confused PR with advertising, she says. In Bulgaria now, hiring a PR professional has become a necessity for public figures just like anywhere else in the world. There are three type of PR: corporate PR, PR provided by a PR agency, and individual PR, Tabakova recalls from her text books. Profile offers both the services of a PR agency and individual PR. "Of course we are still not the biggest PR company on the market, but in the next five years, we will try to change this."

She sees the company providing services for foreign clients in the near future now that Bulgaria is part of the European Union. "In other words, I see the company able to satisfy the needs of big international companies." 

As for herself, Tabakova wants to combine business with travel in the future. "My dream is to travel around the world as a journalist and a PR professional as well."

As in every business, the competition is intense. "I see that many people in Bulgaria started calling themselves PR experts or producers. Most of these new-born  PR specialists are attractive young ladies who count on their personal appearance more than on ideas.  I used to joke that if having a personal beauty salon was the fashion several year ago, today it is the PR agency," Tabakova says. That is why people should be careful when choosing their PR agency "because here we are talking about contacts, ideas and, most of all, how to make these ideas a reality".