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Long Term Planning

Posted by Laurie on Jan 10, 2011 in Uncategorized | Comments Off

January has been busy so far, but I’m still trying to fit in some decent long term planning. There are so many things to consider when you are planning out your year in business – marketing, holidays, client projects, school schedules. It’s important for me though and it’s important to my clients that I’m on top of my game as much as possible. In the legal world a lot of things may be known well in advance (big trial for example), although many projects are also very last minute.

2011 is going to be a very busy year for me personally and hopefully for Halo Secretarial in general. I am taking a couple of hours to block off time in my calendar and I like to notify my clients well in advance of any planned long absences (more than 3 days). I also of course remind them of such absences as the dates approach as well.

Do you set aside time for planning in January? The rest of the year? I find not only is it important to schedule some planning time right now, but there are recurring entries in my calendar for quarterly checks on plans and progress.

*Tip*

Finish off your planning by informing your staff, team and/or virtual legal assistant of your plans, especially if you don’t share a calendar with them. They may have reminders for you of things to add in, or just be able to help keep you on track. Also make sure to check in with them if they don’t inform you what there important plans are for 2011.

Happy New Year!

Posted by Laurie on Jan 1, 2011 in Uncategorized | Comments Off

1-1-11:  Love it! Welcome to 2011!

Halo Secretarial has been enjoying a semi-hiatus over the holidays but we’re so excited to kick 2011 off and enjoy an even more productive and fulfilling year than we did in 2010.

We hope that you all have also enjoyed the holiday break – and if you are ready to start 2011 off with a little more help, make sure you get in touch!

Laurie

Giving TeamworkPM Some Love

Posted by Laurie on Nov 2, 2010 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

Depending on the needs of my particular client, I exchange  documents, dictation files and tasks in a variety of ways. My personal favorite though is my project management site through TeamworkPM. Clients can log in securely, they can assign me a task, send me a precedent or a digital dictation file and click a simple little notify button and then they know that I`m going to get to work as soon as possible.

I have just learned that after a long wait Teamwork PM has an iPhone app available, making it that much easier to access when you are on the go. I definitely have clients who use iPhones, so this is a real bonus for them (and me) so I just had to shout a little love out to Teamwork today thanking them for getting their app up and running. I`ve just finished installing it and it looks great!

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted by Laurie on Oct 12, 2010 in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Shhhh, I’m a day late, but I was actually spending Thanksgiving with my family and I just didn’t quite get here until now! My boys were off for a four day weekend, combining a PD day with the holiday weekend, so it was a pretty hectic and fun time.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to give thanks for so many things – of course your family and friends, but also so many things in business. Here are my top five things I’m grateful for at Halo Secretarial this Thanksgiving:

1. Great clients
2. Interesting projects
3. Opportunities to learn and grow as a business owner
4. The knowledge that I can make life easier for my clients
5. My iPhone….I know, I know, but it really does make my life so much easier sometimes!

Happy Thanksgiving – hope you enjoyed your turkey (or bbq if you were at my house!) Of course if you’re not Canadian, you won’t have Thanksgiving for another month and a half, but it’s never too early to start thinking about it, is it?!

Summer is Really Over

Posted by Laurie on Sep 15, 2010 in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Summer is a wonderful time to be self-employed. I took a couple of vacations, spent afternoons at the park with my children, and kept up with my client work! I did not keep up with blogging or even tweeting though. Now that summer is really over, it’s time to get back on track. Summer might be a good time for just keeping up, but fall, with it’s invigorating weather and beautiful colors, is a time for starting fresh and getting motivated.

Weekly posts will be resuming shortly, and I’m also planning on starting a monthly newsletter with helpful information and the latest happenings at Halo Secretarial. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a beautiful fall photo. Here in Alberta, the leaves are already changing and the weather is brisk!