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Why Freelancing As A Legal Assistant Might Be The Solution To Boost Paralegal Salaries
If you ever wondered how to improve the paralegal pay you take home, have you considered becoming an independent contractor? While not convenient for everyone, becoming a freelance paralegal could only be the way to significantly increase your take home pay.
Why? There is a demand for well skilled legal assistants who are interested to work on a contract basis. Law firms can unexpectedly become very busy for example, during the middle of a trial. They need help but don't have the time to go through the recruitment and training task used to find a long lasting staff member.
What they want is someone who can commence working straight away. As a freelance paralegal you are able to fulfill their requirements. You can charge an hourly rate depending upon the area of law, your location and your skill. If you are just starting out and trying to build up a customer bank you may have to offer your services at a lesser rate. But if you work hard and are good at what you do, you will be able to maximize your rates very fast.
Is there any downside to becoming an independent contractor?
There are many downsides. The main one is the aspect that as a self employed person you are solely responsible for your business taxes. You should pay your federal and if applicable state taxes on time and in compliance with their schedule. You must keep proper accounting data detailing all your incoming payments and outgoing overheads. Quite a lot of normal business expenses are tax deductible so you may need to read up on this in depth. Alternatively it may be good idea to hire a CPA.
You need to be organized. When you are serving for yourself by providing paralegal services and charging the hourly rate you cannot afford to waste time at the water cooler. As we all know certain things can happen to delay us that will be outside of our control. You cannot bear for this to happen too often and your pricing must reflect an element of allowed time for unplanned emergencies. Every firm you work for will become more impressed if you finish a job ahead of schedule as opposed to you completing it late. When you work in litigation and it isn't possible to give them an estimate of when the work will be finished you might want to work on the hourly basis instead. You can arrange with the firm to pay you a retainer and then on timely intervals unless you leave. This can make your cash flow easier to manage than having one bill at the end.
You are required to have money to tide you over and cover your living costs mainly when starting out. Some firms are better than others for paying outstanding invoices. You need to aim to have funds equivalent to at least six months worth of expenses before you start freelancing.
Besides increased paralegal salaries are there any benefits to freelancing?
One big but often overlooked benefit of freelancing as a paralegal is the fact that it opens doors. Many an independent contractor became a full time staff when the firm those were contracting for made them an offer they couldn't refuse.
So if you are ever wondering how to increase your income why not give freelancing another look?
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