virtual assistance

Halo Secretarial on Alltop in the Virtual Assistant Category

Posted by Laurie on Nov 19, 2008 in blogging, networking, virtual assistance, virtual legal assistance | 2 comments

Just a quick note to share that Halo Secretarial’s feed can now be found at Alltop in the virtual assistant category!

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!

ABA Survey on Lawyers and Recession

Posted by Laurie on Nov 18, 2008 in Entrepreneurial, virtual assistance | Comments Off

I received an email this morning from the ABA (as my blog has a link on their site) asking me to share a link to this survey on my blog. I’m happy to do so and definitely recommend that you lawyers out there help the ABA out with the survey!

The current financial situation is very challenging for us all, but I feel certain that times will eventually improve.  Patience is the key I guess, and making smart choices in the meantime!

I actually feel that some businesses will really prosper despite, or maybe because of, the current financial climate. Smaller, leaner, more cost-efficient businesses can much more easily work to provide services that are valuable to consumers in these times. For example, lawyers are still very much needed in times of economic slowdown, but solo and small law practices are in a much better position to offer services to clients at a price that they will be willing to pay.

Virtual assistants are likely to do well during these times as well. We offer good value for the money and can be a great alternative to traditional in-house staff. You only pay for the time or service you need, if your business slows down you don’t have to keeping paying a full-time salary just to have an employee sitting bored part of the time! Most of us virtual assistants are also happy to work on a capped fee basis for specific projects, so you can be in control of the costs right from the start.

While we all wait for the economy to improve, we need to take steps to minimize our spending and improve our own bottom lines! Take care!

No VA Is An Island

Posted by Laurie on Nov 17, 2008 in networking, virtual assistance | Comments Off

I received another contact via Twitter today that could have turned into an opportunity. I love Twitter – it’s really helped me get clients and raise my profile!

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!

Gmail plus Calendar and Docs

Posted by Laurie on Nov 11, 2008 in Time Saving Tips, virtual assistance | Comments Off

I’m a little late in learning this but I thought I’d share anyway – I doubt I’m the only one who doesn’t catch things instantly!

So, I use Gmail for my catchall email account.  The email for my virtual assistant business is through my host (laurie AT halosecretarialservices DOT com) but is all forwarded to my Gmail account.  I simply find Gmail to be easy to access and easy to work with. It also then gives me the option of chat and use in my iGoogle homepage.

Today I realized that I can fully integrate my google calendar and docs into my Gmail left sidebar – wow! So much easier than having to open a separate tab. I simply went into my gmail settings, clicked on labs and then enabled both google calendar and docs to show up! I also moved my chat and labels to the right side bar to make everything more visible.

Now I can see my schedule and plan my daily tasks much more efficiently. I always schedule time for client tasks and my own marketing plans in my google calendar, with popup reminders, which definitely increases my productivity. And the more organized I am, the more time I have to devote to my clients’s needs!

Hope this helps you other virtual assistants and other business owners!

Halo’s Holiday Special

Posted by Laurie on Nov 6, 2008 in virtual assistance | Comments Off

November is already flying by for me, how about you? I usually put off some of my holiday planning until December and then realize it’s getting late to get certain tasks done on time, like sending out holiday cards or gifts to people who are far away.

This year I’m getting started on it right away and this post over at VAnetworking helped me realize that help with holiday tasks is something my clients might appreciate too! And because I’m getting into the holiday spirit I’m offering 20% off my usual rate to anyone who reads this blog post and decides that they would like my help in the months of November and December, whether with their holiday planning or any of my other virtual assistant services! Just let me know that you heard about it from my blog by referring to holiday code ho-ho-ho!!

Too Much Work? Too Little?

Posted by Laurie on Nov 4, 2008 in Legal Practice, virtual assistance, virtual legal assistance | Comments Off

Do you run a solo practice, but have more work than you can handle? Or do you have a full time in-house legal assistant that can’t keep up with your busy workload? Or even a practice that is just getting going and you need help ramping up so that you do have too much business?  A virtual legal assistant may be just the solution in any of these situations! That’s the beauty of virtual assistance, it is a flexible solution that can fit so many needs.

So for example maybe you are a lawyer who doesn’t think you need a full-time assistant.  Do you do all your own typing? Research? Email? How much time does it cost you every day? In a previous post I addressed this lost time cost and demonstrated the cost effectiveness of hiring a virtual assistant to increase your productivity.

Do you have a full-time legal assistant or paralegal already? Think you don’t need any more help? You know in my years as an in-house legal assistant the most effective practice I worked in was one with one lawyer and three assistants.  So much work got done!! That particular lawyer utilized dictation to his advantage because he realized he spoke far faster than he typed.  Isn’t that true of most of us? And with the digital dictation options available it is very easy to send your virtual legal assistant instructions via dictation or to have them transcribe lengthy memoranda, court documents or agreements.

And if you are just getting started you can partner with a VA who offers some marketing suggestions and works with you to grow your network. I bet she’ll suggest you try Twitter!! Or you can get a good working relationship established and have your VA work just a few hours a month to start and eventually add hours as your practice grows.

There are plenty of other ways to utilize a virtual legal assistant. You may partner with a VLA only for large files or projects, specific research assignments or even vacation or sick leave coverage of your in-house staff. I hope you’ll think about taking advantage of the wonderful resources offered by virtual assistants – and if you are thinking of hiring one, don’t forget to check out my main site!