(Ebook) Building Running a Successful Research Business A Guide for the Independent Information Professional 2nd Edition by Mary Ellen Bates ISBN 9780910965859 0910965854

(Ebook) Building Running a Successful Research Business A Guide for the Independent Information Professional 2nd Edition by Mary Ellen Bates ISBN 9780910965859 0910965854

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Product details: 

ISBN 10:  0910965854

ISBN 13: 9780910965859

Author: Mary Ellen Bates

The essential handbook for every information entrepreneur, this is the indispensable guide to launching, managing, and growing an independent research firm. From beginning to end, this newly updated study navigates through every stage of the process—introductory procedures, conducting the company, the ideal marketing methods, and maximizing research. From making key decisions and closing the sale to maintaining good relationships with clients and tapping into powerful information sources beyond the Web, this first-rate collection of tips, tricks, and techniques is the key to building a successful information business.

Table of contents: 

Section One: Getting Started

Chapter 1-What's an Independent Info Pro?

What's This Business All About?.

So What Do You Do, Anyway?

Online Research

Library Research

Public Records Research

Telephone Research

Document Delivery

Competitive Intelligence

Information Management.

Library Staffing

Training and Seminars

Focus, Focus, Focus

Where Will I Find My Clients?

Real-Life Examples

Color Printer Market

Finding Funding

Automobile Aftermarket

Frequently Asked Questions

"How can you sell me someone else's information?"

"Why do you charge me when

it's all free on the Web?"

"What if you don't find any information?"

"What training or education is required?"

"Will you hire me? Can I intern for you?"

"Can I do this part-time?"

"How much will I earn?"

Endbar: Independent Info Pro Reality Checklist

Chapter 2-A Day in the Life of an Independent Info Pro

My Typical Day

Your Typical Day

Issues We All Face

Endbar: Eternal Verities in the Life of an Independent Info Pro

Chapter 3-The Joys and Frustrations of Being an Independent Info Pro

The Thrills of Being an Independent Info Pro

Sidebar: It All Depends

The Chills of Being an Independent Info Pro

Sidebar: With a Little Help from My Friends

Endbar: The Best and Worst of Being an Independent Info Pro

Chapter 4-Are You a Potential Independent Info Pro?

The People Skills

The Entrepreneurial Skills

The Business Skills.

The Information Skills

Where Can You Get Help?

Endbar: Checklist of Key Independent Info Pro Skills

Chapter 5-Understanding Your Competition

Who Am I Up Against?

Special Libraries

Public and Academic Libraries

Information on the Desktop

Joe Down the Hall

Sidebar: "Can You Find That on the Web?"

Working with Your Competition

Sidebar: An Example of "Coopetition"

Looking for Competition

Making Yourself Competition Proof

Endbar: Lessons Learned About Competition

Chapter 6-Structuring Your Business

Incorporating or Keeping It Simple

Sole Proprietorship

Sidebar: Protecting Your Social Security Number

Partnership

Limited Liability Company

Corporation

Sidebar: My Newly Incorporated Life

Going Solo or Playing a Duet

Hired Help or Ad Hoc Subcontracting

Endbar: Deciding on the Structure of Your Business

Chapter 7-Before You Launch.

Business Plans and Other Pipe Dreams

Sidebar: Business Plan Checklist

Your Marketing Plan-

Getting Clients to Beat a Path to Your Door

Who Are Your Clients?

What About My Steady Paycheck?

Moonlighting Employee

Full-Time Entrepreneur

Part-Time Entrepreneur

Just Do It!

Endbar: Checklist for Launching Your Business

Chapter 8-Setting Up Your Business

Who Am I?

Sidebar: Are You My Employer?

What Am I?

Where Am I?

Office Equipment Checklist

Sidebar: Shopping Perils, Pitfalls, and Precautions

Other Office Expenditures

Your Public Face

Sidebar: Tackling That To-Do List

Staying in Touch

Setting Up Office Procedures

Paying Your Dues

Endbar: Final Thoughts on Setting Up Your Business

Chapter 9-Software for Your Business

The Basics

Word Processing

E-mail.

Web Browser

Accounting

Backups

Virus Protection

The Nice-to-Haves.

Adobe Acrobat

PowerPoint

Screen Capture

FTP

Dedicated Search Software

File Compression

Other Cool Tools

Endbar: Software Lessons Learned

Chapter 10-Work and the Rest of Your Life

Living Abundantly

Time Management, or

"I think I'll take a little break now"

"The Info Pro Is In"

Sidebar: Take a Day Off

Creating a Good Office Environment

Going on Vacation

"Call My Associate"

"Here's My Password"

"Good Morning, Research"

"I'm Outta Here"

Sidebar: E-Mail Vacation Message

Business Coaches: Help, I Need Somebody

Endbar: Life Lessons Learned

Section Two: Running the Business

Chapter 11-Managing Your Clients

Monogamy vs. Playing the Field

Is Any Client Too Small?

Sidebar: Working for the Cause

Tire-Kickers, Lookie-Loos, and Low-Ballers

Sidebar: Free Samples, Anyone?

Let's Not Do Lunch

Handling RFPs

Advantages of RFPs

Disadvantages of RFPS.

Sidebar: Government Contracts the Easy Way

The Art of Proposal Writing

Sidebar: A Sample Proposal

Get It in Writing?

When to Say "No"

The Project from Hell

How to Fire a Client

Endbar: Top Tips for Managing Clients

Chapter 12-Money, Money, Money

Financing Your Business

Accounting 101

Billing and Collections

The Check's in the Mail

Be Explicit

Sidebar: "Will That Be Visa or MasterCard?"

Ask if They're Happy

Presenting the Invoice

Net 30 Means Net 30

Cash Flow

Sidebar: Overhead vs. Cost of Goods Sold

Paying Yourself

Paying the Tax Man

Endbar: Living Large, or Managing Your Money

Chapter 13-Setting Rates and Fees

Setting an Hourly Rate

Hourly Rates or Flat Fee?

Estimating a Project

What's Involved?

Sidebar: What'll It Cost?

Pricing Permutations

Sidebar: Working 9-5, Monday-Friday, Period.

Bid High or Don't Bid

Presenting the Estimate

Can You Get the Money Up Front?

Recalibrating Rates

Endbar: Top Tips for Rates and Fees

Chapter 14-Subcontracting, or I'll Scratch Your Back

if You Scratch Mine

How Does Subcontracting Work, and Why Should I Share?

Calling in the Experts

On the Road Again

Needing Low-End Labor

The Challenges of Subcontracting

Sidebar: Points to Ponder

Following the Golden Rule

If You're the Contractor

Sidebar: What About Referral Fees?

If You're the Subcontractor

Running a Subcontractor-Based Business

Endbar: Top Tips for Subcontracting

Chapter 15-Ethics and Legalities

IANAL

Ethical Quandaries

Handling Conflicts.

Client Confidentiality

Reading the Fine Print

Sidebar: Playing by the Rules

Contracts and Agreements

Sidebar: Dangerous Words

Keeping Your Word

Copyright Perils

Recycling Results

Legal Collections

Endbar: Top Tips for Remaining Lawsuit-Free

Chapter 16-Professional Development

AIIP: Your Secret Weapon

Associations Galore

Hi, My Name Is

Sidebar: Getting the Most Value from a Conference

Staying on Top of the Industry(s)

The Invisible Network

Endbar: Top Tips for Maintaining Your Expertise

Chapter 17-Strategic Planning

Getting a Yearly Check-Up

Sidebar: Saying "Thank You"

What More Can I Do for My Clients?

Spotting Troublesome Clients

Looking at the Revenue Mix

Sidebar: Planning to Plan

Taking Time to Think.

Building a Brain Trust

Sidebar: Listening to Your Clients Expanding Your (and Your Clients") Vision

Finding a Sounding Board

Endbar: Top Strategic Planning Tips

Section Three: Marketing

Chapter 18-Marketing Do's and Don'ts

Who Needs You?

Sidebar: Information-Hungry Professions

Know What the Client Needs

Think Globally, Not Locally

You're Always "On".

"Can You Do This for Me?"

Ten Mistakes New Independent Info Pros Make

Endbar: Successful Marketing Techniques

Chapter 19-Your Business Image

Here's My Card

Designing a Logo

Paper Matters

Don't Forget to Call

Sidebar: Business Cards and Logos That Work

Your Brochure

Your Telephone Image

Answering Your Phone

Creating a Marketing Kit.

Endbar: Checklist for Polishing Your Business Image

Chapter 20-Marketing on the Web.

Establishing Your Web Presence

Reserving a Domain Name

Creating a Web Site

Sidebar: Publishing Your Rate Sheet

Getting Listed in Search Engines and Directories

Getting People to Visit Your Site

Sidebar: Tracking Your Web Visitors

Marketing with E-Mail

Participating in Electronic Discussions

Endbar: Top Tips for Marketing on the Web

Chapter 21-Print Marketing

Starting Your Mailing List

Mass Mailings: Directly to the Wastebasket?

Targeted Mailings

Client Newsletters and Postcards

Newsletters

Promotional Postcards

Mailing Services

Sidebar: Tickler Files

Directories

Do Clients' Fingers Do the Walking?

Specialized Directories

Print Advertising

Endbar: Top Tips for Print Marketing

Chapter 22-Marketing by Writing and Speaking

Author, Author!.

Writing a Query Letter

Writing Well

From 3,000 Words to 100,000

Speaking Your Piece

Starting Local

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

Finding a Test Audience

Going Global

Learning to Speak

PowerPoint Tips

Sidebar: Public Speaking Pep Talk.

Endbar: Lessons Learned as a Writer and Speaker

Chapter 23-Starting the Word of Mouth

Promoting "Brand You"

"What Does Your Company Do?"

The Art of Schmoozing

"How Did You Hear About Me?"

Working the Associations

Maximizing Your Exhibiting Dollar

Asking for Referrals

Leads and Networking Clubs

Viral Marketing

Endbar: Top Tips for Starting Positive Word of Mouth

Chapter 24-Public Relations

Doing Something Newsworthy

Writing a Press Release

Sidebar: Sample Press Release

Getting Noticed

Sidebar: "According to Client X"

Becoming a Certified Expert

Building a Press Kit

Giving Good Sound Bites

Endbar: Public Relations Checklist

Section Four: Researching

Chapter 25-The Reference Interview

Steps in a Reference Interview

Step One: First Contact

Step Two: Explore the Question

Sidebar: Getting at the Underlying Question

Step Three: Negotiate Everything

Step Four: Stop and Estimate

Step Five: Get Buy-In

Sidebar: Am I Giving Away My Secrets?

Sources of Ambiguity

Endbar: Top Tips for Negotiation

Chapter 26-Thinking Like a Researcher

Ready, Fire, Aim

What Form of Information Are You Looking For?

Will You Know It When You See It?

How Much Do You Know About the Subject?

What's at Stake?

Seeing Horizons and Setting Limits

Sidebar: Working for Free

Mapping Out a Large Project

Tutorials on Research Techniques

Endbar: A Researcher's Checklist

Chapter 27-Approaching Online Research

It's All on the Web for Free, Right?

What's Missing?

Free vs. Fee

Boolean Basics

Adjacency, Truncation, and Other Power Tools

Endbar: Top Tips for Online Research

Chapter 28-Web Research 101

How Search Engines Work

Getting the Most from Search Engines

Web Directories and Guides

The Invisible Web

Discussion Forums and Lists

Sidebar: Mining Yahoo! Groups for Gold

Evaluating the Reliability of Web Sites

Searching Efficiently

Endbar: Top Tips for Internet Research

Chapter 29-Professional Online Services

"This Costs How Much???"

Cheaper by the Dozen?

The Big Three (Plus a Few)

Dialog

Factiva.com

LexisNexis

The Best of the Rest

Sidebar: "Visitor" Access

Power Tools

Controlling Searches with Controlled Vocabulary

Personalizing Your Online Experience

Tracking Your Costs

When in Doubt, Subcontract Out

Endbar: Tips for Using the Professional Online Services.

Chapter 30-Specialized Online Services

Broad but Low-Powered Services

eLibrary

FindArticles.com

FT.com

Low-Fee Specialized Services.

EDGAR Filings

Hoover's Online

State-United States.

Market Research Services

Profound

Market Research Aggregators

Public Records Databases

Endbar: Checklist for Using Specialized Online Services

Chapter 31-Telephone Research

What's Involved in Phone Research?.

Characteristics of a Good Phone Researcher

The Challenges of Telephone Research

Successful Telephone Interviews.

Telephone Research Ethics

Endbar: Checklist for Telephone Researchers

Chapter 32-Public Records Research

What Does a Public Records Researcher Do?

Is a Public Records Researcher a PI?

Learning How to Research Public Records

Challenges of Public Records Research

Ethical and Legal Issues

Getting Started as a Public Records Researcher

Public Records Databases

Endbar: Lessons for Public Records Researchers

Chapter 33-Library and Other Manual Research

Using Specialized Local Collections

Document Delivery Services

Copyright Issues

Online Tools for Manual Researchers

Endbar: Top Tips for Library Researchers

Chapter 34-Deliverables

No Added Value = No Perceived Value

Basic Data Massage

Sidebar: Macro for Removing Manual Line Breaks

Packaging Your Results

Sidebar: Generating Tables of Contents

Moving Beyond Research Results

Less Is More

Output Options from the Professional Online Services

Dialog

DataStar

Factive

LexisNexis

Branding and "Sealing" Your Results

Archiving Search Results...

Endbar: Top Tips for Preparing Deliverables

Chapter 35-Other Services You Can Offer

Training, Workshops, and Seminars

Technical Writing

Outsourced Library Services

Consulting Services

Endbar: Checklist of Other Information Services Independent

Info Pros Can Offer.

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