Shawn J. Roberts

My business is my law practice. I’m a small practice so being efficient is critical. I cannot have technology be an obstacle, it must be a benefit. That is where cloud services come in. The benefits of a local application, anywhere you can access the Internet, without the maintenance requirements. Below are four applications that are vital in running my business on a day to day basis:

1. Google Apps for Business. ($50 per user, but there is a free version). The suite of products that includes mail, calendar and contacts is the backbone of my communicaiton and contact management. The Gmail-like mail is super-flexible and it is nice to be able to login in almost anywhere and see the same interface.

2. Bill4Time. (plans starting at free trial, plans starting at $19.95 a month). Without billing, I would be operating a charity. To meet my billing needs, I use Bill4Time a web-based service that allows fairly detailed time tracking, invoicing and invoice management. It appears to be written for attorneys and CPAs.

3. Google Reader. (Free) I need to current on news and cases to communicate with my clients. I accomplish this through Google Reader which easily integrates without almost every other product I use.

4. Google Voice. (Free) My go-to service for managing communications, both spoken and textual. Google Voice allows me to have one telephone number that can forward to multiple numbers and the ability to text from the same number. The ability to manage my Google Voice account to a granular level from the web is also a plus.

What web-apps are critical in operating your business?

I have heard it said that military men who have been in combat are some of the most reluctant people to send troops into combat.  They have experienced the horrors of war and know the gravity of the decision imperil others lives.

Attorneys should operate in the same fashion.  Litigation is costly, time consuming and taxes the resources of all parties.  If the litigation involves indivduals rather than businesses, it can be particular emotional and gut-wrenchingly painful.  Even when businesses are battling it out in court the net result is often a loss for both businesses.  Both sides pay a boatload of attorney fees and then end up splitting the baby with a settlement.

Although it might seem easy for an attorney to encourage settlement, it much tougher in practice.  Settlement or even settlement discussion is often viewed as a sign of weakness or timidity.  I recently worked with a client who chose the status quo and some uncertainty over filing a lawsuit.  The reasons? the costs are to high and the favorable outcome simply isn’t motivating enough to act.

It is easy to work up a client into frenzy with all the potential legal claims you can pursue, its much tougher for attorneys (including me) to separate some of the emotion to allow consideration of non-litigation alternatives.

I am intrigued by most mobile technology, so when I saw this recent PCWorld article headline “Run a Small Business From Your Smartphone” I could resist checking it out.  What I discovered was some excellent tips and apps to use to enhance my business mobilely, even if I can run my entire business from a smartphone.  

Apps such as Bento (for making files) and Square (turning your phone into a cash register) are just a few.  Of course I am also partial to using the Legal Alerts website from your smartphone’s modern mobile browser manage all of your notifications.

Check out the whole article here.