Preparing Legal Documents from Home

 

By now, during the pandemic, everyone who was inclined or able has made adjustments in their work life to work “remotely”. Now that the pandemic is really and truly winding down, some people are itching to get back to the office, others are more than content to continue working remotely from home.

I've been working from home since 2010, since I started my document preparation business and the Florida Association of Legal Document Preparers. The pandemic trend to work from home has not even been a blip on my personal work life radar. For me, nothing changed.

Preparing documents for consumers is an ideal work from home business. The only products are information and completed documents. Information can be provided to the customer either in a telephone call or an email. Completed documents can be sent via email.

Weigh it out. You know yourself better than anyone. Many people worked from home during the height of the pandemic for the first time. Some people loved it, others didn't.

You can also carve out a hybrid option for yourself. Work from home sometimes, and meet face to face with customers at other times. You may also discover that meeting with customers via video conferencing is the best of both worlds.

Experiment until you find what works best for you and your customers. Above all else, make sure that you enjoy your work, feel good by doing good.  

Here are some of the pros and cons of an at home document preparation business.

PROS

CONS

Solitude. There are only interruptions under your own control. Autonomy. You can set my own schedule to be the most productive and come and go as you please. No one looking over your shoulder, no walk-ins. Convenience. Working from home means there is no commute, and no need to go out to lunch everyday. Minimal overhead. No need to lease office space or keep up with the expense of a professional wardrobe. The lack of division between work and the rest of life may be a plus for some people. Rather than work/life balance, some people strive for work/life integration.

Isolation. The lack of in person human contact is stressful for some people. Distractions at home may make it difficult to stay on task. Things like the lure of the TV; family wanting attention; and afternoon naps are top distractions. It's more difficult to create rapport and trust with customers without seeing them face to face. It can be more difficult to create credibility with customers if they know you work from home. There may be very little division between work and the rest of life. Some people might find this exhausting.