Do you have trouble delegating?  Be honest, as a high-performing individual, you do.

Letting Go

If you are building a law firm, are a business owner or are in any position of substantial responsibility in a corporation, “letting go” can be a challenge. After all, even if you delegate a task or project, you are ultimately responsible for the quality and accuracy of the work, right?  I am going to share a few quick stories about my own outsourcing journey that I hope will save others time, money and stress.

I am not saying all lawyers are control freaks but, well, yeah we are.  Early on in my career as in-house counsel, I was sternly upbraided one day by a boss who happened to see me making my own photocopies.  She said, “We don’t pay you a lawyer’s salary to make copies, Paige.” At the time, my thinking was that if I wanted to be sure something was done, and done correctly, I had to do it myself.  

Eventually I learned that identifying the strengths and talents of your team members, taking the time to hire excellent people, and providing clear, concise instruction were the keys to stress-free delegation.  With a little up-front effort, I was able to delegate safely and effectively within the corporate setting.

Fast forward to 2015. I am an entrepreneur and founder of Online Legal Translations.  In the beginning, I was determined to 100% bootstrap my company and I adopted that attitude with not only financial matters but all matters of running the business.  I thought I could do it all, but of course, no one can do it all.

I likely could have catapulted my business forward by a year or more had I embraced delegating immediately.  My mistake was in trying to control everything and trying to do everything myself. Eventually, I realized I would need to delegate some tasks if I were going to grow and refine my business any further.

Graphic Design

The first thing I ever outsourced for Online Legal Translations was my company logo, to a professional graphic designer. I paint, sculpt and do other types of art for fun, but this was for my business. I wanted professional results and the latest graphic design technology that me and my watercolor set simply could not pull off. After a few false starts, I found Sunil Saini and have been working with him on many projects over the last 7 years.  He is a great communicator, and his designs are worth every penny.  If you need a top notch graphic designer, I highly recommend him.

Web Design

It took me more than three years to hire a web designer, even though I have no skills in that area.  I had “a” website with killer content, but it was clearly not professional in appearance nor function. I was embarrassed by its amateurish look and feel. How could I encourage people to visit my website in hopes of working with them, when I did not want anyone to see it? It was time to find a trusted web designer specializing in the language services profession. I did just that and hired them.

Websites for Translators built me a gorgeous website of which I am truly proud.  I continue to work with this company for updates and maintenance on my website. The fact that I can now rest assured that my website, my company’s “face,” is professional and highly functional has been worth every penny I pay for their services.

I highly recommend hiring a professional web designer/manager that specializes in your type of business.

Accounting

Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, I filed my own taxes. Once I started a business, I knew I was out of my depth.  For the first few years, an accountant friend helped me figure out how to file them and helped me with the calculations. Eventually, I knew it was time to hire a professional accountant suited for my specific tax situation.

My CPA, Jonathan Medows, specializes in businesses and freelancers and has been an amazing partner for the past several years. He is kind, trustworthy and his team is professional and responsive. Their system of communication is perfect for a busy business owner. I never worry anymore: “did I fill out that form correctly?” As in the other cases where I let the professionals handle things, the services of this accountant have been worth every penny.

Outsourcing is one of the best investments you can make in your practice.

Do you see a pattern emerging here? Every time I delegated something, it turned out to be “worth every penny.” When I was starting out in my business, I was afraid to spend much capital on business tools or professional services. However, I quickly learned that investing in such assistance pays you back many times over in reclaimed time, stress elimination and saved capital. 

Now let me tell you about my #1 favorite outsourcing experience of all.

Social Media Scheduling

My favorite and most impactful outsourcing experience so far has been outsourcing my social media postings. My goal in engaging in social media for my business is to provide fun, useful information to the legal community on a regular basis.  But working in my business just kept getting in the way. I experimented with a few social media scheduling services but still spent up to 12 hours each month scheduling and posting social media, checking to make sure the material had actually posted and addressing the service issues I had with the scheduling providers.

One at a time, I gave up on each provider, due to their lack of features, clunky processes or poor customer service.  I reverted to trying to post every post individually, myself—5 items a week on 6 platforms. Social media posting was still eating up too much of my time. In the end, I simply could not keep up.

Finally, I took the suggestion of a smart colleague and business coach who recommended “Meet Edgar.” I now spend just a few minutes each week adding fun and informative content to my company’s Meet Edgar account and Meet Edgar takes care of the rest.  With my reclaimed 12 hours (12 hours!!) I can write that blog post, interview lawyer-translators in hard-to-find language combinations, or just go for more hikes in the woods. Think about the things you would do with an extra 12 hours every month.

It took me about a week to get myself thoroughly acclimated to the Meet Edgar platform and to load in all of the posts and content I wanted to post for the rest of 2021.  I am not kidding: I am finished with posting on social media for the rest of the year, unless I decide to share something else on a whim. 

Meet Edgar has a nice series of short videos to quickly get you comfortable with their platform.  They also provide actual human beings who will help you by email or chat, and there is a weekly “Office Hours” where you can ask any questions you may have. Meet Edgar’s product works like a dream and their customer service is refreshingly helpful.

By using Meet Edgar, I am saving myself an immense amount of time and energy.  I wanted to pay it forward a bit and share opportunity to reclaim 12 hours of your own time each month, to eliminate that “did it post?” anxiety, and to put your social media on auto-pilot for good.

Please feel free to check out Meet Edgar and if you like what you see, get a free week here.  By the end of the first week you will be in love with Meet Edgar.

As a lawyer, I have long preached that when businesses try to manage their legal issues on their own, they either spend way too much time on them or more commonly, foul things up for themselves, and end up spending more on treatment than they would have on prevention.

This year I am committed to identifying even more tasks and projects that can be outsourced and using the time recovered to provide even better and more diverse services to my clients.

So, with the 20/20 vision of hindsight, if I could go back in time and outsource more tasks sooner, I would surely do so.  I have not regretted the expenses of any of my investments, as they have all paid off many times over.  Moreover, being able to relax and “leave it to the professionals” allows me to focus more on the areas of my business that I love—helping law firms and businesses go global. 

Tell us in the comments: What have been your favorite outsourcing experiences in your business or your firm?  We would love to hear about how your own outsourcing has saved you time and aggravation. Please do share a link if you are really happy with a particular provider. 

The post “When in Doubt, Hire a Professional” appeared first on Online Legal Translations.

Online Legal Translations will be represented by its founder Paige Dygert, Esq., who will speak at the 2021 Israel Translators Association Annual Conference: “The New World – Translation in an Age of Uncertainty.”

Ms. Dygert’s talk will take place at 1:45 pm Tel Aviv time (GMT+2) and will include advice to translators for dealing with lawyer-clients effectively. Topics covered: producing professional, ready-to-use translations for legal professionals who do not read the language, how to become your legal client’s favorite vendor, and more inside information from a former client.

Other topics covered at the conference will range from “The Language of Emojis” by Dana Szabados to “Merging Translation and Web Design: A Journey” by Tanya Quintieri.

Registration is still open, so join us for a fascinating two-day event.

ITA is an Israel-based Translation Association whose mission is “to advance the professional development of its members, and the theory and practice of translation, interpreting and editing in Israel, so that clients can benefit from professional, accurate and reliable translations.”

Online Legal Translations is honored to be a part of this exciting conference.

See you there!

The post ITA Conference Speakers Announced appeared first on Online Legal Translations.

The RV Entrepreneur Podcast is for people who are interested in downsizing their life, creating remote income, and working from anywhere. The Podcast is run by Heath and Alyssa Padgett and is just part of the RV Entrepreneur lifestyle brand, which created not only the podcast, but the best selling book “A Beginners Guide to Living in an RV,” The RV Entrepreneur School, a documentary and so much more.

Heath says:

“Paige found a way to still do what she loves and travel the world. I love her business [Online Legal Translations] because it shows that with a little creativity, any business can be a work-from-anywhere business.”

Online Legal Translations truly is a worldwide business. Our Translators live across the globe, and as expert practitioners of multiple languages, many of them enjoy travelling, for vacations or even full-time as a lifestyle, all while providing excellent quality services to our clients, who are also worldwide.

Sound intriguing? Check out Heath and Alyssa’s publication: “38 Places to Find Remote Jobs.”

See you on the road!

The post Online Legal Translations Featured on Popular Digital Nomad Podcast appeared first on Online Legal Translations.

The listing features Online Legal Translations’ logo, a recent post from OLT’s social media platforms and a quote from its website.

OLT is happy to join many other distinguished legal service providers on Juridipedia.

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Ms. Dygert gave two separate talks; in the first, she discussed some of the aspects of the U.S. Legal system that differ from those of most other countries.

In the second talk, Ms. Dygert provided advice to translator-entrepreneurs about the steps they can take to increase the likelihood of being featured in the media.

This marathon online event,  BP30h Translation Day drew more than 1,000 Language professionals from around the world. Sixty top Language Professionals gave 7over 70 presentations in 8 languages.

The post OLT Founder Speaks at Marathon Online Translation Day Conference appeared first on Online Legal Translations.

The post “CLE Companion” Press Release – OLT Founder, Paige Dygert, to Present Three-Part Series in Partnership with CLE Companion. appeared first on Online Legal Translations.

“My business, Online Legal Translations, has given me the ability to spend a lot of time in my beloved Italy, as well as to travel to many other places and work from any location in the world, but I do miss my Florida colleagues and I care very much about what is happening in my state.

‘Legal Eagle Central Florida‘ and its sister group ‘Legal Eagle South Florida’ are great groups to visit when you want to catch up on what’s going on in my state of residence.  I love seeing the accomplishments of my former colleagues and friends.  I especially enjoy reading members’ posts about important legal matters happening in the state of Florida.

It is an honor to be featured in such a great group among my accomplished colleagues,” said Paige Dygert on June 22, 2019 from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The post Online Legal Translations’ Founder “Featured Member” on Legal Eagle Central Florida Group appeared first on Online Legal Translations.

Italy May 2, 2019

Online Legal Translations founder Paige Dygert spoke on May 2, 2019 at the BP Translation Conference in Bologna, Italy, which was attended by over 300 Translation and Language professionals from 6 continents and over 30 countries. Attendees included several Online Legal Translations Attorney-Translators.  What a thrill to meet up in person!

Topics discussed were “What makes a Legal Client Cringe?” “How to Become a Lawyer’s Favorite Vendor,” and other information gleaned from 20 years of practice as a lawyer.

Several attendees live-tweeted during the talk.  The discussion was also mentioned by Websites for Translators on their blog, which attended the conference.

The post OLT Founder Discusses “What Lawyers Want” in Bologna appeared first on Online Legal Translations.

The series kicked off on February 18, 2019 with a quote from the Bible: “Where there is no law there is no transgression.”

OLT will be posting Legal quotes weekly throughout the year, so look out for them and feel free to share some of your own favorite Legal and Linguistic quotes.

The post OLT Launches “Words of The Law Quotes” Series appeared first on Online Legal Translations.

The BP conference series began in 2014 and has experienced explosive growth as the premier translation conference worldwide.

The conference will include presentations and workshops hosted by such well-known Language Service Personalities as Tess Whitty and Javier Ortiz, and includes day trips to Florence and Ravenna, organized dinners, and other networking activities.

For more information and to purchase tickets to the conference visit to the BP website.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The post Online Legal Translations Founder to Present at “BP19” Translation Conference.  appeared first on Online Legal Translations.