This week out of the blue I had an email asking if I could quote for some research work at the Northamptonshire Records Office. The potential client was someone from Canada who was researching a family in Cosgrove. Dutifully I replied with my reasonable quotation.
Needless to say that I didn't get the work, not because my quotation was too much (I have researched prices a lot and double checked them before I sent out my quotation) but because they found the information (or at least information similar) on a website. However, they did say that should they have any more research that needs to be done they will be in touch.
One thing I did gain was the website that they had found which although doesn't have much use to my own family, will be of some use to someone else and has been put on the useful links list.
This got me thinking, what is seen as a successful connection when working as a researcher (or in any self employment). Is it the monetary gain? Is it the networking and contacts? Is it gaining skills to help others.
It could be suggested that from this "free" quotation I have actually gained a useful source about another area in the County and also gained a contact who may commission some work in the future. As I have found with my other line of work, you have to take everything you can whether it be a financial gain or otherwise because the most important thing is the connections and contacts.
I'm terrible at self-promoting myself. If anyone has every visited either of my facebook pages for my businesses (Claret Clef Family Research and Claret Clef Music and Arts) you'll know that I don't update these very often and don't promote what I'm doing. Although I have a very big twitter presence I use it to voice what I think about many things but do not promote what I am working on.
There is a big reason for this. I worry that by having too many "friends" and "followers" on what is essentially my work place it blurs those lines between work and pleasure. It may look good that you have lots of likes on a page on facebook but if those likes only represent 1% of your work does it really reflect whether you're successful or not. Do you really want all of your friends knowing what you do in your day to day work and is their any benefit of them knowing? Also on the other hand, do you want your potential clients seeing random comments from your friends. Getting the balance is very difficult.
I have, for the first time, put a post on my facebook about my family research page. I'm not sure I would dare do the same for my other page as I feel that it may be detrimental to my business. Also it will be interesting to see how much interest I gain from the promotion.
Only time will tell.
