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.
We’ve seen a flurry of new laws come out over the past few years that attempt to maintain individual privacy in a world where the internet remembers all. In Europe, for instance, there’s the so-called “right to be forgotten.”
But these measures don’t capture the full picture of what is happening in the digital world. If you’re a company and you post something or get a bad review, it remains for all time. There’s usually nothing you can do about it.
Everyone, therefore, is becoming obsessed with their digital footprint. The internet is chock full of blogs reminding students who want jobs after they graduate not to post pictures of themselves drunk on Facebook. There are articles telling companies that they have to hire public relations experts who can manage potential social media PR disasters. And there are computer forensics expert witness services reminding people that they need to be careful about what they reveal online. Hackers lurk around every corner.
Most people know that when they do something online, websites collect data and store it. That’s part and parcel of using the internet. But comparatively few people really have a gut feel for just how much of their data is out there.
If you’re struggling to get your head around this, just hop onto your Amazon account and take a look at your purchase history. You can view everything you’ve ever bought for the last twenty years.
That’s right; Amazon knows what you were buying two decades ago if you use the same account.
The number of ways that digital footprints can affect business is extraordinary.
Unlike individuals looking for internet privacy, companies want an online presence. They want as much positive exposure as they can get to sell more goods and raise awareness. But the type of publicity matters. Having a good digital footprint is awesome. It builds your brand and enables you to expand your operations. Having a lousy footprint does the opposite and can be very damaging.
Then there’s the issue of security. Here, companies need to be careful. They want to divulge some information so that customers find it easy to get in touch with them. But they don’t want to provide so much that hackers could exploit them. It is a delicate balance.
Content Matters
It would help if you assumed that everything you publish online lasts forever. Even if you delete it from your accounts, there’s a chance that someone, somewhere has a copy.
For that reason, whatever content you create matters a lot. You need whatever you publish to remain consistent with your brand, regardless of who writes or produces it. Disjointed, inaccurate or, heaven forbid, “offensive” content may come back to bite you.
Of course, not all companies will manage their digital footprints. Some may actively embrace risk – especially those who want to create a scene. But that doesn’t mean that it is unimportant. Digital footprints last forever, and that’s kinda scary.
Self-employment brings many career benefits, but it can also bring a great deal of stress. This is particularly evident when your earnings start to decline in spite of working the same number of hours.
Unlike most traditional jobs, your salary doesn’t necessarily correlate with hours worked. Therefore, identifying the reasons why your earnings have dropped is essential. Here are five of the most common reasons, along with what you can do about it.
#1. Boredom
Productivity levels are heavily influenced by motivation. So, if you’ve lost the passion for your work and feel disengaged with the work, it will show. This is a far bigger problem for self-employed people, which is why you need to find a way to overcome your boredom. If you cannot rediscover your enthusiasm and engagement with the work, it may be necessary to change your career. The average worker experiences seven changes in a lifetime. It’s OK to take a step back before progressing once more.
#2. Outdated Equipment
Bad workers aren’t the only ones to blame their tools, at least not when the equipment holds you back. If investing in new machinery or upgrading your computer can increase your productivity, you must not ignore it. Saving money by persisting with the old equipment is very counterproductive if it reduces your earnings. Besides, the new equipment and tools are genuine expenses, meaning you’ll gain some tax relief. Apart from the impact it can have on your productivity, the improvement will significantly reduce your stress levels.
Time is the most valuable resource at your disposal. If you’re not careful, though, you can lose several hours to assignments that do not directly impact your earnings. When you find yourself fielding lots of calls, using a virtual assistant can work wonders. Fighting for financial justice following accidents is another example. Allow experts like Hadley Law Firm to take care of this issue, and you can focus on the jobs at hand. In addition to the physical time savings, a clear mind will enable you to squeeze more into your days.
#4. Increased Expenses
Profit is a two-way street. While it can be a little daunting to start asking the client for more money, it may be necessary if your overheads have increased. From office rentals to energy rates and gasoline prices, inflation will see your outgoings column increase. Naturally, then, if the revenue doesn’t grow to reflect this, your earning will keep falling slowly. Sadly, with living costs rising too, this cannot be a suitable long-term strategy. If an increase in your rates can be justified, you should not hesitate to make the change.
#5. Image
As a self-employed contractor, you need to impress prospective clients and temporary employers on a regular basis. If you have seen conversions fall, it could be due to a stale image. Reinventing your online presence can be one of your smartest investments. Experts like Ideal Insight can create engaging visual content to generate leads and make people aware of your brand. When supported by a change of vehicle, work suit, and grooming ritual, success is assured. Not only because it alters the way others view you, but also because it changes the way you feel about yourself!
You know how you feel when you interact with a fake person in your own life. It’s annoying and disingenuous but it’s ultimately harmless in most cases. When a business is fake, that is an extra slap in the face because they’re trying to get something from you. When you feel as if a business is not being honest with you, it’s almost like a personal attack. You feel that they think you’re stupid or that you’ll be their next gullible customer. Authenticity in people is valued just as much as brand authenticity. Being true to who you really are, is a matter of honor and respect. Consumers react incredibly positively to a business that is open and honest. But how can you express this in your marketing content?
Honest vs concocted image
Business blogs are one of the most important aspects of your online presence. From the largest to the smallest, companies are seeing their blogs in a different way. It’s no longer a place to upload content that only industry experts will enjoy reading. It’s no longer a place to utilize as a press release space. Your customers read what you write, so why not connect with them on a much deeper level? Write honestly about the challenges you’re having within your business. It could be a product design phase is not going as expected, but that you’re learning new things about your capabilities. Customers can see through a concocted image, one that projects a flavor of ‘everything is fine’ when it’s not. Addressing the shortcomings of customer services is a way to be brutally honest about your business that customers will respect.
Real-world examples
Nothing gets a customer more interested in your articles and blog posts when you use real-world examples. If you run an ecommerce business, convincing customers to buy the products you offer is difficult. They have so many options, why should they purchase from you? Giving them real-world examples of how you use certain products and the results you have experienced, gives wary customers a firsthand account. By learning how to start affiliate marketing you can promote your products with effective SEO techniques weaved into your honest review posts. Your job is to sell the product but not do it obnoxiously. Customers want the truth, so give it to them. You should try to avoid selling products that you don’t believe in to start with, so you can lay it all out in your blog posts.
Vlogging your experience
Video content must be matched with written content. Google promotes websites with a mixture of both over one or the other. Therefore vlogging your experience with products that you personally sell, is a superb way to reach through the screen and connect with consumers who are teetering on the edge but don’t quite know how useful the product would be to them.
Customers have more patience for a company that is willfully being honest to them. Speak openly about the challenges you face in your business and give real-world examples of how you utilize the products you sell.
If you are tempted to take a step away from your full time building job or contractor role, you might be tempted to begin the new year by plowing some of your energy into your very own construction startup. You may have a little book of contacts ready to take with you and you may be an expert in your field. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be other aspects of construction and business that you need help with. Construction is an industry that requires some specific legislation to be adhered to and it also requires business acumen as well as sound tradesperson skills. Read on to discover the ultimate guide to starting a construction business.
Business Plan
As with any new startup, you need to hone a well thought out business plan. This shouldn’t be some generic print out from a free website. You need to think about what is specific to your company. Use this document to think through your ideas for your business vision and the ethos of your venture. This will also be the document where you can make financial forecasts for your first three years or so of trading. The more specific and quantitative you can be, the greater the chance you have of securing investment from a bank or business angel. Give it out, use it as the basis for your pitch and ensure that you enthuse within your business plan about your business ideas.
Legalities
It’s vital that you can adhere to all public liability, professional and industry specific insurances. These are crucial if you are to trade legally. Build up a network of contacts within construction. While you might be an excellent builder or electrician or plumber, you will need the help of fellow tradespeople to complete construction projects on time. Ensure that you contact a support service company to clear the waste that you produce on site on a regular basis. This stops your projects from grinding to a halt and enables you to worry about one less aspect of your jobs. If you hire staff, ensure that you adhere to health and safety legislation and undertake refresher training every year.
Market Yourself
While you might not be the most savvy Internet user, you need to become more au fait with the world wide web. It’s crucial that you get yourself a business Facebook page, a Twitter feed and an Instagram page as well as a website. These interlinked platforms create a more effective online presence that you can use to market your business. Being a new venture, you will have some already well established industry rivals to compete with. Ensure that you update your feeds every other day, detail any offers that you have and use Instagram to show some gimmicky before and after photos of your projects. If someone gets in touch, respond promptly and be willing to travel to secure your first projects.
If you are eager to launch your own construction startup, follow this guide, and see your new venture go from strength to strength.
Recent Comments