By Mark Solomon, TheBillableHour.com

Effective marketing makes clients, referral sources, customers and prospects feel good about your services and/or products. There is no substitute for personal contact in good relationship-building. There are countless opportunities to make those contacts throughout the year. Besides the traditional year-end holiday season, birthdays, anniversaries, recent referrals and career milestones warrant sincere expressions of appreciation and recognition. Conveying sincerity is of utmost importance.

Unfortunately, most of the greeting cards circulated by businesses generate all the warmth of a pro forma document. The sheer volume of the mail that must be sent causes most businesses to the select the most generic greeting card possible—a “one size fits all” approach that virtually guarantees that the recipient will treat the card like another piece of junk mail. Even if the card does find a place on the office bulletin board, it won’t attract much attention because it looks just like all the others.

When shopping for greeting cards for my family and friends, I’ve spent up to an hour browsing for just the right card for each. If I see a card in March that’s perfect for my sister’s birthday in January, I’ll buy it and file it away at home. I try to find cards that are humorous, because they best convey my personality, and because of the anticipated smiles on the faces of the people I care about.

Internet technology now enables on-line card stores to offer selections of customizable printed greeting cards for virtually any niche or profession. Hundreds of images may be browsed with a few mouse clicks according to occasion or by profession. Within the card you write your own personalized message your choice of fonts and colors. Some online vendors may also allow you to upload a photograph, logo and/or signature. Another useful option is the choice of having the cards mailed to you for addressing, or sent directly to the recipients.

Your referral sources and clients will appreciate the personal touch, the effort that you put in to find that card that speaks directly to them in particular. And I strongly urge you to consider a funny (but tasteful) card. Nothing resonates with people like recognizing the humor in their working lives, and nothing is more sincere than sharing a laugh. Stand out from your competitors, evoke that all-important good feeling: your clients and referral sources will remember you, and they will look forward to doing business with you.

Mark Solomon is a partner in The Billable Hour Company, which sells humorous gifts and greeting cards especially for lawyers, law students and legal professionals. The Billable Hour Card Store carries over 150 cover images appropriate for a variety of holidays and occasions. The company’s website is at www.TheBillableHour.com.

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By Eugene Melchionne, Esq.

So you’ve finally done it. You bought a Mac. It’s amazing because the tools you formerly used on a PC are all there on your Mac. Until one day when you realize that one of the most important programs you need for your bankruptcy practice is only available in a PC version. What do you do?

Since Apple’s switch to the Intel chip last year, this is not as major a concern as it once was. For those who purchased a G4 or G5 PowerPC machine in the past, there was Microsoft’s Virtual PC, a program that let you run Windows in an emulation window on the Mac. Using emulation, you would have a PC in a window and your PC programs ran within that window. Notice the past tense; the PowerPC processors and Virtual PC are history.

But don’t panic, there are no less than three solutions to the problem and a fourth on the horizon. Some of these products are truly paradigm shifting.

First is Apple’s own Boot Camp. A part of Apple’s upcoming Leopard OS X update, this is a utility that, once installed, allows you boot to your Mac into Windows XP. Once you do that, your Mac is no different than any Windows PC. Windows is in control of the machine and any Windows program runs completely natively. According to some tests, in this mode the Mac runs faster than some high-end PC machines out there. The downside? You have no access to those wonderful Mac programs that caused you to buy the computer in the first place and you can only go back to the Mac side by restarting the computer. Oh yeah, while you are in Windows, your machine is just as susceptible to viruses and worms as any Windows PC because it is a Windows PC. Better get those prophylactics out.

Second is a program called Parallels. This lets you run Windows in emulation mode, just as Virtual PC did for Mac users in the past. You install Parallels, then your favorite flavor of Windows. Launch Parallels which starts Windows in a window and then you can run your Windows program of choice in that window. There is also a mode that hides the Windows desktop called Coherence which gives the illusion that you are actually running the program on the Mac. The advantage of this approach is that you do not need to restart the Mac into Windows and your Mac programs remain available to you at the same time. The program is subject to the same criticism as the old Virtual PC; it’s a little pokey. You can also catch a virus or worm, but the effect of that pest is limited to the virtual environment, so restarting from a backup is relatively easy.

The third solution is provided by a company called CodeWeavers which has adapted an Open Source project called Wine. Called CrossOver Mac, this program provides a translation service for the Mac OS that takes Windows instructions and transfers them to the Mac OS. The advantage is that you don’t need Windows at all! A PC program will run natively on an Intel Mac just as if it were a Mac program. Windows programs look like Windows programs, but you don’t need to start Microsoft’s product first. Double click on a program or document icon and it launches. So far, my testing shows that this environment may be less susceptible to viruses and worms because Windows is not running and so none of the security holes exist. The only disadvantage is that if the PC program has any legacy code or doesn’t follow standard programming guidelines, it won’t run. The company maintains an extensive list of compatible programs that is regularly updated by user reports.

Currently in beta test, Fusion by VMware is the final tool. Although the focus is to run emulation of the operating system in a windows, this program allows an Intel Mac to run all sorts of PC operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, NetWare, and Solaris all at the same time as the Mac OS. Again the disadvantage is that you are running Windows (or whatever) in an emulation window and your programs run inside that. Because you are running Windows, you are exposed to viruses and worms. I know nothing of the speed and being a beta product, functionality may also be a problem.

So if you buy a Mac, you don’t need to worry about losing access to your favorite PC-based bankruptcy petition program. Just pick the solution that is compatible with your program and the approach you like the best and carry on. As time goes on, you’ll wish for a Mac version, but that is the time to lobby your software company to make one.

Eugene Melchionne is a Connecticut attorney. His web site may be reached at www.ctbankruptcy.com.

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By Danielle Keister, The Relief Virtual Assistance
Administrative Support for Attorneys & Consultants

The other day I heard from an attorney who was looking for a Virtual Assistant to help him in his bankruptcy practice. It became immediately clear he was operating under several misconceptions, but primarily that Virtual Assistants are a form of cheap employee labor you don’t have to pay taxes on.

He about had a heart attack when I informed him that the average rate range of Virtual Assistants was between $35-$70 per hour. When I inquired as to what his expectation was, he explained that even at $35 per hour, he wasn’t in any position to afford $72,000 a year for someone to assist him 40 hours a week.

Whoa! Hang on there! Let me clear up this medical emergency.

When you work with a Virtual Assistant, you are working with an independent service provider-not an employee. Therefore, how and when you work together isn’t going to look anything like the way you work with an employee. You aren’t “employing” us for a part-time or full-time work week. Rather, Virtual Assistants offer strategic support delivered on a monthly basis.

Virtual Assistance is the best fit for solo and small practice attorneys who don’t have the time, space, budget or a large enough workload to warrant hiring an in-house assistant. Unlike project-oriented secretarial services and freelancers, Virtual Assistants work with clients in ongoing, collaborative relationship, with a typical commitment from the client of between 10-30 hours per month.

A Virtual Assistant’s services will allow you to focus your efforts on your main income-generating activities-client work and marketing. Using average figures, let’s say you decide to retain a Virtual Assistant for 20 hours a month. If paying a simple $900 retainer each month allowed you to be more focused, get more efficient, increase the number of billable hours you have available, and at a minimum could potentially increase your revenue by even $50,000 a year, wouldn’t you think that was a pretty worthwhile investment?

So how can solo and small practice attorneys afford to have the help they need? I say-how can they afford not to? Because mark my words, your practice will never grow beyond where it is today by trying to do it all yourself.

Danielle Keister, a virtual assistant providing services to the legal industry, can be reached at service@therelief.com.

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