Activism through entrepreneurship: An Idaho small business owner’s work for change

Caitlin Copple never thought she’d become a small business owner. 

“In college, I wasn’t a business major and didn’t take a single business class,” she said. “I was into activism and making the world a better place. But I’ve learned that if you start your own business, you have the freedom to do it differently than how it’s been done before even if there are not a ton of role models out there. One reason why I try to be visible as a queer single mom is because that was never an example of what a business owner could be.” 

That mentality led Caitlin to leave her job at a social impact branding agency to start Full Swing Public Relations in 2019. She quickly hired her first employee, Holly Conti, who later became a partner and co-owner. Many of Full Swing’s clients are small business owners, on the cusp or just over seven figures, so Caitlin is uniquely positioned to help. “We’ve been in their shoes; we’ve scaled from nothing to becoming a company with over one million dollars in revenue,” Caitlin said. When clients turn to Full Swing Public Relations for help, they get both PR and strategic thought partnership as they scale. Additionally, entrepreneurs can utilize Full Swing’s free PR Roadmap to Reach 1 Million that teaches small businesses how to boost their visibility. It helps connect the dots for small business owners between PR and actual sales.

As an employer, it’s important to Caitlin to support her employees. Full Swing Public Relations offers comprehensive employee benefits, including healthcare, vision and dental coverage on the first day of employment because “healthcare is a basic human right.” Additionally, the agency offers parental leave regardless of employee tenure. Full Swing also offers unlimited time off and mandates that people take off at least five days in a row where they’re fully unplugged and unreachable. Caitlin says she does this because not only is it the right thing to do, but she needs to be competitive since agency employees are from Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and North Carolina. By offering good benefits, Full Swing Public Relations is a competitive employer that can more easily recruit and retain talented employees.

Additionally, when the Dobbs decision overturning Roe vs. Wade was leaked two years ago, Caitlin knew she had to take action. Although Full Swing Public Relations is remote, Caitlin and several other employees live in Idaho, which had a trigger ban outlawing abortion entirely if Roe v. Wade was overturned. She decided to institute a new policy where the business would pay for those who need reproductive healthcare to travel out of state to receive the care they need. 

The business owners that Full Swing Public Relations works with are mostly from under-recognized communities, and include women, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ leaders. Clients are mostly business owners but have a social impact component to their work, such as ending  racism in healthcare, expanding access to child care, or ending pay discrimination in the legal industry. Nonprofit clients have partnered with Full Swing to fight anti-trans legislation and protect survivors of domestic and sexual violence. Caitlin hopes that other small business owners pay attention to what’s happening in their state legislature and at the federal level and take action in a way that complements their business objectives. 

“More businesses in Idaho should advocate for women and other people who could become pregnant to get the healthcare they need,” Caitlin said. “Unfortunately, we don’t see much of that in the Idaho business community.”

Thanks to Caitlin and Holly’s journalism backgrounds, digital marketing expertise and ability to secure news coverage for their clients in top media outlets, their business has earned accolades. This year, Full Swing Public Relations was recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the Rocky Mountain region by Inc Magazine with 193% growth over the past two years.

“You need to know your ‘why,’” Caitlin said. “Entrepreneurship can be really hard and knowing why you’re doing it and why it matters is what’s needed to sustain motivation to keep doing it.”