Mary Ellen Bates

Business Research for Business Professionals

Mary Ellen Bates is the owner of Bates Information Services, providing business research to business professionals and consulting services to the online industry. An internationally known speaker and writer based in Washington, DC, she is the author of five books, including two Super Searchers titles, Super Searchers Do Business and Super Searchers Cover the World.

mbates@BatesInfo.com www.BatesInfo.com

Let's begin with your background. Tell me how you came to be an independent information business owner.

I started out as a special librarian and worked for a number of years in law libraries, in both private law firms and for the federal court system, and then went on to manage the library at MCI. After a while, I realized my career path as a corporate or special librarian would require that I manage more people and get more into administration, which I really didn't want to do. I have an independent streak a mile wide in my makeup, and somewhere around the mid-1980s I heard of information brokering. I remember thinking that it sounded like an interesting thing to do. I thought about it for several years, started saving business cards and — more importantly — my money, and imagined what it would be like to be working from home and running my own business. And then I just did it. I quit my job and my first client was my last employer, MCI.

Thinking about your work as a special librarian, what experience did you gain that was important or valuable to your work as an independent?

Mainly it was my experience at MCI. At the time that I worked there, it was a small, entrepreneurial kind of wild-and-crazy place where you could make any mistake as long as you didn't make the same mistake twice. And you could try anything as long as it didn't cost anything, which was a great experience. It encouraged creativity and risk taking, and I learned a lot about how to market myself and the information service within the organization. People didn't know about the library when I started it, so a lot of my efforts involved marketing within the company. I learned how to manage a budget and did all kinds of research. A firm background in information from my M.L.S. at Berkeley helped too, because it gave me a foundation to think about how information is organized and managed.

You prompted my next question about your formal education. Which pieces of your undergraduate and graduate degrees were relevant to your business?

Well, not much in my B.A., which is in mathematical philosophy — although, as it turns out, that was Boolean logic back in the early days before many people thought that way. When I got my bachelor's degree, I swore I would never work with computers, but then I stumbled into my first library job and took to it like a fish to water. That's what prompted me to go back and get my M.L.S. I was managing a database within a library at a law firm, having had no idea what I was getting into when I started, but finding that I loved it.

Can you think of any courses in your library training that stand out?

I took one course in special librarianship, which was the only one they had twenty years ago. I took a lot of programming and computer classes; one of the benefits of being a graduate student at Berkeley was that you could bump the undergraduates to get into the popular computer classes. You didn't have to take all your courses within the library school, so I took a good amount of information technology and information management courses as well as the regular M.L.S. coursework.

That sounds like a good foundation to understand the computer side of our business.

I wouldn't necessarily encourage people to do that today. That was back when people were using punch cards for programming. At the time it was very useful, because at my first job I was building databases, and it was a very low-level kind of programming that I had to do. These days, I would certainly encourage people to take more business classes, because you have to talk the lingo. I just didn't see myself being a corporate librarian when I was going to library school.

How did you handle the logistics of getting started, such as setting up your office space and equipment?

I was lucky in that my house has a full basement that I used to rent out. It was empty at the time that I started my business, so I took it over, which was nice because I had a little kitchen and the whole nine yards. The living room became my office. The first thing I did was contract with a graphic artist to design a corporate logo. It took a long time to get a logo that the artist and I were happy with. I'm really glad I did that, because it enabled me to start my business looking established. I wince when I see new businesses that have funky-looking stationery and business cards — it looks like they've just started out and aren't willing to spend any money on their business. The logo design cost a lot of money, but I'm really glad I made the investment.

Then I went out and bought a computer, the highest-end printer I could find, a fax machine; I got all my different phone lines in order, did the paperwork for the local Washington DC business licensing agency, and set up accounts with the online services.

What about professional advice from an attorney or accountant?

I did some brief consulting with an attorney. I didn't talk to an accountant in the beginning, as I'm pretty comfortable with that kind of thing. My attorney helped me think through my corporate structure; the best choice for me was to set up as a sole proprietorship. Then I just bought QuickBooks [104, see Appendix] and set up my business accounts to make it easy to report my income and expenses to the IRS.

I did all this planning and preparation on weekends and evenings, before I actually launched my business, and I took a few vacation days from my job. That was important because then, when I started, I didn't have any excuse. I couldn't say, "Oh well, I can't really start marketing myself yet because I have to noodle around with my computer a little while." I had all this stuff done, so that on day one, I had to get out there and start hustling.

What are the advantages of having your office in your home?

Actually, my office is outside my home now. After about five years we did a major renovation of the house, and I moved...