Self-Employed At Last

As I was working through all those business books (see previous post) and trying to decide what form of self-employment I wanted to pursue, I tried a lot of different possibilities on for size – for example, resume writing or litigation support work.  And of course, I brainstormed about how I could put my love of cooking and wine to work for me in money-making endeavors.  It was helpful, I believe, to initially spend time pursuing avenues that were a departure from anything I had done before, a completely fresh start.  However, after a lot of thought and exploration, eventually I concluded that the most logical thing was to continue working as a paralegal, but this time as a freelancer rather than an employee.  After all, I already have the needed skills; I’m good at it; and while I may have become weary and disillusioned of law firm life, I do like the work itself.

I concluded that two important factors could contribute to my success in this endeavor.  The first is technology.  Technology now enables a lot of work in the legal industry to be done remotely.  This means it's less important to have a lot of sizeable law firms nearby; if I can work from a home office, I don’t need to be in close proximity to a client. This means that I can live wherever I want and still find work.  The second factor, ironically enough, is the recent and ongoing economic downturn.  I believe this very difficult economy is actually a great opportunity for me, because firms of all sizes are loathe to add to their payrolls right now (in fact, many have been reducing staff dramatically), but they still need to get work done.  Hiring a freelancer instead of a permanent employee is a very economical solution for them.

Perhaps the most important added benefit of a freelancing business, though, is this:  After over 20 years of paralegal work in law firms, I felt I had reached a point where I really couldn’t learn much more.  There were few if any new substantive skills to acquire.  I couldn’t really advance much further.  However, in starting my own business, there are so many new things to learn, so many new challenges to tackle, a huge number (sometimes a frightening number!) of new skills to acquire.  Instead of dragging into the office to perform the same tasks I’ve been performing for years, now I struggle to work through all the new decisions and activities which go into striving to make a new business work.  I’m a novice at this; I’m once again wet behind the ears!  And I’m finding that exhilarating!

But back to nuts and bolts, as it were.  Having made the decision to build a freelance paralegal business, I thought long and hard about a business name, bought my domain, and had a website put together.  I did – and continue to do - plenty of research on any technological tools I might need to perform paralegal work from a home office.  I began sketching out a business plan (OK I admit, it’s still not very detailed).  Once I had relocated back to Northern California, I started working on additional logistics of my new business – a business license, a business phone and address, business cards, a brochure.    I’ve also spent time researching local trends in the legal industry, local court rules, local pricing, and local advertising.  I’ve looked into who my competitors are (there are some other very talented contract paralegals out there in the North Bay!), who the local attorneys are.  And I’ve begun, slowly, to get business! 

I still dream of building new businesses (“multiple profit centers” Barbara Winter calls them) involving cooking and wine some day.  I have other skills and talents I’d like to develop in income-earning ways.  But right now, I need to focus on building my freelance paralegal business.  More details to come in future posts.