Stop getting ready and start getting busy

March 27, 2018 by
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You have an idea. A project, a side business, a new career. At some point, you have to stop thinking, researching, and planning, and start doing.

Often, the more time you spend preparing, the harder it can be to start. Paralysis of analysis is a thing. You get caught up in trying to get your ducks in a row and thinking about everything that can go wrong and self-doubt sets in.

If you find the courage to do it anyway, you often find yourself easily spooked. Something goes wrong or is harder than you imagined and your brain starts cruising down “worst case scenario” lane.

Ignorance is bliss? Often so.

When I started my practice, I wasn’t ready. I had enough money to buy some furniture and pay a months rent but I was ill-equipped to manage a practice, let alone practice law.

I didn’t know anything about getting clients, hiring employees, billing, bookkeeping, insurance, CLE, and 101 other things that are part of the deal. I couldn’t think about those things; I thought I’d figure them out as I went along.

I also couldn’t think about possible problems. What if I run out of money? What if I mess up and get sued or the state bar comes calling? What if I hire someone and they mess up or rip me off? What if I can’t handle the work?

You can “what if” yourself until you don’t want to get out of bed.

So I didn’t know much or have much before I opened my own office, but I did have one thing that made the difference. Its something entrepreneur Shaun Rawls says all successful entrepreneurs have in common: “a high tolerance for ambiguity.”

I had that because I had to. I wanted the freedom of doing my own thing and I was willing to do what I thought I had to do to get it.

Whatever you’re contemplating, don’t overdo the thinking and planning. Stop getting ready and start.

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Filed Under: Inspiration, success

High ticket vs. low ticket

March 26, 2018 by
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When I started practicing, I took anything that showed up and what showed up was mostly small stuff. That was fine because I needed to settle cases quickly to pay my bills and smaller, less complicated cases made that possible.

Besides, I didn’t have the experience or resources to compete with bigger firms. So I didn’t try.

Focusing on smaller cases also meant that no one case or client was make or break. If I lost a case, if the client went away, I had plenty more where that came from.

For a long time, I was able to keep overhead to a minimum so my practice was profitable. Eventually, as I hired more staff and moved to bigger offices, overhead made a significant dent in the bottom line.

There is also psychic overhead. More clients mean more people to worry about, and more staff to manage.

So today, I would do things differently.

As soon as I could, I would move towards having fewer clients who pay higher fees.

Fewer clients mean lower overhead and fewer people to keep happy. Bigger clients mean bigger paydays.

To earn $300,000 with small clients you need a lot of them. To earn the same amount with bigger clients, you only need a handful.

One writer summed up the difference this way: “I’d rather have four quarters than 100 pennies”.

True, to compete with the big boys and gals you need to be one of them. You need a higher level of skill. That takes time to acquire.

And, with fewer clients, losing one could be costly so you need to work hard to keep them happy and have a way to replace them when they go away.

Both models work. High volume and high ticket are both viable ways to build a practice. And there’s nothing wrong with having a mix.

But while I could handle the tumult of a high volume practice when I was younger, today I like to keep things simple. And quiet.

Earn more. Work less. Here’s how

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management

Only you can prevent legal problems

March 23, 2018 by
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Remember Smokey the Bear PSAs promoting campfire safety? Among other things, he told us to make sure the fire was out (instead of letting it go out on its own), because, he said, “Only you can prevent forest fires”.

Preventing forest fires isn’t a difficult sell. Simple tips and reminders to be careful, presented by a cute cartoon animal, and (as far as I know), the campaign worked.

Preventing legal problems, on the other hand, is a much harder sell.

“Do this to prevent that,” you say. Yeah, but it’s expensive, say your clients. And I have time. And I don’t want to think about this right now.

It is much easier to sell a cure.

“You’re in trouble? I can save you,” you say. Where do I sign?

When someone has a legal problem, they are in pain. They want to alleviate that pain. Getting their attention and convincing them to hire you is a much easier task than trying to sell them a way to prevent the problem in the first place.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it. Just that you need to understand that its more difficult to sell and adjust your marketing accordingly.

If you sell prevention, give prospective clients more evidence of what can go wrong. Agitate the problems. Tell them more horror stories. Play on their fears.

And give them more time.

Prospective clients need time to digest your message, yet another reason why you need a list. They also need time to see their peers and colleagues experience the problems you are warning them about and the consequences of ignoring those warnings.

I saw a book being advertised this morning: “5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great”. If I was advising the author, I would tell her she would sell a lot more copies if the title was, “5 Simple Steps to SAVE Your Marriage”.

Fix your marketing problems with this

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Filed Under: Copywriting, Marketing legal services

What’s your favorite failure?

March 22, 2018 by
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Imagine you’re a guest on Tim Ferriss’s podcast. He’s interviewing you about your success, you’re sharing your brilliance with his big audience, things are going well. Then he asks his favorite interview question: “What’s your favorite failure?”

Not your biggest or most unusual. Your favorite. He assumes that you failed at something that taught you something important or led you to something much better.

Because failures do that.

They reveal your weaknesses, errors in judgment, and areas you need to improve. So you can improve them. They teach you what doesn’t work, making it more likely that you’ll find what does. And they steer you towards different options, leading to better ideas and bigger results.

Ferriss told the story about how the failure of one of his books eventually led him to starting his podcast which has turned out to be one of his most remunerative and satisfying accomplishments.

Failures rock! Especially the big fugly ones.

When you experience a costly or embarrassing failure, the pain you feel motivates you to change. Without that pain, you might forget your mistakes and repeat them.

Don’t bury your failures, cherish them. Investments that went bad, projects that were dead on arrival, marriages that didn’t last. They taught you something you needed to learn. They prepared you for the next step.

But don’t dwell on your failures. Respect them and move on. Until you’re being interviewed and someone asks, “What’s your favorite failure?”

Are you getting all the referrals you want? This will help

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Filed Under: Personal development

Will your law practice make you rich?

March 21, 2018 by
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I was reading one of “those” articles, you know, the ones that give you a list of reasons why certain types of people, habits, or beliefs are more conducive to success.

This one was about what rich people do differently.

One of the items on the list caught my eye because it’s something I did in my practice and something I preach in my sermons to you.

Verily: “Rich People Choose to Get Paid Based on Results”

When I began my practice, I charged by the hour and made a good income “per hour”. I earned a lot more, however, when I moved away from hourly work and focused on cases that paid contingency fees. It didn’t matter how many (or how few) hours I worked on a case. On more than a few cases, I earned the equivalent of thousands of dollars per hour.

If you practice in areas that aren’t conducive to contingency fees, there are other ways to be compensated that aren’t tied to the number of hours you work.

Charge by the matter, not by the hour. Ask for higher fees or bonuses for better results. Work with clients who offer equity instead of just cash. Hire more attorneys and earn the difference between what you pay them and what you bill the client.

If you can’t do this, look for other opportunities, outside of your practice. Because you’ll never get rich trading time for money.

How to do legal billing right

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Increase your income, Leverage

How to warm up a cold approach

March 20, 2018 by
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By far, the best way to approach a new business contact or prospective client is to have a mutual contact introduce you. When you identify someone you’d like to meet, go through your list of contacts to see if you know someone who knows them, or might know someone who does. Ask for an introduction or permission to use their name.

If you don’t know anyone who can introduce you, you can still approach them. But it will take more effort.

Whether you contact them by email or by phone, your initial objective is the same: to get their attention and stay out of the slush pile.

A few do’s and don’ts.

DON’T

  • DON’T pitch anything. Save that for later; probably much later.
  • DON’T ask for anything, e.g., a guest post, a link, etc.
  • DON’T brag about yourself; in fact, say almost nothing about yourself, focus on them
  • DON’T lie or exaggerate
  • DON’T ask them to read something or do something; they’re busy, just like you

DO

  • DO mention your mutual friend or contact. How did you get their name?
  • DO reference something you have in common (a mutual interest, cause, target market or industry, practice area, background, etc.)
  • DO mention something you like about something you heard about them or read, (their article, post, video, interview, etc.
  • DO tell them why you’re contacting them and what’s in it for them; give them a reason to listen
  • DO keep your message brief; get to the point
  • DO make the next step easy (ask them to reply, tell them you’ll call, tell them to watch their email)

So, what is in it for them? Why are you contacting them?

Here are some good options:

  • To offer information that will help them or their clients, or information about something that interests them
  • To discuss a mutual interest (an industry or local issue, similarly aligned clients, proposed laws or regs, etc.)
  • To invite them to speak at your meeting, to interview them for your newsletter, to participate in a panel discussion, etc.
  • To introduce yourself, learn more about what they do and how you might work together to your mutual benefit

To learn more about how to find and approach people you don’t know, and what to offer them, get this

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Referral sources, Relationship marketing Tagged With:

Write like you talk?

March 19, 2018 by
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We’re often told to “write like you talk”. Talk to the reader, on paper, as if you’re having a personal conversation. Use simple words and short sentences, to make your message clear and easy to understand.

But spoken communication is disjointed and repetitive. Our meaning is often ambiguous. We use gestures, pauses, facial expressions, and other cues, to provide context and clarity to our message. When we sense that the listener isn’t following us, we can repeat the thought with different words and examples. We can make sure they understand before we continue.

We can’t do this in writing, however, so if you write literally like you talk, your writing will be harder to understand, not easier.

Instead of “write like you talk,” the mantra should be, “write the first draft like you talk.”

When you edit that draft, change the order of your ideas so they flow more logically. Choose more descriptive words. Tighten sentences. Tell a story instead of piling on the facts.

Do another pass, to make the draft even clearer. Depending on your audience, consider adding (or adding back) slang, cliches, and buzz words, and using visual devices to mimic the spoken word.

K?

Make the words look good on the page. Then, read the draft out loud, to hear what your reader will hear in their head when they read it.

Listen to the sound of the words and their cadence. Pay attention to the images they conjure and the emotions they invoke.

CS Lewis said, “Write with the ear, not the eye.” Make sure your words not only say what you mean, make sure they sound good.

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Filed Under: Writing

2 easy-peasy techniques to stop procrastination

March 16, 2018 by
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You’ve got something you need to do but you’ve been putting it off. Maybe it’s unpleasant. Maybe you’re not ready. Maybe you’re not sure you can do a good job.

It doesn’t matter why you’re procrastinating. All that matters is that you’re not doing something you know you need to do.

There are many techniques for dealing with procrastination but one is about as simple as it gets. It’s called the ‘5 Second Rule’ and it goes like this:

As soon as you have an urge to do something or the recognition that you need to do it, start doing it within the next 5 seconds.

It’s like pulling off a bandage. Don’t think about it, do it and get it over with.

Since this is a habit you’re trying to develop, you might need a little help. Try a “five-second countdown”. As a kid, when I was tired and didn’t want to get out of a warm bed on a cold morning, I would do a countdown–5, 4, 3, 2, 1-and then spring out of bed.

What can I say, it worked.

Another technique for dealing with procrastination goes by a similar name. It’s the ‘5-minute rule’. Here, you commit to doing the task for just 5 minutes.

You can do just about anything for 5 minutes. Then you can turn your attention to something else. “I’m just going to work on this file for 5 minutes; then I’ll watch that new cat video”.

What frequently happens, of course, is that once you begin (and see that it’s not as bad as you thought and it feels good to make some progress), you’ll want to continue. 5 minutes turns into 15 or 30.

Use the 5-second rule and 5-minute rule together and you might be amazed at what you get done.

How to use your website to make your phone ring

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: , ,

Perfect

March 15, 2018 by
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To some extent, perfectionism is a valuable attribute in an attorney. Exacting standards and an almost obsessive attention to detail help you to do a good job for your clients, keeping them and yourself out of trouble.

I say “to some extent,” however, because research shows that perfectionism can lead to burnout, anxiety, and even depression.

You can argue that there’s too much at stake and, therefore, no room for error. You can’t take any risks with your work. But, as I’ve said before, life (and the practice of law) isn’t about the complete elimination of risk, it’s about the intelligent management of risk.

There are things you can do to maintain your wellbeing while staying faithful to your high standards. Like checklists, that tell you when you’ve done the work that needs to be done, and self-imposed deadlines that force you to “turn in your homework” even though you might want more time.

Mistakes happen. But most of the time, most of what you do is “good enough” and good enough is usually good enough. Err on the side of “overly cautious” or “painstakingly thorough,” but do what you have to do to let things go.

Repeat after me: “Done is better than perfect”.

One area where you cannot afford to be a perfectionist, however, is in managing your practice.

You can’t wait for the perfect marketing solution, you have to run with things and see how they work. Marketing is messy. Somethings work, some don’t. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you lose your shirt.

Similarly, you can’t refuse to delegate work because “nobody can do better” or because someone might make a costly mistake. If you insist on doing everything yourself, you will never grow.

You will work more than you have to and achieve less than you could. And you’ll also go home exhausted.

Earn more, work less. Here’s how

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Filed Under: Law office management Tagged With: ,

Helping the competition?

March 14, 2018 by
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In Lawyer to Lawyer Referrals, I show you how to find and befriend lawyers who work in complementary practice areas and can send you referrals. One way to get on their radar, and in their good graces, is to help them do a better job for their clients.

Educate them about your area of expertise, even if that means they help those clients instead of referring them to you.

Karma, and all that.

It’s similar to what I said yesterday about encouraging clients and prospects to call you for “micro-advice,” without the meter running.

My friend Steve Emmert, a very successful appellate lawyer, emailed and said, “I always give free micro-advice to my customers (trial lawyers). It quite often comes back to me in future business, when they need an appellate lawyer and remember who looked out for them all these years.”

Indeed.

He continued, “. . .I also give free micro-advice to my competitors. It’s the neighborly thing to do, it promotes collegiality within the appellate “guild,” and refusing to do so would be giving in to a scarcity mentality. There’s plenty of work to go around.”

He gave a couple of recent examples–showing a new-ish appellate lawyer how to set up a section of a document, going to lunch with other lawyers who want to start an appellate practice and telling them what to do. “Why should I make them learn the hard way all the lessons I’ve learned in almost 15 years?”

He continued: “Most lawyers wouldn’t think of doing this because they have a scarcity mentality: ‘I have to take this client because I might never get another. I have to guard all my secrets so no one can compete with me.’ Jeez Louise!”

Aint that the truth.

It seems counterintuitive to share your time and expertise with lawyers who do what you do, or want to. But not only does it feel good to help others, it can pay dividends.

“One fringe benefit: My competitors get the message that I’m confident in my market position, and that means they’re very unlikely ever to really challenge that position.”

I’ll tell you what else it does. It gets other lawyers sending you referrals when they have a conflict or a case they otherwise can’t handle. They know you’re the BMOC (that’s “Big Man on Campus” for you Millenials and other whippersnappers.)

“I got some great advice long ago: “Identify a niche market and seek to dominate it,” Steve said. “This is one way I do that: I let my competitors know that I don’t regard them as competition, but as my friends. All the while, they’re realizing that I’m very good at this. See how that works? As long as no one gets the idea of hiring a hit man to take me out and make room at the top …”

Ah, there’s the catch. You actually have to be good. (Or make them think you are.)

Anyway, great advice from a very smart guy. If you want more of his advice for building a successful practice, read my interview with him in my Kindle book. 

Lawyer-to-Lawyer Referrals

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Filed Under: Referrals
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