Virtual marketing teams can be a powerful, efficient, cost-effective way to leverage support for you and your business. But many business owners have questions about how best to integrate a virtual marketing assistant or team into their business. Here …
Eric Wall Posts
As technology and the remote work movement continues to influence the practice of law, those in the legal profession are discovering the need to become more tech-savvy. From maintaining case files to assembling copies of briefs to preparing binders for …
With more people working remotely, either temporarily or for the long-term, more businesses are considering outsourcing operations and bringing on a virtual assistant. When exploring options, most businesses are immediately confronted with the question …
Even as we move toward the end of 2020, the physical offices of many law firms are still closed with no plans to reopen anytime soon. As remote legal practices remain the norm, the task of keeping client files and other proprietary information safe is …
Let’s face it – few business owners perk up when told that new features have been added to their bookkeeping software. However, while such announcements may not get your heart racing, they can offer opportunities to streamline your operations and save …
As many companies have transitioned to remote working, recruiting has typically not been a priority. But as social distancing measures remain in place, more organizations will need to bring on talent without ever meeting them face-to-face. One sign …
The lending process involved in getting a small business loan can often be frustrating and complicated for those who aren’t experienced in the realm of finances. The stress associated with finding a small business loan is particularly acute in light of …
Coronavirus has turned many people into telecommuters. Adapting to working from home, however, isn’t easy, particularly if you have a spouse who is also working from home and children who are transitioning to a remote learning environment. Everybody w …
With many of us forced to work from home in the wake of the Coronavirus epidemic, you may still be trying to figure out how to set yourself up so that you can be productive and try to keep some divide between your work space and living space. Here are …
These are uncertain times, especially for the self-employed and small business owners. Routines have been disrupted, contact with others is limited, and lives have been impacted beyond what we could have thought possible just a couple of weeks ago. …
In the face of the Coronavirus epidemic, many law firms have been forced to go virtual as attorneys and paralegals work from home, increasingly relying on the cloud to get work done. While many legal organizations have employees who work remo …
The Coronavirus pandemic has impacted every industry, including real estate agents and brokers. As part of our series on COVID-19, today we’re going to explore how real estate agents and brokers can face the challenge raised by the pandemic. Gover …
The Coronavirus pandemic has impacted our lives in many ways, including the disruption of our daily routines and businesses. However, uncertainty and disruption do not render us powerless. Over the next few days, we are going to be releasin …
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is changing the way companies are working. In order to prevent the potential spread of the virus, for which there is no known vaccine, companies are expanding their remote working policies. This includes not only workers who ha …
Any business owner will tell you, luck can take strange and complicated forms — only in hindsight do we connect the dots and see things for what they are. Tanya Nebo, founder of Nebo Law, has run the legal gamut — from part-time legal work to rep …
Many attorneys work in law offices that have become at least partially virtual without their knowing it. How so? By working remotely, attorneys and staff have transformed how law firms operate. Teams collaborate from home, client off …
“Set it and forget it” can apply to many things, but not your website. As an extension of your business, your website is often the first impression you make on a potential client. Prospects and c …
Dreams of founding the next multi-million dollar company have gripped the imagination of entrepreneurs around the world. However, building a profitable business from the ground up requires much more than a good idea, catchy name, and some sweat eq …
Why do people come to you for marketing assistance? Maybe it’s because you have unique ideas for getting their message out. Maybe it’s a creative turn for marketing. Maybe it’s the level of understanding you have for their business. Whatever the a …
One of the most popular practice management systems for modern law firms is Clio, a web-based software designed to streamline administrative, billing, and project management processes. Clio helps attorneys stay focused on revenue and business-generatin …
Many attorneys cut their teeth during an era where paralegals were inextricably bound to the office, among the paper files and desktops of the law firm. But as firms migrate their systems to the cloud, paralegals can access data from anywhere. The mi …
Whether you are an established business advertising a new service or product, or a startup that has yet to go live, developing a pre-launch marketing strategy can help effectively spread the word and draw in new customers. But why is pre-launch marketi …
Artificial Intelligence (or AI) is a buzzword that gets thrown around in many different fields. Marketing and advertising are two of the latest to be innovated with new AI technology, and much of it is reshaping the way marketers examine and reach ever …
Did you know that businesses with a blog generate 126% more leads than companies without one? How about the fact that organizations that regularly publish original content receive 8x more traffic, reduce their overall marketing spend by over 60% and re …
It’s no surprise that coworking spaces are on the rise. With high-speed wifi, free coffee, cleaning and more taken care of for one monthly rate, more and more businesses are recognizing the benefits and joining spaces in every city across the globe. Co …
Some companies are built in a garage, but Alana Rivera cooked hers up in her Haight Ashbury kitchen. Taking inspiration from a passion for food made from organic ingredients, Alana transformed her favorite organic recipes into delicious smelling soaps …
When it comes to closing real estate deals, attorneys often find themselves juggling multiple tasks at one time. Handling sensitive information in a time-sensitive process can be daunting. Keeping the cost of a closing low is crucial to staying competi …
Imagine this: It’s 8 am, you’re on your way to grab your favorite morning joe when you see that a different coffee house has posted a link to a free-coffee coupon on Facebook. Sweet! When you arrive at the store, you click the link on Facebook and reve …
Google Ads (formally AdWords) is a staple of many digital marketing campaigns. The search engine giant consistently releases new updates to its advertising platform, often adding innovative features to guide their users toward better results. While an …
As 2018 comes to an end, business owners are turning their attention to 2019, likely with a focus on growth. Growth is dependent on a number of factors, some manageable, others not. One factor that leaders have the most control over is marketing. When …
You’ve done it. You’ve launched your marketing campaign. You took the time to research your target audience, decide on the channels to reach out to them and committed to addressing their needs. But those leads you expected to roll in, they have yet to …
The success of your small business is heavily reliant on how effective your marketing is. Marketing to the wrong audience, for example, can be just as lethal to a growing business as making no effort to market your business. And while creating a market …
Last November we detailed all the upcoming AdWords changes that were expected in 2017. With 2018 right around the corner, we wanted to offer a recap of the AdWords changes that took place in late 2017 as well as explore the updates anticipated for the …
Google’s latest algorithm update, named “Hawk,” released on August 22, 2017. The update, which specifically affects local SEO, has the potential to be quite a game changer for many small businesses. What is Google Hawk? In short, the Hawk update affect …
We’ve all heard the phrase, “content is king.” The lessons of this simple adage are easily seen in the digital space as Netflix and Amazon (amongst others) have started creating original programming content to drive viewers to their sites and services. …
If you manage a property or have investments in a property that you lease to tenants, your day can be swamped with responsibilities. Between scheduling a property assessor, keeping track of tenants late on their rent, and making sure your newest proper …
Many attorneys have built their practices on referrals. If you are one of those attorneys, you may not see the relevance of building and maintaining your firm’s online presence, especially when you are presented daily with the many other responsibiliti …
Stress management is probably one of the most important yet least discussed topics of being a small business owner. It often feels like stress is an unavoidable part of being an entrepreneur. If business is booming, you experience stress taking orders, …
Having an online presence in the form of social media and a website is an invaluable asset to both large and small business marketing. A website that lacks strong landing pages, however, will find it particularly difficult to convert their website visi …
In the right hands, a virtual assistant can be like a genie granting wishes to your small business – you send out your difficult projects to your VA and you receive the completed work correctly done and on time. But getting started with your VA is not …
Marketing a small business is an exciting and daunting task. There are countless choices as to how you spend your marketing budget online, and campaigns that were effective several months ago may suddenly lose their potency. A strategy that worked for …
There are few rewards to be reaped without taking risks, and building a startup or small business is no different. Starting a small business is scary, nerve-wracking, and uncertain. While being an entrepreneur is never a cakewalk, it gets easier once y …
Any marketing expert can tell you the value of a social media influencer – a highly followed user of a social media platform who blogs, tweets, or otherwise posts on a topic related to your business. Marketers attempt to win over these influencers as a …
Work-life balance is a hot topic these days. Many working individuals claim it is one of their highest motivating factors for choosing a profession or a company to work for; other hard working professionals claim it is a myth and we shouldn’t be adding …
One of the most important components to being a mobile-ready business is being accessible; you want your customers to be able to easily find your small business online and interact with you in streamlined manner. Without mobile marketing integrated int …
Did you know that small businesses with blogs generate 126% more leads than companies without one? Blogs tend to be one of the easier and more cost-effective ways to generate not only interest but actual sales and revenue. Why? Consumers tend to regula …
Whether you are a small business or a Fortune 500 corporation, when it comes to email marketing, one metric stands out above the others: click rate. A click rate, which is literally the rate at which the people you are sending emails to are clicking on …
Small businesses do not have the same resources to invest in technology as large enterprises. Often, there are higher priorities for spending resources than upgrading legacy accounting systems or deploying state-of-the-art servers to host your data. So …
However ubiquitous the internet is, people still enjoy going to their local stores. Maybe it’s the local comic book store that serves as the nexus of a graphic novel-oriented subculture. Maybe it’s a boutique clothing store that mothers have been takin …
One of the most challenging hurdles for many small businesses and startups is increasing visibility and getting found by new customers. Being present and prolific on social media is a smart placeto start, but won’t necessarily guarantee potential clien …
Brilliant ideas don’t always have grand beginnings. In fact, there are several visionaries who were known for scribbling the first iterations of their genius in notepads or on cocktail napkins and Post-It notes. Robert Metcalfe, who co-invented Etherne …
The new year is when gym memberships are purchased, sweets and carbs are forsworn, and we strive to reinvent ourselves and redouble our efforts to reach personal goals. Many entrepreneurs and small business owners have similar goals for their business. …
Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half. -John Wanamaker The 2011 film “Moneyball”, dramatizes the story of how Billy Beane, General Manager of the Oakland Athletics, got a step ahead of his competitors i …
Even in the digital age, business is still fundamentally about personal relationships. Many businesses still rely on word-of-mouth and customer referrals to grow their business. While the need to develop personal relationships cannot be ignored, neithe …
Moms—whether they are stay-at-home parents, self-employed, business owners, or corporate executives—are entrepreneurs by nature. From chef to chauffer and storyteller to nurse, moms must wear many hats and fill many roles on a daily basis. Mompreneurs, …
In 2015, 1.4 million businesses and non-profits benefitted from using Google’s advertising tools nationwide AdWords and AdSense, Google’s advertising programs allow businesses to show ads based on keywords that a Google user inputs into the search engi …
Even though entrepreneurs and small business owners are their own bosses, the jobs rarely come without their fair share of stress and hard work. As any startup or small business owner can tell you, working hard, staying motivated, and succeeding in you …
This is the third blog in our series on Influencer Marketing. In our previous blog we discussed the value of influencer marketing and how it can be applied to your business. In today’s blog we will discuss the difference between paid and earned influen …
In the 2008 film “Yes Man,” Jim Carrey’s character finds himself withdrawn and cynical after a recent divorce. Eventually, he is convinced to attend a motivational seminar where he agrees to seize every opportunity presented to him by responding with “ …
This is the second blog in our series on Influencer Marketing. In our previous blog we discussed what influencer marketing is and how it can be beneficial to your business. In today’s blog we will discuss how Influencer Marketing can help get your busi …
Conventional lines of thought often declare that the best entrepreneurs are highly extroverted, social people. Not all successful entrepreneurs, however, are big and commanding personalities. Some of the greatest entrepreneurs are, in fact, introverts …
As more and more people turn to online reviews, videos, and blogs to help them make purchasing decisions, influencer marketing has been on the rise. Influencer marketing is a relatively easy way to extend your brand’s reach, disseminate information, an …
The use of virtual assistants has been on an uptick in recent years among entrepreneurs, startups, and small and large business owners. But many busy professionals who are eager to outsource projects have a difficult time figuring out how best to work …
Just about every employer wants workers who take initiative, responsibility, and can do their job without constant supervision. Very few employers, however, actually employ workforces where these types of workers predominate. What is the cause of the d …
Over the past several years, coworking spaces have exploded in popularity, peppering cities like New York, Detroit, London, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Berlin, Cleveland, and more. Their increasing popularity is due to their ability to help people save m …
Coming up with and executing content marketing ideas doesn’t have to be a long, grueling, or expensive process. When creating a content marketing strategy, you should plan on creating marketing collateral that aligns with your company goals. While ther …
We’ve all heard the saying, “I survived another meeting that should have been an email.” While not all meetings are unnecessary, many of them suck up participants‘ time that could have been better spent elsewhere. In particular, as organizations increa …
There are few things more frustrating than spending time on a blog, social media post, or email marketing campaign and having the content become obsolete as quickly as last month’s most tweeted meme. While frequently creating new content allows for mor …
The problem with getting marketing help, is not knowing where to go, but knowing when you’ve come to the right place. Aside from perusing resumes and profiles or speaking to a candidate about their job history and expertise, how can you know you’re fin …
As an entrepreneur, you can’t afford to try out every newly touted business service that is supposed to make you more productive. Your money may be limited, and your time certainly is. Finding services to improve your productivity is about finding the …
I once had a summer job at a law firm in D.C. The firm was located right on the shores of the Potomac and most offices had a view of the river as it lazily flowed on toward the Watergate Hotel, past Kennedy Center, and the Lincoln Memorial. Below the o …
We all have hacks or shortcuts we use to make our lives easier, both professionally and personally. Quickly looking for a quality olive oil to include in a dinner you’re planning on cooking to impress your mother-in-law? You grab the expensive stuff. L …
You have a presentation to give at work tomorrow morning, an important meeting to set up with a client at the end of the week, and your son needs help building a diorama for his Monday science class on top of a number of other deadlines you have to jug …
While cooking offers opportunities for experimentation and leeway for correcting slightly disappointing dishes, (Chili too watery? Add a teaspoon of flour. Chicken slightly undercooked? Throw it back on the grill for a few minutes.) baking requires str …
Every episode of a police procedural features a scene in which detectives look into an interrogation room at a suspect through a one-way mirror. The suspect knows that he is being watched, but he can’t see what the police are doing. The one-way mirror …
“Only connect.”– E.M. Forster, Howard’s End We live in the most connected of times and yet our ability to communicate meaningful ideas seems to be at an all-time low. Nowhere is this truer than the workplace. There exist a plethora of media to communi …
Do you ever get that sinking feeling when you open your email application on Monday morning after a weekend away from your computer, or when you return after an extended vacation? There’s nothing that causes such a strong desire to trash your laptop an …
What is your business’ value proposition? Why do your customers buy what you sell? What can your clients get from your business that they can get nowhere else? These seemingly simple questions are devilishly hard to answer and, as your business grows, …
Some of us are just not morning people. Are you one of us? You know who you are.You are a snooze-button hitter, shower prolonger, sock mismatcher, subway dozer, dazed looker, and double espresso drinker. In the mornings, you are there, but you are not …
There is a difference between being busy and being productive. “Busy” describes high energy flitting from one task to the next. There is a reason that the term “busy as a bee” is a sticky idiom: it provides a clear image of busy-ness. We can see the be …
“Management” – a word often used and a skill rarely taught. In so many organizations, management positions are doled out to those that perform well in their company or department’s specialty. A sales team is led by the best salesman, a litigation depar …
When did calling a simple team meeting become an exercise in cat herding? When everybody wore hats and ties, drove to work in a yacht-sized car, and called it a day at 5 PM, gathering your team into a conference room in the late afternoon wasn’t a big …
Ugh, another business trip. Waking up before dawn to go to the airport, squeezing into a coach seat, running into a business meeting, going back to the hotel, grabbing a quick bite of bad food, working until midnight to prepare for the next day’s meeti …
Many busy professionals dream about one day having the perfect digital assistant; a hand-held version of the computer on Star Trek’s Enterprise, complete with artificial intelligence, voice recognition, conversational skills, a perfect understanding of …
If you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur you’re constantly busy trying balance running your business, growing your business, and balancing your business with life. You’ve heard a virtual assistant can really save you time, but you have doubts a …
Let’s be honest: We all feel a tinge of envy when we learn about the new state-of-the-art campus that a tech giant has built in the heart of Silicon Valley. Google’s headquarters includes coffee bars, Lego play areas, and a dog friendly work environmen …
The Parent Trap: The Challenge of Balancing Work and Home, and how Family-Oriented Benefits Can Help
Paul Ryan, recently elected Speaker of the House, unexpectedly turned media attention to the issue of balancing work and family life. Reluctant to take the post due to the fundraising and travel time associated with the position, Ryan insisted on being …
We already know this much about this year’s World Series champion – it will be an underdog. The American League Championship Series features the Toronto Blue Jays, whose appearance in the post-season ended a 20+ year drought, and the Kansas City Royals …
Technology does not impact our lives immediately, but in stages. The internal combustion engine-powered automobile was invented in the late 19th Century, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that the proliferation of automobile ownership resulted in droves of …
Living the cosmopolitan lifestyle is not as easy as it looks. There’s hardly enough time to get ready in the morning or watch Last Week with John Oliver, let alone go to all the restaurants, bars, concerts, museums, and baseball games that you had plan …
Anybody that has participated in job interviews, either as the interviewer or the interviewee, knows that they are of limited utility. From the perspective of the interviewer, job interviews can certainly raise red flags that warn you off hiring somebo …
The beauty of having a virtual assistant is that you can get off your plate those tasks that you don’t want or don’t have time to do. There is an art to delegating. It’s not a complicated art, like jazz improvisation, but it does have this in common wi …
It’s a great job market out there in many industries, particularly the tech industry, and with that comes the fierce race to attract and retain employees with competitive benefits packages and perks. Not since the dot com era have we seen companies off …
Old habits die hard. While we live in the Internet Age, many businesses continue to operate as they did in past decades. Employees commute into work, handouts are distributed at meetings in a conference room, workstations are installed with software an …
Here in San Francisco, Earth Day comes at a particularly sensitive time. California is enduring a multi-year drought and the typical winter rainy season has brought virtually no snow to the Sierras or water to reservoirs. The state is drafting water re …
Technology is finally dragging the legal world into the 21st Century. Despite some courts’ continued insistence on receiving paper, you can e-file most of your briefs. Slowly, a jurisprudence of electronic discovery is starting to solidify through amen …
There once was a time when we conceived of technology primarily as a way of simplifying our lives. You can think of this as the Jetsons version of the future or the sort of future folks envisioned when they would visit the World’s Fair. We were going t …
Your friends had told you about the restaurant. “Try the pan-seared, macadamia-encrusted tuna,” they said. “It’s to die for.” Well, it looks like you may die before ever tasting that tuna. You and your date have just ordered two more glasses of white w …
Fred Snodgrass was a success. He was born in Ventura, California in 1887 and attended college in Los Angeles. He became a successful banker and served for three terms on the city council for Oxnard, California, then served as mayor for a little less th …
Imagine that you are Director of Human Resources at a small cupcake baking company, Volcano Cupcakes. The company specializes in molten cupcakes – flourless cupcakes that have a reservoir of molten chocolate inside along with a rich topping of icing. Y …
For most of us, Independence Day has two-fold significance. First, it brings to mind vacation: crowded beaches, the smell of burning charcoal, the loud pop of fireworks, the taste of chocolate ice cream on a waffle cone. Second, we think of the histori …
I often dream of recapturing the feeling that I used to have on the last day of the school year. The elation of school being at an end. The long, warm days suddenly free to be filled with anything my newly idle mind could imagine. Summer stretched out …
I confess that the welter of apps available often makes me want to turn ostrich and break out my flip phone or, better yet, invest in something with a rotary dial in a periwinkle hue. But the truth of the matter is that the right apps can make you fast …
The ugly necktie. The stereotype of awful Father’s Day gifts. In this case, the stereotype contains a hidden truth: it’s really hard to buy gifts for men with children. Sure, there’s the odd piece of electronics and I suppose some fathers who are actua …
More than ever before, baseball and business are intertwined, and fans are acutely aware of the economics of the game. They debate the merits of locking up a young player with a long-term contract, worry about whether the unbundling of cable subscripti …
You had a great idea, you took the leap, and now you’re ready to start your own business. The prospect of starting a business from scratch can be both exciting and overwhelming. Take a deep breath, get organized, and relax –there are lots of great tool …
Maybe you’ve just come home after a late night at the office…Or you’ve just returned from a week-long business trip. Maybe you’ve finally put the kids to bed after being on your feet since the early morning. You probably don’t have the time or energy …