Marketing Your Independent Research Business with a Framework to Withstand the Test of Time

Over a century ago in the coal-streaked hills of Pennsylvania, a Ukrainian immigrant from the Carpathian town of Sklo found himself pinned deep in a mine, permanently injured. With no workers' compensation or unemployment, just a wife, four children, and the terrifying question: Now what?

Dido (ді́до), as we called him, didn’t have dashboards or AI to guide his next move. He turned to a fellow Ukrainian from Sklo, A.B. Krantzler, a merchant with his finger on the town’s pulse. They landed on a simple idea: Dido would sharpen miners' axes and picks. At the time, miners had to maintain their own tools. Dull blades meant lower pay and thus he opened up a shop. Dido's faster, affordable sharpening service gave him back purpose and a reminder that entrepreneurship starts with solving a basic problem and finding your value proposition.

Being in Transition: Then and Now

Much like Dido, many researchers today face a reckoning and they need to determine what unique problems they can solve. Industry disruption, layoffs, and budget cuts have led to a wave of professionals reevaluating their careers. The Insights Career Network’s Hiring Research Study confirms this disruption: in response, more researchers are turning to freelancing and consulting.

To better understand how to make this leap to independent research professional, we spoke with three research entrepreneurs:

• Doug Keith, founder of Future 2 Research

• Marilyn Heywood Paige, a freelancer marketing coach at Heywood Paige

• Paul Griffiths, a UK-based strategist with Client Advocates

Each shared practical steps to move from employment to entrepreneurship, beginning with a shift in mindset.

Step One: Don’t Sell Services—Solve Problems

Transitioning researchers often default to pitching resumes. But a more effective approach is to lead with curiosity. Start by reconnecting with a community of around 100 people—not to sell, but to learn what problems they're facing. Document conversations, follow up, and focus on building relationships. This is exactly the first step Dido took over a hundred years ago.

Paul Griffiths puts it bluntly:

“Don’t go looking for work. Don’t go looking for briefs. Look for problems.”

Feedback from his network revealed a surprising insight: while some thought he was a “terrible researcher,” they admired his client communication and his ability to amplify others’ work. That became his niche.

Doug Keith emphasized a similar shift:

“How I help people is helping them get beyond just the study objectives and say, ‘You’re trying to achieve this larger goal. Did you think about this?’”

Marilyn Heywood Paige recommends using a simple Venn diagram to guide your direction:

• What you’re good at

• What you enjoy

• What the market will pay for

The overlap? That’s your sweet spot.

 

Step Two: Be Seen and Earn Trust

Visibility and trust are currency for freelancers. As Marilyn puts it:

“People don’t invest unless they trust. Freelancing is not a sprint; it’s a marathon.”

She stresses the importance of LinkedIn engagement—not self-promotion, but thoughtful interaction. Comment on posts, join conversations and share your perspective on topics your community already cares about.

Paul calls this process building a funnel:

1. Awareness: "If they don’t know or trust you, they won’t buy."

2. Nurture: "Demonstrate commitment and value over time."

3. Sales: "Only after trust is built do you offer something."

He spends two days a week analyzing LinkedIn for trending themes, then shares insights—a method also used by Kelvin Claveria for his "Fresh Insights" newsletter.

Kelvin Claveria curates LinkedIn content weekly for the Insights Career Network’s Fresh Insights Newsletter, focusing on five of the most engaging topics in market research. He saves these articles to his LinkedIn account, condenses them into abstracts, and adds his own point of view. Using LinkedIn’s article template, he formats and publishes a digest once a week. This simple, repeatable process is an effective content strategy that can be adapted to your freelance business.

Step Three: Avoid the Feast-or-Famine Cycle

A common freelancer trap is the sell-execute loop: pitch until you land a project, then disappear into delivery. To build momentum, you need to continually keep your pipeline warm, even when you’re busy. However, many freelancers share that it is quite difficult to avoid this cycle.

Doug Keith advises:

“Even when you’re busy, check in with future clients. Schedule follow-ups.”

Marilyn adds:

“Don’t wait for work to come to you—always be creating value, paid or not.”

Paul encourages setting clear financial goals, then reverse-engineering the number of projects needed.

“Have a commercial plan, a marketing strategy, a brand. Run it like a business.”

Isabel Balboa emphasizes the importance of budgeting for slower periods, consistently nurturing your pipeline, and maintaining a side gig as a financial buffer. She’s observed that for many of her clients, research work tends to slow down significantly during the summer months—what she calls “ridiculously slow.” Planning ahead can help freelancers stay afloat and stress-free during seasonal lulls.

Helen Karchner estimates she has about 142 clients across a wide range of industries—health, retail, biotech, medical devices, banking, finance, and health insurance. Her advice? ‘Follow the money.’ She encourages freelancers to diversify the industries they serve and learn when those industries typically see an influx of cash. For instance, she’s found that the pharmaceutical sector is most cash-rich from August through March, essentially Q3 and Q4. Because Helen understands the rhythms of her clients’ businesses, she knows exactly when to ramp up outreach and which clients to prioritize throughout the year.

Another important lesson for freelancers: when you’re in a feast season, ‘make sure it’s actually a feast.’ Sometimes clients don’t pay on time—or at all. Other times, they promise a big project ‘in a few months,’ only to cancel at the last minute. While clients often ask you to sign contracts, you should have a contract that you have them sign that protects you too.

Dean Stephens of Happy Talk Research recommends including language like:

• If recruitment criteria or methodology changes, costs may need to be revised and additional charges may be incurred.

• Charges may be incurred for project cancellation, postponement, and/or late payment.

Dean has even charged a flat cancellation fee on complex projects. It’s rarely worth billing by the hour for the time you spent pricing out costs, designing a methodology, and writing a proposal—unless you’ve arranged that upfront. Setting expectations early ensures you’re not left doing unpaid work when a project falls through.

Conclusion: What Happened to Dido?

I heard Dido’s story from his grandson who shared a highlight reel about his life at a community meeting in D.C.. He had opened his shop sharpening the town’s axes and pics. He helped build a church and bought a farm. During the Great Depression, he gave away produce to townspeople in need, quietly and humbly expanding his legacy and network through generosity. Forced from his home during World War I, he never returned to Carpathia or his hometown of Sklo.

As my Ukrainian friend Svitlana tells me, many Ukrainians flee to the Carpathian Mountains for safety where the terrain is too remote and rugged for Russian drones. I like to imagine that Dido and his partner A.B.’s souls have found their way back to Carpathia, together thwarting the drones in the mountain mist and still solving problems because resourcefulness and the fight for freedom never go out of style. 

Svitlana Shemeta, her husband, and dog, Zefirka in the Carpathian Mountain mist

Photo Credit: Svitlana Shemeta