My first card also emphasized the title of Virtual Assistant, and my new card uses the term I’ve since used more often to describe myself, Virtual Legal Assistant. I love both parts of what I do (admin and legal assistant work) but for the purposes of my business card I prefer to distinguish myself by adding in the “legal”.

With that said, check out my new cards and tell me what you think!

Virtual Legal Assistant business card

Sorry, I didn’t get them onto the scanner very straight!

A VLA’s tasks could include preparing a rough draft of affidavits or agreements, proofreading and formatting documents, conducting and summarizing legal research, liaising with clients, and transcribing audio and digital files. And the advantages of lawyers hiring VLAs are proving tangible.

For one thing, there are none of the overhead costs associated with having a staff person on hand. Kerans’ hourly rate may be higher than a regular legal assistant’s, but it doesn’t include paying for office equipment, benefits, sick days, vacation days, bonuses, and so on. Plus, she bills for only the time she works. “I find my clients are usually quite surprised by how much I do in an hour,” she says.

The writer of the article, Alison Arnot, definitely seems to have “gotten” what a virtual legal assistant can provide in the way of value. So nice to see!

Only one little comment about what she took from interviewing me:

Mapp’s clients, however, are not in Edmonton, where she lives, or even in Alberta, but in the United States.

Most of my current clients are in the United States, but I am of course totally open to working with Albertan or Canadian lawyers! In fact I would love local clients (have had a couple for general admin, but not legal yet!) it’s just an opportunity that hasn’t come up quite yet. Maybe soon?!

Tonight I came across so many interesting posts, for example, loved the idea for a regular Twitter Column from Donna Seale’s Human Rights in the Workplace Blog. I definitely post more frequently on Twitter than I do on my blog! Might as well make sure those tweets are “duly recorded”! I was inspired by the most recent post on Scylla’s Law & Motherhood Blog - a good reminder to those of us who are self employed!

I actually saw, and posted, about this amazing post on Twitter a few days ago, but it caught my attention in my reader tonight nonetheless and is well worth sharing today: The best and the brightest comes from Jordan Furlong at Law 21 and is in my mind a truly thought-provoking post that I wish could be required reading for anyone thinking about applying to a law school - ever. Yes, I liked it that much.

Linsey Krolik had a post from earlier in June  on her Me Too You blog that I only just managed to catch up on. School isn’t out here for a little bit yet (7 days of school left actually!) and I totally can’t wait. Just found out about yet another school activity for the very last week, a grade one garage sale. I need to send both items and money, fun, fun!

Loved PHAT Mommy’s blog post about her Life/Blog Happiness Project. What a great idea!!

You can see why I find so much inspiration in my reader now, right?! I have a huge variety of blogs that I subscribe to, although many have a legal slant, I also of course follow tons of interesting mom bloggers, general business or entrepreneurial blogs and blogs that just fascinate me regardless of their “niche”.

So what’s in your reader that you feel like sharing?

If you are a lawyer in need of some expert assistance, but you aren’t sure how to go about working with a virtual legal assistant you definitely should consider joining us on June 9 at 1pm EST, 10am PST.

This session will specifically cover:

* What a virtual legal assistant is and. more importantly, is not
* Which tasks, duties and processes are most easily outsourced
* In house, in country or off shore - does it really matter
* Confidentiality and security
* The right tech for the job

I’m really looking forward to being a part of this event and I hope to “meet” you there!

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.

Clients

I’ve been in business for approximately 9 months. I still am nowhere near full-time billable hours - and billable hours are the key, as you aren’t being paid for all that marketing time!! You may already have leads on clients, but in all likelihood you need to give yourself at least 6-12 months to really build up a decent clientele.

Also in relation to clients, you need to realize that funds will take time to start flowing. You may choose to invoice on a weekly basis to have some cash in hand, but many virtual legal assistants bill on a monthly business.  Once you send out the invoice it may take a week or two to receive funds.

Startup Expenses

You will always have some expenses, but never quite so much as at startup. You may need to invest in equipment like a good computer, a printer or a scanner. You will want to consider adding specialty software like accounting software or graphic design programs. Then there is the cost of your website, hosting and the design of a logo or marketing materials. For some more detailed info about start-up costs for a virtual assistant business check out this article I wrote for Virtual Assistant Hub - there’s even a spreadsheet to help you plan!

Money in the Meantime

Once you’ve spent some time planning how much money you need to start your business you’ll want to spend some time planning where you are going to get that money. Maybe you have personal savings you can access, maybe you have family willing to loan or invest in your business, maybe you can talk to your bank about a small business loan. According to this article, lack of sufficient start-up capital is the cause of more than 70% of business failures.  Even if you have a supportive spouse, family or friends to back you financially, you will need to keep a close eye on your income versus your expenses, to make sure your new venture does not become a money-sucking pit.

It is wonderful to have a positive attitude and a strong belief in your ability to succeed when you embark on the adventure of entrepreneurship, but don’t let financial issues drag you into reality. Be prepared and know exactly what it’s going to take to help you truly succeed in building your business!

p.s. this post was inspired by a great article at Law Practice Today written by Erik Mazzone. His tips are well worth checking out, especially if you’re starting a law practice. Erik is an experienced practice management advisor who blogs over at Law Practice Matters.

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!

Still, I would say the earlier you are able to start the relationship the better. You may not need a lot of help early on in running your business, or at least you may feel like it’s an expense you aren’t ready to take on. Really though, a virtual assistant can cost a very small amount, especially at first, as you do not have to use a lot of their time initially. You may choose to partner with a virtual assistant who will work with you on an hourly basis with no set time commitment or a very small retainer of say 5-10 hours per month. Even at $40 per hour (just an estimate) you might only pay $200 to $400 per month to have someone who can really help you stay on top of things!

A good reason to partner with a virtual assistant sooner rather than later is that you will be able to get a good system and processes in place so that as your business grows and you get busier and busier you already have a reliable relationship in place and you aren’t then trying to start a search for some help when you can’t find the time at all. I know finding time is often an issue, and was reminded of it this morning when I read Nicole Black’s post at her Sui Generis blog about Saving Time and Money (she offers one solution for this via lawtechTalk, might want to check that out too!)

Don’t worry if you are already busy running your practice and you realize that maybe you should have found a virtual legal assistant a few months ago. It may be hard to fit in the time for researching and beginning the relationship, but it will be time well spent. Just remind yourself that an investment of say 3 hours now to find the perfect virtual assistant for you should pay off in many saved hours almost immediately and on an ongoing basis. And definitely don’t think it should take you a lot of time to find the perfect person to collaborate with - start with my series on partnering with a virtual legal assistant (link is to part 4, and that link contains links to all articles in the series) and honestly you should be able to make a choice within a week or so, just split the search effort up into a few days and you will be ready to go sooner than you thought.

Well, what are you waiting for? Go find the help you need now!!

There were several fascinating articles in the issue actually. Innovation is an interesting topic in law, as so often innovation simply means catching up to the mainstream! I highly recommend you check out some of the articles, you can see the index here to see what topics were covered.

Event Details: Friday, May 01, 2009 at 4:00 PM (ET)

You know you need help, but the starting salary for an in house legal assistant is $28,000 per year and a good assistant with legal experience can demand upwards of $64,000 per year.  Of course, this is just base salary and does not include taxes, sick/vacation/personal/holiday pay, insurance and other benefits, training, equipment, space and administration.

Did you know there is a way to maximize your firm’s overall productivity; increase morale and literally get more done with less - less time, less resources and less stress?  How?

By locating and hiring a virtual legal assistant.  Virtual legal assistants are contract workers who help lawyers and law firm administrators with common office tasks using technology and the internet to provide their services.

Andrea and I both provide virtual legal assistant services, but I’d definitely point out that Andrea has a great system that will suit some lawyers’ needs and methods over mine. Of course some lawyers will prefer my systems too! There are so many options available to suit everyone’s style, and if you aren’t even sure what your style is or how to get your needs met, then this week’s teleseminar will help you figure it out and get started on the path to being more productive and having more time available to do whatever it is you are best at!

I look forward to speaking with you! Oh and of course you can contact me anytime by email or even Twitter with your questions, about this event or just virtual legal assistance in general!