Being obviously unfamiliar with Black Enterprise. This is something else you communicate when you don’t seem to know our names and titles. Or when you send your information to every editor on staff (using form letters, an absolute no-no) whether your business is relevant to the topics they cover or not. (Ask yourself: Why would our senior personal finance editor need to know about your glass repair business?) Or when you send the exact same letter to different magazines, and we get the one meant for Essence or Inc. by mistake. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying you have to be a lifelong subscriber of Black Enterprise to get into the magazine (though that doesn’t hurt). But if you want us to consider you for a story, it helps tremendously if you know what generally appears in the magazine and on the web site, and what you’ll not likely to ever see. For example, Entrepreneurs should be familiar with the columns, such as Making It, that appear in the Small Biz section. You, or the person or company you’ve hired to handle media relations, should keep at least two years of back issues of Black Enterprise on hand, and be familiar with the content of those issues, and the monthly sections in particular. By doing so, you’ll know basic things, such as the fact that we focus on black-owned franchises in September, rank the nation’s largest black-owned companies in every June issue, and begin looking for nominees for the Black Enterprise Small Business Awards in the fall, with finalists profiled in the May issue of Black Enterprise in the Small Biz section. The more familiar you are with Black Enterprise, the better you will understand what editors are looking for, which types of stories are sought for which sections, and how to best position your company for consideration.