Practice Management

A reader of mine sent me the 10 Misconceptions the Self-Employed Deal With Daily as published on LifeDev.  I think the article is bigger than just working at home, but it primarily deals with this issue.  Even though many of you do not know the secret handshake or have a decoder ring, I am willing to (partially) answer those misconceptions for you.  (Warning:  results may vary).

1. You are ALWAYS open for business.  The biggest problem is that this can be true if you let it.  If you let this happen, then it will not be long before you feel run down.  You have to know when to start, maintain reasonable hours, and when to stop.  But, truth be known, too many who do not have home offices find themselves in this trap as well.  They are permanently connected to the cell phone, and they are stuck away from home and family in some office tower.  As for me, I do shut down, but I too often check my email and respond when the answer is short.  I am just often watching some design show on TV with my wife.

2. ?You are at home. How can you be working??  A good bit of the time I am not working, or at least working on my law practice.  Are you jealous yet.  I can answer a pleading, upload it to the Court, return some phone calls, and then go out and prune some trees for an hour if I want.  Get over it.  What are you the work police?  So, I will work until 6:30 at night instead of closing a little longer.  It gives me time to think about office stuff as well, and it is better than sitting around the rec room eating donuts and drinking coffee like most lawyers.

3. You take too many breaks.  Guilty.  You caught me.  As stated, I will go outside and do something.  I get up from my desk probably too often to get a glass of tea and to stretch.  Mainly, I find myself surfing the net and blogging instead of doing something more productive that makes me money.  You might think I have attention deficit disorder.  But, again the truth is that attorneys in big offices downtown do the same thing, even if the activities are not the same.  Just call them.  They are always away from their desk. Especially the older I get, my bladder will not let me work that long at a stretch.  The issue is how much work do you get done.  On commercial TV there are about 18 minutes of commercials for every hour of TV.  That is about right as to work as well.

4. You do not NEED decent office equipment.  Of course that is true and false.  We Third Wavers, spare room tycoons, carpet commuters, all survive with the use of cheap tech.  So, where we should not have much office equipment, we do not need a lot.  The truth of the matter is that big law firms have too much expensive tech and too much office equipment.  Other than broadband, a notebook computer, a scanner and what should be an underused printer, what more does anybody need?

5. You never have to leave your home.  You know I still leave my house, but not as often as you think.  I go for a few days at a time sometimes without leaving my home. I have to go to court, I have to go to a meeting of some kind that the judge has ordered me to, I have to run to the bank.  But, the requirements to leave my home are getting fewer and fewer as time goes on.  I tend to leave my home for more recreational reasons.  I take the legal beagle for a walk.  I drive around and look at houses in the area.  I go to the grocery store.  I go to a movie.  Lately, my wife and I have been visiting Texas wineries that are reasonably close to us.  I go have lunch with the attorneys I collaborate with about once a month.  And, I try to go to Mass every weekend.

6. You can work whenever you want.  Bingo!  Now you know why Third Wavers work at home.  Our work is more collaborative than it is regimented, and as long as we get the work done timely that is fine.  I have one attorney that I work with that just loves to work all weekend and past what I consider dinner time.  That is fine.  His work is waiting for me on Monday and when I get to the office in the morning.  That is when he wants to work.  Who am I to argue with him?

7. You are rich.  I wish.  I have one daughter in law school, two in college, and one not far off from graduating high school.  I suffer from mal-tuition.  Sometimes I think that everything I do goes toward the goal of getting my children through college without debt.  It leave the bank account dry sometimes, but we have managed to get it done.  I do tend to think, however, that it would not have been possible if I was also trying to maintain an outside office, staff, and commuting costs.  I feel like working at home has made it possible to do what I have been able to do.  I probably make less money not working from an outside office with a large staff and associates, but it also costs me substantially less to run my office.  It is at best a wash as to earnings, but I tend to think I do better working at home.

8. You work in pajamas, do not brush your teeth, and never see the sun. I have been known to work in a pretty ragged condition from time to time.  But, typically I wear a pocket tee and Dockers.  I have been known to wear my old worn out house slippers all day or to walk around barefoot.  I do usually brush my teeth after I finish my orange juice in the morning.  As for the sun, I get out, and I have made sure in my last two houses to place the office in front of a huge window so the outside light comes shining in.  I crave natural light.

9. You only work 45 minutes a day, and the rest of the time is spent playing video games. I am not a big video game fan.  Strangely enough, I suffer from e-sickness on those single shooter games.  They make me equivalent to car sickness.  Go figure.  I am forced to hear my son playing those games all of the time, however.  The issue is not working more than 45 minutes.  You have to in order to make a living.  The issue is work-life balance or blending that leads to that perception. As stated above, you can take breaks, take off work, take a walk in the neighborhood, but ultimately most of us are bound by deadlines and the need to make a good living. Deadlines have to be met, so the work gets done.  I have more time to goof off, if that is what you want to call it, because I save a couple of hours in not commuting almost every day to Houston and back.

10. You know everything about computers.  I know almost nothing about computers.  My son had to show me the on/off switch.  As Jeff Foxworthy likes to say, "I don't know how Jello works".  What is becoming increasingly true, however, is that you need to know less and less with each new generation of technology.  It is becoming more user friendly.  It is amazing what you can figure out, when you need to by just Googling the problem, or in hitting the help key on a particular program.  Sometimes I have to call the tech line at some computer or software company.  I do not know source code from morse code, and it matters little.  I have been known to call for reinforcements when I need them, but I can usually work through the problem pretty quickly myself.