Remembering your client base. Remember to tie together features that allow your quicker and better options with your clients. Some are tech savvy while others are not quite as much. Model your expansions on their needs and abilities. Some will be able to send you back scannable PDFs.
With the automation of scanning, email, and faxes, sometimes there is no need for an assistant to be in the office 40 hours a week and instead to be part time or on call. Each office is differe
Ultimately, profit and loss comes down to management. Your learning and experiences can help in many ways– often ways that you had not thought of previously. Consider how your office runs and if your management style affects its function and how.
Review efficiency with your staff. Discuss how to prevent interruptions and distractions and how their work can be more economical. There are often subtle differences in how you and your staff operate and ironing out any issues can benefit everyone in the long run.
There is also the need for efficient collections. If your firm is unable to gain the fruits of your labor, then where is the incentive to build further? Work with your staff to put in place efficient billing methods to achieve very high payment rates in a timely fashion.
In the world of incredible competition and more established firms, being able to get information to potential clients in hours or days instead of weeks can make all of the difference. It can make your office more well-organized and accessible.
Salary may be the number one concern for a twenty something that just put up their shingle. However, there are other aspects at work. Even if just self-employed, it is important to remember the cost of health insurance.
These applications are not the be-all, end-all in the legal field, but represent important steps that any attorney and their firm can take to modernize their office.
Forty hours a week may be an archaic measurement of a workweek. Some attorneys, freed by the ease and simplification of email, computers, and digitization may no longer need the same period of time to assist their clients. Some will find these changes liberating an allow them to work far longer hours to serve many more clients. Some will keep a traditional schedule, but this is becoming rarer as the field changes each year.