The most important thing to do when you are working with people who don’t live in your time zone is to get in the habit of always indicating times for phone calls and meetings with proper time zone abbreviations. Don’t expect people to remember exactly what time zone you are in. For example, I live in Alberta and am in the mountain time zone, so if I wanted to talk to someone at 10 am my time, I say 10:00 MST. I always like to indicate their time zone as well, so I might say “can we speak at 10 MST, 12 EST (your time)?” It helps to keep it very clear.

I love Time Zone Meeting Planner for helping me with planning the other person’s time. I can have several time zones accounted for all at once! I also use Google Calendar’s World Clock feature to help keep me on track.

*featured image © The Stakhanovite Twins, Flickr, Creative Commons License

Work is love made visible.
And if you can’t work with love
but only with distaste, it is
better that you should leave
your work and sit at the gate
of the temple and take alms
of the people who work with joy.
-Kahlil Gibran

I’m looking forward to a great 2012. 2011 was truly a successful year for Halo Secretarial Services, with several new clients and an increased dedication to taking on only lawyer clients, to allow me to truly practice my specialty of legal virtual assistance. I initiated working with my first subcontractor (a fabulous VLA based locally in Alberta), started using a treadmill desk and worked hard to find balance between my wonderful work and my amazing family. I can’t wait to see how much more can be done in 2012.

I worked extra hours before and after the vacation to make sure I was keeping on top of several projects, and I gave all my current clients plenty of notice, but I still felt bad about taking the time off. It’s definitely one of the biggest struggles in owning a small business – managing your personal needs with your desire to give 110% to your clients. Now, more than a week after returning from Florida (which was awesome by the way) I read a blog post over at Lawyerist about Vacation and realized a benefit of my vacation I hadn’t even considered. While I enjoyed the time away from my computer, I missed my work. I missed the rush of urgent projects and the conversations with colleagues. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones with a career that I truly enjoy and vacation helps me to appreciate just how much I do love what I do. Thank goodness I don’t find myself wishing to be in a car accident to avoid my work (especially since I don’t have to drive to work, lol, not much chance of a car accident on the way upstairs to my office). My work life balance is still not perfect, and some days I wish for a couple of extra hours, but overall, being a virtual legal assistant has been a dream come true – I hope all of my readers, colleagues and clients are able to say the same!

Then last weekend I read about treadmill desks (actually I read about them before, but never actually READ the articles, just glanced and moved on with my day). With a good 20 lbs of weight to lose, a wedding to be in this summer and general life to keep fit for, suddenly it made sense to me to try and incorporate even a little more walking in my days. So I put together a temporary desk to fit across the arms of my treadmill and having been logging a mile or three each day this week. Well, except for Wednesday – I was tired that day!

I have so far been able to type up dictation, review email, draft several affidavits, attend a web-chat meeting, and even conduct a quick phone call all while walking away on my treadmill. I was definitely worried it would be distracting, but it is proving to be a relatively easy adaptation for me. A friend of mine tried it out and wasn’t sure she could read lengthy documents easily, and since every person handles things differently it’s certainly no guarantee that you can tread-walk through entire workdays. I like having a portable work surface so that I can transition as needed. I also can simply stand and work, with the treadmill off, if that assists in accomplishing a particular task.

Most of the lawyers I work with, and the virtual legal assistants I know, sit at least as much as I do during the day. We seem to be tied to our computers don’t we? If like me you want to replace some of that sitting with some slow walking, look into treadmill desk options – or make your makeshift version like I did (pic below)! Obviously this is easiest if you already have a treadmill and you work from home, but I honestly think it would be worth an experiment in many offices as well. Most office workers get little movement in during the day – despite the knowledge that it is good for us. Deadlines and documents get in the way of even a short jaunt around the office space or a quick hike up and down the nearest stairs. Working while walking is a great solution I think!

Laurie, Halo Secretarial

A lot of research led me to believe that my best choice would be a backup and syncing setup, as I have two computers and wanted access to files on both computers from anywhere, plus I wanted to protect my data in case of computer failure or natural disaster.

Now, I’m sure if I do experience a computer failure or my house is struck by natural disaster I’m going to appreciate my system, but even if such things should never happen (fingers crossed!) I’ve gotten a great deal of use out of my system. I’ve traveled with only one computer and needed to access files on my other computer so that I could quickly assist one of my lawyers and easily been able to do so.  I’ve been out running errands and quickly looked up a file from my mobile phone’s web browser, as my chosen application offers mobile access. It’s really reassuring to have this setup, especially when it comes to my business data.

And now I’ve actually realized another way such a system can be utilized. I have clients who are not particularly comfortable with LogMeIn or similar setups. There are benefits to such systems obviously, but especially to clients new to virtual partnerships, they may be hard to accept at first. I can tell my clients about my setup though and they can choose to share documents via a similar application (at least I know with my provider this is possible!) I had a situation recently where I needed a document from a client and if said client had been able to access his files from his phone’s browser he could have quickly emailed them  to me. Instead, we had to wait to finish a project until he was in his office to access the files.

So, can you access your documents from anywhere so easily? If so, what service do you use? I use SugarSync and totally recommend them, for what it’s worth (not a paid endorsement by the way, just true love of the product!) They offer fair pricing, SSL encryption which is very important especially when dealing with legal file materials, and work with both PCs and Macs. Similar SaaS backup/sync programs are compared here if you are interested!

Whether you aspire to be a virtual assistant or you or thinking about working with a virtual assistant, I thought I’d share some quick tips I’ve learned and would have benefited from implementing sooner:

1. Be clear from the beginning on your preferred method and hours of contact (applies to both client and VA).
2. Discuss the “finicky” things right off the bat: font type, font size, paragraph justification, etc. – they might seem like small things but getting them right early can ease your working relationship.
3. If you have a concern over anything, do not wait to mention it to the other party. Sooner said, sooner fixed; don’t hope it will just magically resolve itself!
4. Be very, very clear about deadlines.
5. Read every email or communique from your client CAREFULLY. Check for attachments immediately, even if you don’t need to do the work right away.
6. Spend a few minutes each week, for each client, thinking of ways you can improve the service you provide or find new items you can assist with.

I can tell you, from experience, that it is hard to make mistakes and feel for even a moment that you may have let your client down or let yourself down. But we are all human and we are bound to have moments of imperfection. Be honest with your client if you feel you should have done something better. Offer a discount or some other small token if necessary. Thank your clients for being understanding and remember when they have issues crop up that they are just like you and don’t take criticism personally. Just do better the next time!

I’ve heard of some pretty wonderful sounding law offices ever since I started my virtual legal assistant business and had my eyes opened to alternative ways of doing things within the legal profession, but I think this is definitely near the top of the list in my opinion. It’s a small change, and yet it is HUGE for people who want that elusive “all” that we hope is out there somewhere. I think I especially liked that the initiative applies to lawyers and staff, as long as they don’t abuse the process!

I would have been shocked had any of the traditional firms I worked in ever offered a person to bring in their infant on a regular basis. Admittedly, since I’m from Canada many people were able to take a fair bit of time off after having a child without losing their job. Still, I actually think some people would have happily returned to work more quickly given the option to bring baby along. Our maternity is usually only partially paid and some people would love to keep a full paycheque without having to put a young child into full-time childcare. Actually, most of my places of employment frowned strongly on bringing children almost anytime, despite official initiatives like “bring your child to work day” or the like.

Fortunately for me, being self-employed allows me that elusive “all” that I had hoped for once I had my children. I can get my boys off the bus and then get right back to business while they enjoy an afterschool snack. I can fit document drafting around naptimes and usually still have time for a quick park break in the late afternoons. The occasional (okay, more than occasional!) late nights are well worth feeling like I usually have time for my clients and my children.

I am pointing the review out on my blog, though I have no obligation to do so, because I truly believe Chrometa is a tool that can help lawyers and virtual legal assistants who charge clients on an hourly basis. It’s a handy addition to my arsenal and I think you would find it to be the same!

I’ve personally looked at a variety of options for a mastermind group, ideally with other virtual legal assistants. There are some paid options, but my personal preference is for a small group with no fee, where everyone in the group would be treated as equals, although some members are likely to be more experienced than others.  I think a better group dynamic will be achieved without paying a fee. But I could be wrong and some people may not take it seriously without paying. Any thoughts from my wonderful readers on this topic?

I am definitely going to include this in my development plan – to help grow Halo Secretarial into my vision of what a virtual legal assistant business can be, a mastermind group surely can only help! Now, to figure out exactly how to get started…