Driven: Part 4, or Believing Isn't Necessarily Seeing

OMG it's been f-o-r-e-v-e-r since I posted last, where have I been?

I've been here!

Pretty, eh? 

Plus when I haven't been frolicking in the desert, I've been Crazy Busy.

Enough of that, onward with the thoughts I've been thinking while reading Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

The farther I read in this provocative book, the more I realize that it has vast implications for virtual paralegals such as me, and  for all other freelance or telecommuting workers.

I’ve seen a lot of articles suggesting that trust is a barrier to telecommuting or remote working relationships. That managers, supervisors, and business owners who hire contractors worry about the work getting done when no supervisor is present to watch it happening.

This is the exact opposite of what I experience, and I'm guessing it is the opposite of what all of my virtual colleagues experience too.

The notion that a remote working contractor, such as a virtual paralegal, won’t work when not being watched operates on the old assumptions that people don’t really want to work, and must be driven to by carrots and sticks. An assumption that doesn’t really bear out when people are interested in what they’re doing, and have a deep personal investment in what they're doing.

In fact, the very reason that many freelancers want to be self-employed and want to work remotely is that autonomy is very important to us, and it is also highly motivating. The control I wield over when and how I work is an integral part of my drive to excel.

I've commented in previous posts about the way in which carrots and sticks can warp our natural motivation to work hard. Studies show that in a work environment where workers know they are being monitored to assure they’re performing, they may actually slack if monitoring stops. The goal can shift from performing the work to appearing busy for the ever watchful boss. So I can see how managers – lawyers in my case – could become programmed to believe workers require monitoring to get them to perform.

But a self-employed person, someone owning her own business and responsible for her own income, benefits, livelihood and well-being, is really operating outside such an environment. She has strong motivation to perform and to exceed expectations that has nothing to do with being monitored.

Now I’m not suggesting that it’s impossible for a remote working professional to slack off and charge clients for not working – obviously there are unscrupulous folks around. I'm simply saying that for me, the motivation to do my best and most efficient work stems from my love of what I'm doing, from the exhilarating sense of pride I feel from owning a business that provides services to clients, and from the knowledge that it's the value I provide that keeps clients coming back, whether they can see me working or not.

Driven: Part 1, Or, Embracing My Inner Nerd

Do you know what one of my amazing nephews bought me for Christmas? Daniel H. Pink’s mind-blowing book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. (The other amazing nephew bought me another wonderful book, but that’s fodder for a different future post.) I didn’t read it right way, and now that I’ve started I find it hard to put down, and it’s causing my synapses to fire overtime.

So this is the start of a little series of posts recording my reflections as I read this book, because I believe it has such important implications for the path I’ve been on throughout my career, the reasons behind some of the choices I’ve made, my current virtual paralegal business venture, and on the nature of entrepreneurship itself – which as you know I think about quite a bit here on this blog.

As one might guess from the title, the purpose of the book is to discuss human motivation, how the theories of motivation and the tactics used to motivate in the business world have changed over time, with implications for employers, employees, and just about everyone else. 

Pink postulates two general categories of people as defined by what drives them: extrinsic motivation, which he calls Type X, and intrinsic motivation, which he calls Type I. So assuming the same baseline standard of living, a Type X person is more motivated toward achievement by outer rewards such as money or honors or recognition or perks, while a Type I person is more motivated to achieve by something more internal, “the freedom, challenge, and purpose of the undertaking itself.” (at 78.) And lots of implications arise from these two different motivations.

Well, the first explosion that went off in my head that I want to talk about is this:

I now realize that I have pretty much always been a Type I person.

When I was a young kid, I was content to read for hours. All that reading didn’t gain me popularity, influence or lots of friends (I think mostly it gained me a rep as a weirdo), but it was satisfying to me. 

There was a period during high school, when I would spend hours studying and researching stuff. Stuff that hadn’t been assigned by teachers. And that didn’t have any purpose in particular except that I was curious, and driven to figure it all out. 

(“GEEZE what a colossal nerd!!”  Well yeah, pretty much I was. Am. Whatever. My brother playfully refers to this trait of mine as OCD (is it playful??) and I take exception to this, but this longstanding little joke between my brother and me is a whole ‘nother story, so I’ll just move on.)

My first “real” job after college was for a non-profit organization at which I worked long hours, and had very little money. I did it because at the time, I cared about the work and the cause, and believed we were helping. I found the group effort very satisfying.

Later, my career path took a more conventional turn (such as law firms), but I still never did the angling some of my colleagues did to command the highest salary out there. As long as I felt valued by my supervisors and co-workers, and believed I could take pride in doing work of excellent quality, I tended to stick around, with or without hefty pay raises.

And I begin to see how this fact – the fact that I am so strongly motivated by the satisfaction of performing well, of making my own decisions and of providing work of value – has led me here. To start my own business. To continue the struggle to build a client base in a bad economy. To create a lot of informational and educational materials for which I’m not compensated financially – at least not at the moment (although there are certainly lots of other – well, intrinsic compensations).

It’s fascinating. My head is spinning. I hadn’t looked at myself and my career trajectory in quite this way before.

What about you? How do you think you’re motivated?

Who you gonna call?

When I worked in BigLaw, there were plenty of opportunities to exchange ideas and commiserate with co-workers. The office was veritably pulsing with fellow paralegals, IT folks, litigation support people, legal secretaries and document clerks who were all involved somehow in the endeavor of providing excellent service to firm clients. Everyone had a role to play in getting the firm’s work done, and everyone in his or her own way was dedicated to accomplishing that.

I had people everywhere I could seek help from, brainstorm with, complain to (not that I would ever do that!), and get encouragement from. And co-workers would come to me for the same reasons. There was (usually) a spirit of teamwork and cooperation.

Or at the very least, a coffee run co-conspirator or after work drinking buddy.

Ah, but I work in BigLaw no longer! I am flying solo . . . master (mistress??) of my own fate . . . a solitary soul slaving in solitude, so to speak!

If you’re a biz owner, a “solopreneur” as the current buzzword goes, where do you go to get ideas?

Who do you turn to when you need to ask a question, or to get advice, or to vent, or to enjoy a simple cuppa coffee forgodssake?

Who you gonna call?????

Well it turns out, much to my delight, there actually are folks!

First, there are colleagues in my paralegal association. As I go to meetings – whether it's the entire membership, the litigation section, or the occasional board meeting, I've begun to form friendships. Most of these colleagues work in law firms; some work as freelance paralegals as I do; a few are unemployed and looking for work. I can empathize with all these situations, and we support each other.

Next there are colleagues, both paralegals and attorneys, whom I’ve begun to make friends with through my involvement in other associations, such as the county bar association and my Women in Law group. We can swap stories, swap tips about legal vendors, or occasionally even reminisce about our former life in BigLaw!

I have developed a network of local fellow biz owners who are great friends, and who also brainstorm with me about building my business. (Turns out they’re superb drinking buddies too!)

But what I didn't anticipate when I began my virtual paralegal business was how many friends I’d meet online through Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs!

• There is a small group of fellow virtual paralegals I've phone-conferenced with, and who are proving to be a supportive group to exchange ideas with.
• There is a group of fellow freelancers, in a wide variety of fields, that I have weekly chats with about marketing and other business matters.
• There are interesting and talented legal professionals who share or post material that I find useful and that I learn from.
• There is a virtual assistant and tech guru extraordinaire I met on Twitter, who is now helping me revamp my website. (Thanks @TMarieHilton!)

What I’ve learned is that participating in professional organizations, building friendships with fellow biz owners, and being active on social media sites are even more important for me as a self-employed virtual paralegal than they were when I was an employee. Now that I can’t just walk down the hallway to find a co-worker to consult with, it has become doubly important to make sure I’m active in my paralegal & bar associations, and that I'm showing up online to exchange information and good will with folks.

Plus, I've gotta get my coffee run co-conspirators and drinking buddies from somewhere!

What about you? Who are you gonna call?

Method to My Madness: Getting More Done

Running my own business requires a different mindset about time management than that which served me as a law firm employee. I have many more tasks requiring my attention, and a different set of priorities. This has necessitated a "re-think" about the organization of my time.

As a paralegal in a law firm, my to-do list flowed from my case deadlines, and assignments from attorneys. After all, most case deadlines are pretty non-negotiable! That motion must get filed by this time on this date, and I must move heaven and earth to make that happen. And when a partner calls wanting something done, the only appropriate response is, “On it!”

Now as a virtual and freelance paralegal, I still have deadlines for case work assigned by my attorney clients. But on top of that, I also have a host of business related tasks I must perform. No matter how much client work I have in the pipeline (and I want to have a lot!), I ignore these other tasks at my peril, because my flow of future client work depends on them.

When I first started this business, I naturally used my old method of a long, daily list of to-dos, largely driven by external deadlines. But when I began adding those business and marketing related projects into this list, two things happened.

First, the list got overwhelmingly long!

But second and perhaps more problematic, because the business related tasks didn’t usually have the hard deadlines that the client projects did, they got shoved to the side. Or they led to a lot of disorganized and confusing “project jumping.” My sense of the priority of these business tasks was so subjective and fear driven, that I found myself switching from one thing to another to the point that little got done.

I needed a better way.

I've posted before about my realization that I need a strategy for prioritizing my to-dos. As my thinking has evolved – or perhaps as my frustration level has become unbearable – I’ve also realized I need a structure. Something to keep the daily list below 25 items. Or even if I'm using the post-it method (which is that your daily list has to fit on a post-it - see here), I need something to prevent those items that never make it onto the post-it from completely falling through the cracks.

So now I’m trying the “days of the week” method. In other words, categories of projects are assigned to different days of the week.

Now, some tasks need to be done every day. Like client work – I do whatever it takes to get it done, get it done well, and get it done on time. Also exercise – I really try to do this every day. Also Twitter, reading and commenting on blogs, and other social media activities – I spend time on them most days, although not the same amount of time each day. (Why waste time on this? See here and here.)

Another item I can’t assign a day to is in-person networking events. I see big benefits from these for my business, so I attend them whenever they occur and schedule everything else around them.

But the bigger biz-related projects? I’ve assigned them days. For example, I reserve the same day each week for working on my Newsletter. (Not a subscriber? See the sidebar!) I reserve a different day each week for article writing. And yet another day for my website. Etc.

What’s helpful about this is it thwarts my temptation to switch projects every time I get an idea. Say I get an incredibly great idea about organizing an article I’m writing. Typically I would start worrying about the article, and maybe I would even stop what I’m doing to work on it. But this way, I jot the idea down, tell myself I’ll flesh it out on my article writing day, and then continue what I was doing. Or suppose I get a sudden surge of panic that my newsletter isn't ready and it has to go out next week - OMG! I tell myself to relax, that I’ll finish it on my upcoming newsletter day. And I go on with what I’m doing.

Another benefit is that I can actually assure I will get to my accounting, and other administrative stuff! After all, I’ve reserved Mondays for that! It makes it much harder to come up with a convenient excuse to avoid working on that stuff I don't enjoy but need to to!

This method is working for me at the moment, and I find I’m managing to move more projects forward. How about you – what do you do about managing your to-do list?

After all, it's just an experiment!

People are going to peg me as a Peter Bregman groupie.  Oh well, there are worse things, I suppose.

Bregman wrote another post last month that has stuck with me ever since, called Live Life as an Experiment.  In it, he tells a story of an experiment in which he returned an item to a store and tried to get out of paying the 20% restocking fee.  His experiment succeeded; he appealed to the store manager’s generosity and avoided paying the fee, and learned that many people really do want to be generous, given the chance.  But he drew a much bigger lesson from this, which appeals to me a great deal.  And that was,

Live life as an experiment!

“Because when we live life as an experiment, we are far more willing to take risks, to acknowledge failure, to learn and develop. That's what experiments are all about: discovery and growth. There is no real failure in an experiment because it's all data. If something doesn't work, that's simply data that leads to changing behavior to see if something else does work.”

Bregman's argument suggests to me that I might be willing to do something I would normally find embarrassing, if it’s an experiment.  Take, for example, business cold calling!  Something I’m horrified at the thought of doing, for a number of reasons which are probably pretty sound.  But what if I made an experiment of it?  What if the point was to see whether a cold call resulted in a meeting, or in a hang-up?  If the goal of the experiment is simply data, then either result is OK, right?

What other business related icky projects could I turn into an experiment?  How would this mindset improve my willingness to take a risk?  What could I learn from it?

Who knows, it might even result in increased business!  Now, wouldn’t that be grand?

What Matters To You?

I was recently left a bit breathless by a very arresting blog post by Peter Bregman called “Don’t Regret Working Too Hard.”  The springboard was an article suggesting that as people near the end of their lives, their two most common regrets are not having lived a life true to themselves, and having worked too hard.  From this, Bregman suggests that one might address – or perhaps prevent - these regrets by figuring out what really matters to us, and trying to spend time working on those things, rather than on things that are not meaningful to us.
 

As a CEO, Bregman took his post in a different direction than I can as a small business owner with no employees, but his chief point still brought me up short.

So the question is, what matters to you?

That is a critically important question to explore.

After all, I don’t want to spend any time – now or later – regretting that I worked too hard, or regretting that I missed out somehow on being my best self, doing what I most wanted to do.  And for me, it isn’t so much about working too many hours, but rather, working on projects I don’t value.

On one level, this idea is reaffirming to me, because I’m aware that I started down this path of owning my own business for precisely this reason.  I became aware that what really matters to me is having a work life that isn’t so alienated from my “non-work” life.  Having more autonomy, more control over the texture and quality of my days.  Being my own boss, reaping all the fruits of my own labor rather than primarily enriching others. 

So in that respect, I am indeed spending my time working on what matters to me, and that is a gratifying thing to realize.
 

My challenge going forward is to never stop asking myself what matters most to me, and to continue to find ways to spend my time doing just that.

What matters most to you?

Newsletter Launch! Or, Where Have I Been?

It is true that I haven’t posted here for a while.  A bit of a noticeable absence.  A long pause.  So what’s up with that?  What have I been doing?
 

Lately I have been preoccupied with planning a new resource that I’m actually quite excited about!  It is the launch of my Drescher ProParalegal Newsletter for paralegals, legal secretaries and other legal support staff!  (Attorneys welcome too, of course!)
 

A newsletter is something I’ve been thinking about for some time.  The more I've thought about it, the more I like the idea.  I believe I have useful and practical knowledge to share, and a perspective on law firm life that comes from my varied employment background, all of which I enjoy writing about.  This blog has never felt like the perfect medium for that kind of writing. 
 

Even more important, what I’ve missed the most about my law firm employment has been the many wonderful opportunities I had to train, to exchange knowledge with peers, and to mentor junior staff.  I’m hoping my newsletter will provide an avenue for doing so once more.
 

My newsletter will be a culmination of the reading, research and on-line participation I've been doing since I started my freelance business.  It will include practice tips and resources for my fellow legal staffers.  It will include lots of links to articles that interest me - articles that are thought provoking, or inspiring, or just plain laugh-out-loud-funny.  It will report on what I'm up to, where my various business, educational or networking events are taking me, and what I'm learning from them.  I also plan to to share fun tidbits about my other passions for cooking, entertaining, wine and food.  I believe it will be both relevant and entertaining for my colleagues in the legal profession.  What a blast!

 

But isn’t the competition steep?  After all, there are a lot of fine newsletters already out there – I know, because I subscribe to a number of them, and will continue to do so!  Well, I don’t think it’s about competition.  I believe all the many legal newsletter writers out there have their own niche to fill.  I believe there is plenty of room for us all!  In fact, readers will probably see links to some of these writers’ articles included in my own newsletter!
 

In short, this newsletter is something I’m quite excited about, and am having a lot of fun doing.  And it is my sincere hope that it will be valuable for my readers too! 
 

Perhaps it will even be valuable for you!  The first edition will be available next week!  Why don’t you sign up to receive it?  Just click the link here, and follow the usual instructions, OR use the sign-up form to the right in my blog sidebar!  And then go on and share it with your friends!  Email me with your comments and ideas! 
 

And if you don’t see me posting quite as much here on the blog in the weeks ahead, you can be sure you will see my tips, resources and insights in the newsletter in weeks to come.  Cheers!
 

Here are the usual, but very true, disclaimers:  All newsletter content will be public (i.e., nothing confidential, nothing related to any specific law firm or client), and included for information or entertainment purposes only.  I am not an attorney, and no newsletter content will constitute (or probably even remotely resemble!) legal advice or recommendations on any legal matters.  And probably most important of all, your email address will never be shared, rented or sold, and you can unsubscribe at any time.  (But of course, I hope you don’t! :P)

Sunday Six Word Memoir

I’ve had an unsettling week.  Unsettling in a good way, that is.  It all started a little while back when I scored a copy of Dave Navaro’s ebook, 7 Steps To Playing A Much Bigger Game.  Which is not hard to do, since he’s giving it away on his website, how cool is that.  Although I think I got it from somewhere else. 

In any event, reading and working through it has been challenged my thinking quite a bit, as I’m struggling to build my little great big freelance and virtual paralegal business in a difficult economy.  It’s challenged me to ask myself if I’m really "all in" on this project, and if I really am, then what else am I prepared to do to succeed.  Beyond that, how much further can I take my ideas; what additional services or products can I provide that might benefit my clients even more, while yielding greater income for me?  What am I willing to invest, of my time and effort and resources, in order to insure my success?

As a result I’m in the midst of adding to my marketing arsenal, and planning new approaches for reaching new clients.  I’m far from finished working these ideas out, but in the interim, here is the next in my series of Six Word Memoirs – a memoir to encapsulate my week:
 

Be all in; go all out!

Got your own Six Word Memoir?  Feel free to share it in the Comments!

Face Time, or, Working That Room!

Networking events were not part of my life when I was employed in Big Law – or at least I didn’t perceive what I was doing to be “networking.”  I rubbed shoulders with other paralegals and legal support professionals at MCLEs and other seminars, and of course met people in other industries at MeetUps and other gatherings.  I made friends where I could, noted interesting information I came across, but didn’t consider such events essential for my livelihood.
 

Now that I’m a business owner, events where I can meet fellow entrepreneurs and other legal professionals have become hugely important.  I seek out such gatherings wherever I can, and I make it a priority to show up.  Of course my direct mail, email and internet marketing are all worthwhile, but there’s something irreplaceable about meeting someone face to face.  I remember the people I meet, and what I’ve learned about what they do and what they need.  And I hope they remember me!
 

I attend county Bar Association events, paralegal association meetings, e-discovery seminars, as well as local business networking events whenever I can.  I still try to make friends.  I still note interesting information I come across.  If I meet someone who could benefit from my contract paralegal services someday, of course I make a special effort to learn about her firm and practice.  However, I find that people in other industries are great connections to make as well.  I never know when I might have a need for the expertise of someone I meet outside the legal profession, or whether I will meet someone I can refer to them.

Last week I attended an event hosted by the Napa Chamber of Commerce at the beautiful Artesa Winery.  It was a gorgeous setting and a beautiful mild summer evening.  I met interesting people in the wine industry, video and internet marketing fields, direct mail and network marketing areas, and yes, the legal industry too.  The wines and the food items from local restaurants were excellent, and it all made for a lovely and beneficial evening.
 

Yes, I still experience some initial reticence to striking up conversations with strangers, but once I get going I do love to chat with people I meet, learn about how they’re operating their businesses, and compare notes on marketing strategies and the economy, etc.  I try to focus on making friends rather than doing a hard-sell about my services, and I try to follow up with emails to everyone I meet that I want to stay in touch with.
 

Will I get business directly from such networking events?  I certainly hope so, but it isn’t solely about that.  Rather, it’s about making connections in my local community, establishing friendships with people I can help and who can perhaps help me one day.  It’s about Whuffie.
 

For another take on networking events, I highly recommend these:  Chere Estrin’s wonderful post, You Call This Networking?? – boy, can I relate to this anxiety!  Also, an inspiring post from Women Grow Business called,  Want to Grow Your Business? Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone. 
 

So what about you – do you network?  Feel free to share your stories in the comments!

How to Succeed in Business . . . by Really, Really Trying

Occasionally I read an article or blog post I find so thought provoking, I cannot shake it off. 

Such as last month, when I read Sonia Simone’s CopyBlogger piece, The Three Surprisingly Simple Keys to Success.  What was provocative about this piece for me was the discussion of things that I typically view as outside my control which may actually be very much within my control.

What are the three keys, and are they within my grasp after all?  The article starts with the well-known premise that in order to succeed – in whatever you’re trying to succeed in – you need any two of the three following things: talent, luck, or persistence.  Now, the last one, persistence, may be challenging, but at least it's up to me and me alone to persist or not.  But what if I’m neither talented enough nor lucky enough?

Talent

I’ve been accustomed to thinking talent is innate.  Something I was born to be good at.  Some “gift” that always came naturally to me.  (Phrased that way, how many of these do I actually have?!?  Hmm . . .)  For example, I had a bit of an ear for music when I was young, and thought of it as a “talent” I had been born with - possibly discounting too much the 1-2 hours per day I practiced (which is of course nothing by musicians’ standards - but still).  But Simone suggests that what we think of as talent is more often something we love so much that we do it a lot, in which case does the success stem from innate ability, or from “nonstop, almost obsessive practice”? 

Thought provoking question!  If some activity I need to make my business succeed - such as successful marketing, thoughtful use of social media, writing useful articles - doesn’t come naturally to me, do I give up on talent and turn to the other two Keys to Success?  Nope.  I keep marketing.  I keep working at communicating.  I write, and write, and write some more. 

As Simone writes, “The more you work, the more talented you get.”  Which is actually a huge relief!

Luck

Luck is obviously completely outside my realm of influence - or so I thought.  But what if luck isn’t really “luck”?  If a brand new client phones me because my marketing piece lands on her desk the very day she needs help, is that luck?  Maybe, but if I strew my marketing pieces wider and farther and more strategically and more often, can I improve the odds of such a thing happening?

If I bump into three potential clients at a social event and spark their interest in my business primarily because I’m likable and I express confidence that I can benefit them, is that lucky?  Perhaps a bit, but if I get out more often and meet more people, and if I’m putting my most likable self forward at all times, do I improve my odds? 

What if I’m always striving to be kind, be helpful, be generous, improve my karma, and increase my whuffie?  What if these things, over time, bring me more business and happier clients?  Is that luck?

As Simone says, “The more you work, the luckier you get.”  Good news!

Persistence

I’m not suggesting this one is easy; however it is a lot easier for me to realize that this particular key to success is within my control.  I need to keep at it and not give up.  Keep working hard and well for my clients.  Keep dreaming up new avenues for finding and attracting clients.  Keep marketing.  Keep writing.  Keep interacting.  Keep striving to be generous.  Keep doing my best work.  Relentlessly.  Every day.  No matter what.  Without fail.

So when I’m tempted to feel discouraged that things aren’t going my way, not falling into place, not progressing quickly enough, this article is an excellent reminder to me that if I just persist, keep working hard at all the tasks before me, perhaps I can increase my talent, create my own luck, and my business will become a success.

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!

Blog Current: Wading Through an Endless Flow of Ideas

Why do I subscribe to blogs and news feeds?  Because subscribing is such a huge time saver, as shown in this cool little video!
 
But the prior question would be why do I read blogs at all?  Because I want to keep abreast of law practice trends.  Because I never owned a business before, and I barely know what I’m doing.  Because some days I’m scared to death!  Oh, and because it’s fun!
 
The blogs in my RSS reader fluctuate.  Being self-employed, time management is something I constantly wrestle with.  Mindful that I need to spend time on the most important things, I regularly review my subscriptions and remove blogs that I’m either – let’s face it, just not reading – or else not benefiting from any more.  But what benefits me?

Those benefits fluctuate too, as I move through different phases of my entrepreneurial pursuits, but generally, my blog subscriptions fall into three categories: law and paralegal blogs; marketing and business blogs; and what I think of as “entrepreneurial inspiration” blogs.  (There are also food/wine blogs, but that’s a topic for Sonoma Sip.)  

Here are just a few of the blogs in each category that I read regularly.
 
Legal Profession
 
LTN Law Technology News – LTN is a news feed of articles from a variety of sources focused on technology in law practice.  As technological advances have always been of great interest, but also of great importance to me as a paralegal, I find this feed extremely useful.  It also has a focus on e-discovery, which is a big interest of mine.
 
Practical Paralegalism – Lynne DeVenny is a North Carolina paralegal who writes a highly engaging blog about and for fellow paralegals.  Her posts are a mix of education, paralegal news and funny or moving anecdotes, and I always enjoy it.  Check it out!
 
Georgetown Law’s E-Discovery Law Blog - As I mentioned, I'm quite interested in e-discovery, and consequently I subscribe to a number of e-discovery blogs.  Scholarly yet very clearly written, it covers an interesting array of e-discovery related topics.
 
Marketing & Business Advice
 
Six Pixels of Separation – a marketing blog written by Mitch Joel of TwistImage.com, author of the recent book by the same name.  I enjoyed the book, and I also subscribe to Mitch’s podcast.  If there is one significant message I’ve gleaned from Six Pixels, it is to continually ask myself why.  Why should clients hire me instead of someone else, why is anyone interested in anything I have to say, why am I choosing this marketing method over another?  My strategy has to dictate my tactics; otherwise everything I do is just a distraction.(fn)   Thought-provoking stuff!
 
IttyBiz: Marketing for Businesses Without Marketing Departments – a hilariously funny yet very insightful blog written by Naomi Dunford.  I need to remember not to sip coffee or wine or any other liquid while reading Naomi’s posts lest I spew it all over my computer when I burst out laughing, and the smiles would be reason enough to read it.  But the blog is also full of marketing insights geared straight toward my very small sort of business.
 
Entrepreneurial Inspiration
 
Buon Viaggio – a blog written by Barbara Winter of JoyfullyJobless.com fame.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, her book was highly influential in my decision to start my own contract paralegal business.  Her blog continues to inspire, and encourages me to revel in the fact that despite all its challenges, becoming self-employed was the best thing I could have done in this season of my life.
 
Seth’s Blog -  I realize it’s quite unoriginal to adore Seth’s blog – it might just be the most popular blog on the planet – but I don’t care.  Seth’s posts are endlessly honest, insightful, and arresting, and I rarely if ever fail to be challenged by them.  Perhaps the two most transformative messages for me have been the importance of generosity in my life, in my relationships, in my business, and the importance of what Seth calls “shipping.”  Do it.  Get it on the market.  Start the business.  Execute the plan – not the perfect plan, just the plan I have right now.  Act, move, get it done.  I need this kick in the pants every day!
 
I could talk about many more noteworthy blogs – and perhaps I will in a follow-up post.  These blogs might not be your cup of tea – what benefits me right now might be – probably is! – different from what benefits you.  Regardless, I wholeheartedly recommend that you spend a slot of time a day or a week feeding your mind with insights from others that might hone your skills, challenge your thinking, give you new ideas, or simply provide encouragement that you’re on the right track!
 
So what are you reading?  Feel free to share it in the comments!



fn:  Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone, by Mitch Joel, at 50-51. New York: Business Plus, 2009.

Multiple Profit Centers

If I had to choose one idea from all my self-employment research that has had the most influence on my thinking, it would have to be Barbara Winter’s discussion of Multiple Profit Centers.  In her wonderful book, Making a Living Without a Job, she says,

"Rather than thinking in terms of having a single source of income (as we are trained to do when we see our income tied to a job), the savvy entrepreneur thinks about developing several income sources.  With planning – and an openness to additional opportunities as they come along – you can create as many income streams as you desire."

Diversifying my income streams has been on my mind a lot this week.  While not wishing to detract from my efforts at building my freelance paralegal business, two important things are true.  First, I don't fill up 10 hours of every day on my freelance business; there are days that I spend that much time on it and more, but there are other days when I don’t have  client work, I’m caught up on my marketing projects, and I don’t have a networking event to attend.  Second, I embarked upon this entrepreneurial journey with a number of other dreams I wanted to pursue in addition to freelancing as a paralegal.  My passions for food, wine, cooking, entertaining were big determiners of my choice of location; these and other passions are things I would love to turn into a series of businesses some day.  Hence, I’ve devoted a lot of time this week to laying plans for the Multiple Profit Centers Barbara Winter talks about.

For example, I’m looking for a  local part time job.  One obvious reason is supplemental income, but there’s another even more important reason.  I want an arena in which I can interact with people in the community (outside of the legal field), provide customer service, learn as much as I can about an angle of business I haven’t had an opportunity to experience yet, having spent most of my working life in big law firms.  I want a chance to closely observe another successful business owner, and see what lessons I can apply to my own future businesses.  I’m the first to admit that there is a big learning curve for me in being an entrepreneur.  I believe that any part-time employment experience in a field other than law will be invaluable as I seek to build a series of successful home businesses for myself.

I also have another small business idea I’ve been toying with for a while now.  It’s too new and nebulous to discuss much yet, but it involves my passion for food and wine pairing.  So I’ve been bouncing this idea off of my foodie and wine-loving friends, and putting plans in place for some practice runs for my idea.  I realize that I will need to develop a sound business model through trial and error, and develop both the skills I will need and some expertise in the field before I can hope to earn income from it.  Fortunately, I can’t think of anything more enjoyable than putting on “practice” food and wine events with friends.  It’s quite energizing to me to think about and plan this, and having an ultimate goal of turning something I love so much into an income stream gives a sense of urgency to the project.  (Look for future blog posts about this on my sister blog, Sonoma Sip.)
 
And just yesterday morning, I dreamed up another idea for a possible small business involving another of my long-term passions for plants and gardening.  Who knows where that idea eventually will go, but I’m enjoying the creativity of the brainstorming process.

I didn't set off on this journey merely to create an income for myself.  I want to create a lifestyle, one in which I am doing what I love, utilizing all my skills (paralegal skills to be sure, but not only those), enjoying my life.  I look forward to seeing where it will all lead me.

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.

Endings and New Beginnings

A mere six months ago, I was living in Los Angeles, and working full time as a senior litigation paralegal at a well-respected law firm with about 200 talented attorneys. This law firm was the fifth law firm I had worked for in my 20+ year legal career, and one that enabled me to gain valuable experience in Intellectual Property. However, the commute was long, as were the hours at times, and the fact was I had grown weary, not so much of this firm in particular, but rather of both the pressures and stress, and routine and “sameness” of my long career.

Moreover, while living in Los Angeles was huge fun and I had wonderful friends with whom I cooked and entertained and visited museums and heard jazz and opera and did any number of other wonderfully entertaining things -- living in LA is expensive. I was living reasonably well to be sure, but I was making no headway at all toward my goals of buying a house and retiring early, nor was I likely to. In fact, it was looking as though I was going to be slogging away in this routine for many years to come before I could afford to either buy a house or retire, if I stayed on this trajectory. This was becoming an increasingly unpleasant thought.

A revelation came to me perhaps 1½ years ago when my money advisor convinced me that if I could just see my way clear to relocating somewhere with a cheaper housing market (lots of places are cheaper than El Lay, friends), and use my sizable down payment to buy a house for only a small (or zero!) mortgage, my retirement outlook would improve dramatically. It took a few months for that idea to percolate and explode in my head, but once it did, I started planning my escape.

I began spending time in the evenings researching cheaper real estate markets. Recall that this was during the early stages of what as we all know became a serious plummeting of real estate values nationwide. Realizing I wasn’t interested in leaving California, I focused my investigation here, and made a spreadsheet of real estate prices in cities all over the state. I mulled these locations over, trying them on for size in my head, and pondered what, in addition to cheaper real estate, would make any of these locations desirable for me to live in.

One of the particularly salient facts I had to recognize as I studied these real estate trends was that the cheapest houses were to be had outside of the major mega-population regions of Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego or the San Francisco Bay Area, which meant much less access to the kinds of jobs and salary to which I had become accustomed. In fact, when I discussed my fledgling brainstorms about places to relocate with friends, often the first thing they said would be, “Yes, but there are no jobs there!” (Of course, at the moment there are few jobs anywhere, but that is a topic for another post.)

However, this is where the next piece of the puzzle came to light. Along with my weariness with life in large law firms came an increasing hunger for some other means to support myself. As many of us know, paralegals have a great deal of responsibility, and there might be a good deal of work satisfaction and recognition, but there is little control over one’s schedule or workload or environment. I wanted more control over my working life. So the next big project I began delving into was researching, brainstorming, dreaming about how I could earn an adequate living working for myself.

Mind you, ten or perhaps even five years ago, I would have found this prospect entirely daunting. I believed that I didn’t have the requisite drive, or motivation, or “entrepreneurial spirit” to pull that off, and preferred being someone else’s employee. But witness the difference that a few more years of growth and experiences can make – now, I think that indeed I DO have those requisite things! Or where they’re lacking, I at least have a very strong desire for greater control over my own money making endeavors, which provides a lot of motivation for this effort! (But I’m getting ahead of myself.)

So I began to buy and read books! (They’re listed at the end of the post.) I read books that provided inspiration for thinking differently about employment, working, money, and lifestyle. I spent evenings and weekends writing out the numerous exercises in these books, pondering what my answers said about me, giving myself permission to consider without judgment as many ideas as could rush into my head about what I loved to do, what I was passionate about, what I was skilled at. And some themes emerged.

When it came to skills, I realized that there are many aspects of being a litigation paralegal that I’m really very good at and that I really do enjoy. I love mentoring junior staff. I enjoy teaching, imparting my knowledge to others. I’m good at factual investigation, and compiling the data gained thereby. I’m skilled at project management and team leadership. I wanted to find a way to continue using many of these skills in a self-employed context.

When it comes to passions, I realized I am passionate about food, cooking, wine and entertaining. For years, my social activities and creative expression had revolved around these things. I had helped start a supper club with a group of friends who were similarly serious cooks. I had embarked upon wine tasting trips in all the major California and Washington wine regions with fellow wine lovers. I had hosted wine parties, and wine and food pairing dinners and events. I had read countless cookbooks and wine and cooking magazines. I had fallen into the habit of inviting friends over, on pretty short notice, for impromptu dinner parties every time I happened upon a recipe or wine pairing I wanted to try. I had surrounded myself with friends who were passionate about all those same things.

This led to another important realization: a very prominent criterion for my relocation was that it had to involve wine and great food. I decided I needed to move to one of the state’s many wine regions!

This in turn led to a series of weekend reconnaissance trips with wine loving friends, the purpose of which was to taste wine, look at real estate in likely towns, and generally try to answer the question, “Could I, should I, live here?” My friends and I made multiple trips to the Santa Ynez/Santa Barbara/Santa Maria valleys, sampled lovely wines, and drove through numerous neighborhoods in various towns. We made similar trips to the San Luis Obispo/Paso Robles area. In almost every tasting room we visited, I’d ask, “I’m thinking about moving here, what advice to you have for me?” The comments I got from local folks were always enlightening.

I thought quite seriously about San Luis Obispo and surrounding towns for a while, because it has become a favorite emerging wine region of mine. But prior to my stint in LA, I had lived and worked in the Bay area for years, and already had an established network of family and friends and legal contacts there. So eventually, my search took me north to Sonoma County, where another “recon” trip, this time with nearby family, clinched my decision that this would be my future home.

Finally it was time to begin putting my year of research, dreaming and planning into action. I researched and bought a web domain, and established my first (of what may turn out to be many) website. I started to write a business plan. I began making plans to relocate. AND I quit my job.

I have read countless writers on business and self-employment who advise against this. They say, don’t quit your day job yet, work on your new self-employment gig evenings and weekends at first to get it going, make sure you can succeed. Very sound advice, except that since a big chunk of my plans required moving to wine country, I just didn’t have that luxury. I had to take the Big Plunge on multiple fronts all at once. Crazy? Time will tell I guess! After all, after six months into this adventure, I’m nowhere near operating in the black yet, and don’t expect to be for a while. But I’m hopeful! I’m not giving up, I’m pressing on! I’m determined to figure this entrepreneur thing out!

To wrap this long story up, I moved to Sonoma County in mid-summer, bought my business license, began plugging away at a freelance paralegal business (more on this in future posts), brainstormed about additional income sources (more on this in future posts), and began settling in to my new home (you guessed it – more on this in future posts).

You’ll recall that this journey began with my desire to speed up my timeline for retirement. Well clearly, quitting a job in order to improve one’s retirement prospects seems counter-intuitive, and the jury is still out, as it were, on whether in the end I will have sped up retirement at all. Perhaps not. But the point is that even if I’m still hard at work at age 90, if I’m doing it for myself and enjoying what I do and the life I’ve created, is that such a bad thing?

More musings to come. Thanks for reading.

Reading List:

Homemade Money: Starting Smart!, by Barbara Brabec. New York: M. Evans & Co, 2003.

Finding Your Perfect Work: The New Career Guide to Making a Living, Creating a Life, by Paul and Sara Edwards. Tarcher, Revised ed., 2003.

Small Time Business Operator, 10th Edition: How to Start Your Own Business, Keep Your Books, Pay Your Taxes & Stay Out of Trouble (Small Time Operator), by Bernard B. Kamoraff. Willets: Bell Sprints Publishing, 2008.

Making A Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love, by Barbara J. Winter. New York: Bantam, 1993.