Advice for Small Business (or Law Firm) Owners
Today I happened to run across two interesting articles with helpful information regarding small businesses (or small law firms). I probably would not post them individually, but seeing them both within 5 minutes of each other has inspired. Maybe someone is speaking to me that I should open my own firm…
First, check out the 5 things you should not buy when starting a small business. Courtesy of the Instigator Blog, this simple list provides a few quick tips that should help save overhead when getting your business off the ground. Ok, it’s not directly related to productivity, but saving money is always good. (Thanks to What About Clients? for pointing me to the article.)
Second, New York Small Business Law has a terrific post with some pointers on do-it-yourself legal help for small business owners. As the author points out:
I am all for do-it-yourself legal books and websites. Not because I think that you should actually be your own lawyer, but because I think that an educated client is a good client.
I could not agree more. On one hand, it’s easier to sell to people who have no clue what they are buying. But, on the other hand, you want your client to know your value, so he is willing to pay the bill.
[tags]legal andrew, small business, law firm[/tags]
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Business Cards for (Law) Students
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If you are looking for a job, I’m sure you have a resume. But do you have a networking business card? If not, that could harm your networking and job finding potential.
You undoubtedly know the value of networking. You meet people, tell them a bit about yourself, and eventually someone on your network might volley a job opportunity your way. Your resume is crucial for this process. What do you do when you are somewhere without a resume? Do you carry copies of your resume to your friend’s wedding? Do you carry them to a bar or concert? That’s where your business card comes in.
The idea is to make business cards that contain your contact information and a snapshot about the opportunity you are seeking (otherwise known as your “objective”). Thus, when you meet someone, you can easily give him/her this card. When that person thinks of a great opportunity for “that guy” he met at a bar, he can simply pull out your card and give you a call. Sure, business cards get lost, but names are really easy to forget.
What about law students?
Why not? You are looking for a job, right? You have contact information to put on a card, don’t you? Maybe you will be one of the few law students with a business card, but is that bad? Plus, you will have something to give interviewers when they offer their business card (everyone likes getting something when they give). Also, if your interviewer does not automatically offer a card, you can prompt it by offering yours. It’s win-win, right?
Where to print them?
The options here are pretty wide open. You can get some business card paper from your local office supply store for $15-20 and print them at home. Contrary to popular belief, modern print-at-home business cards are fairly high quality and don’t have that cheap look to them.
Another option is to take them to a local print shop. I’m not sure what the cost would be, but I’m sure it would be affordable. Plus, this route might give you more design options such as nifty raised text.
Finally, you can have your cards printed online. There are various companies such as VistaPrint who offer professional, affordable business cards, delivered to your front door.
Still have questions?
For some more information on this subject, try a Google search or check out this page from Quintessential Careers.
[tags]legal andrew, business card, networking[/tags]
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How to Catch Up When You’re Behind
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How do you catch up with school or work when you have been away? That’s always the dilemma we face after a trip. I’m currently in that situation, so I thought I would share my thoughts on the subject.
Make a list
I love lists. How can you know what you need to do, if you don’t have a list? I suggest that you make a list of everything you need to do to be caught up through tomorrow. Do it on your computer, a notepad, or toilet paper. Whatever suits you. Once you have a list, you can begin crossing things off (that’s half the fun!).
Stop getting behind
The next step is to do whatever needs doing so you don’t fall further behind. For example, as a law student this usually means that I need to read for my next classes (thus, you need your list to include tomorrow). The idea here is that you can start to close the gap on your behind-ness by keeping the gap from getting bigger. Plus, you get to mark things off that list!
Get caught up
After you have today and tomorrow’s work done, you can start to work on past tasks. This is when you prioritize the old tasks on your list and do them in order of priority. Thus, you will be getting the most important old things done first. Be sure you don’t forget about the less important old things, but you won’t, since you have a list!
Burn the list
Once everything is marked off your list, you can revel in your new caught-up-ness. Now is the time for your ceremonious burning of the list. Ok, maybe you should just throw it away. If you need some therapy, try shredding it. Better yet, make a paper airplane or some origami. You deserve it.
Do you have a technique for catching up with work or school when you are behind? Please post a comment or drop me a line to let us know.
[tags]legal andrew, law school, catch up[/tags]
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Make Yourself Stand Out in Your Job Search
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How do you get noticed in your job search (legal or otherwise)? Make yourself stand out. The answer is simple enough, but getting there is definitely not simple, unless you know where to look. Literally.
Over at Ask Uncle Bill, there is a great post about finding a great job by searching where you can win. The gist of the article is that you will have better luck finding a job when you look in a market or region where you are a novelty (in a positive way, of course). You may not have a natural edge competing to be a widget-maker with 100 other engineers. But how many engineers try to get a job at a marketing firm? You get the point.
This applies to the legal market in a fairly simple way. As a soon-to-be law school graduate, you have certain qualities that are really similar to lots of other graduates. You have a home state, a law school alma matter, and an area of law interest (plus many other things, of course).
The trick in looking for jobs might just be to look wherever your classmates are not. Your degree from State U might be a plus on your resume in Oklahoma (since they have never interviewed someone from there before), but you would just be another ant in line with an employer in North Carolina (where State U is located, didn’t you know?).
Another idea might be to look in an area where you are not from. This might have limited success, but again, the novelty aspect might work in your favor.
Finally, perhaps your classmates are interested in litigation and business. Have you thought about homeland security law? What about maritime law? The opportunities might be fewer, but so will the applicants.
The idea here is not to take you from no job to 100 jobs, just by changing your search focus. However, hopefully things such as this can give you a little edge of the competition. You need your resume and cover letter at the top of the stack; you need to be memorable after your interviews. Do what it takes.
[tags]legal andrew, job search, interview[/tags]
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Tips for Writing the Best Legal Resume
Have you updated your resume lately? If you’re a law student, the answer to this question should be “yes”. In fact, I think everyone should update their resume at least every six months. You never know when a new opportunity or contact might spring up; you need to be able to quickly provide your resume so you don’t miss out.
I ran across a pretty good list of resume tips at CR/\VE. These tips do not focus on a specific industry (like law), but they do apply to all resumes and positions. Be sure to read them and see if your resume complies with their suggestions. Your future career might be waiting for you.
My favorite tip provided (of the seven!) is to customize your resume and cover letter to suit the employer (and position, if known). A few tidbits of advice:
* Compare the prerequisites of the job posting with your resume. Make sure that the necessary keywords and duties are present.
* You can also adjust the wording within your resume Objective to match the position. This may include changing the position title you are seeking or stressing a different set of experiences or skill sets to catch an employer’s attention.
* You may also want to adjust titles and headings on the resume to match the position for which you’re applying
Essentially, you want to synchronize your job materials with the employer and position in which you are interested. I have written about synchronizing with a person before (here, and here). You should tailor your resume in much the same fashion as your in-person communication with someone. Figure out the way they think and then present yourself in that light. Definitely remember that you are not lying, but simply presenting yourself in the terms most understandable to the employer.
Do you have some favorite resume tips? Please post a comment or drop me a line to share them with us.
[tags]legal andrew, resume, cover letter, interview, job search[/tags]
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Exchange Lawyer and Client Info – The Information Ring
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How often do you forget to give (or get) a business card from a new person you just met? Perhaps you remember the person’s name, but you cannot find their phone number anywhere. Did you just meet a great new lawyer contact at a bar association gathering? Perhaps you ran into a potential client. With a simple handshake, your information needs are solved.
The “Information Ring”, from designer Hideaki Matsui, solves the problem of exchanging information between two people. Simply wear the ring and shake hands. As MobileWhack explains:
When people first meet and shake hands, the rings on the fingers get close enough to operate and store the info as wearing parties, shake hands. The included card can display the information stored in the ring, and the intended power source is to be provided by the temperature of the wearer.
With your ring on, you can simply focus on meeting people and learning the things that are not on their business card. You will have the peace of mind that the information of everyone you meet is safely stored inside your ring, until you get back to the office and read it using your Information Ring card. While this is still in a concept stage, I would assume a final product would have the ability to download info to your computer.
The downside: privacy. I can already hear privacy advocates screaming their lungs out. I also share some of this sentiment. The problem with this idea, as I see it, is that you cannot control who gets your personal contact info and who does not. As long as you are wearing the ring, everyone whose ring gets close enough to yours will have your contact info. Perhaps you do not want everyone you shake hands with having your cell phone number or email address. Sure, you could take the ring off, but that kind-of defeats the “no thinking” aspect of the device.
What do you think? Please post a comment or drop me a line.
[tags]legal andrew, information ring, hideaki matsui, business card, lawyer, attorney[/tags]
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Print Anywhere Using PrinterAnywhere
Thanks to Law Student, I found this awesome new program that lets you print on your home printer from anywhere you have internet access: PrinterAnywhere.
Basically, you just install the program on your home computer that is connected to your printer, then set the printer to “shared” (within PrinterAnywhere). Then, you install the program on your mobile computer. Whenever you want to print using your home printer, simply use PrinterAnywhere to send your print job over the internet to your home printer. Neat, right?
Two Computers?!?!
The downside to this for law students would most likely be that we don’t usually have a home computer and a mobile computer. Usually we get by with just our trusty laptop. However, if you have a spouse whose computer stays at home, this might be just the ticket for you.
I know that on many occasions I have wanted to print something while I was away from home. It might be something for class, a bill, a receipt from an online purchase, etc. Regardless, I would always have to find some way to “save” the printout for later and remind myself to print it when I got home. No longer.
Paper Jam!
A final problem that comes to mind with this system is that your home printer might not have the correct paper loaded in it when your print job comes through. For example, your spouse might be at home printing envelopes or labels. You decide to print out your course outline from school (to your home printer). Before you know it, your whole stack of expensive labels now have contracts notes all over them.
To my delight, PrinterAnywhere has a solution for this problem. When setting up the printer share at home, you can tell the program to only print a job when it has been “authorized” by the home computer. Thus, your spouse would see your job come through, could load the correct paper in the printer, and then let it print. I assume that if no one is at the computer your job will just wait until sometime either prints or deletes it.
Small Firm Use?
This system might also be useful for small law firms. Instead of emailing documents back and forth, you can just shoot someone a printout of whatever they might need. I am sure you have times when someone needs a document, but you don’t want them to have an electronic copy of it. PrinterAnywhere solves this problem, essentially replacing (and outdoing) the fax machine.
What do you think of this printing solution? Do you have a different method for solving remote printing problems? Please let us know with a comment or drop me a line.
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Instant Messaging in the Law Office
Got IM? Do you use an instant messaging program without your employer’s knowledge? Is IM crucial to your daily productivity? Could you survive a single day without your favorite IM program?
I ran across two articles today that intersect on this controversial subject. Thus, I wanted to highlight them and try to link them together. But first, let me be fair and mention that I have not used IM for about 4-5 years now. I am definitely not an IM proponent.
What do you do with it?
First, Web Worker Daily has an open thread, trying to ascertain what IM is good for. I think the best comment from this thread is:
I figure everyone should just learn to ask “do you have a moment?� before interrupting people.
This nails the primary reason why I do not use any form of IM any longer. I got tired of people assuming I had time to talk any time. Everyone is busy at least sometimes, so the above suggestion should always be used. Maybe you could even shorten it to “Are you free?” or “Can you talk?”
A trap for the unwary?
The second article I wanted to point out comes from Law.com’s Legal Technology news: Keeping a Lid on Chat. The thrust behind this article is that companies must implement and vigorously adhere to an IM policy for their employees and workstations. If you allow IM, the article suggests, adopt a single IM program and be sure to log messages (for compliance with business regulations).
Why care?
What should a lawyer (especially a solo) do if a client insists on using IM for communication? What about colleagues who want to use it? Would it be terribly rude to ask that they simply use email or phone instead?
This is obviously a subject where people are going to have varying models of etiquette. We should strive to find a good balance to make sure that people can work in the best manner for them. Maybe instead of IM’ing several times a day, your client can make a running list of questions and send them in one email. This maximizes your time as a lawyer and keeps that annoying beep from interrupting you every few minutes.
What are your thoughts on IM? Please post a comment or drop me a line.
[tags]legal andrew, instant messenger, instant messaging, IM[/tags]
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Being a Connected Lawyer, with Technology
Grant Griffiths has a great article over at Home Office Lawyer that explains his take on being a “connected” lawyer. Obviously, in today’s age, this entails effectively using technology to remain in contact with clients and courts. Two of his tips that I really like revolve around synchronizing multiple computers (to make sure all your files are up-to-date) and the virtue of using videoconferencing. This is definitely a must-read.
[tags]legal andrew, lawyer, attorney[/tags]
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Lawyer Unconference: Ideas From an (Un)lawyer
A couple weeks ago, Grant Griffiths of Home Office Lawyer proposed organizing an unconference for lawyers. The idea is now taking root. It is amazing who quickly something can proceed from the idea of an individual to a project orchestrated by many people, all with the aid of technology.
I chimed in and suggested that law students should be invited, hopefully with some of the unevent appealing to the questions and issues that us novices are confronted with. I am honored that Matt Homann (yep, of the [non]billable hour) has asked me to post a list of ideas in this regard. Without further ado, here are my thoughts on a few things that might appeal to unlawyers (or prelawyers, more appropriately).
Contracting
What about doing contract, or piecemeal, work for another attorney? Is it a good idea, especially for just starting out? How do you get connected with contract opportunities?
Officing
Home office or rental space? If home office, where can you meet clients? Doesn’t space in an office building bring some credibility?
Networking
Everyone knows to join the local Bar Association, but what else can you do, especially as a young, beginning solo?
Experience
The classic chicken-and-the-egg problem: If you want clients, you need experience, but to get experience, you need clients. Or is this a myth? Can you start a solo practice right out of law school?
Families
How can you take the leap to a solo practice, but still provide for your family? Can a beginner solo support the family without his/her spouse working as well?
Financing
Do you really need a year’s expenses in the bank before hanging up the shingle? What if that requires selling everything and living/working out of a cardboard box?
What Else?
I’m sure you guys have other ideas and concerns. Surely some of you have thought about starting your own firm. Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments or drop me a line.
[tags]legal andrew, unconference, conference[/tags]
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About Andrew Flusche
Lawyer, bicyclist, husband.
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