7 Tasks that your Law Firm Can Outsource to a Virtual Assistant
You want to spend more of your time practicing law and less time repeating necessary but boring admin tasks?
Hiring a virtual assistant will reduce your personal workload in a cost-effective way that will benefit your law firm.
Virtual assistants can do all the tasks you don’t want to do (but need to) to keep your practice going and often they can bring their own expertise and skills to the table to help you optimize your practice.
What is a virtual assistant?
A virtual assistant or VA usually works remotely from their own office and has the job of helping you with specific office tasks that can be completed remotely. The tasks VA’s can do could be incredibly specific or very broad.
Some people are concerned with trusting a VA, and this is something that needs to be addressed before you hire a VA. An initial telephone consultation then if possible a face to face meeting where all T&C’s are discussed along with a NDA being signed could help reduce these fears.
There are many tasks that could be outsourced to a VA but I am going to look at 7 specific tasks that maybe useful to a law firm.
1. Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping is one of those things that are necessary but boring and time consuming. Since these tasks are systematic and repetitive, a VA can do them well. Many VAs have bookkeeping experience, so these tasks are not a huge challenge. Some things VAs can do:
Invoice clients
Pay your bills
Bank reconciliations with your cloud accounting software
Keep track of your accounts payable and receivables
Remind you when it’s time to pay bills (if you want to pay your own bills)
When considering a VA for booking keeping services check that they have the necessary registrations to do so (HMRC Regulations and Registration)
2. Answer Phones
A lot of independent VA’s do not offer this service as it takes them away from other client work however there are many VA services that are dedicated to outsourced phone answering that can take this task on for you (Ring Central)
3. Social Media Management and Creation
You don’t have time to Tweet, Like, and Follow people on LinkedIn Twitter or Facebook?.
A lot of VAs have experience in social media marketing. VAs can promote you to an audience and manage your social accounts for you.
4. Email management
One of the most common tasks VAs do for clients is help them with inbox management. Once you give them access to your email, they can sort and organize your inbox.. VAs can prioritize your emails into necessary folders so you can spend less time scouring for the most relevant emails and answer the most important ones first. They may also be able to email prospective and current clients to set up appointments and answer basic questions like directions to your office.
5. Manage Your Calendar and Set Meetings
VAs can set appointments with clients and manage your schedule. VAs can set up client meetings by looking up your schedule and adding the appointments to your calendar. Saves you time from having to email back-and-forth with a client to find a suitable time.
6. Transcription
Do you usually take notes by hand? If so you can and send them to your VA to have them typed up and saved in a client’s folder on your hard drive. Or you may use a digital Dictaphone, you can email the recording to your VA they can transcribe and send back.
7. Book Travel
You don’t need to spend hours researching the best hotels and flights when you have a VA handy. They can find the best hotel for your budget and get you a flight within the time window you’re looking for.
Cost Savings Calculations
You may be hesitant to start outsourcing, so let’s find out if the numbers add up. Look at it this way:
How much do you charge per hour?
How many likely billable hours are you losing by working on administrative tasks? (Keeping in mind you probably won’t have enough business to occupy all your time)
How much would it cost to have a VA do the tasks you currently have to?
What is the difference between your potential earnings and the cost of a VA?
Check out rates of Legal Secretary Services here to have and an idea on how much it would cost you to hire a VA
Remember when you do the calculation that when hiring a VA you are only hiring them for the time you are using them, You don’t have to supply equipment or pay holiday or sick pay so there are no overheads like there are when you hirer in house staff.
Before Hiring a VA
Research thoroughly. Cheap is not necessarily a good thing, remember you are paying for a dedicated professional services. Have a clear understanding of expectations. And Communicate regularly with feedback and updates.
Communication is Key!!
Book a Free Consultation to discuss your business needs and see how I can free up your time so you can concentrate on your clients BOOK NOW
