Write You - Business

Motivating Entry Level Employees
Motivating entry-level employees to perform at their highest capabilities is easy. Simply offer lucrative stock options, three-day work weeks and generous salaries. Oprah Winfrey actually gives employees new cars and trips around the world. On the other hand, if you are like most businesses, it takes creativity to motivate employees when your budget is tight.Motivated employees rely on their own resources to get the job done. They have an inner drive that causes them to provide outstanding customer service. Unmotivated employees simply want to get by doing the minimum amount of work possible. Experts agree you can’t force someone to be motivated. Supervisors can, however, provide a workplace environment that encourages employees to make decisions, deal positively with co-workers and receive recognition for hard work. A key factor is knowing that “entry-level” is not the same as “unimportant”. Your entry level employee is very important in projecting a professional image about your programs and facilities.In a January 1998 Roper Poll, it was found 9 out of 10 employees will work harder for you if you show an interest in their growth outside of work. This statistic opens up a wealth of ways to motivate employees. One company had a bulletin board in the staff lounge with the caption “Greatest Pets In The World”. It was constantly covered with pictures of adorable puppies and all types of pets owned by th

siness cards, your website should be an exercise in minimalism after it’s done its job of relaying all the necessary information about your firm. Avoid animation, sound files, heavy graphics, flash, or anything else that makes your site slow to load. Slow loading or “busy looking” sites are more an annoyance than an attraction. Relatedly, though they might provide a tiny bit of pocket change per year, try to stay away from banner ads and other outside links on your home page. If you have outside links, put them all on your links page. You don’t want your client clicking off into cyberspace before they’ve read what a good job you can do for them.

Stay away from blank notepads and manila folders. They’ll both get too messy too soon and not only will that make you look unprofessional and disorganized, but blank notepads make you look unprepared, and lost or disorganized notes lead to inaccurate reports and invoices. Invest a little time and/or money into buying or developing a comprehensive set of forms or an organizer system to use while assembling your case.

Information: In the legal busin

How To Generate A Big Monthly Income Without Spending Any Of Your Own Money
Are you're tired of all the "systems" and work from home opportunities that require you to sell products, run pay per click advertising campaigns, operate websites or recruit new members then I have great news for you!I have finally discovered a program that will allow anyone to earn an incredible income from home - and you won't have to lift a single finger! All you need is a computer and Internet connection.Perhaps the best part of all is that you don't have to use any of your own money! The companies put up the money for the advertising. You simply process the orders and get paid a percentage of the profits.This program is called, "Share The Wealth" The concept being that by allowing you to participate in the profits without spending any of your money first you will be able to see if its profitable or not. You get to essentially try it for you buy it.When I say they do it all that's exactly what I mean. Your only job is to be to send them their share of the profits received from each order The rest is yours to keep.I know your next question. Why are they going to do this for someone like me? What gives here. You was born at night but not last night. Everyone and his grandmother would want to get in it.And you're right. They would...if they knew about it! Remember 50% of success is being in the right place, at the right time. Usually the average person hears about pr

Face it. Financial bottom lines are affected by the fact we live in a world that judges a book by its cover. Pretty singers sell more records, court cases rank higher in the news if the person is attractive, and politicians are elected based on their image as much any other factor.

Looking at your own industry, don’t you have to fight the public’s perceptions? We see it on TV and in movies every day. More often than not, young lawyers, paralegals, and others just starting out in the profession are portrayed as cheap, petty, low-rent, and usually called “ambulance chasers.”

It’s not right, but this issue of image is one that you have to live with and learn to work with.

Let’s cut to the bottom line which is this: In today’s business climate, everyone should realize that a professional image is crucial to reputation and everyone could stand to improve theirs to some degree or other. It’s what you need to do to keep your individual firms alive. Therefore, let’s cover some opportunities for improvement using the acronym A.L.I.V.E.:

Appearance – Your physical persona and the way present yourself.

Letterhead – The level of professionalism demonstrated in your printed marketing materials.

Information – Accuracy and honesty; the keys to presenting the data gathered during a case.

Voice – How you communicate to everyone you’re associated with.

Education – The continual improvement to your professional knowledge base.

Appearance: People base a large percentage of their first impression on your appearance. When a client meets you for the first time, they’re sizing up your credibility, your ability as a legal professional, and deciding just how well you might conduct yourself in public. As the saying goes, you only get one chance to make a good first impression, so let’s look at a few pointers.

Always dress in a professional manner. For men and women both, the attire should be “business professional,” which for men means suit and tie whenever possible, and for the ladies, business suits, nice skirt and blouse, or dresses. If you look unkempt or “second rate” the client will wonder how you’ll represent them while working their case.

A close cousin to dress is personal grooming. Simply put, make sure your hair, facial hair, hands, nails, and teeth are all clean and well kept. By the way, how’s your breath? Always keep some mints handy.

Keep jewelry at a minimum. Jewelry should follow the rule on colognes. It’s best to smell of nothing than to overpower with the wrong thing. A general jewelry guideline is no more than 2 rings per hand, no more than 2 thin necklaces, and either post or small-ring earrings. And... you guessed it, visible exotic piercings or tattoos are out if you’re going to be taken seriously by the legal community. The “Professional Image Dress” website at http://www.professionalimagedress.com has some good articles and checklists. Also, you’ll find some good books and magazines on business and professional image at your local library.

Letterhead: In some cases, the first contact someone may have with you might be one of your business cards. For our purposes though, “letterhead” refers to any printed material (paper or electronic) anyone outside your office might see.

Business cards are a must. Make them distinctive, but with minimal content. Let your website or brochure carry the heavy content.

On business cards, stationery, and your website stay away from trite, clich?, or negative icons such as someone running after an ambulance. In your web address, phone numbers, or email addresses, stay away from negative phrases like “makethempay@mylaw.com.” These might seem cute, but to many potential clients, they’re a turnoff.

For stationery, choose quality paper and have your letterhead and envelopes, as well as your contracts, professionally produced by the same people who do your business cards. Make sure their color themes match. Your local print shop or office supply store should have everything you need. If there’s any one place you want to spend a little money, this is near the top of the list.

If your stationery has a particular logo or color scheme, it should be reflected on your website, or vice versa. As with business cards, your website should be an exercise in minimalism after it’s done its job of relaying all the necessary information about your firm. Avoid animation, sound files, heavy graphics, flash, or anything else that makes your site slow to load. Slow loading or “busy looking” sites are more an annoyance than an attraction. Relatedly, though they might provide a tiny bit of pocket change per year, try to stay away from banner ads and other outside links on your home page. If you have outside links, put them all on your links page. You don’t want your client clicking off into cyberspace before they’ve read what a good job you can do for them.

Information: In the legal busine

Bar Code Equipment
Barcode equipment is an all encompassing term. It may include automation products such as Barcode Fonts, latest ActiveX Controls, .NET forms controls, class libraries, components, encoders and barcode hardware including barcode printers and scanners. We will briefly touch upon some of these categories, which add to up what we call Barcode equipment.Modern barcode fonts are used with a variety of alternative operating systems like TrueType, BDF, FON, PCL LaserJet soft fonts, PostScript et al. Modern fonts also come in several font formats and font tools. Macros and source code in a barcode font helps in the integration of fonts with a given application. These fonts can range from data matrix to the True Type barcode font packs offered by various companies these days.Some barcode components like ActiveX Control and DLL do not make use of fonts. These components create barcodes as graphic images. They also support several linear and two dimensional barcode symbologies. ActiveX control is basically a trouble-free drag-and-drop control used as a barcode add-in for Microsoft Access and Excel.Likewise, with .NET barcode web component, we can create images that are then saved to a disk. These controls are simple and compatible with most of the development environments. They permit the creation of barcodes, which are then printed. These barcode controls do not make use of any fonts and function only as

persona and the way present yourself.

Letterhead – The level of professionalism demonstrated in your printed marketing materials.

Information – Accuracy and honesty; the keys to presenting the data gathered during a case.

Voice – How you communicate to everyone you’re associated with.

Education – The continual improvement to your professional knowledge base.

Business cards are a must. Make them distinctive, but with minimal content. Let your website or brochure carry the heavy content.

Information: In the legal busin

Is There a Terrorist in Your Cubicle?
Every day, it seems, we are greeted by headlines that describe how government agents thwarted yet another terrorist threat, or how a new group of malcontents have transformed themselves into a terrorist unit. We are told how so many terrorists and would-be terrorists in the Western Nations are not invaders from the outside but are in fact home grown idiots who are angry over something. More than a few are well educated and from proverbial “good” families who find their militancy through ideology rather than social or material deprivation.Some act independently while others are influenced by terrorist infiltrators who filter through our borders for the purposes of sabotage and creating dissension. This group of infiltrators and “sleepers” are usually the more dedicated, the better trained, who have devoted themselves to the destruction of Western civilization. Nevertheless, despite all their worst intentions, and whether or not they are home grown, they still have to make a living.True, some are supported by terrorist funding, be it Al Qaeda or some other group that conveniently believes their piety supersedes any true form of civilized behavior. They are fanatics who decided it is time to rise out of the woodwork and destroy the infidel. Who is you. Just think back to the quaint times when it was only your kids who dished on your values. Now it is a significant minority in a more signif

nkempt or “second rate” the client will wonder how you’ll represent them while working their case.

Business cards are a must. Make them distinctive, but with minimal content. Let your website or brochure carry the heavy content.

Information: In the legal busin

Revealed - Why Your Computer System Is A Mess
Ever wondered why it takes you so long to find the information you need on your corporate computer system? That's if you can find it at all. Did you know that the tooth fairy could be partly to blame?The tooth fairy visited our house just last week. Nothing particularly new in that: it must have been about her twentieth visit. The interesting thing is that the famous fairy is still trading our daughters' off-cast teeth even though she is no longer believed in. It's a classic case of suspended disbelief.You see, our daughters have never confessed that they don't believe in these small people with big wallets.They're smart enough to know that if they were to admit any real doubt, the fairy's financier (i.e. me) would have a reason to cease payments. And with half a dozen teeth to go, well, you can do the maths.So suspending their disbelief is essentially an economic decision. It wouldn't be the first time that economic sensibilities have distorted a belief system.Since the 1960s, vendors of management information systems (MIS) have been promising organizations centralized information and simplified planning. As the years have gone on, these systems have become more expensive while the promises associated with them have become more expansive.These days you will be promised detailed tables and charts showing you exactly how well your business or unit is running. Instantly - and

usiness cards. For our purposes though, “letterhead” refers to any printed material (paper or electronic) anyone outside your office might see.

Business cards are a must. Make them distinctive, but with minimal content. Let your website or brochure carry the heavy content.

Information: In the legal busin

Studying the Role of Organization's Image
“To be an excellent leader, one must lead with values, engage and inspire others, communicate effectively, and drive to win” Nelson Fabian.Effective management is more then just a useful skill, this is a genuine art. Among the traditional qualities and roles of an effective leader, Stephen F. Stefano and Karol M. Wasylyshyn identified the three leadership essentials, which further have been allocated into the ‘ICE’ – model. These scholars preach integrity, courage, and empathy in the first place. Why would researchers be so preoccupied with these three distinct features? The reason is essentially rooted in the fact, that they realize how important image of an organization is for overall corporate well-being.Image of an organization is essential in contemporary highly competitive market, where intangible assets such as employees, reputation, and managerial skills are being valued more then the physical assets a company owns on a balance sheet. Favorable image of an organization is also essential for its employees. Janet M. Dukerich and Jane E. Dutton established a positive correlation between corporate image and internal health: negative personnel outcome is most likely to occur in organizations with poor reputation. Negative press of external environmental indirectly hurts its’ employees and directly company’s revenues.Going even further then this, members of an organization tend to ident

Information: In the legal business, the glass is neither half full nor half empty. It’s 50%. And, unless you know what’s in it, don’t speculate. “Just the facts Ma’am.” One of the biggest opportunities for a good impression, and naturally the most important, is the timely delivery of honest, accurate, information. Nothing will kill your image, reputation, and livelihood, like incomplete, inaccurate, biased, or late case work. Likewise, an inaccurate invoice can cost you by being either too low or too high.

Rule one is, always has been, and always will be, “Use a good case management system.” Make sure everyone working for you uses the same system, and that your standards of accuracy start at the beginning, and continues through the whole case and through any follow-up you may ever have with that client. Then treat all of your other clients the same way.

Use nice presentation folders for all your reports; even the “small dollar” ones. Each client is important to you from a marketing standpoint and therefore deserves to be treated with respect. Putting your work product on better stationery, in a well-organized format, and in an attractive presentation folder will provide a greater perceived value to your client. These people have probably paid a hefty sum for your service and a more professional report will help assure them that it was money well spent.

With any kind of information transfer, the key word in today’s legal climate is “PRIVACY!” Reassure your clients in your contract, and in your final report that your relationship with them is as private as the law allows, and everything you do in connection with their case, before, during, or after the fact, will remain confidential. Loose lips not only sink ships, they destroy good client relationships.

Voice: Voice is a general term used to describe not only the actual verbal communication you have with your clients and others, but the “tone” your business has with those it deals with.

When you answer the phone, do so cheerfully and actually smile. You can tell when someone’s not happy to be on the phone and so can others. This phone call might be your first contact with the next big client, so make it count.

If you can’t personally answer every call, the next best thing is to have a receptionist or answering service. A person is always better than voice mail. Go with what you can afford, but since the phone call is one of your opportunities for a first impression, anyone answering the phone should be trained to be courteous, cheerful, informative, and as professional as possible.

If voice mail is your only option, make the best of it. First, be smiling and cheerful when you record the message. Second, have the message convey your high standards. Say something like “As we’re extremely devoted to all our clients, we’re probably working a case on their behalf right now. However, YOU are just as important to us so please leave us your name and number and we’ll get back to you within the hour.” Then, if you say you’ll be back to them within the hour, actually do it. Prompt personal attention is a major plus in any business.

Education and intelligence are just as necessary as a cheerful hello. You want people to know that you are every bit as qualified and capable as they could hope for. Therefore, when speaking with people, speak clearly, and choose your words carefully. They don’t have to be big words, but they do have to make sense, and grammar is important.

The written word should follow the same rule. Make sure your business cards, letterhead, brochures, reports, invoices, and all other written documents use correct spelling and proper grammar. Though your client may be enamoured enough with your abilities as a legal professional to overlook a minor grammatical error, you never know who else of importance might see your report or correspondence.

Education: Here we continue where your writing skills leave off and cover the actual knowledge or skill base upon which your legal expertise is founded. Experience is the best teacher, but classroom education can certainly help keep you informed and up to date. Also, the fact that you are continually updating your expertise is impressive to most potential clients.

Many states require continuing education. If your state does, you should publish this fact in your firm’s literature. If your state does not require CEU, you should still take it upon yourself to keep your own training updated and mak

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.writeyou.net/article/24849/writeyou-Law-Offices-Professional-Image-and-Marketing.html">Law Offices, Professional Image, and Marketing</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.writeyou.net/article/24849/writeyou-Law-Offices-Professional-Image-and-Marketing.html]Law Offices, Professional Image, and Marketing[/url]

The gurus tell us we can do what we love and the money will follow. Most entrepreneurs are still looking for the trail of cash behind them. There are secrets to fine tuning your quest for personal passion and pleasurable paychecks.

Here, I'd like to offer a more personal piece. We're going to learn about how to give quality guest service by examining customers-eye views of outstanding examples. these are various incidents encountered in all varieties of establishments, from both sides of the counter, over the years. they're incidents that stick in the mind.

Creating a high performing organization requires a relentless focus on ensuring a great work environment. When staff are enthusiastic about where they work and engaged in what they do, obstacles seem smaller, difficult problems give way to innovative solutions and exceeding expectations happens. Employee satisfaction doesn’t depend on salary, instead what makes a company a great place to work is employee empowerment.

Tags

Links

Write You - Law Offices, Professional Image, and Marketing

Related Articles: