You’ve finished law school and done your time in professional legal practices. Now you’re wondering if you can use your skills and experience and go it alone. Becoming a freelancer or independent consultant could be the perfect way to take charge of your career and be your own boss.
If you’re wondering about how to set up on your own, the list below will help you to get started.
Decide on the services you are going to offer
You may have specialised in a particular area when you worked at a law firm. Often, there isn’t much chance to work in other areas. Now that you are your own boss, you can choose exactly what you want to offer.
As with all business ideas, research the market first, there’s no point in offering services that aren’t in demand or enter an oversaturated market.
Line up your support services
Running your own business can mean that you are often tied up doing other tasks and find yourself having less time to complete your legal work. Find as many ways as possible to free up your time and resources. Hire a virtual assistant, or an attorney medical record retrieval services to speed up record finding or a marketer to take care of your website and promotions.
Take care of the administration
There are a lot of dull yet very necessary administrative tasks out of the way.
Register yourself as a business
Open a business bank account
Accounting software
Invoicing and billing
Appointment scheduling
Document management
Time tracking
Create your online presence and marketing plan
People need to know that you’re out there, offering to help them with their legal problems.
Get yourself set up with a website and social media profiles and start marketing yourself. If marketing isn’t your thing, there are many specialist companies or other freelancers out there who can help you with this.
At a minimum, you’ll want to list your services, expertise and experience. Once you’re up and running, think about adding additional content such a blog.
If you are targeting a specific geographic area, then concentrating on local SEO and targeted advertising is a great way to put yourself in front of people searching for legal services.
Start networking
There are so many good networking events to choose from that cater to all sectors and services. Find ones that are close to you, that are attended by either potential clients or others who could refer your services. Don’t just go in with the hard sell though. Good networking is about building up genuine connections with others.
Once you’ve mastered this then you might find that a good proportion of your business comes from referrals from business contacts and other lawyers.
Key takeaways
No doubt, there are many hurdles to jump over on the road to becoming a freelance lawyer. Once you’ve made the decision and followed the basics in setting up your business, then you can find yourself embarking on an extremely rewarding career.
The world of industry is ever-evolving. Technology is advancing at such a rate that it can be hard for businesses to keep up. It’s common to see companies and niche markets become obsolete overnight, with the emergence of a newer, more efficient businesses or processes.
A recurring management issue for many companies is advancing the skill level of their roster to meet the demands of the industry. Many look to third-party service providers to fill in specialised gaps that they currently can’t fill. Others seek to hire new staff to fulfil new roles.
A highly effective method of filling in a skills gap is to upskill internal staff. Not only does this approach solve a business need, but it also has many other benefits. Upskilling current employees is fine-tuning your business while demonstrating trust in your staff to take on more responsibility.
Finding the right fit for your company can prove difficult, so internal improvement is an excellent option.
Placing trust in your employees and enabling them for career advancement is a fantastic morale booster. Workers who are given the opportunity to improve themselves professionally are likely to be more satisfied in their roles.
With a career path in place, it may spur them on to make further progress for the company.
The modern worker places far more emphasis on job satisfaction and happiness than security.
Upskilling your employees demonstrates a willingness to improve their livelihoods. This appreciation should lead to happier staff, which, in turn, should lead to increased loyalty.
Makes company desirable
If potential employees see that your company provides the opportunity for growth internally, it is a huge selling point. Upskilling shows a route to improvement, making your company much more attractive.
Eliminates the need to outsource
Outsourcing certain business functions can be expensive, and it limits the control that you have over them. Upskilling in these areas eliminates this need.
Instead of hiring external companies to do your heavy lifting, create your own fleet of machine operators. Give your staff training opportunities to earn verified forklift licences and internalise similar functions.
Creates a specialised workforce
Upskilling employees increases knowledge and expertise in specific areas, leaving you with a specialised workforce. This will give you a competitive advantage within your industry.
Government incentives
In some industries, there are government incentives to upskill your staff. This encourages growth and expertise in the industry, which is good for the economy. Do your research and apply for any relevant incentives. These could save you a lot of money and contribute to the success of your enterprise.
Cost-effective
Upskilling can be very cost-effective. If employee retention is increased, there is less need to hire new staff continually. This reduces training costs and leaves more time to be spent on the primary tasks of the business.
Recruiting and hiring new staff regularly, expends a lot of company resource, be it time, advertising costs, or training costs.
2020 has been a tough year for a lot of businesses, and there are loads of things that play a part in this, but the global pandemic has been the biggest. Because of this, companies are having to find new ways of adapting and staying ahead of the curve. You are going to need to come up with ideas that will help you to make improvements and take things to the next level as much as possible.
Try to look at what it takes to find the best possible business approaches and use them to take the company forward. If you can stand out and make the most of the opportunities you have, there are a lot of things that you need to focus on. Check out these essential business hacks that are going to go a long way toward moving the company forward and making key improvements.
Hire an Accountant
Hiring an accountant is one of the best things you can do as a business owner when it comes to improving the company and looking after your future. There are a lot of things you’re going to need to get right at this stage, and this is a great way of being able to make things better. Try to think about some of the best ways of being able to achieve this, and there are a lot of elements that play a part in this. Hiring a business accountant is essential, and this is something you need to make sure you get right as much as possible.
Be Fully Operational
Trying to make sure you are fully operational as a company is one of the best things you can do. Now, there are a lot of ways of being able to do this, and one of the key ones is to make sure you focus on trying to operate the company in the best way you possibly can. Now, there are a lot of factors that you need to keep in mind here, and something like Vertical Consultants who can sort out cell tower leasing that will help you ensure constant communication throughout your business right now.
Make the Right Investments
You also need to try to ensure you are making the right investments as a business right now, as this is going to have several benefits long-term. This means thinking about the elements that are crucial to the running of a successful modern brand and investing time, money, and effort into those areas. There are plenty of great investments that small businesses can make, and it is important to get this right so that you can be sure you think about right now.
Any business that is looking to be successful is going to need to take steps to improve and evolve, and there are a lot of things that play a part in this. Make sure you do as much as possible to come up with some of the best ways of being able to achieve this. Try to figure out what it takes to improve your business as much as possible right now.
A number of small businesses are looking at developing some new technology that can help aspects of healthcare, and the provision that healthcare providers will be able to offer. With a population that isn’t getting any younger, the current global COVID-19 health crisis, we are seeing just how much technology can help to boost healthcare, and also just how much it is needed.
For example, being able to communicate simply and easily with others in the healthcare provision, can really improve the day to day of things with a medical professional. So when there are things like secure and instant messaging that are available, it can be a big benefit as a workflow tool for medical and healthcare professionals. In fact, there is one instant messaging tool called Forward that was created by a junior doctor. They know how the job works, and how a tool like that could be a real benefit. Gone are the days of needing to call a pager, for them to have to get to a phone to call you back. Instant, quick, and in real-time is what medical professionals really need.
Many will use a messaging tool like WhatsApp. However, because of the confidential and sensitive nature of a lot of the information that would be shared around an app like this, and to be able to adhere to legal requirements, having some bespoke for doctors is a must. So there is a need for technology and software in the medical industry to change, upgrade, and become more functional. When medical professionals and practitioners can work more efficiently, isn’t it going to be worth all of the time and money?
So with that in mind, here are some of the latest upgrades in technology in the medical sector, and why it is worth looking into, for your medical practice or care facility.
Manage work schedules
When you have a large team, there is a lot of juggling going on. People may be swapping shifts, and there are a lot of different needs and requirements to rearrange and organize. In an effort to combat this, there was an app created in 2016 called Florence (in a nod to Florence Nightingale), that uses technology to help to deal with the care sector’s crisis in nursing.
Again, designed by a doctor, it was created in order to combat a lot of inefficiencies with how they dealt with staffing and temporary staffing. Using the app, you can fill any shift vacancies much more efficiently, and it also allows nurses to have much greater control over the work that they do. So it is a benefit all round, and makes sure that nurses are in place in care homes, as and when they need to be. Patients are still number one, and it helps them to be cared for more efficiently. Small changes can make the day to day life of medical practitioners much simple and much more efficient. Of course staff schedules need to be done, but not at the detriment of patients. So this is a really positive move.
At the end of the day, medical practitioners are there for their patients, and so if they can do their job more efficiently, but help patients in a better way, then it is going to see a huge improvement in the industry. Something that could be a big benefit for medical practitioners is getting a new and improved EEG, to help with problems in the electrical activity of the brain, which can occur because of a brain disorder. An EEG reading is used to confirm, or to rule out, a variety of conditions, including things like epilepsy or other seizure disorders, as well as head injuries. If medical practitioners have an updated EEG, then it allows for readings in real-time. This helps medical practitioners to be able to make much quicker decisions for their patient, helping their overall patient management. Using technology to improve how they can help patients is something that is so important.
Buffer between appointments
Technology, when used in the right way, really can help to save time, and to help patients choose the right kind of healthcare that they need, the support that they need, and also plays a part in early intervention for some patients. Many medical practices are using video technology to talk with patients in-between consultations, and even for appointments. An app called LIVI has been used and trialed in the UK, and it allows people to have an appointment in the comfort of their own home, or on their travels, just using their smartphones. Connected to a medical practice it means that they can get prescriptions, and the doctor on the end of the phone can see the patient’s information, to best provide and advise.
Not only can it help patients, but having some electronic notes can actually be of benefit to the practice, as they are much more convenient to store. Of course, there are a variety of video call software that you can use, with many of them recording calls and consultation, which means that clinical governance or audits won’t be a problem. Although this shouldn’t fully replace having a face-to-face consultation between doctors and patients, it can be a big benefit for some immediate peace of mind, relief, or quick access to a particular prescription.
Technology impacts our lives in so many ways, and if you are a medical professional, then you really need to think about the technology that you use to make life simpler, and more efficient, for yourselves. Being able to take care of patients better, and make your daily life better, makes complete sense, and it is great that we live in such a time when we do have access to such technologies. Who knows what the future will bring, and how much more access we will have to improved technology, to help to improve our jobs. Have you any thoughts on this? It would be great to hear what you think.
Having a strong online presence is crucial for success and can make or break you, no matter your business, whether big or small. After all, even if you have the best product in the world, if you don’t have an online presence, your customers will never be able to find you.
Online presence helps to form a significant part of your online identity and influences how your target audience and clients interact with you. If you are not actively engaging and targeting potential customers online, then your business will be missing out on a massive chunk of potential revenue.
Here are some tips to boost your online presence to avoid your business becoming obsolete on the web.
With the unlimited number of businesses and users popping up all over the place, if you don’t make a noise, no one will notice you in the background. Engage with your customers and clients and respond to queries and feedback to build relationships and a rapport. If there are any negative reviews or suggestions on how you could improve things, show that you are there and willing to actively listen and help with their problems. Being active online will show your customers that you care about their needs, and boost your reputation at the same time.
Use Social Media
What was once used primarily to connect family and friends, has now been adopted by nearly every successful business in the market. Social media offers businesses unlimited potential interactions with clients and customers every day, helping to build awareness around their brand and boost their revenue. Get creative with your social media – create various ad campaigns and share relevant stories explicitly aimed at your audience. Do some research and discover which channels they are more likely to use (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook), and make them your primary focus. Likewise, don’t be afraid to reach out and talk to your customers through comments and messages to solidify your presence even more.
Create a professional website
Aside from social media, your website will be the very first place that people will go to find out more about you and your brand so it’s crucial that it is fully functioning, professional looking and mobile friendly. Lastly, if you are creating your website yourself, you will be spending a lot of your time online so make sure to protect yourself and compare internet providers to get the best deal in your area.
Be adaptable
Whatever your business or industry, the only thing that you can be certain of is that trends rapidly evolve, new technologies are continuously being developed and things are constantly changing. In order to survive and thrive in the world of business you have to make sure that you are open to new ways of doing things, while being open-minded and adaptable or else run the risk of falling behind. The most successful businesses are the ones who are always evolving to cater to the needs of their customers, so make sure to do frequent research into the latest consumer and marketing trends to stay ahead of the competition.
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