Thousands of small business owners are doing their own PR until they "graduate" and become larger businesses with more PR needs. We thought we'd share with you some of their stories.

First up, Sommer Poquette of Green and Clean Mom, LLC. We'll have her tell you more...

HYOPR: Tell us about your business.
Sommer: Green and Clean Mom, LLC started as a personal blog and over the last three years has turned into a professional blog and business that offers social media consulting, support and works with brands to review products, offer suggestions on the product or on using social media to market the product to the mom market. A very diverse business!

HYOPR: Why did you decide to promote your business? What prompted your PR initiative?
Sommer: To make money online you need to have web traffic and presence. There needs to be a sphere of influence and this led me to PR. I knew I need to make connection for my business so I could best help my clients.

HYOPR: Tell us about your DIY approach to promoting your business.
Sommer: A small business like mine does not have a large budget and often what I make goes back into my business. I needed to be frugal and hiring someone was not an option - which led me to the DIY approach. I also wanted to learn how it was done for myself so I could best help clients, learn from my mistakes in PR and see the other side. It is easy for bloggers to want PR to work one way but when I went to the "other side" I learned crafting a dozen pitches and making them all unique is not very easy! My steps involved finding the contacts that worked for my niche, making friends with them and developing a relationship personally so that professionally I could count on them and they could count on me. Easier said than done!

HYOPR: What success did you have promoting it yourself - the good, bad, ugly?
Sommer: My biggest success in self-promotion is not being too self-promotional! In social media and blogging you cannot always talk about yourself or people stop listening-just like in real life! I've made mistakes and sent out "bad" pitches and threw mud at the wall and nothing stuck. I have learned from this and realized that relationships go the longest distance and the time is worth it.

HYOPR: What one key piece of advice would you give an aspiring entrepreneur who is looking to get the word out about their business?
Sommer: Network online and offline and don't just talk about yourself; WORK to forge the relationships; PR people move often but [their] relationships stay constant.

HYOPR: What are your future PR plans?
Sommer: I have a children's book coming out in a few weeks, My Mommy is a Blogger. I'll be working hard to promote this with new and old PR relationships. (Ed. Note: You can pre-order her book here).

HYOPR: Do you feel Handle Your Own PR helped you in any way?
Sommer: Handle Your Own PR has given me the option of not hiring a PR firm and learning to do it on my own through PR contacts, support through the website and email newsletter tips. This in turn has helped me help my clients with smaller budgets. I've made some good contacts, learned more about the industry and find that the email newsletters are very helpful.

Have a DIY PR story to share? We'll give you free PR on the DIY PR blog. Simply send us a notewith your story and you may be featured on our blog!