Virtual Paralegal and Administrative Services, LLC was created after the owner, Janice Frary, discovered how many attorneys and small business owners in the United States were struggling under a heavy workload and unnecessary office overhead. Our as-needed paralegal and administrative assistance is driven by decades of experience, spread out between one full–time owner/paralegal, eight independently contracted paralegals, and two administrative assistants.
You might be wondering how this would be beneficial to your law practice and small business. Remote workers aren't something new. Many companies are beginning to embrace the idea of having virtual employees. The main reasons? It saves you money and reduces stress. Here are a few ways:
Say Goodbye To That Office Lease
Is there a need to rent out an office if your workers are all remote? Especially when you take into account how long office leases tend to be – around 10 years! Do the math – $500 per month for 10 years is $60,000! Imagine if you invested that money instead. Worried about where to meet clients without an office? Easy – that can be done by renting a conference room by the hour or meet in a coffee shop. Don't want to be flooded by mail or give out your home address? Get a P.O. Box instead! When it comes down to it, you can save at least $10,000 annually for every worker you convert to working remotely, says Global Workplace Analytics. Think about it – NO OFFICE OVERHEAD. Imagine how much you would save!
Decrease Your Stress Levels
We could all use a little less stress in our lives. It doesn't pay off, in the end, to be constantly toeing the line of your limits. So why not cut down in real, tangible ways when it comes to your worklife? A human resources technology company called Ultimate Software surveyed 1,000 full–time workers that have in–office and remote positions available to them. The data they were able to gather was impressive.
“Remote workers were also less stressed out, the survey found. Half of the remote workers (50%) said their working location contributed to less stress, compared to 19% of on–site workers who feel that way. Remote working also offers other perks such as a casual wardrobe — in fact, 56% of remote workers said they dress casually all the time, compared to only 27% of employees who work in the office.”
Speaking of dressing down – Janice likes to laugh and say that “you’ll get top–notch service with us as if we are wearing business suits, but in reality, we’re not even close.”
Are you stressed because you are trying to do it all yourself? Could you imagine the stress you would reduce if you hired a virtual assistant to take one or two things off your plate? For example, these are just a sampling of the things we can do for attorneys and law offices:
· Drafting legal documents such as pleadings, memos, and petitions
· Electronically file legal documents
· Billing and invoicing your clients
· Modernization of your processes and streamlining procedures
· Website design, creation, and administration
Cut Down On Commuting
Speaking of stress, let's chat commuting! In addition to lowering your stress levels by cutting out your commute, the environment can benefit from having fewer cars on the road. It's a win-win! There are constantly new apps hitting the market to improve your business productivity, including ways to bring remote workers together. You can use video chats for meetings and group chats like Slackr for projects. If more workers were working from home instead of traveling to an office every day, we could be reducing emissions by 44k tons! Not only would the environment be grateful, but you could easily cut out a car payment, lower your insurance costs, and spend a lot less on gas, saving you a lot of money!
More workers are in search of a work/life balance which is something that many virtual workers are proud to say they have achieved. In the end, it's important to sit down and crunch the numbers to see if this might work for your organization. Could you benefit from having a little as-needed help, without the office overhead? Absolutely – we all can!