focusing and getting things done
I keep meaning to blog about my experience at the AIIP conference, but I also keep getting distracted thinking about getting my business off the ground and getting small things done in that direction. In a coaching session a couple days prior to the conference, Josh had warned me that it had potential to be very defocusing, because I would be interested in all the different things people are doing, which could derail me from my goals. Interestingly, the exact opposite happened — I became more focused than ever on the idea of organizing small and personal libraries. This is the direction that Josh encouraged me to try first when we had our coaching chat, instead of pursuing research or taxonomy work first, so that may have helped me keep my focus.
It should be pointed out, though, that the nature of AIIP allows people to really carve out a niche for their talents, and some of the things people in the organization are so esoteric, they’re not likely to distract someone else from their goals. Instead, they encourage members to hire each other to do the work they can’t do themselves, and on Friday, that is exactly what happened to me — a colleague came to me with a potential client for library collection organization services. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since and it’s definitely had a focusing effect as well. I have a followup email drafted, but it needs revision before I send it. I’m also wondering if I should wait until my business paperwork is in order.
The conference experience reminded me a great deal of my “bootcamp” experience for UIUC-GSLIS’s LEEP program in 2006, and in reflecting on that, I realized that library school actually had a very defocusing effect on me, possibly because it was hard to see the path I wanted to follow while I was there, and because so many interesting options presented themselves to me. (For about half a semester, I even considered YA librarianship, which is so not me.) I left school far less certain about what kind of work I wanted to do than when I started, whereas this weekend feels like it set me back on the track I first identified for myself six years ago.
Anyway, instead of writing blog posts, I have been thinking about networking opportunities, figuring out the details of setting up a small business, considering what breadth of services I am capable of offering, and figuring out how to advertise my services. For example, I just posted my first craigslist ad for my services as an independent professional librarian. I spent most of yesterday evening drafting it; I have a bunch of variations to keep it fresh. I posted it under my real name because I haven’t filed any paperwork with the city yet. At the very least, I need to file a fictitious business name before I can start doing business under my chosen business name. I am planning to get that done before the end of the week. There is a free class at the local Small Business Administration Small Business Development Center tomorrow; I might attend that and try to take care of some of my start-up paperwork afterwards.
While I was reviewing other craigslist ads to help me write my own, I found a professional organizer here in the Bay Area whose services seem like they could be a real complement to mine. I need to find a non-craigslist way to contact her about her business and the possibility of a referral and/or mentoring relationship. I found her on LinkedIn — I might try to connect there — and she has a series of videos on Expert Village — one of which includes a discussion of salary, and which reminded me of the value of the services I am planning to provide. I’m hoping she’ll be willing to share tips on how to safely and responsibly provide services to people in their homes.
I also started thinking about what sorts of other businesses would complement my own, so that I can network further, and where else I can do advertising. In addition to professional organizers, I can think of book appraisers, booksellers, and possibly even furniture stores. There are also some local business organizations I should consider joining, like the Mission Merchants Association and the San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Alliance (SFLOMA), that may help build a network for marketing my services (lots of booksellers belong to that one, for example). As for advertising, I need to figure out how one gets an ad into the Cole Hardware newsletter, and I am considering the feasibility of writing a letter and dropping it into mailslots around the neighborhood, like a TV location manager recently did in the neighborhood to scout for filming locations.
This is all so nutty. I would never have been able to even consider doing this kind of networking before the AIIP conference, much less be excited about getting started on it. It’s like a networking switch got flipped in my brain, and the idea of contacting strangers for networking and referral opportunities feels like no big deal now. Hopefully my next post will start to explain exactly how that happened.
My mind has been flooded with new ways to refer to myself, too, some that I like a lot better than “freelance librarian”. I used “Independent Professional Librarian” in my craigslist ad, and I’m also mulling over “Personal Library Designer”, but I guess that one could limit my eventual work with nonprofits and small businesses. My favorite, however, is “Old-school Information Architect”. I think I am going to save the “fighter of entropy and finder of things” (currently on my business card) for whenever I branch out into research and taxonomy (which, incidentally, I decided this afternoon will probably happen under a different business name).
I really feel like this is all coming together. Last night, I realized that I could potentially have clients that need help acquiring bookcase systems and that by offering services to help with that, I could possibly get paid to assemble flat-pack furniture, which is one of my favorite things to do, ever. For years, my friend Mike and I have discussed posting our funiture assembly services on craigslist to channel our enthusiasm for it into some extra cash, but I think neither one of us knew how much to charge for it, or whether we really had the time to take it on. I don’t know why I didn’t realize I could offer it as part of my personal suite of library design services sooner. It was like discovering my life’s purpose all over again — I was like, not only do I get to do a bunch of library science stuff that I love, I get to do that, too? – and I feel vindicated that I’m back on the right path.