How Come Freelancing In The Role Of A Legal Assistant Might Be The Solution To Raise Paralegal Salaries
If you ever wondered how to increase the paralegal salary you take home, have you considered becoming an independent contractor? While not convenient for every person, becoming a freelance paralegal could simply be the way to significantly increase your take home pay.
Why? There is a demand for well qualified legal assistants who are willing to work on a contract basis. Law firms can unexpectedly become pretty busy for example, around the middle of a trial. They need help but don't have the time to move through the recruitment and training process used to find a permanent staff member.
What they want is someone who can commence working right away. As a freelance paralegal you may fulfill their requirements. You can charge an hourly rate depending on the area of law, your location and your experience. If you are just starting out and trying to build up a customer bank you may require to offer your services at a decreased rate. But if you work hard and are good at what you do, you will be able to increase your rates very quickly.
Is there any downside to becoming an independent contractor?
There are many downsides. The basic one is the thing that as a self employed person you are solely responsible for your business taxes. You must pay your federal and if applicable state taxes on time and in accordance with their schedule. You must keep proper accounting data detailing all your actual incoming payments and outgoing expenses. Quite a lot of normal business expenses are tax deductible so you may need to read up on this further. Alternatively it can be good idea to hire a CPA.
You need to be organized. When you are serving for yourself by giving paralegal services and charging an hourly rate you cannot afford to waste time at the water cooler. As we all know certain things can happen to delay us that are outside of our control. You cannot afford for this to happen too often and your pricing must reflect an element of allowed time for unplanned emergencies. Almost every firm you work for will be more impressed if you finish a job ahead of schedule as opposed to you finishing it late. If you work in litigation and it isn't possible to give them an estimate of when the work will be finished you might wish to work on an hourly basis instead. You can arrange with the firm to pay you a retainer and then on timely intervals until you leave. This will 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 up your living costs particularly when starting out. Some firms are better than others for paying outstanding invoices. You should aim to have savings equivalent to at least six months worth of expenses before you start freelancing.
Besides increased paralegal salaries are there any advantages to freelancing?
One huge but often overlooked benefit of freelancing as a paralegal is the fact that it opens doors. Many an independent contractor became a full time employee when the firm they were contracting for made them an offer they couldn't refuse.
So if you are ever wondering how to raise your earnings why not give freelancing another look?
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