How to Start a Solo Law Practice

Posted by Charlotte Attorney
Written by Claytonwire

The Bar examination is the exam all practicing lawyers must take before they are eligible to practice law in a particular county or state. However completing the bar exam on its own is not enough to guarantee employment, and in the current economic climate it’s more difficult than usual to secure a job. One of the best ways around the current job shortage however, as many people are finding, is to go it alone and set up your own business. In law this might mean starting your own solo practice, and there are many benefits to doing so; so much so that even if you are currently a practicing attorney or otherwise employed, you may still be tempted by the idea of flying solo.

For a little bit of money up front, starting a solo practice can give you the satisfaction of working closer to the case, choosing your working environment and taking more profit as a result. It can also give you the flexibility to hone in on a niche area, gain business experience and choose your cases.

Fortunately if you have the determination to go for it then it’s actual not that hard or expensive even to set up your practice. First of all you will need to register with the government that you are going self employed and that will involve setting up tax. You will most likely want to register yourself as a sole trader, but should the need arise you can develop later into a limited company. The equipment you’ll need is fairly basic and setting up your home office won’t need to cost that much. First of all you need a computer and a printer, and most people already have both. Laptops are advisable as they’re far more practical and means you can have all your documents on you at any time and can have a ‘paperless law office’. Make sure that you have the necessary software for managing contacts such as Outlook and for managing your money such as GnuCash. Likewise ensure that your printer has scanning and faxing capabilities.

If you currently don’t have much experience as an attorney then it can pay to shadow a company that do something similar to what you want to do for a month or so. You won’t get paid for this but if you volunteer your services for free for a month a lot of places will be eager to have you. In return ask to be sent to their meetings and involved in their privy discussions.

Now that you have the experience and the tools you just need the clients. Often the easiest way to find clients to begin with is through friends and family going through divorces or dealing with traffic tickets. Ask them to spread the word and recommend you and hopefully you’ll start a domino effect. To make this process easier you’ll also need business cards so people can pass them onto their friends; friends can actually be some of the best marketers and best of all they’re free! Similarly by taking on pro bono cases (with out a fee) you can build a reputation for yourself and again get more good referrals (don’t take on more than you can afford however).

Today social networking sites like Facebook can also be a great way to communicate your service to a lot of people, and setting up your own professional looking website is also a must. Adverts on local radio and in local magazines are also intelligent ways to market and soon you’ll find that the work comes pouring in with no work on your part.

How to minimize Cancellations

Taken from ehow

Posted by Charlotte Attorney

1.
Step 1

Create a policy. Establishing a cancellation policy and making it known to patients will lead to fewer cancellations. Making patients aware of the policy, especially new patients, is an important part in minimizing cancellations, according to Dental-tribune.com. Appointments should include the complete date, the starting time, and the length of the appointment.
2.
Step 2

Schedule a realistic and feasible number of appointments. Overbooking results from cancellations and patients who do not show up. Although a patient may need several follow-up procedures and appointments, don't book them all at the same time.
3.
Step 3

Confirm appointments at least 48 hours before the scheduled time. Confirmation calls are necessary to minimize the number of cancellations. Speaking directly to a patient is best so that messages are not missed. Alternate ways of reaching the patient are also a good way to minimize cancellations. Emails, texts, and reminder appointment postcards can also be sent to ensure that the patient has not forgotten the appointment date and time.
4.
Step 4

Incorporate a scheduling system that is computerized. A computerized system can help fill cancellations quickly, as well as help keep track of the entire schedule. Computer scheduling programs can include lists of patients that can come in sooner, and can find patients to fill gaps in the schedule. These programs also allow printing of the schedule for each room.
5.
Step 5

Fill in cancellations quickly. If a patient cancels in advance, the spot should be filled quickly so it is not forgotten about. Computer systems help with completing this. Calls should be made to patients that can possibly make the cancellation time.


Read more: How to Minimize Cancellations in the Dental Office | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5514303_minimize-cancellations-dental-office.html#ixzz0rUxJOcUc

Quick Ways To Boost Profits

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Written byBusiness Town

Quick Ways To Boost Profits!
"Too often in business we get trapped into equating sales with profits. Yet there are many other ways you can dramatically impact your profitability!"
Underpricing Kills Profits!
Many small businesses have thinner profit margins than larger firms do because they tend to underprice their products or services. So why not just raise prices? I know the feeling--you're scared that your competition might swoop in like a bird of prey and your customer base might shrivel overnight!

For years we credited much of the success of our best-selling resume book, Resumes That Knock 'em Dead, to its relatively low $7.95 price. But my sales manager insisted we could charge more, so when we brought out a new edition, I nervously increased the price by 25 percent to $9.95. What happened to sales? Unit sales surged over 20 percent. Total revenue soared 50 percent, and profits skyrocketed!

Still unsure about raising prices? Remember, you can always cut them back. A Chinese restaurant I eat at has rolled the price of its lunch buffet back and forth like a Ping-Pong ball, between $5.95 and $6.25, four times over the last two years.

Is The Marketing Working?
You've probably heard the familiar maxim: "Twenty percent of my advertising brings in 80 percent of my business, but I don't know which 20 percent!" Well, I bet that in your business there is at least one marketing expense that you have a strong suspicion isn't carrying its weight--so cut it and see what happens!

One year I tried cutting three-quarters of the promotional budget for my leading book. What happened? The sales continued to creep upward, and the profit margin of the entire company jumped markedly higher.

It's often by eliminating the marketing expenses previously considered most sacred that you gain the most. For example, in the book industry many of the leading publishers have recently stopped participating in the annual national trade show--it simply was costing them too much money for too little return.

The Easiest Way To Profits
Let's say your overall profit margin is 5 percent--not an uncommon level for many smaller firms. But if you can cut your costs by just 5 percent, your profit will double. On the other hand, to get the same increase by boosting sales, you would have to increase sales by 100 percent. Chances are that cutting costs just a little bit would be a lot easier.

To attack your costs take a look at every single expense item starting with the biggest items! Get competitive bids for every product and every service that you buy!

Remember, despite what they may teach you at business school, there is no such thing as fixed costs! Often lease rates, mortgage rates, and utility rates can be negotiated downward, especially if the market has shifted.

Review Your Product Mix!
A seasoned banker once told me about a firm with several highly profitable divisions and one marginally profitable division. The company sold the marginally profitable division, and suddenly the performance of the remaining divisions dramatically improved!

I've tried this! It works! When the economy around Boston hit rock bottom in the late 1980s, I closed my job-advertising newspaper-which was 50 percent of our revenue the previous year. By being able to put all of my energy into the other part of my business-book publishing-it took off, and revenue doubled, more than making up for the newspaper closing.

Even a marginal business or product line that isn't losing money is draining resources-time and focus. Close it and move on!

Outsource Judiciously
One of the battle cries in business today is to determine the one thing that your business does best, become even better at it, and outsource absolutely everything else. There is certainly a lot to be said for taking a careful look at every function in your business and asking yourself if you should outsource it. But take a hard look at the numbers before you decide to jump on the outsource bandwagon!

For example, we hoped that by outsourcing the warehousing of our books to our printer in the Midwest we could save lots of money in freight costs. But a careful analysis showed that we would save almost nothing in freight costs and that outsourcing would have nearly doubled our warehouse and handling costs.

* Source Streetwise Business Tips

Value your services

written by

All other professionals doctors, architects, engineers, accountants, ect all charge for consultations. So why should you give your time away for free?

I know you generate more leads when you offer free consults but are those leads genuine? Are these people going to hire you?

Today many people feel as though legal services should free. When they are willing to pay for amenities such as hair, skin, nails, surgeries, the movies. Why then do people have a warped view that you as a legal professional do not deserve to be compensated?

In a consultation you are generally evaluating some one's unique situation and providing them with some level advice. Like a doctor you are diagnosing that particular client's problem or needs. So why is that not compensable?

I am by no means saying that you shouldn't do pro bono work. But you can not base your entire practice on pro bono work! You are not legal aid and you have overhead and bills to pay (including those student loans you took out to get to this point).

Don't sell yourself short! Your services are valuable and must be earned fair and square~!

Hiring and Keeping Staff

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Having a terrible assistant can cost you a world of headache.

Not having one can cause you to miss out on revenue in clients that you otherwise wouldn't be able to reach.

Employees can not live with them! Can not live without them!

Here are somethings you should ask on an interview:

1. Issues and concerns they have had with past employers and how they have dealt with such issues.
2. Their learning style because this dictates as to how you can train them and how they will adapt to the work area.
3. Do they have options as far as: Child Car, Transportation. This will dictate whether they can make it to work on time, have to leave early frequently, or come to work at all.
4. Ask an off the wall critical thinking question to test their problem solving skills.

Here are some things I have learned as a fairly new employer for new hires:

1. Definitely have an employee handbook with procedures and policies for attendance, pay, employee's actions, etc. This way if something happens your actions in reprimanding this employee are not a shock the employee. It is also provides consistency.  
2. Setup your payroll through a reputable company. The last thing you want is for your employees to be paid late.
3. Develop a training manual. Believe it or not employment is voluntary on both sides. So if an employee quits and someone needs to be rehired/retrained you want something in place that will help the new hire with their position.
4. Be patient! A new hire has to learn to do things according to the way you want them to, even if they have experience.
5. Provide employee with periodic reviews of their work.
6. Make sure your door is open so that your employee can voice to your their concerns and issues. This helps to facilitate a less hostile work place.

Finally, you can find a great pool of candidates from the community college or university career posting website. Other classified ad sites maybe helpful if you what a very large pool of applicants.

Benefits of a List serv

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A listserv is unlike an Internet forum where users pull only the specific information they request. A listserv passively provides a variety of information into a user's inbox. Users can respond to the listserv with their own questions or solutions, and they learn new things they may not have known to search for or request information on. All users have to do is check their e-mail inboxes in order to receive information from a listserv.

List servs such as posselist have had great success. I have even begun my own local list serv and have received many benefits from this.

Official Google Blog: This week in search 5/7/10

Official Google Blog: This week in search 5/7/10