Table of Contents
Chapter 1: What is information consulting?
An information professional: to be or not to be1
The possible roles: the demands on which information consultants reflect
Consulting encompasses a wide range of roles and activities
Chapter 2: Advantages: why information consulting might appeal to you
Sense of control over one’s time
Sense of reward from helping clients
Satisfaction from leveraging one’s experience
Freedom from corporate politics
Chapter 3: Challenges: realities to consider
Need for flexibility and being available
Finances: are the necessary resources in place?
Can you tolerate a slow ramp-up? Should you work part time or subcontract?
The degree is only the beginning
Are you a consulting personality?
Qualities that may trip you up
Chapter 4: The starting point: make a business plan
Products and services, their features and benefits
The outlook for the targeted business sector
Identifying costs, funding and fees
Chapter 5: The legal environment
Intellectual property and copyright
Code of Professional Conduct for the Information Consultant
Chapter 6: Building trust and marketing your services
Understanding makes reputation and detects niches
Your ‘business attire’: creating and maintaining image
Word-of-mouth: happy clients do marketing for you
Electronic promotional brochure
Chapter 7: Client relations: the key to success
The request for proposal (RFP): to bid or not to bid?
Yes, I can help (informal inquiry)
Preliminary discussions: what, exactly, are you selling this time?
Signature in hand: now the work begins
The art of the client relationship
Delivering the deliverables: report, presentation, discussion
Wrap up … and setting up for the future
Chapter 8: Advice from other information consultants
‘Just one more clarification’: agreeing to deliverables vs delivering in advance
Keeping your integrity: what to do if you’re told what to do
Maintaining poise and neutrality while getting people to open up
Encountering concerns outside the official project scope
Who said that? Protecting the trust client staff place in you
Losing objectivity or being seen as taking sides
Working with clients in the same industry
Coping with the disappointment of burning the midnight oil … only to see the report collecting dust
You’re good, and don’t you forget it
Chapter 9: Take a leap from being a librarian to becoming an information consultant
Assessing the demands for the information professional
Expert practitioner ‘falls into’ consultancy
Ways of repositioning the librarian profession and schools
Chapter 10: The clients speak: from a client’s perspective
The motivation to use an information consultant
How to find the right consultant
The ‘top five’ list of consultants’ qualities