A Shropshire public relations agency set up to help sole traders and small businesses get their name out and about to thousands of customers and clients has launched a new free database to give all companies a helping hand.

Journalism and PR, run by Rhea Alton, was launched in April 2009 with the aim of providing public relations for sole traders and small businesses who have neither the funds or the need to employ a full-time PR team.

Rhea, a former journalist, wanted to help small businesses compete with the industry giants who have large advertising budgets and fully-staffed PR departments.

She said: "PR is about getting your name out to your target audience and while working as a journalist in Shropshire I noticed big businesses were really grasping the opportunity but smaller ones were not.

"I think this is because a lot of small businesses are not aware of what PR actually is so I have launched a free database that businesses can sign up to to receive free PR advice via email.

"It is not intended to be spam and I only contact the database businesses when I come across a PR opportunity I think they can use. They can begin to use PR themselves, see how it works, and obviously come to me if they decide PR is something they would like to look at on a regular basis for the business."

For more information about Journalism and PR or to sign up to the database visit www.jandpr.com

Any businesses that wish to sign up will receive a confirmation letter and a copy of the Journalism and PR terms of business.

"Everyone on my database can use Journalism and PR at short notice as the terms of business are already signed, meaning everything is ready to go should they need anything at any time," added Rhea.