A virtual office NYC may be your ticket to boosting your professional image and earning potential with these three helpful tips.
Being able to work from home is a luxury that not many have, but if you do, why not get the most out of it?
Working from home doesn’t mean that you are less credible as a legal professional, but in terms of image, it can be a challenge to demand respect in terms of client interaction or the opinions of your colleagues and opponents.
Your completely at-home setup may give off a less than professional image, therefore it may impact your ability to work a deal or even obtain a referral. Here are three easy tips:
1. Do the work from home, but use a permanent commercial address for your practice
Consider using a permanent, commercial address for business, not your home address. Commercial addresses are necessary because they give off the impression of not only being more professional, but also being more permanent.
Home addresses can give of the opposite effect and can hamper business for you indefinitely.
Shared office providers like Law Firm Suites allow law firms to rent a premium commercial address as a way to boost their professional image and acquire more credibility over time.
Doing this gives the appearance that your work is done from an office building without having to pay such high fees that are associated with a physical office arrangement. You are not at the location all the time, only when you need to meet clients and your mail and packages are sent to the location.
A good office suite operator will never let on to your guests that you are anything other than a full time office renter.
P.S. If you are an urban apartment dweller, changing your home address from “Apartment 17B” to “Suite 17B” fools no one.
2. Have a permanent business phone number.
Your home phone should never operate as your business number. Encountering your clients and adversaries on your private home number can cause for problems in the future.
Think about if you call from a house phone and the client calls back, but you miss it. Even worse, think about if your young child answers the phone call, not knowing the importance and hanging up.
This leaves the client confused and wondering whether they even called the right number. You may also deal with that client who calls the office at odd hours. They expect to leave a voice-mail, but instead encounter you at home.
3. Never meet with clients in your home
Professionalism in business is directly linked to one’s image and this matters when meeting clients face-to-face. Building a connection with a prospective client is key in order to successfully practice law. Meeting a client in your own home should never be done and you may end up regretting it.
A professional space is crucial when meeting clients. It would be wildly inappropriate and colossally confusing for a client to meet in your kitchen or dining room. How embarrassing would that be…for you? It is much more valuable to your image to rent a conference room from your virtual office New York provider or at least have some type of arrangement where you can use office space for your meetings with clients. In urban areas, it is common to have an arrangement starting out at as little as $99 a month, which is great for your wallet.
Just make sure that if you’re using a new space, you know how all the technology works in advance of your meeting, and where to find everything you’ll need before the client’s arrival. For all they know, this space is the office where you work from every day. Don’t blow the illusion by being incapable of dialing the phone.
A virtual office NYC is just one strategy for success.
Learn more with our free eBook “Virtual Lawyers Dish: Strategies For Success.”
