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Starting my own court reporting firm. Any advice???

Well, after 31 years the firm I have been working for has merged with another firm. I am taking this opportunity to start my own firm. If you have any tips or words of wisdom, things to look out for, I would love to hear them.

Thanks,

Janiece

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Permalink Reply by Bill Parsons on August 16, 2012 at 13:34

Hi Judy,

It gets more and more complicated. Many years ago we had a combined phonebook with White Pages followed by Yellow Pages all in one phonebook.

Today there are separate phonebooks for White Pages and separate phonebooks for what used to be called Yellow Pages, and when I went on the internet to look for Yellow Pages I found several different websites, but none of the websites had all the firms actually listed in my what is now called Yellowbook in my area. Then there is another yellow pages called YP, the Real Yellow Pages.

In my area searches for Yellow Pages on the internet just didn't list all the firms that the actual paper Yellow Book with Yellow Pages does.

But there are definitely Yellow Pages listings on the internet, but from comparing the ads in the paper phone book Yellow Pages and the internet Yellow Pages they didn't match up and weren't the same.

Do you want to hear a sneaky trick I used to do in checking for names and street addresses before the internet?

I would call up the phone information number and ask for a phone number of a firm I knew, and then I would ask for the street address and the spelling.

The trick worked for a while, but then later on they just gave the number and wouldn't give the other info.

In the old days before the internet, I would buy City Directories to check name spellings for people who spoke at night hearings. I would advertise in the newspaper classified ads for a used city directory, and some businesses bought new directories every year and would sell their old directories for $10 when they originally sold for $50.

Then if I got the street address, the occupants of the street address would be listed in the directory also.

I now just ask all speakers to spell their names.

Bill

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Permalink Reply by Martha R on August 16, 2012 at 14:47

Thank god for the internet! My agency used to have a room with a whole wall shelf full of phone books for reference. And sometimes I would go to a library to look things up. I haven't open a YP in ten years.

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Permalink Reply by Janiece Young on August 21, 2012 at 19:11

Well, I had my first job the other day for my firm. It went fine. We didn't finish so I'm getting a volume 2 out of it.

I almost have my web site up and running. My email is up and working with my icon and all my numbers on it. I have my business cards and some other marketing material.

Today I started marketing, a few emails and some phone calls.

I will say women attorneys really like it when women start their own business.