I was reading again yesterday a post over at Law21 about law school and the legal system. It was a fascinating read since Jordan touched on whether students going into law school truly realize what the realities are for them once they finish law school.

It reminded me of when I first decided to go to school to become a paralegal. I took a couple of years off after high school (in my family it was a big deal simply to have graduated high school, there was no expectation to do anything more). I knew that I wanted more out of my life than minimum wage jobs and I’d always had a keen interest in the legal field. I did consider going to university and then law school, but I was well aware that it was going to cost me a LOT of money. I decided paralegal school would be a good option since the program was much shorter, the overall tuition more reasonable and i would still have decent earning potential.

It also reminded me a job I had at a law firm about 3 years after getting my paralegal diploma. I’d worked for a sole practitioner for those three years and gained invaluable experience. Then I went to work for a mid-size law firm. It was a very different experience and my first time working with articling students. They were paid barely more than I was (I made about $30,000 a year at the time). They often seemed ill-prepared for the real work of a law firm. Don’t get me wrong, they were smart and I really enjoyed working with them. It just made it clear to me that law school didn’t bother with practical matters, teaching a lot about theory and research and not much else. These are important things, but my opinion is that all schools should combine theory with practical work. An articling year helps, but it would, in my opinion, probably be worthwhile to incorporate some on the job time in every year of study. Why wait until all the studying part is over?

Thankfully for me, my paralegal program did prepare me quite well for my career in the legal field. The ten years I spent working for lawfirms further enhanced my skills, leaving me feeling particularly prepared for my current career as a self-employed paralegal. I love the work I do and I love helping lawyers meet their business goals. Being a virtual paralegal is a perfect choice for me!

It doesn’t mean a whole lot, at least not right in this moment, but I was excited to see the Halo Secretarial Services blog showing up on Google’s first page when searching “virtual legal assistance” and “virtual legal assistant” this week. Next week maybe it’ll be gone – it seems like so much changes in the world of search engines! But for now I know that my blogging efforts are helping my cause somewhat. I have gotten a few inquiries from people who found me on the internet by searching, now I just need to convert them to clients!

I’ve never tried to embed a video on my blog before (I need to do this more often!!) but I was so inspired when I saw this video called The Lost Generation over on Susan Cartier Liebel’s great blog Build A Solo Practice, LLC.  Thank goodness she posted the link on Twitter – I haven’t gotten to my reader in a few days so I don’t know when I would have seen this! You really have to watch this video – the WHOLE thing!! It’s under two minutes and well worth your time!

So what generation are you all from anyway? Does it affect your behaviour, your morals, your desires? Personally I’m at the tail end of Gen X, born in 1975.  I don’t really know how this has affected my life specifically – I tend to think simply of how my family, my upbringing and specific cultural factors have influenced my life and work ethic. I know I’m much like other women of my age – I want a family and a career, I want an equal partnership with my husband and I happily embrace new technology as quickly as I can. Ok, that one seems common here in my blogging and Twittering world but I’m ahead of the curve technologically speaking in my immediate circle of family and friends. Half of them don’t even know what a blog is – shocking as that is to me!!!

I know that all these factors, combined with things like the cost of childcare here in Canada have lead to me choosing the entrepreneurial path. Owning a virtual assistant company and offering my legal assistance services on basically a “freelance” basis allows me to achieve (most days) that elusive balance so many women of my era are seeking. So according to this definition of Generation X, I guess am pretty typical of my generation!

Have you had a chance to check out my guest post on Freelance Parent yet? It went up last week and it’s especially helpful if you are considering hiring/partnering with a virtual assistant sometime soon.

I posted the link on Twitter shortly after the post was published and wanted to note some helpful info that was pointed out to me, courtesy of @Carol_DA (Carol D’Annunzio). For example, you don’t really “hire” a virtual assistant, so much as partner with one or contract one, as virtual assistants are of course independent business owners. I do realize this but sometimes I just explain it later in a post, rather than putting it right into the title! Also Carol points out that most VA’s she knows charge a minimum of $35 per hour. I have known many who charge somewhat less, but I do feel that it is more than fair for a good virtual assistant to charge $35 to $50 per hour. It’s hard to value yourself high sometimes, especially in a poor economy, but that doesn’t change the fact that an experienced virtual assistant is worth her weight in gold (or chocolate, lol!)

I hope if you are planning a partnership with a virtual assistant that you will have a look at my post, and if you have any questions or concerns please do get in touch with me!! And while you are there, read some of the other wonderful posts at Freelance Parent – I truly love their work and they have great tips for people working to grow a freelance/consultant type of business.

I think many of us are overwhelmed some days, some weeks even, by the demands on our time and wonder if what we’re doing is working. I read this beautiful post by Kelly Phillips Erb (aka Taxgirl) today about Martin Luther King and achieving justice. Now, having worked with lawyers for so many years I have a ton of respect for the work that they do and know that access to justice is so important, even if sometimes things aren’t so black and white as we would wish.

But Kelly’s post was also inspiring to me on another whole level. She talked about questioning her role and how sad it can be when everything is about getting paid. I’ve been feeling like it can be such a struggle to establish my virtual assistant business – to find clients who I can partner with and offer my best and have them appreciate it. I forget to take time to simply appreciate the place I have already made it to. The place where I get to take an afternoon off and play in the snow with my boys, the place where I do LOVE my current clients and a place where there is so much potential! So I’m not getting rich, and maybe I never will, but I am having a great time, meeting amazing people and spending way more time with my children than I ever did working as an in-house paralegal. It is so worth it to keep on working and learning and growing.

I know how important it is to blog regularly. In my first year of business/blogging I worked hard to blog often, trying to improve my organic search results, my page rank and just to have great content for anyone who finds my blog. I’ve read tips from pro bloggers about how often to search – here’s a list of some of the suggestions:

• Grant Griffiths at Blog for Profit says simply blog often
• Problogger extraordinaire Darren Rowse says that it depends on several factors
• Lorelle posted a long ways back on the Blog Herald that you should post when you have something to say (love that advice!)

Still, January is flying by with very little published to my blogs – this one or even my mama blog! It’s one of those things where you get busy doing things for other people (like my clients!) and putting my own business priorities further down the to-do list. I think there’s been a little blog burnout too. I’m not surpised that many bloggers can’t really hang in for the long haul – blogging is usually just one part of anyone’s busy day – even the probloggers have tons of other projects on the go, email, networking, book deals etc.  If we’re ever going to achieve that elusive thing called balance, sometimes things may suffer a little – hopefully not for too long!

So I’ve allowed myself a semi-blogging break so far this month. I’m feeling rested and chatty again so I think I’ll be on track for a while. And I will try to block in my own blogging time regularly in the coming weeks, instead of putting it after everything else. How will you work to get everything done on your to-do list so that you can put some of your needs first? Don’t forget how helpful a virtual assistant might be!

I work from my home in the suburbs of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Most of my clients at this point are from the United States. It’s exciting to know though that as a virtual assistant I can work with clients from pretty much anywhere in the world.

There are issues to be aware of though in this amazing virtual world. One of the biggest issues is that of time zone differences. Alberta is in the mountain time zone, which for me means working with clients on the east coast, west coast or anywhere in between isn’t too much of a problem. But if I were to work with an Australian client, we’d certainly have to make sure our procedures took into account the large time lag between Australia and Canada.

As a client looking for a virtual assistant you should definitely give some consideration to what your needs will be. Do you need to be able to speak on the phone with your assistant? Do you need quick turnaround on certain projects?

Other issues come into play when contracting work out virtually. Virtual assistants and clients need to be careful when communicating to be very clear and to realize that even from one coast to another there are likely many differences in vocabulary and word usage.

One other important thing to try and remember about working in different locations from your client/virtual assistant is that extreme weather conditions may cause problems. You may be busily working on a document and trying to get ahold of your virtual assistant to do some revisions and not realize that they’ve been hit by a terrible store which ripped out their power and internet. You may find yourself watching weather reports with a lot more interest when you have connections in far-ranging locales!

Do you know of any other concerns to consider when establishing virtual working arrangements? Love to hear from you!!

Recently I had a post about choosing a virtual assistant with the help of Twitter. That post mostly focused on the different types of work or niches that a virtual assistant can offer to your business, but today I’d like to talk about another factor to consider in finding the perfect virtual assistant for your business.

TIME

You need to consider how much time you need your virtual assistant to spend helping you, and how exactly your virtual assistant charges for her time. Many virtual assistants prefer to work on a retainer basis – offering packages of 10-40 hours per month generally speaking. This means that if you contract one of these assistants you are paying for a minimum number of hours per month, regardless of how much time you actually use. If you go over your minimum number of hours there is an extra fee. Some virtual assistants will allow unused time to roll over to another month, some do not.

It can be very hard at first to be sure of exactly how much time your virtual assistant will need to dedicate to complete the tasks or work you need completed. You may prefer to work with a virtual assistant who will simply bill hourly on an as needed basis. Or you may prefer to work with an assistant who charges on a per project basis, eliminating the typical hourly billing procedure altogether. A lot will depend of course on the type of work you need completed, your personal style and the policies of the virtual assistant you prefer to work with. Each arrangement has advantages and disadvantages.

Another thing to be sure of is whether your chosen virtual assistant will have the time in his/her schedule to perform a greater proportion of work as you become more comfortable with their skills and they become more educated about your business. Some of the best virtual assistants have pretty full schedules already after all, especially if they have been in business a long time. On a similar note, many virtual assistant practices are team-based or use sub-contractors. This is something you should be aware of and comfortable with. If you prefer to always work with one specific person make sure you are very clear about that when contracting a virtual assistant.

Here at Halo Secretarial I offer dedicated virtual assistant service – I have no team or subcontractors working with me. That may change some day in the future, as my client roster is filling up, but I will always let my clients know if I start working with another virtual assistant. And as for hours/billing – I personally am happy to work on pretty much any basis that is most appropriate for the situation and my clients’ needs. See my rates page for more information!

Happy New Year!!!

I meant to get this post up yesterday, but actually, January 1 seems like a great day to set out my plans for this exciting new year. I have a lot of goals and I know what I want and expect out of the coming year. This past year gave me time to ease into this business of being a work at home mom, to develop my virtual legal assistant skills and do plenty of networking and now I am so excited about what the future has in store!

Affirmations

A big part of my plans for this year are about affirmations. I read a great article just a little while ago (in Good Housekeeping!) about affirmations. I loved it! It’s something I believe in but don’t utilize near enough, so one of the things I will start doing this year is to put a copy of my affirmations in places in my home where I will see them daily and then I will have that extra confidence builder I need.

Marketing

This year I am finally going to do some local marketing. Just because my business if virtually based doesn’t mean that the local market doesn’t have a need for my services. I’m following the suggestions of some fellow VA’s and doing a simple postcard mailout for now to some law offices in Alberta. I’ve already started work designing it and it should be done and out by mid-January.

Networking

I definitely want to do some in-person networking in 2009. The biggest part of this plan will be my July trip to the annual BlogHer conference in Chicago. It will be my first blogging conference and I’m really excited to network with other bloggers “IRL” (in real life being the theme of BlogHer ‘09!) It’ll also be a real test in respect of accomplishing my work while on the road, although I do plan to lighten my load to be fair to my clients.

Clients

Speaking of clients – my plans for 2009 include adding at least 3 more “ideal” clients to my roster. By ideal I mean clients who I feel I can work with in a long-term and successful partnership, individuals or businesses whose work interests me and who will utilize my strengths and challenge me with some interesting work.

Blog

I plan to post at least 3 times per week to my blog. I want to provide content that is informative, interesting and timely. I’ve managed to do pretty well this past year, but I know going into my second year of business blogging that there will be times that I’m busy, or feeling uninspired so it’s important to have a goal to stick to.

Service

It might be last on my list of plans/goals for 2009, but this is of course the most critical component to my virtual assisstant practice. I have every intention of providing incredible value to each and every one of my clients; the ones who I work for a couple of hours a month and the ones who need ten hours of assistance each week. It’s so important to me that I make life easier for my clients, help them grow their businesses, and provide a cheerful and professional shoulder for them to lean on so that they aren’t overburdened by their workloads. My business IS about their businesses after all, not just about me!!

So that’s what I have in the works for 2009 – I’d love to hear what you are doing to make 2009 a successful year for your business. Take care!

I cannot even begin to tell you how unbelievably excited I was yesterday to find out I was awarded a Clawbie for Best New Law Blog!!!!  I posted my nominations for the 2008 Clawbies a while back, but I truly did it simply because I enjoy reading other Canadian legal blogs so much. I love reading all legal blogs of course, but being Canadian is so important to me that a Canadian based award seems particularly meaningful! Especially since, as you may recall, I didn’t really think of myself as a legal blogger until the discussion that arose in my comments from my nominations post. Good thing Steve Matthews, Jordan Furlong and Donna Seale helped to set me straight!

And of course I want to extend a huge congratulations to all the 2008 Clawbie Winners, runners-up and participants. I read some fabulous posts, and found a few new bloggers through the nomination process. I definitely recommend checking out the blogs over at the Clawbies site!