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Written by Joanna Ptolomey
 As an independent information professional you are
quite well versed (if not expert) in finding, using, synthesising and
delivering information to your clients. More often than not, this information
process will help drive your client's business in some way. Our clients use our
information to help them deal with uncertainty and risk, improving their
ability to change and thereby helping them strategically deliver their
organisational goals.
It would therefore seem a natural link that we as
independents can use the same approach for our own independent business
development. We need to use information in the same way as our clients.
So how to we manage ‘business as usual' as well as
strategic development? What kind of information would we need to consider
using? To help manage this process in my own independent business, I have
developed a strategic business audit and planning model to gather information
about my business and then use the outcomes for my one-year business plan.
Independents and
strategic planning
It is fair to say that the majority of independent
professionals are lone workers, so should they need a process borrowed from the
corporate world? Perhaps some of you decided to become independent to escape
the corporate world and all of its language and baggage. Perhaps you were
seeking the flexibility of independent work and have other commitments to fit
in.
The reality is that, unless you have a private income
or have won the lottery, then you will need to make money from your business on
a regular basis and plan for continued change and future income. It is my
experience that using a strategic plan has helped me to be more effective in
the operational running of my business. I have less time to work now, as I have
a young family, and I need to know that I am running the business most
effectively for my situation.
These are some of the key areas that you need to
consider for your strategic plan:
- Vision and mission: do you have a clear idea of why
you work and what you offer?
- Situation audit: do you have data to understand your
business and its finances, and how are you managing risk and building value?
- Objectives: what are the goals?
- Programmes: how you break down the goals into tasks?
- Review and evaluation: checking on progress and the
results.
Vision and mission
Let me be quite open; I don't have a vision or a
mission statement. I don't feel the need to go to that length and I don't have
any employees so I don't need to explain the path that the business is on.
However, I do need to know why I am doing the work I am doing and what I can
offer clients. Do you?
How are you doing?
When you work independently, you are always looking
for new and exciting opportunities for generating work and moving into new
areas. How can you plan for change when you are not sure that what you are
doing right now is effective?
The first step in strategically developing your
business is to identify and analyse your business as it stands at the moment;
use the information trapped inside your business. We can all be busy, but are we busy doing the
right things? Your potential for growth may not be what you are concentrating
on at the moment.
There are five key areas that I review for my annual
business audit and bear in mind that you and your business don't operate in a
vacuum. Consider your reaction to external forces also.
- Existing client base and recent projects
- Operational procedures and protocols
- Pricing structures
- Project price estimates against actual costs
- Critical success measures.
Clients and projects
Use the information about your clients and the
projects you have been involved in to provide evidence for moving forward. Consider
some of these questions:
- How many clients do you have and have you done
repeat work for them?
- How do new clients find you? Word of mouth?
- Are your clients limited by sector?
- Are you clients happy with the service and products
they receive? Have you asked them?
- What type of projects do you do? (research, consultancy, training etc.)
- Do you take on long-term projects or quick
turnaround?
- Are you specialist or a generalist? (either by industry sector or in the type of
work that you do)
- What type of projects do clients generally ask you
to do and do you get asked to a lot of similar work?
- Do you have to turn down work on a regular basis?
- Are you working at full capacity for paid work?
- Have some projects not gone well? With hindsight, what were the reasons?
Procedures and
protocols
As the saying goes ‘time is money', so why waste your
precious unpaid time by reinventing the wheel for operational processes? Are
there certain features of your work that could be standardised?
For example, I generally produce scoping papers for
large research projects and I developed a standard heading template for this. I
have also developed a standard heading template for reports. Look for evidence
of how you manage and deliver your work, and use this information to make your
time more effective.
Finances
This is a very important item to consider and not just
because money literally puts bread on the table. The financial killer for the
independent is cash flow, and you can be turnover rich and cash flow poor. I
know this from experience, and I believe that I am not alone.
We all need to pay for things on a regular basis such
government insurances and tax revenues, utilities bills, business overheads and
even cat food, so waiting for money can be tricky. If, like me, you do large
projects over months, then cash coming through the business can be a problem.
Either plan for ‘desert cash months' or stage payments with clients for big
projects. Consider also doing some very
short work.
Use the information about your clients and map the
money you make from them. Some clients may have poorer returns on time spent on
projects and money received.
Look at your rates and consider:
- Your rates in relation to the market - and remember
that geographic differences do occur
- What you charge for products and do you have
different rates for different products?
- Are you estimating work accurately? I realised that I was underestimating the
time for writing up some projects after examination of past projects.
What is success?
Will you know success when you see it? What are the
most important ingredients for the success of your business? Every independent
will have different success criteria and you must use this information to
measure and guide what you are doing on a yearly basis.
Is it about reaching a specific turnover? Is it
getting two new clients? Is it getting a book published? Is it being able to
drop your children at school and nursery everyday and just pay the bills? Make
sure you know what success means for you and your business.
Objectives
Now that you have identified what is driving your
business, how it is functioning and the desired state for the future you can
generate a plan with objectives. I generally formulate my business plan running
from April to March because it fits in with the UK financial year and most of my
work runs to this time frame.
To build the strategic plan to fuel the next year we
need to use the information we have gathered about our business and develop
objectives. These objectives will be long, medium and short term, and will be
tied into your critical success criteria. It will be the short and medium
objectives that translated will become programmes and tasks.
Having tasks based on your own evidence should result
in better outcomes. Be clear and
specific about objectives and write them down in terms of the results to be
achieved rather than actual tasks.
For example, you may want to get two new clients this
year (the objective). The individual tasks may include networking, speaking at
a conference where you may meet prospective clients, or showcasing a recent
project in an industry specific journal.
Implement, review and
evaluate
Implement your plan and off you go. Job done? Well,
no, not really. Make sure that you review and evaluate what you are doing on a
regular basis.
Personally I like to review my plan every quarter; it
gives to me a sense of stability and purpose and keeps me focused. Remember to
evaluate your plan - and just because you didn't tick something off that does
not mean you failed. Perhaps you learned
some other valuable lessons.
Use your own
information: the independent's greatest asset
The main thing to remember that this is your business,
and you want to enjoy it - and obviously make money. Being independent is
liberating, exciting, joyful and fun, but it can be a worry and risky too.
Use the information trapped inside your business (and
you) and relate it to the outside world and you will be more confident in
managing your business effectively. See this as another tool to help in your
independent voyage.
Joanna Ptolomey (info@joannaptolomey.co.uk) is an independent information worker based
in Glasgow, Scotland. Her book Taking Charge of Your Career: a
guide for library and information professionals is published by Chandos and
will be available later on this year.
Her practice portfolio covers research services,
consultancy, bespoke training courses, writing for publication and conference
work.
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