My poor neglected blog. I was away for a week and while I fully intended to try and get a post or two up while on vacation it totally didn’t happen! We got in later each day than I had expected and there just wasn’t time for much at all, let alone blogging about virtual legal assistance! Disneyland was great though and we got in a couple of trips to the beach, although the weather wasn’t so hot!

I learned a couple of lessons about attempting to work while on vacation with three small kids and two other adults. It doesn’t work so well. I definitely was able to check my email 1-2 times per day and respond to urgent messages. I also was able to complete a couple of projects and tasks for clients. I felt guilty about missing so much work time and would have liked to have made more time for my business, but also felt guilty about holding up the rest of my group when I was trying to get things done. So first lesson is that vacations of one week should probably include as little work as possible!

I also learned I should communicate a little better with my clients. I let them all know I’d be away, but didn’t send out last-day reminders which I think would be an improvement they would appreciate. Not that I’m planning another vacation for this summer (other than a long weekend to BlogHer in July!), still it’s important to plan a little better.

I’m very happy to be home though and once I’m caught up on a couple of things I might even have more time to blog and twitter again! In the meantime, here are a couple more vacation pics that I thought I’d share.

Mostly this is just a note to let you know that I’ll be taking a quick vacation at the end of this month, just for a week! It should be a wonderful time, we’re travelling as a family to California! It’s the first time on a plane for two of my boys, and the first plane trip my oldest will remember. He went to Mexico when he was 13 mos old, but of course doesn’t recall anything!

This will also be a first for me - the first time I test working while being so far from my home base. I think it should go well, I’ll have internet access at the hotel and plan to be in early most nights so the kids can keep to their general sleep routine. This should give me a couple of solid hours of worktime at night, and I can definitely squeeze in a bit of time in the morning to check on email etc. I don’t really spend more billable time than that yet, so mostly I’m reducing (or oh my goodness eliminating) my networking/socializing/blogging time. Yes, that’s right, I’ll barely be seen on Twitter those days! Normally I could easily twitter from my phone, but unfortunately Canadian cell phone rate plans don’t carry over to the US, so while I will of course have my phone with me I won’t be using it for fun activities like Twitter!

While considering my options for work/vacation, I was reading blog posts and saw this one about answering emails on vacation over at BlogHer. I actually am happy to keep up with my work while on my vacation, I would definitely find it a little stressful to think about being completely unconnected while away! The ability to work anywhere was something I was excited about when first starting my virtual legal assistant business up after all!

I also read this post about going on vacation in a wired world. It has some great tips and I’m trying to follow many of them! For example, I’ve already let my clients know that I’ll be away, shared what I could handle and suggested that I won’t be able to do “extra” work that week above what has been agreed. I wanted to give them plenty of warning so that I could do any work needed ahead of time.

I’ll be taking a couple of other mini-vacations this summer, but only for 3 to 4 days at a time, hopefully this longer first time goes well and doesn’t leave me anxious about the other short trips!

I know, it’s not Christmas for a few days yet. But I’m not really planning on blogging much, or even - gasp - Tweeting that much, over the next few days. I am doing work for my clients and some research for a project, but otherwise this week is about family. I’ll be enjoying my children, getting together with friends, and doing even more baking in preparation for dinner on the big day (next on the agenda is homemade pie!!)

In fact today, I actually kept my laptop off for several hours (I hate to have it off during the day, lol) and put together a gingerbread house and gingerbread Santa sleigh with my older boys. It was a wonderful afternoon and I hope you all are able to enjoy your family and friends as 2008 draws to a close.

So Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Holidays!

p.s. I will have posts up next week - be sure to check in!!

Do you ever find yourself waiting somewhere that you didn’t expect to be? Like a really long lineup at a drive-thru, or you’re early for the school pickup run and you have 10 extra minutes? Or you are meeting a client and they are running late? My tip this week is to take advantage of that time!

Today I spent an extra hour waiting to get new tires put on my Jeep.  For me that was wasted time and unfortunately I was trying to keep a 4 and 1 yr old amused, so I really couldn’t take advantage that time.  But the first 1.5 hours I was waiting (yes, 2.5 hours total, not my idea of good service!) I used the time to great advantage, even with my little boys in tow.

I walked to a couple of nearby stores to pick up some things I need for the upcoming weekend, I picked up some office supplies and I found a new pair of jeans, all things I needed to do and I wanted to get them done since I was out anyway and waiting around.

But if I hadn’t had little boys with me, I could have used the other hour to advantage too.  I keep my notebook and calendar handy at all times. I could have brainstormed some blog post ideas and given some thought to the marketing I need to work on.  I could have telephoned a business contact and had a quick discussion.  I could have got onto my mobile browser and checked in with my Twitter pals!

Don’t let wasted time interfere with your day or the running of your business! Always keep on hand a couple of small projects or items you can work on in situations where you are stuck in wait mode.  Some more suggestions for things you can do in a few minutes while waiting:

• Write cheques to pay bills
• Send quick emails from your mobile phone
• Review your upcoming calendar dates and appointments
• Phone dentist/doctor/accountant etc to schedule necessary appointments
• Keep a book handy so you can catch up on your reading

See, there are so many things we can do to keep up with the little tasks that sometimes get neglected!

Take care!!

This weekend one of the main themes in my twitter account was BlogWorld Expo 2008. I enjoyed all the information that was shared by BlogWorld attendees, via Twitter and of course on the many blog entries that have already been posted - and I’m sure there will be many more this week! My faves so far:

• All the coverage from Sparkplugging!
• This from Freelance Writing Jobs
• Missy Ward’s post incl the joys of BWE on crutches
• Rick Moran from Pajamas Media has a really detailed discussion on the changes in blogging, based on his experiences from BWE

I have only been seriously blogging since this summer, so I wasn’t aware of how exciting this conference would be - I sure hope to attend BWE 2009 though!

On the subject of conferences, I really believe they are a great way to do some in person networking, as well of course as learn some great information during actual sessions.  What do you think are THE conferences to attend during the year?  Do you prefer regional ones or ones like Blogworld that attract attendees and speakers from all over the world? Do you stick to your niche only or mix it up a little?

I think ideally I’d attend a couple of big conferences a year - one for virtual assistants maybe, or something with a legal focus, plus something like BlogWorld or BlogHer.  I also need to get out and do some networking locally, and fortunately that is easily affordable!!

Not that it matters much to me - the life of this work at home mama actuallys means I can work more on the weekends, when DH is home to help out!  I actually enjoy that though, I find it to work well around my family’s schedule. For some people, weekends are much more private and laid-back and they don’t want their work to interfere with weekend activities.

We do like to make Friday evenings a nice family time though, we let loose and stay up a little later than we do during the week.  This Friday we are even going to take the kids to a waterpark for the late afternoon and early evening since my husband has the day off of work after working away for the past week. The kids sure missed him and we’ll all enjoy having some quality time together tonight!

So I’m curious, how do you all spend your weekends?  Do you mix work and pleasure, work a ton, or keep your work confined solely to the traditional work week?  Is it a time to get together with family and friends or are you busy chauffering your kids to activities like soccer or gymnastics?  Do you unwind with some wine on Friday night or head out on the town?!!  Questions, questions!!!

Next week I’m going to start a theme/link post on Fridays.  The theme for the first week will be organization (all about getting organized so you CAN keep your weekends free if you want to) so stay tuned and have a wonderful weekend whatever you are doing!

I’ve touched on this before, but it continues to be a major source of concern in emails and comments, so I thought I’d do a short post specifically addressing the hourly rate charged by a virtual assistant  (VA) or a virtual legal assistant (VLA).

I generally charge in the $30 an hour range for my virtual services.  I know some people think this sounds high for “secretarial” work.  Maybe you could hire someone local and inexperienced for $10-15 per hour. And certainly there are VA’s who charge significantly more than I do, usually because they offer special expertise or have services that are in great demand.

I made approximately $23 per hour as a legal assistant prior to starting my VA business, BUT it is important to note that on top of my hourly wage my company paid for benefits, paid for 3 weeks holidays per year, paid for statutory holidays and contributed significantly to a pension plan on my behalf.  They also provided me with a computer, a desk, a direct telephone line and access to significant office supplies.  Clearly the cost to my company was significantly higher than $23 per hour.

It is important also to note that I was often paid for time when I was not doing “real” work - I was paid to take coffee breaks, paid to attend meetings on a regular basis, paid to assist in planning company functions like the summer picnic and paid to be a “body”, someone who was there, but not necessarily always given enough work to fill my day.

You will pay your VA an hourly wage from $20-$100 per hour, depending on their expertise and your needs.  But you will only pay your VA for the hours actually worked on your tasks.  I bill in 6 minute increments, with a two hour minimum.  I can do a lot for your business in a couple of dedicated hours per day.  And when I go get a coffee, it’s on my dime, not yours!

Does the wage still sound unfair to you?  I’d love to hear from you what you think is a reasonable wage to pay an experienced and dedicated assistant!!

Check out my guest post about virtual assistance this week over at Grant Griffiths’ Home Office Lawyer. Grant was kind enough to ask for a guest post from me - I just love his work! Grant also has a couple of other sites you may want to check out G2 Web Media and Home Office Warrior.

Have a wonderful long weekend everyone! I’m going to enjoy it - we’re having a birthday party for our just turned four year old and getting ready to send the biggest boy to grade one!

I was supposed to go back to my office job this fall, after maternity leave with my third child. People asked me why I didn’t want to go back, after learning that I had no plans to return. It was hard to truly explain to them why options like flex time or part-time didn’t really help me enough to make it worth returning. I should send them this great post from Chuck Newton - I Don’t Want No Freakin Flex Time- it might help a little more!!

Flex time, part-time, job-share - these “options” sound great in theory sometimes. But a 6 hour day instead of 8, with a two hour commute total is still a long day away from my family. And it still requires full-time childcare, even though now I’d be on a part-time salary! Plus I would give up some of my benefits, get treated differently by my bosses and co-workers and miss out on choice assignments that require a full-time employee.

Working from home as a virtual legal assistant was definitely a better option! I can fit the work into my schedule and just the elimination of the commute buys me so much time in the day. If you are thinking about working part-time or flexible hours at your job, so that you can have more time for you in the day, consider working for yourself as another option -it’s got a lot to offer!

Here are some pics I took with my new digital camera of my “two” home offices.

These first two pictures are from my basement office. It’s relatively organized and I love my two desks, one for thinking, bill paying, large projects and the usual computer desk with scanner, printer etc.

Really though, I do the majority of my work from my laptop in my living room. It’s easier to control the rest of my life from there (aka the three boys, lunches, dinner, letting the dog out!) Plus I personally find it nice and comfy to settle down with my laptop onto the sofa. The baby plays on the floor near my feet (or sleeps in the sling while I work!)

Soon my oldest is back to school and I’m going to set up a better routine for the rest of us so I can get my work done around naptimes, some home lessons for the preschooler etc. I really will use my basement office I think -especially since the toyroom is right next door, and in winter that does get used!

I love working from home!