Building My Business or Spinning My Wheels?

When I first started my own business, I floundered trying to figure out how to be productive.  After all, I had spent much of my work life having my activities dictated by supervisors.  Obviously, one of the appeals of entrepreneurship is that I do in fact now set my own schedule and determine my own work activities!  But instead of being happy about that, I was frustrated at all the distractions hurtling my way that I wasn’t managing well, and anxious that I wasn’t getting enough done, or wasn’t getting the right things done.

After all, there are many things I need to fit into my schedule in order to keep my business running, and part of my learning curve as a new entrepreneur has been figuring out what those things are.  I devised ever longer lists of activities I hoped would grow my business.  Yet, even with to do lists, I still wasn’t content with my progress, and felt that important tasks were slipping through the cracks due to distractions, or poor time management, or perhaps just through poor prioritization.  Or perhaps because I just didn’t know what the heck I was doing!

Mostly I felt I was spinning my wheels.
 

Finally the messages of the business books and blogs I was reading sunk in, and I stepped back and thought about strategy.  I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating.  Mitch Joel talks about tactics - in my case my to-do list - being useless without a strategy.  I needed to ask myself why I would do any of the tasks on my to-do list, and which piece of my overall strategy each item supported.  So I sat down and thought about my business strategy, and prioritized broad business goals.  Then I listed categories of tasks under each goal, and I made sure that every task I dreamed up to do fit somewhere into that strategy and supported at least one of those goals.
 

Even that wasn’t enough.  It doesn’t do to merely write up a strategy; I must implement it.  So I have devised a daily schedule for myself.  I have even set up reminders.  And I am trying to stick to my schedule.  I may make daily decisions about flexing parts of the schedule here or there depending on my client commitments or appointments, but I am finding it tremendously useful to have thought through a plan for my day which is based upon my business strategy, rather than the whim du jour.  Here’s how it works.
 

Obviously work for my clients takes priority, and having lots of client work is the point of the whole exercise.  So when I have client work to do, I devote large chunks of time to it, and fit other tasks in as I may.  That said, these are the tasks I make sure I work into my schedule.

Social Media

 

I set aside some time each day for LinkedIn, Twitter and my RSS feed.  I check in on LinkedIn, see if there are any group discussions I want to contribute to.  I skim through my various Twitter feeds, click on interesting links, and retweet things I find useful.  I skim through the blogs in my RSS feed, and comment on or tweet blogs posts, as seems appropriate.  The business strategy here is three-fold.  First, it’s educational for me; it helps me keep abreast of the trends in my industry.  Next, I am building on-line relationships with people in my field from whom I can learn and whom I can perhaps assist.  And finally, I am developing my “brand” as a skilled paralegal who is an expert in her field.  However, I could spend all day on these things, so I set a time limit to it – I try to keep it to an hour (90 non-consecutive minutes max).
 

Writing

 

I set aside time for writing projects.  I am always working on articles related to the legal industry and/or paralegal work.  I make them available for download on my website, and I plan to pursue publication avenues for some of them in the future.  The business strategy behind this is twofold:  I want to continue to learn and keep my skills sharp, and the research required by writing articles accomplishes this.  And second, writing articles helps me in that above-mentioned “brand development.”

Marketing

 

Do you remember that line from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, “Always Be Closing”?  The business strategy here is “Always Be Marketing.”  I can’t afford to take a break from this.  I need to find ways to reach new markets, and to stay on the radar of potential clients.  I always have a few marketing projects going, whether it’s tweaking my website, developing new marketing materials, executing a direct mail campaign, building my marketing database, in person networking with former colleagues or potential clients, or studying marketing books.  I need to be relentless in my marketing efforts in order to keep business coming in the door.

The Rest of It

 

Recently I have begun scheduling regular time for writing posts for my two blogs, because I’ve realized that was the only way I would fit it in.  It is my hope that this will help me post a bit more consistently in the future.  I also set aside time most days for a little work-out, and this happens whether I have client work or not.  No one is going to keep me healthy but me!
 

Add in errands, meal preparation, and reading my various business books and magazines, plus some cooking magazines and the occasional novel (this usually happens in the evenings when my brain is too weary to “work” any more), and my days are very full!  That’s a good thing!
 

But the best thing of all is that when I regularly review my strategy for growing my business and the activities needed to support that strategy, and then stick to a schedule for chipping away at these activities, I accomplish more, and I hope the things I accomplish are actually pushing my business strategy forward! 

 

What are your time management strategies?  Feel free to share them in the comments.

Honesty Is The Best Policy (Or, Ben Franklin Had It Goin' On . . .)

I believe that ethics, and in particular what’s referred to as a “work ethic,” is a combination of personal values and smart business best practices.  A happy marriage of altruism and healthy self-interest, if you will.  The values part is comprised of stuff instilled in most of us as children by parents, teachers, community leaders, etc.  Values such as telling the truth.  Having integrity.  Refusing to cheat, or even to give the appearance of cheating.   Keeping confidences (particularly important in the context of the legal industry!).  Keeping promises.  Doing our best work.  Being careful, being thorough. 

Now that I’m a business owner, I find that the best practices part, interestingly, is comprised of much of the same stuff.  It’s good business to be honest, because it’s imperative that my clients trust me, and honesty builds trust.  It’s good business not to cheat on things like billing and time records because this too builds trust.  It’s good business to do the very best and most thorough work I’m capable of, because this builds my reputation as an exemplary service provider.  It’s good business to be efficient, to work thoroughly yet quickly.  To always meet deadlines, always perform what I promise I will perform.  To have my clients’ best interests at heart.  All of these things engender trust, and enhance my reputation as a business owner.

Even if I hadn’t had these values drummed into me as a youth – and I did! – it would be in my best interest, and the best interest of my business, to adopt them.

I suppose that as a service provider, I could be tempted to hoodwink a client into hiring me by advertising skills I don’t have, or to try to hide my mistakes instead of owning up to and fixing them, or to bilk as much money as possible out of any given client or project.  I have certainly witnessed all of these behaviors during the course of my working life.  However, not only would these tactics be unethical, they would also be very short-sighted.  The goal is to build a steady client base of repeat customers, clients who are so ecstatic about my work that they not only keep hiring me, but practically trip over themselves in their haste to refer others to me.  The only way to achieve that kind of loyalty is to provide outstanding value – the very best work product in the most efficient time frame possible.

So in light of all that, here are some of business policies I follow in my contract paralegal business:

•    Discuss with my attorney client deadlines for each task, and for the project as a whole.
•    Provide my attorney client with regular written updates on the status of my assigned tasks, on hours billed to date, and a realistic estimate of hours needed to complete all projects.
•    Obtain approval from my attorney client prior to embarking on any new projects or any tasks not previously discussed, and before incurring any costs.
•    Perform all assigned tasks on schedule, and within estimate (which means I had better provide an honest, accurate time estimate!).
•    Bill my attorney client only for time actually spent working on his or her tasks  (i.e., not for lunch breaks, stretch breaks, computer problems, etc.).
•    Proofread everything I write, whether it’s a document to be filed with the court, a memorandum, an invoice, or a simple email.  After that, proofread it again!

•    Maintain a professional demeanor at all times, in all my dealings with my attorney client, his/her staff or clients, the Court, or vendors, whether in writing, in person, or on the phone.
•    Take all steps necessary to protect the confidentiality of my attorney client, and of his or her clients:  secure data stored on my computer and in my back-up system; refrain from discussing any client information with any person except my client or his/her staff.
•    Finally, when I get calls from non-attorneys (and I do!), refer them elsewhere, because I am not authorized to practice law!

Note:  This post doesn’t directly address the specific ethical obligations imposed upon paralegals by state and federal regulations or bar association standards.  There are some great blog posts on these issues out there, however.  Check out Vicki Voisin’s Ethics Tip: Think Before You Send!, or the excellent How Do I Remain Ethical? guest post by Ellen Lockwood on Practical Paralegalism, or The Empowered Paralegal’s thought provoking post discussing attorney supervision, just to list a small sampling.

Do you have ethical best practices to add?  Feel free to share them in the comments!