Some great examples:

• Bookkeeping/billing
• Web site design
• Client intake
• Document drafting
• PR
• Call answering
• Court filings

I already do outsource some of my web design needs; I had neither the ability nor the desire to spend hours and hours trying to design a pretty logo for example! I also use an accountant to help me with my taxes and am working on training someone to assist me with transcription eventually. What tasks are you outsourcing and which ones do you think you *should* be outsourcing, but currently you are muddling along with?

Another point of the discussion on outsourcing addressed where to find good people to outsource to. You don’t want to waste time on in effective outsourcing after all! I realized I had never really considered it but even some tools are a way of outsourcing, like using Ruby Receptionist for call answering. And the best way to find help is of course to go to your network and ask for reliable references! Just yesterday I went to my Twitter peeps and asked for suggestions for one of my client’s needs and quickly hooked her up.

Speaking of Twitter, I have noticed in checking out my Blawger Survivor companions and many of them have Twitter feeds in their sidebars – love it! Check the feeds out at  Two Lawyers in a Pod[Cast], The Connecticut Employment Law Blog,  Leadership, Women, Lawyers, No Reins Girl.   Twitter is my biggest online network and I love how involved so many lawyers seem to be getting in it. Okay, and I love that clients have found me on Twitter too!!

I not only enjoyed reading what Sam uses for his legal practice, but also the different choices made by the commentors. So I decided to put together a quick post outlining the various applications/software I use to run my virtual legal assistant practice.

• Calendar: Google calendar/wall calendar combo
• Tasks/to-dos: Teamwork PM
• Contacts: Gmail
• Email: Gmail/mobile Gmail from smartphone while on the go
• Word processing/documents: Word 2007, Open Office, PaperPort
• PDF Creation: Adobe/CutePDF
• Timekeeping/billing: Quickbooks
• Bookkeeping/accounting: Quickbooks/accountant
• Backup: External hardrive and SugarSync (love how SugarSync securely lets me access all from laptop/desktop/mobile phone)
• Client/Project Management: TeamWork PM (256 bit SSL)
• Blogging/Website: WordPress self-hosted

Like Sam and several of his commentors I’m a big fan of cloud computing. I like to be able to access my work from anywhere – my main computer is a laptop for that very reason! And while I know not everyone trusts “the cloud”, I research applications quite carefully before choosing them and feel pretty confident that I’ve made choices that will protect my clients information and my own.

So how does your office run? Does your work live in the cloud at all?!

Interestingly (to me, probably not to anyone else!) the story was about using Twitter and discussed the angle of how I’ve networked on Twitter to the advantage of my virtual legal assistant business. Interesting because they actually found me only because of my personal twitter account, not my business one! Now I’m sure that’s not a reason to have two accounts (as per some interesting discussions on Twitter recently), but I stand by my choice to keep my personal tweets fairly separate from my business ones!

I started my virtual legal assistant business last fall officially, but I started networking earlier in the year to try and make connections within the online legal community and to learn from other virtual assistants. I was pointed to Twitter by several bloggers and last July I created my first Twitter account. I was immediately enchanted and saw what an interesting place to “hang out” it would be. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no visionary and I didn’t realize all the business benefits it would have at first, I just knew I liked it!

In August I connected with my first client – via Twitter. Other opportunities arose also, guest posts on blogs I respected, participation in events, and even a mention in an article for a legal journal. I followed more and more people, started using applications like Tweetdeck and Twhirl and eventually started a second Twitter account so I could have a more personally-oriented Twitter experience.

I then found more clients through Twitter, some long term, some for just short projects, but all great people who I’ve very much enjoyed working with. I think a big part of my success in finding clients on Twitter is the way I interact. I try to follow the unwritten rules of having a business account on Twitter. I don’t spam my followers with links or direct messages, I don’t spend much time self-promoting. I simply interact much as I would at a business conference. If someone asks, I tell them about what I can offer them. I share links and retweet interesting information. Although I save most of my mom stuff for my personal Twitter account, I do mention my children or the weather occasionally. It is very clear that my business account is run by a real person. My picture is my avatar and I respond to other people’s questions and messages promptly.

So my secret to success isn’t really a secret obviously. I’m real and I take time to really participate. And I’m grateful to be rewarded! And on the topic of rewarded, last week I had my most surprising and exciting Twitter-related experience yet. I received a telephone call from an anchor at my local television station. She had found my personal Twitter account and was planning a news feature about Twitter. I answered a few of her questions (thinking that was all the interaction there would be) and then she asked to come to my home to interview me! So last Thursday I was interviewed and later today I should be able to see myself on tv!! The link should be available by tomorrow and I will share it here on my blog!

Now, maybe you’re thinking that is just one person’s experience. Maybe you still aren’t on the Twitter bandwagon and can’t for the life of you figure out why you should hop on. Here are a few interesting links to check out to help convince you of the amazing benefits of this simply and yet utterly complicated social networking application.

1. From Copyblogger, this is a must read, how businesses have utilized Twitter
2. Use Twitter to monitor keywords important to your business
3. Build an effective business profile on Twitter
4. Twitter enlightenment for business owners

Stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll be posting more about Twitter and my business again soon!

So I recently ordered some postcards that I can use to target lawyers in Alberta and hopefully I can welcome some wonderful local clients to my roster! I know that it can be hard to convert people to the beauty of virtual partnerships, but once they see all the many benefits of working with a virtual legal assistant I’m sure they will be spreading the word around themselves! Plus maybe I can convert a few into avid Twitterers like me, lol!

So I’m curious, especially in regard to my fellow VA’s, do you market or network locally at all? Do you find people open minded about the idea of working with a virtual partner? Love to hear from you!

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!

This year was my first year in business as a virtual legal assistant and it was a great year in my opinion! I started out last January with a 6 week old baby plus two older boys and the knowledge that things really had to change. I had already been researching virtual assistance for a while and really felt it was the right choice for me.

So I spent the late winter and spring months making plans, starting very slowly to blog and hanging out at a couple of my favourite VA forums (Virtual Assistant Forums and VAnetworking) to learn all I could about starting my business. Thank goodness for all the wonderful virtual assistants on those forums – they really helped me figure out where I wanted to go with my business!

Sometime in the spring I discovered one of my favourite blogs – Home Office Warrior. Grant Griffiths (also of Blog for Profit) has so much great information on his blogs! Lots of info about technology, blogging and networking and running a homoe office (particular emphasis on lawyers since Grant is a lawyer!)

Spring turned into summer and I excitedly went and registered my business name at the local registry office. I found someone to help me customize my site/blog and I designed some business cards. August in particular was a great month – I did my first guest post, found my first client and got quite involved in my favorite networking site – Twitter!

Then it was fall. My darling oldest son went off to grade one, I went for my first getaway weekend since having baby #3 and I got another client! Slow progress in the client department, but I knew that good things were coming!

And now it is winter. Not generally my favorite season and yet, as we move into 2009, I feel a real sense of achievement in this year and so much excitement for the year to come. I’ve gotten one more client recently and hope for many more next year. In the summer of 2009 I’m going to my first blogging conference and next fall my middle child will go off to kindergarten, adding some room in my schedule. I’m going to make a big list of my goals for 2009, but that is another post!

And now, time to go do some more work and then make some Christmas cookies! Take care!

I think that’s pretty exciting news on a Wednesday afternoon! Oh and as you can see, we are still undergoing “renovations” of the blog and site, it should be complete sometime next week!

Tweet Tweet

This client won’t be signing with me though (at least not for now!), because the lawyer who contacted me needs a virtual assistant who can help with QuickBooks. I am not yet very experienced in QB. I use it for my business, but definitely need some training in it to offer it as a service to  clients. Thankfully I knew that @candieb on twitter is a VA who specializes in bookkeeping and so I happily referred the lawyer to Candy.

To me this is proof that in any business we need to have resources and we need to work with our so-called “competitors” to offer an industry that is truly valuable to potential clients.  It wouldn’t have done me or the client any good if I attempted to help her despite not having the proper skills. It would in fact make a mockery of professional virtual assistance.

Fortunately, I had met Candy on the VAnetworking forum. I have to say that VAnetworking has helped me in so many ways. It’s given me contacts for work that is not my specialty, I’ve been given business start-up advice and made friends. What a great thing!

So a tip for virtual assistants, join forces with other VA’s, network with them and please don’t do work you can’t do properly!

Ever since there has been an increasing number of fabulous articles about how Twitter can benefit legal practices.  Thanks to a couple of tweets (hat tips to @StephKimbro‘s retweet of a comment by @kevinokeefe!) I just read a very interesting article over at Lawyers USA about the growing number of lawyers using Twitter to network and market.

I know I only recently I was contracted by a new client who tweeted about needing a virtual assistant. I responded and the rest is history! So for anyone who is still just thinking about using Twitter, or who maybe doesn’t feel they are realizing Twitter’s potential, come on over to Twitter, sign up if you need to and follow me!

Oh and if you need a guide to using Twitter I’ve got a couple places you should check out. Darren Rowse (of Problogger fame) has a great site called TwiTip full of fabulous tips for using Twitter. Also, Grant Griffiths has a really great series called Twitter for Lawyers on his Blog for Profit site.

Hope to tweet with you soon!