Info-entrepreneurs, represented by the Association of Independent Information Professionals, stand out as innovative, forward thinking, and client focused information professionals.  This series of posts delivers future ready solutions and strategies from current and past presidents of AIIP.  As industry thought leaders they have much to share about staying ahead of the curve and delivering cost effective solutions to clients worldwide.  In this insightful series of postings readers will learn how to create a job for life by listening for opportunity, watching for changes, stretching to acquire new skills, finding a balance, planning for the long term, and drawing on your strengths. — C.S.

by Mary Ellen Bates

When I launched my business back in 1991, I was surprised both by how different it was from my last job as a librarian and how freeing it was to be in control of my professional future. Being a future ready entrepreneur (and I think being future ready is a requirement) has meant constantly pushing myself. The unexpected trade-off to being challenged is that the new skills I’ve built over the years as an info-entrepreneur leak over into the rest of my life as well.

I recently staffed a booth for a local non-profit that I care about. I just picked up brochures, stepped out in front of the booth, and started approaching everyone who walked by, inviting them to find out more about us. The other booth volunteers were amazed. “You just walked up to someone and started talking?!?”

I realized at that moment that all those years staffing conference booths for my business really paid off. I had finally learned that it is, in fact, not at all scary to walk up to people and offer them info about a group. Had I not pushed myself to develop a skill I needed for my business, I wouldn’t have been able to let people know about a local group that I think is doing amazing things.

Fortunately, there’s no need to give up your paycheck just to think like an entrepreneur; you can be an intrapreneur within your own organization. As I reflect on the entrepreneurial skills that are most valued by employers, I realize that most of them are the skills that any future ready info pro needs.

* Look at yourself as a brand, and identify what tangible value you are providing to your organization. How does what you do for your (internal) clients advance the goals of your organization? Are you seen as a strategic asset who brings a unique perspective to a team or project? Can you explain your value in one sentence, in a way that others will hear and understand it?

* Be responsive. In this SMS-driven world, it’s remarkable to find someone who answers the phone when it rings. If someone texts you, respond immediately – even if just to say that you are busy and will call/email/text back later. Pick up the phone to talk directly with clients, because you know that the personal touch makes you memorable.

* Think like your clients. Read the newspapers, magazines and blogs that your clients read. Really. Even when you don’t have the time. The insights and perspectives you gain make you that much more valuable to your clients and enable you to be seen as a partner.

* Shake things up. Assume that whatever you’re doing now will need to be changed within a year. That updating service you’ve offered for years? Maybe it’s being deleted, unread, from everyone’s email. Put a sunset clause in all your programs and re-examine their usefulness, relevance and popularity regularly.

* Push your comfort level. Learning to network, to speak publicly or to write doesn’t come easy to most people. We entrepreneurs push ourselves from Day One to take on things we have never done before and that scare us silly. And we all learn eventually that, with practice and familiarity, it’s not all that hard.

Commit to doing one scary thing for six months, and you’ll see the magic work. Volunteer to host a brown-bag lunch and talk about the value the information center brings to a project team. Call the head of your SLA chapter or division and offer to take on one responsibility – welcoming new members, planning a webinar, or whatever else gives you an opportunity to stretch yourself. Take a client out for coffee and learn about their concerns. (See owl.li/6kHnQ for tips on conducting “informational interviews.”) You get the idea.

Want tools for building your intrapreneurial skills? Check out the Future Ready Toolkit, available to SLA members at wiki.sla.org/display/future/Home.

Mary Ellen Bates is an info industry long-timer, having started her business in 1991. She provides business research and analysis, as well as strategic business and entrepreneurial coaching. She was AIIP president in 1996-1997 and 2004-2005, and currently serves on the SLA Board of Directors.

by Karly Szczepkowski, Michigan Chapter, Business & Finance Division

I still remember when I attended orientation for my MLIS. I wasn’t even sure that I wanted an MLIS! I was sitting in an auditorium and the dean of the program said, “Look around you [at the other students attending orientation]. This is your competition. This is who you will be competing for in the job search.” I hadn’t thought about it that way, but he was right. I looked around the room and saw all these intelligent, hard-working people. How was I going to distinguish myself from them? We will all receive a MLIS, so how will I demonstrate to employers that I am the best candidate for the job?

I went home and thought long and hard. I thought about what I did and didn’t do when pursuing my undergraduate degree. Then I created a three-prong approach. In addition to pursuing my MLIS, I decided to:

1. Gain relevant work experience. For me, this was critical: it would provide experience so I could meet those requirements on job applications, it would provide networking opportunities, and it would expose me to the type of work I would be doing BEFORE I graduated, giving me a chance to evaluate the work and decide if it was what I was really interested in. Figuring this out before graduation was important to me; it’s much less stressful to change your mind when you are a student then when you a permanent full-time employee that may have moved across the country to work in a field you later realize you don’t like. Even if you already have work experience, I still don’t see how it hurts to continue to gain experience while you are studying. I knew a few people who quit their jobs to focus on school full-time; one even turned down a prestigious internship because, “internships are for people with no work experience. I already have experience.” Then they graduated and had no job. Worse, their skills were now 1-2 years old and they were competing against other grads with more current skills.
2. Join a professional association. It’s a great way to network. Since I was interested in nontraditional libraries, I chose to join SLA, which has a very active state chapter. At first, I was afraid to attend meetings. But everyone was so nice and welcoming! They were thrilled to have me join them, even though I was a student. And amazingly, despite living in a state with two library/information science programs, I was often times the only student to attend meetings. That got me noticed! Professional librarians – the people who could possibly have job openings in the future – knew my name, knew I was interested in special libraries, and through my work with SLA, knew what I was capable of.
3. Create my own personal brand. I know what you’re thinking: what does that mean? Isn’t that just some meaningless advertising mumbo-jumbo? Instead of answering that question, I’m going to ask one: What color is the UPS truck? It’s brown. How do you know that? Because UPS made a conscious decision to “brand” itself as brown. Just like Coke made a decision to use red in its packaging and McDonald’s made sure all its arches were golden.

In life, we have many choices on how to ship packages, what to drink and where to eat. And employers have many choices on who to hire. I’ve heard of library directors receiving 100+ resumes for just one open position. How do they choose? That could be a book all in itself, but rather than sit and think about it, I wanted to do something about it. I decided to create my own brand. I was lucky to have a rather unique name, so I decided to use it to my advantage. When people heard my name, I wanted them to associate that name with an up-and-coming information professional.

I did that by taking on a leadership position in my school’s student chapter of SLA, first as Secretary and then as President. I organized frequent tours of special libraries – sometimes one every three weeks (which is another way to network!). I spoke about SLA at student orientation, I served on a panel offering “success tips” to new students, I presented at conferences, and I posted regularly on the student listserv.

You can brand yourself, too. Think about what makes you different from the hundreds of others who are in your LIS program. What do you have to offer that they don’t? Share that with the LIS community!

Can’t think of anything? Well how about this: you have initiative. You’re reading this blog. You’re thinking about what makes you different. Some people never do that. Or some people do, but never do anything about it. Just by doing something about it, you’re demonstrating how you’re different than everyone else with an MLIS. So even if you think what you’re sharing isn’t unique, even if you think you’re not unique, the mere act of taking initiative will make you stand out and get you noticed.

Karly Szczepkowski, is a Development Research Analyst at Wayne State University. She gathers, interprets, analyzes, and disseminates information to secure support for the University. Karly is currently President of the Michigan Chapter of SLA.

by Sandy Malloy, San Francisco Bay Region Chapter, News Division

David Meerman Scott, a marketing strategist whose work I see all the time, wrote a post on his WebInkNow blog, “Apple Is Not Different,” in which he opines that no product or company matters outside the context of the problems they solve for the user.  Says Scott, “What your buyers do care about are themselves and they care a great deal about solving their problems (and are always on the lookout for a company that can help them do so.)”

Substitute “patrons” or “customers” or “clients” or “users” for “buyers” in this statement and “librarian” for “company” and you have a situation that we librarians should take to heart.

Scott cites Apple as an example of a company whose products are considered cool.  But even the coolest products are only as good as the problems they solve.  Sleek design?  That solves the problem of “ho, hum, I have a computer on my desk”; in other words, boredom.  The “it-factor” of being a member of the Apple tribe?  That solves the problem of needing to feel a sense of community or belonging.  Lack of viruses?  Congratulations, you’ve saved the trouble of buying and maintaining a lot of external virus detection software.

Do you believe you should create a brand for yourself?  Remake your image?  Market your library?  SLA’s Alignment Project gives you tools to do all these things, and they are important, but mean nothing outside the context of understanding your clients and how you are going to solve their problems.

So, it’s not “my library.”  It’s YOUR library (you, my client) and I’m going to do my best to understand how you want to use it.  Do you want it on your desktop?  In your pocket?  Would a regular email newsletter help you do your job?  What about tweets of new articles that are available?  A spreadsheet of leads?  What can I do to help you get new business, or satisfy regulators, or help you look good to your boss?

Even the language barrier cited by SLA alignment research speaks to connecting with our clients.  When we use their language, we say that we understand the organization’s business or at least enough of it to be on their wavelength when it comes to solving problems for them.

As a group, we librarians or are a very service-oriented group.  But we can also be proprietary about what we know and the resources to which we have access.  In promoting ourselves and our libraries in terms of resources and our own knowledge, we are, in marketing-speak, touting features.  What we need to be touting are benefits.  To quote Mr. Scott once again, being aware of “what’s in it for me? [the client]“, we are “addressing real problems rather than reverse engineering a benefit based on the feature set. ”

Sandy Malloy is Senior Information Specialist at Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, the San Francisco-based distributor of press releases where she has worked for almost 22 years.  She received her MLS from the University of Southern California and has been an information broker, public librarian, academic librarian, medical librarian and sales representative (though not all at the same time.)