Sometimes the most meaningful professional opportunities emerge from unexpected places. For me, it started with an interest in native plants and a spot on a mailing list. As an independent information professional typically serving corporate clients and management consultancies, I never imagined that reducing my lawn and adding native plants would lead to one of my most fulfilling projects – or that my AIIP volunteer experience would prove so invaluable.
In 2022, I wrote an AIIP Blog about being a first-time conference exhibitor. Two years later, I have now had an exhibitor table twice more and will again be at a large conference (see below) on October 24, 2024.
A recent conversation on the AIIP-L discussion list about the importance of setting aside time for business planning moved into a discussion of time-management techniques that AIIP members have found helpful for blocking out strategic planning time. Like many others, I set aside one full day a year—or every six months, if I am pivoting my business—to assess where I am, where my best clients are, what I’m enjoying the most, and what I want more of over the next year. After reflection, I come up with the measurable goals that I will achieve if I put my strategic plan in place.
In my school librarian background, professional development was neither valued nor recognized, so it may be surprising that my career is now based on providing training for the very type of professional I used to be. If your place of employment doesn’t recognize or value your professional development, and your opportunity for upward mobility is minimal, why would you ever bother?
At meetings of the I-25ers, a group of independent information professionals located in and around Colorado, we often discuss how to stay focused. It’s getting harder and harder, with the many hats we wear and the ever-increasing rate of change in our lives and work, to make decisions about our businesses and carry them out.
Setting goals for the next 5 or 10 years provides focus in our lives and milestones for success.
Your local AIIP peer network could be one of the most effective strategic and marketing tools you have ever used. Here are a few of the reasons why:
Clarify Your Vision
Even though face to face ‘local’ AIIP gatherings have been overtaken by COVID-19 protocols, our need for instilling optimism and a sense of purpose through our local trust network of shared experiences and relationship building increases.
Grow Your Referral Network
AIIP members have long valued the benefits of this trust network that exists organization-wide. Because we weren’t able to gather in person for our annual conference in April as planned, we missed meeting one another in person to form or reinforce connections with folks who have skills that overlap or are complementary to our own, or get to know those who cover service areas that we don’t. Now, it is more important than ever to reinforce relationships at a regional level too. When we grow trusted network connections, it is a natural instinct to want to refer our colleagues to a business opportunity if it seems to be a promising match for another’s expertise.
Find Your Tribe
The common geographic element of groups like this can be a shared experience that serves as a springboard for some casual “get to know you” conversations. Even through uncertainty, connecting with other local AIIPers who speak our language can reassure or steady us, or surface some good old fashioned ‘hey, I thought of you recently when…”
Stay Top of Mind
Having a trusted referral network is what most successful AIIPers will tell you is marketing gold – their key to ongoing and lasting success. You can’t really develop that trusted referral network if you aren’t engaging with one another on a regular basis to see who’s overcoming what challenges, who is pivoting, who is trying something you’ve wanted to try, or who wants to try something with you to practice first before going live. Your local AIIP peers can be your sounding board, your cheerleaders, and your amplifiers. They can inspire, cajole and learn from your experiences as you do from theirs.
Build for Sustainability
Put your growth mindset into action. Take the initiative to get everyone together consistently. Look for opportunities to keep the conversations going. Invest energy into making fun and unique virtual get-togethers that you would want someone else to create for you. Find icebreakers or games to learn more about one another beyond the shared experience of being a solopreneur. Share what’s worked for you and what you now see in hindsight as a lesson.
The local networks that you cultivate now and over time will enrich your professional growth and business development in a sustainable and impactful way.
Liz McLean, principal, and founder of Knowsaic, uses her Library Science and Knowledge Management expertise to connect people and organizations to the know-how and know-who to learn and innovate for greater mission impact.
One of the hardest shifts that many new independent
information professionals face is changing their perspective of where their
value lies and how their market sees the world. When we are surrounded by
examples of the low-pay gig economy – Uber and Lyft, Fiverr and UpWork,
DoorDash, and GrubHub – it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that the
only way we can compete is to be cheap and fast. If, instead, we see ourselves
as business owners, it is much easier to identify and leverage that unique something
that each of us brings to our clients.
Every year or two, I pause to make sure I’m not slipping
into the rut of seeing myself as freelancer and undervaluing what I am bringing
to the market. Some of the questions I ask myself are:
Do my clients see me as filling a request or as working
collaboratively to address a need? Freelancers simply take a client’s
description and scope of a project as is. Information consultants approach each
new engagement as a joint project with the client to accomplish a goal, and
they negotiate all aspects of the project.
Am I chasing or attracting
clients? Freelancers focus on one-way marketing – email blasts, social media
deluge, paid search advertising and so on. Information consultants market
themselves by building their reputation and word-of-mouth network over time –
by serving in volunteer capacities in their clients’ associations, by speaking
and writing on topics of value to their clients, by engaging with their clients
at local and national events.
Am I sharing what I know or hoarding my insights
for paying clients only? Information consultants know that clients value the
fresh insights they bring to each project, and they know that sharing their
perspectives and knowledge publicly does not diminish their value to clients.
Am I pricing my projects by the hour or by the
project? Hourly pricing penalizes cost-effective work and deep familiarity with
available resources, and emphasizes activity rather than outcome. Project-based
pricing puts the focus on the value delivered to the client, not the work
involved with providing that value. If I do have to charge by the hour, I make
sure that hourly rate truly reflects the value I bring to the project.
Are my deliverables original content or others’
thoughts? While I may include backup material or source documents that support
my analysis, I know that the value lies on my sense-making of the information,
not simply the delivery of what I found. Most information consultants find that
the more customized and distilled the deliverable, the more clients value the
results.
Am I talking about what I do or about why I do
it? Freelancers describe themselves in terms of their activities – engineering
research, taxonomy development, or social media marketing, for example.
Information consultants focus on their clients’ outcomes – a new market
identified, a business risk identified, or new clients identified through a
marketing campaign.
And finally, am I getting paid enough to have
free time? Freelancers often find themselves reducing their regular rate in
order to land a job… any job. Information consultants focus on attracting
profitable clients that enable them to take time off to recharge.
While thinking like an information consultant moves us
outside our comfort zone, it also enables us to tailor our services to the most
important information concerns of our clients.
Mary Ellen
Bates has been an infopreneur since 1991, providing business analysis
for strategic decision-makers and consulting services to the information
industry. Her passion projects are beekeeping and coaching new and long-time
infopreneurs. See more at BatesInfo.com.
