Exclusive Q&A with Tom Szaky, Founder and CEO of TerraCycle

Tom Szaky founded TerraCycle in 2002. Originally a producer of organic fertilizer, the company shifted its focus to upcycling and recycling solutions in 2007. Today, TerraCycle is a multi-million dollar business and works with thousands of schools, NGOs and brands to divert billions of units of waste a year.

Here, Tom shares his advice for small businesses and his company's keys to success.

Partnering with brands is a part of TerraCycle's business model. What do you think makes a partnership successful?
Successful partnerships are all about aligning interests. You want to have brands who see the problem in the same way and are really interested in having a solution. For example, L’Oreal is really committed to solving cosmetic waste and they're getting really behind that with us.

TerraCycle been able to generate positive PR by telling its story through various media outlets. How can small businesses take advantage of the PR opportunties avaialble to them?
The easiest way to do that is to make the job of the reporter very easy. Don’t approach it like you just want to get your propaganda out there, but instead think about it from the reporter’s perspective. Reporters want to have interesting stories and they want to be able to get good content. The easier you can make it for a reporter to get great content, the easier it will be to do an article.

Once you do that, and you've done it well, then see if you can blog for the [outlets that have picked up your story]. Start solidifying yourself as an expert. Say you’re a septic sysytem installer. Maybe you can blog about it and become a local expert and answer questions like, "What is it like to have a septic system," "What are the pitfalls," and "What does it usually cost to maintain?"

How can a small business turn a negative review or PR experience into a positive one?
The best way to turn a negative into a positive is to own it and be transparent about it. Own the issue, because if you own the issue, no one can come back to you and hit you for it. The press will only hit you for it if you’re not acknowledging and owning the problem.

If you were a small business and had $500 left in your monthly budget at the end of the month, how would you spend it?
If I was a small business and had $500 at the end of my closing, I would keep the money in the bank and do nothing with it because $500 is an incredibly small about of money. And if all I made that month is $500, I’d hope to acculmate that and keep if tor a rainly day--forget a rainy day, a rainy minute and it’s gone--so I would really save and conserve that money because you always have positives and negative. Now, if the question was a little different and say I had $30,000 left at the end of the month, I would keep a big chunk in savings, and then I would look at how I could use the balance to grow my sales. I’m always focused on growing sales because a small business only gets to be a medium business with more sales.