Working with a Family Member: For Better or For Worse!

I need some assistance with my law and consulting firm. Not alot of assistance but just a little with clerical and administrative tasks.

My sister is going to assist me on a trial basis starting next week. Its already off to a questionable start because she didn't show up for training on Wednesday afternoon.

I will try her out with small tasks initially:

1. Scheduling Appointments

2. Following-Up with Prospective Clients; and

3. Proofreading Documents.

I have a feeling however that I will be firing her before she starts!  Does anyone care to share any stories?

Comments

[Stephen Howard]

The hardest part is trusting it was done right. My kids have come and done filing for me occasionally. They got it right. Maybe because I stood over them making sure. If you have to train the assistant from scratch, or if they will require constant supervision, it isn't really as helpful as a trained person. I was lucky in the first year of solo practice that a paralegal I had worked with would come by every other weekend or so for four hours at no cost.

[Latonia Denise Wright]

Stephen, thank you for the comment. I recognize that I need some assistance with clerical and administrative tasks however I am not ready for employee.

[Stephen Howard]

Your welcome for the comments.

I'm in a similar situation. My practice gas grown to a point a part-time employee would be very helpful. Unfortunately, cash flow prohibits adding any staff right now. So I'm stuck using family and volunteer efforts in the short term. The problem for me is that the real help I need is in a person who can reliably generate paper. In my field that requires some experience. Sure, I have to review everything, but if I have to edit heavily, I might as well have done it myself.

My dad plans to retire in less than a year and is interested in working with me. It would be helpful, but that first several months of training him and learning to let go of delegated tasks will be hard.