This fall I’m celebrating Halo Secretarial’s 6 year anniversary! It’s been a wonderful experience and I am hoping, of course, for many more years, although I am thinking about a slight name change/re-branding over the next few months. When I started this journey I hesitated to focus solely on paralegal work, even though it is my background and my passion. I didn’t have enough faith in the legal community to accept virtual assistance as a truly viable option, but I was clearly wrong and now I am ready to fully embrace my niche of virtual paralegal assistance. I just need to find time to do make all the changes 
I want to thank my clients and colleagues for sharing this journey with me. I often tell people the biggest drawback to working for myself from home is the isolation, but there IS an amazing community out there for those of us who work solo to share with and to learn from. I have to push myself sometimes to interact in a meaningful way, but it is always worth it when I do.
This past year was probably my hardest year of self-employment. I know for a lot of people the first year or two are the hardest, but I was lucky in the early years to be able to ease in…I didn’t want to have a full-time workload, so it was okay to take my time growing and gaining clients. This year though, with surgeries and other personal and work challenges, was not so simple and definitely a reminder that we are always learning and adjusting when we run a business. I’ve lost a couple of amazing clients to law firms, tried out other methods of collaboration, and finally sent my youngest child off to full-time school, giving me a little more room in my schedule. Challenging times are good for the soul, right?!
Six years, in the blink of an eye it seems. Happy anniversary to me!
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