Yorktown Business Spotlight: Taking on Clients, Issues, Ideas

Every local business has a story worth sharing with the community. The plan behind this series at Patch is to shine the spotlight on all our favorite local businesses, and to learn a little about the ones we may not know that well.

This is as much about supporting local businesses as it is about celebrating the places and faces that make our community special. Click here to get to a simple form where local business owners can answer a few quick questions to be part of this ongoing feature.

Our spotlight today is on Bill and Margaret Primavera.

Business: Primavera Public Relations, Inc.
Owners: Bill and Margaret Primavera
Website: www.PrimaveraPR.com
Address: 2718 Hickory Street, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598

How did you come up with the name?

It’s eponymous and it says what we do.

Why choose that location? Why start a business in this town?

We were born and grew where we were planted, in our large antique farmhouse. It was the kind of business where we didn’t need a storefront. We had already fallen in love with the people, diversity and beauty of Yorktown.

Briefly, what business are you in?

Public relations, marketing, issues management, advertising, editorial, and political campaign consultation.

What’s the most difficult moment or challenge you’ve faced as a business owner?

Representing controversial issues in our community in which we believed strongly and to face our critics and never waiver or be discouraged, pressing on to success. Recently we have represented Costco Wholesale and Compass Westchester Sober Living Residence.

Were there any challenges that made you second guess your decision to be an entrepreneur?

There have been many challenges along the way from terrible reviews for our restaurant clients to difficult clients and temperamental staff members who come with the territory of creativity, but second guess my decision to be an entrepreneur ? Never! Who doesn’t want to work for himself, really?

What’s been your favorite moment or proudest achievement since opening?

Just today! I received word that I have been awarded an account that will literally CHANGE HISTORY! Does that sound like an exaggeration? Check out www.jpods.com. This will change the future of how people and things move from one place to another. The future is here, and Primavera PR will help tell the story. Stay tuned.

What’s the most innovative idea your employees or customers have had that you put into practice?

As the oldest, longest-running public relations firm headquartered in Westchester, established in 1980 before the advent of the Internet, we were the very first agency to embrace technology. We bought the first ugly Wang desk computers put on the market, before Apple or IBM had anything for small businesses and we had to hire a geeky consultant to show us how to turn them on.

How do you deal with difficult customers?

We fire them and devote ourselves to those that appreciate what we are doing for them.

How does your business give back or get involved in the community?

I volunteer joyfully both to the Town on committees and non-profits. I serve on the Advisory Board on Architecture & Community Appearance, as well as The Landmarks Preservation Committee. I am also on the Boards of the Pines Bridge Committee and Physicians Against World Hunger.