Need a boost to your professional image? A virtual office NYC may be your best bet as a solo attorney.
Some attorneys have the luxury of working from home and not many can say they are able to do that. If you are one of those attorneys who can afford this luxury make the most of it while you can?
Having your home as your primary office should never mean you have less credibility, but as a lawyer, it can make it more difficult to demand respect from legal peers and even clients.
Being completely at home does not always read as professional and can have a direct impact on closing a deal or obtaining a referral.
1. Practice from your permanent commercial address, but do the work at home.
Utilizing a commercial address for business is essential. A commercial address gives off an element of professionalism and being more permanent. Home office addresses detract from the professionalism 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 provider will keep the fact that your office is virtual a secret and you will always come off as a full-time office renter to clients.
P.S. If you are an urban apartment dweller, changing your home address from “Apartment 17B” to “Suite 17B” fools no one.
2. Acquire your own business phone number.
Using your home phone as a business phone will always prove to be a problem. Maybe not at first, but in time it definitely will have an effect.
Various nightmare scenarios can arise when you make calls from a home phone. The most obvious is missing a very important call. The other is the possibility of having small children that answer the phone on your behalf. The child could be confused and just hang up.
These scenarios can leave a client wildly confused to the point where they may feel they even called the wrong number. Other times it may just be that they call at random hours, never giving you a sense of peace at home.
3. Always meet clients outside your living space.
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.
Having a professional space to meet a prospective client is highly important to the attorney’s image. Meeting in a kitchen or dining room would just be awkward for everyone involved. Renting a temporary space from your virtual office NYC provider may make things easier and less detrimental to your overall image.
Many shared office spaces provide such arrangement of using conference rooms or vacant offices for client meetings. Such agreements can even be as low as $99 a month.
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.
