A Brief Overview Of Salaries In The Legal Field
Many people consider the legal field because of the perception that salaries there are very high. However, the truth is that there is a wide variation in the compensation amounts paid to those in this field. Highly recognized attorneys command high salaries, but lawyers who have not yet achieved partner status in large firms can work very long hours under high pressure at salaries that seem high until they are considered on a per hour basis.Generally, attorneys who have a law school education and who have passed the State Bar exams can expect to bring in a median salary of more than $110,000. These statistics are applied to those attorneys who are employees rather than self-employed or partners in a firm. Attorneys who are just starting out have a median salary of under $70,000 annually at the end of the first nine months after graduation from law school. Typically, those lawyers who establish their own practice may have to take on part time work in another field in order to pay the bills.Just over one quarter of practicing attorneys are self-employed. The rest are employed by businesses, law firms or other corporations, both for-profit and not-for-profit corporations. Many are employed by government entities. These include local, county, state and federal government. Of the attorneys working for government entities, most are paid by local government agencies. In the Federal government positions, most lawyers are employed by the Departments of Justice, Treasury or Defense. The salaries vary depending on the level of responsibility and the location of the position.At the other end of the spectrum of legal positions are legal assistants and paralegals. These positions may work in law firms or independently. They also work for government entities. For salaried paralegals, the median annual salary in 2008 was $46K. Those who worked in federal government salaried positions received higher compensation, over $59K.Competition for the jobs remains keen. Those beginning attorneys who can show internships or experience in law firms or government positions are looked upon more favorably. Some areas of specialization are expected to grow much faster than average. These include medical and health care specialties as well as bankruptcy, insurance and banking.Many variables affect the amount of compensation that those in the legal field can hope to receive. Location, specialization, experience and a portfolio of successes all have an impact on salaries. The economic downturn has resulted in projections of only average growth in the number of positions available in the profession.
Are Online Business Mentors Important For an Internet Business?
Are you looking for online business mentors to assist you in growing your Internet Business? Everyday people are starting a business online, and attempting to make money with limited support and online coaching. This can be frustrating, and is suggested to play a significant roll in why some people will quit a business before making their first sale.As more and more opportunities have come online, the need and growing demand for qualified online business mentors is suggested to be more crucial than ever. If you are experienced in business building strategies, sales strategies, and marketing strategies than coaching is probably not necessary for you. If you have limited knowledge and experience receiving the right training and coaching may assist you in your problematic areas.With all the resources online should you have to pay for some one to mentor you? If you go online there is information in every niche to assist you. While there is valuable free content on the Internet that can help you to grow your business, there is also a lot of misinformation that circulates the Internet. This can become confusing and actually can harm your business building steps.In every case online business mentors may not be your solution in building Your Internet Business. Outlined below are seven critical questions to evaluate if a finding a mentor is right for you.When Are Online Business Mentors Right For Your Internet Business Growth?1.) Are You Having Information Overload? – The number one cause to a n Internet Business failing is caused because people do not know how to use all the information they have attained. Many times people will gather all the information and then are confused when implementation begins. Each business building technique is like building steps. You should learn step one before learning step two. If you are experiencing stress from to much information, it may mean you are trying to take to much information in at once. It is suggested to master one step before moving on to the rest.2.) Are You Ready To Quit Your Internet Business? – Have you had it and are ready to quit your business. If you are becoming overwhelmed, and are not experiencing results most will want to quit. You need to ask yourself why are you not making money what can you do to make money.3.) Is Your Website Converting? – You have a website, its getting traffic why are you not making sales. It could be a very simple change that needs to be executed in order to have it to start converting to the sales you require.4.) Are You Happy With The Website Layout – You have a website, but you are not happy with the design, the functionality or even the information. You may not need online business mentors, for the website. Check with some web designers to see if they can provide you with the look or feel. You can also check some mentors, if they provide the website statistics and design factors you are considering.5.) Are Your Business Earnings At A Stand Still? – Your making money with your business, but your income has not increased. This could mean that you need to up your learning curve, and enhance your marketing.The top five questions are the typical reasons that people seek online business mentors. It may be time to get the additional training to set your Internet Business up for success, or you may want to test your problematic areas and see if you can find a solution without assistance and help.Many times when you start your business, you are assigned free online business mentors upon start up. This is obviously the best solution as to not have more overhead expenses upon building your Internet Business. While online mentors and coaches are suggested to cut your building strategies down considerably, you have to consider if they are worth the additional expense if you didn’t get it for free. It may all boil down to whether you want to gain the extra knowledge, or attempt to learn the strategies for yourself.
Faith for Finances: It’s Time for a Paradigm Shift
We are in our series entitled Faith for Finances. Today, we are discussing, Faith for Finances: It’s Time for a Paradigm Shift. Glory to God.A paradigm shift has to do with mindset. A paradigm shift is a radical change in underlying belief or theory. That’s the definition: a radical change in underlying belief or theory.As we discussed previously, we do the things we do because of how our thinking has been shaped. Our thinking has been shaped by authority figures, their words and their opinions of us and also, by our social environment. Our social environment would be who we let speak into our lives from our peer groups or our co-workers or church members, etc. Our thinking comes from repetitious information received over time. Whatever you continually feed upon, that’s what grows. So, we have to watch what we let go into our “eyegates” and our “eargates.” For example, we can’t look at everything on TV and think it won’t have an effect on us. We also have to watch what we allow to come out of our mouths. We have to always measure against the Word of God as to what is true or false and then handle it accordingly. We drop it if it’s false, we keep it if it’s true. Finally, our thoughts are shaped by our life experiences. So, whatever life experiences that you have that correspond to the stuff that you’ve been hearing repetitively, you tend to go along with. For example, if you’ve been taught that all short people are mean and you meet a short person and they’re mean to you, you tend to believe what you’ve been taught. However, the question that we have to ask ourselves is, “Who told you?” Who told you what you think about yourself or what you think about a particular situation that you’re in? Then we ask, “What was their motive?” Why did they tell that to you? Would they benefit from it in some way? Finally, we ask, “Did they tell you the truth?” Some authority figures tell us great things. Some things that they told us were with a good motive and were the truth. However, some things we’ve been told were self-serving lies. We have to always test what we’ve been told, and consequently believe, against the Word of God.Our core scriptures for this lesson are 3 John 2 and Joshua 1:8:”Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” 3 John 2″This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” Joshua 1:8So, we have to meditate on the Word of God and we have to make our own way prosperous. It’s not just going to happen. A lot of people are just super lazy. They think that blessings are just going to fall on them from out of the sky and that they don’t have to do anything to get them. However, the Bible says we make our own way prosperous. We follow God, we meditate on His Word and then He instructs us. He tells us things to do, we go about and we do those things, and the next thing you know, we’re prosperous. Also, because we’re doing it God’s way, we have good success. We don’t have all that hullaballoo that the world has… messing up their peace… can’t sleep at night. I remember Deion Sanders saying how he had the best bed money could buy, yet couldn’t get any rest. Before he knew Jesus, he would lie in that expensive bed, but get no rest. Without Jesus, you can have success, but it won’t be good success. It will have sorrow with it. Godly success is accompanied by peace. As we’ve seen on bumper stickers, “No Jesus = No Peace. Know Jesus = Know Peace.” When we follow after His principles, we have peace along with our progress. We have good success.So, it’s time for a paradigm shift.Romans 12:2 says,”And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”We don’t listen to the world. We are not to be conformed to this world. The prefix “con” here means “with,” so you’re being formed with the world, in line with the world. We’re not to do that. We’re not to be conformed to this world, but transformed. The prefix “trans” means “across” so you’re going away from what they’re doing. You’re not lining up with them, you’re going across. You’re getting away from them. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You have to renew your mind. You’ve got some junk in there that does not belong, it doesn’t line up with the Word of God. “Pre-Christ” in your life, you got some stuff in there that you gotta get rid of. Specifically, with regards to faith for finances, the majority of the world is not financially secure. I think everyone would agree with that. A statistic that I’ve heard, and I’m not sure if this is correct, but a statistic that I heard is that 98% of the population is either dead or dead broke by the age of 65. I’m hoping that it’s not 98%, because that is a huge, huge number. There’s only 2% left. However, whether 98% is accurate or not, we do know that the majority of people fall into the category of being dead or dead broke by 65. We don’t want to be a part of that number, whatever it is. We don’t want to be conformed to the world’s way of doing things, because we don’t want to be dead or dead broke by the age of 65. We want to be in that 2% or in the minority that are doing things God’s way and walking in the blessing of God. So be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. What we need is a transformation in our decision-making process. We need to make decisions based on God’s Word and not on anything else. That’s what we need to fix: how we come to the decisions that we make, how we make choices. We need to obey God and we have to change the way we think on purpose. It’s not going to be an automatic thing. We have to re-learn some things. We have to purposely take out the junk and put in something that is good. It’s a purposeful action; it’s not something you do half-asleep. You have to be mindful of what you’re doing. I was listening to a sermon recently and the pastor was talking about this replacement principle. He spoke about how a lot of people just want to be good in life and they say, “God, make me good. Take away the bad stuff.” However, it’s not that simple. He explained that we can’t just expect God to take something out. We have to replace it with something else. He used an illustration where he had a container with some liquid in it and he began to put rocks into the container in order that the liquid would come out and roll over onto the sides of the container. As I watched this illustration, I realized that we have to put in something heavier than what is already inside our containers. In science, we learn about displacement, which is required for this replacement to occur. In this example, when the heavy rocks were placed into the container, the liquid was no longer in place. It was displaced by the rock. The liquid in this case would be the bad thing and the rock would be the good thing. So you get rid of the bad thing by displacing it, by putting something into your container that’s heavier than what’s already inside. I hear the Holy Spirit saying, “This Rock is Jesus!” Hallelujah! God’s Word, praise God, is heavier than any of the junk that the world has used to shape our thinking and it can displace it! That’s good news.We can change. We just have to make sure that we’re willing to do it on purpose.Isaiah 55:7-8 says,”Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.”We have to forsake our ways, just like the wicked must forsake his way. We have to forsake what our flesh thinks is right and what our so-called friends think is right. We have to forsake it. If it’s not lining up with the Word – that’s the measuring stick – if it doesn’t line up with God’s Word, we gotta junk it. We gotta get rid of it. So, we need to forsake that, forsake the unrighteous thoughts, and return to the Lord, who will have mercy and who will abundantly pardon. We, also, need to adopt God’s thinking process, His decision-making process. His thoughts are not our thoughts. We have to take on His thoughts. His ways are not our ways. We have to take on His ways.2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says,”For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”A stronghold actually could be a good thing if you have the right stronghold in place. A stronghold is a mental thought pattern; it’s a way that you think about things. That’s a stronghold. It’s what’s deep down inside of you. It’s what you hold to. It’s your default. Those are strongholds. So, again, some are good, some are bad. The bad ones are the ones contrary to God’s will. So, we have to cast them down. We cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.Romans 7:22-25 also illustrates that we need to follow God’s order. In this passage it says:”For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”Then in Ephesians 4:23-24, it says,”And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”So, you may be thinking, “What does all this have to do with faith for finances?” Everything. The mind is the battleground where the devil will send defeating thoughts to us. Our thinking controls our actions. If we meditate on what the devil has told us, we will then act on it and bring about failure. We must renew our minds with the Word of God. We must have a paradigm shift to the Word of God.We’ll pick up here on next time and then move onto the how-to of this series.God bless you and until next time, this has been Patricia, walking through the scriptures with you.