Contents

• Introduction
• I. The Book's Table of Contents
• II. What is Information Work?
• III. Exploring Options
• IV. Resources
• V. Column Archives
• VI. Infonista Blog
• About G. Kim Dority
• Contact the Author

Going Independent

Being an independent information pro can be a terrific career path — or a quick route to ulcers, insanity, and ongoing fantasies about how great it would be to work at the local dry cleaners.

In fact, as someone who goes in and out of working as an independent depending on what cool project is being offered, I can personally attest to an ongoing relationship with those ulcers, insanity, and dry-cleaner fantasies. Nevertheless, working on your own under the right circumstances can also be incredibly rewarding and a heck of a lot of fun.

What Does the Independent Path Entail?

This path can be as simple as doing the work you've previously done as an employee, but doing it instead as a newly-minted contractor. Or it can mean starting a new product or service business — alone or with colleagues — based on expertise you've gained along the way as an LIS professional.

In addition, there are many different approaches to working as an independent. You might work with a single client, for example, being a contract substitute librarian for one library district. Or you might become a solo, a one-person shop offering your services, for example, as a freelance indexer to publishers around the country.

On the other hand, you might want to build a business that includes several employees, thereby extending your company's ability to handle multiple clients and projects simultaneously. Or you might decide you'd rather not take on the management and overhead of employees, so as an alternative you decide instead to join a loose network of information pros who come together on a project basis, participating based on the expertise needed on specific projects.

Alternatively, you might prefer to sign up with a temp agency that specializes in information work. This strategy lets someone else worry about the marketing, management and client relationships, while you simply show up and do the work (performing at the highest level of excellence, of course!).

The bottom line is, all the choices are completely up to you: what work you do, how you do it, what markets or clients you go after (as well as, occasionally, what clients you fire), what you charge, how you grow/expand your business (if this is a goal for you). These are but some of the major choices you'll make as an independent.

What Work Might You Do?

Consider all the things that traditional librarians do, from cataloging to reference to indexing to bibliographic instruction to research. All of these can be — and have been — done on a contract basis, either for traditional libraries or special libraries. (Remember, in an era of downsizing, outsourcing key activities to competent LIS contractors is one of the best ways for organizations to continue to get the necessary work done.)

Then consider those activities that make up nontraditional LIS paths — these are all candidates for freelance or contract work as well. The emphasis on strategic management of knowledge assets means businesses increasingly need people who know meta-tagging, know how to build taxonomies, know how to research international market opportunities, know how to research and write white papers, know how to do competitive intelligence, know how to analyze and summarize key information. A lot of this work is done on a project basis by outside contractors…such as you.

Or, think about doing these same sorts of activities within a broader context. For example, your expertise in marketing libraries might turn into a consulting business developing marketing plans for nonprofits and cultural institutions. Years you spent designing and implementing your academic library's web portal could translate into a business developing websites for alumni associations or career colleges. A successful track record as a bibliographic instruction librarian might launch you on an independent path as a corporate or association trainer or an online teacher or a freelance creator of online tutorials for businesses.

Other examples might include freelance cataloging; creating and maintaining research guides and online tutorials for virtual libraries; developing web portals and online communities for clients; launching an information brokerage or freelance research company; providing current awareness services for start-ups in emerging industries; being a consulting editor for one of the library-focused publishing companies; or doing freelance prospect (i.e., donor) research for a nonprofit.

Independents have pursued careers as freelance booktalkers and/or storytellers, manuscript evaluators and consulting acquisitions editors, adjunct faculty (classroom-based or online), library building consultants, organizational development consultants, writers (books, articles, and online content), workshop and seminar presenters, and grant writers. Colleagues have set up and maintained technical libraries for local tech firms, cataloged personal libraries for wealthy clients, specialized in market research or patent searching, taken on systems and networking projects, built reputations as freelance legal researchers, provided research training to specialized groups, done trend analysis for marketing companies, written position papers for nonprofits, worked as freelance genealogists, edited manuscripts for LIS publishers, put together research guides for virtual libraries, done contract cataloging — all based on skills they've developed as LIS professionals.

Other Questions to Consider

Before considering the independent path, you'd also want to thoroughly explore and answer the following questions:

How would you work? For example, would you work from home or in a leased office space? Would you work a regular 9-5 day five days a week, or do four 10-hour days so you could have regular three-day weekends? Would you prefer to work for national clients (entails business travel) or local companies (often have smaller budgets, but easier to build a relationship with).

What market would you target? Will you focus on the library market, or on clients outside the library world? Specialize in nonprofits, or work only with the telecommunications or healthcare or education industries? Will you specialize in working with government agencies, and develop an expertise in navigating the red tape necessary to secure large and lucrative government contracts?

Another decision: will your product or service be applicable across a broad range of organizations (larger market opportunity) or will you be targeting a small niche market (easier to market to and make a name for yourself, but susceptible to market downturns)?

What would you charge? Again, many variables: do your prices need to respond to a competitive environment? Are you working in a geographic location where fees are generally higher or lower than the national average? Will you charge nonprofits less than you charge for-profits?

Will you base your fees on what you need to earn to cover your monthly overhead, or on what the market will bear, or on an hourly-charge basis that includes your invisible costs such as training/professional development, association memberships, marketing time, etc.? Will you charge by the hour (often the default for new independents who haven't gained sufficient experience to confidently estimate project hours) or by the project (usually allows you to price at a higher rate).

How would you get clients? This is the really challenging one. Most of us feel fairly confident that we can do the work a client asks of us — once we have that client. But actually getting that client is a whole different matter.

Services marketing is, to quote a recent book title, 'selling the invisible." As is the case for all independents regardless of profession, assume marketing efforts will generally take up a substantial amount of your work week (at least 40%), especially when you're just starting out. And assume you'll be trying all sorts of things to get your message out, establish your brand, and increase your visibility within your target market.

What kinds of things might that include? You'll network mercilessly, attending business luncheons, speaking at professional group meetings, presenting at conferences, and volunteering in the community or with organizations relevant to your market. Some independents find cold-calling effective, while others avoid it at all costs.

An informative, polished, and professional-looking website is imperative, as are business cards and at least minimal print collateral (for example, a tri-fold 8½x11 brochure. You may want to consider a quarterly e-newsletter with content relevant to your target audience as a way of staying in their conscientiousness. Another option is to find pro bono work that allows you to demonstrate your skills to your target audience (and connect with their key issues) in a way that showcases your value to potential clients before you're ready to ask them for paying projects.

And those are just the starter questions! Here are some more to consider, just in case you were running out of things to consider:

• What management structure will your business have?
• How will you describe your product/service to other in 50 words or less? Make sure you've got a great 'elevator speech" that clearly identifies your value proposition
• Who/what is your competition, and how will you compete against them?
• How will you get your first project, and then convert that project into an ongoing client?
• How will you pay your bills if you don't land any clients for 12 months?
• How will you stay connected to others in your profession regionally and nationally?
• How will you establish and maintain your brand?
• How will you obtain payment from a non-paying client?
• How will you handle technology crises?
• How will you continue to expand your knowledge base? This includes your knowledge as a business owner whose goal is to expand your business and earn a profit; as a researcher with specialized topic knowledge and knowledge of information resources; as a marketer who needs to understand both who else might need your skills and how to connect with them; and as a business manager who needs to master key performance tools.
• How will you handle vacations and illness?
• How will you handle too many projects?
• How will you fund your start-up costs?
• How will you handle family and friends disruptions and expectations?
• What contracts do you need, and how will you deal with a client's contract that has unacceptable terms?
• What will your project proposals include, and how will they be formatted?

The good news is that there are several excellent books available to help you work through each of these issues. The reality-check news is that until you've thought all of these through and are confident that you've addressed each one, you're probably not ready to launch.

Recommended Resources

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