If you want something done, ask a woman to do it

December 23, 2016 by
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Watching my wife prepare for out-of-town company and get ready for Christmas has been like watching a master class in multi-tasking. I can barely single-task. She goes non-stop, all day long, making me look like, well, like a man.

If saying that makes me a sexist, so be it. I’m convinced that women are the stronger sex. Also the sexiest.

So guys, this holiday, remember to thank your wives and girlfriends and the other women in your life for all they do, and for putting up with you.

Women? Thank the men in your life for what they do because you need them as much as they need you.

Everyone–remember we’re all in this together. No matter your gender, race, or political affiliation, we need each other, and so does the survival of our species.

So yeah, this time of year especially, let’s see if we can all get along, love each other, and give thanks for all of our blessings.

Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah.

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Filed Under: Inspiration

Scrivener writing app is on sale

December 22, 2016 by
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f you’re looking for a last-minute Christmas gift for the writer in your family, or for yourself, you can pick up the Windows version of Scrivener right now for just $20.

If you ask me, it’s a bargain at full price.

I use Scrivener every day, mostly for long-form writing (books and reports), but you can use it for articles, blog posts, and any other writing. More than a few lawyers use it for first drafts of briefs, motions, appeals, et. al.

I couldn’t find the discount link on the Literature and Latte site but I’ve seen several sites promoting this so a quick search should give you the link.

Last summer, the publisher released a long-awaited version of Scrivener for iOS. It is full-featured and syncs (via Dropbox) with your Windows or Mac desktop.

In any form, Scrivener gets my highest recommendation.

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Filed Under: Writing Tagged With:

$80,000 with one letter

December 21, 2016 by
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Yesterday, I (once again) danced up and down on my keyboard in an effort to convince you to use email for marketing your legal services. I suggested that a simple weekly email to clients and prospects might bring in enough repeat business and referrals to make you a very happy camper.

A subscriber, an attorney friend who no longer practices, wrote and said my email reminded him of a time when he sent a letter to all of his former clients:

“Back when I practiced law, my New Years resolution one year was to create a new profit center for my practice. So I wrote a letter to all of my old clients – about 200 people — announcing that I was now also handling wills and trusts.

That one letter made me about $80K the next year.”

Waaay better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

As far as I know, my friend didn’t make any crazy-special offer. He merely contacted people who knew, liked, and trusted him and shared his news.

And, as far as I know, he only sent one letter. Would he have earned more if he had written again? No doubt. Because some people may not have received his first letter. Some might not have read it. Some might not have been ready to take action. A second (or twenty-second) letter may have arrived at precisely the time when they were ready to say, “take my money”.

You’re thinking: “Okay, this sounds good but what if I’m not starting a new practice area?”

Well, how about partnering up with other lawyers in other practice areas and recommending their services, in return for them doing the same for you? Know any good accountants, financial planners, insurance or real estate brokers? Business owners with products or services you like?

Yep, you can do the same thing with them. But only if you have a list.

If you don’t want to recommend anyone else’s services for some reason, just keep your name in front of your peeps. When they need your services (again), or know someone they can refer, well, there you are–in their email inbox, a click or a dial away.

Hold on. You’re thinking, “If they need me, they’ll call me. They’ll look up my phone number or go to my website. I don’t have to stay in touch with them, they’ll find me.”

Some will. Most won’t.

I know. I signed up hundreds (thousand?) of clients who, when asked for the name of the attorney who represented them in their prior matter said they didn’t remember. And that’s why they were sitting in my office instead of the office of their former attorney who didn’t stay in touch.

Email is easy when you know how. Here’s how

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Filed Under: Email, Newsletters

Getting paid to write a weekly email

December 20, 2016 by
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I know you don’t have a lot of time but would you write and send out a weekly email if you were paid $1000 per week to do it? How about $2000? $5000?

Would you find the time to send an email every week if it meant increasing your income by hundreds of thousands of dollars per year?

You betcha.

Well guess what? Although nobody is going to pay you that much to write a weekly email, if you write that email to your clients and prospects (and referral sources), you’ll be able to pay yourself.

Yeah, it’s called marketing. And email is about as simple as it gets.

You have to build a list. You can use your website to do that. Add a form and invite visitors to sign up.

You have to have something to say. You’re a lawyer. You have something to say about everything.

You have to be disciplined. That’s why God created the calendar.

You have to start. That’s the hard part. And the most important.

Do me a favor. And by me, I mean yourself. Send an email to some people you know and say something.

Where to start? How about telling them you’re thinking about starting an email newsletter and asking them to submit a legal question? How about summarizing (or copying) something you wrote in the past and sending that? How about wishing them Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, happy holidays, or whatever floats your boat?

Just say something. Anything. And watch what happens.

Here’s how to start

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Filed Under: Email, Newsletters

Getting paid to learn how to practice law

December 19, 2016 by
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As you probably know, when I started my practice, I took any legal work I could get. I did divorces for two or three hundred dollars. I consulted with pro pers for $75. I took personal injury cases that settled for $750.

Good times.

I did what I had to do because (a) I needed the money; (b) these clients couldn’t afford to pay more; and (c) I often had little or no experience with a particular matter and taking it forced me to learn.

I’d spend hours in the law library. I sought the advice of other lawyers who pointed me in the right direction. I spent hours drafting and revising simple documents, (on legal pads and typewriters) learning how to do them right.

I also did some work for other lawyers. One time, I was hired to write a motion. I got to the lawyer’s office late in the afternoon. He let me use his library and stay late to finish and told me to lock up when I was done. Good thing he did because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

When I finished, the sun was coming up. I must have worked ten hours on that motion (ten hours!) but I only billed him for two because, well, ten hours! (He was happy with the work, btw.)

The point is that when I was new, I was paid to learn how to practice law. So if you’re new or entering a new practice area, don’t worry about how much (or how little) you’re being paid.

There’s a marketing lesson in this, too.

Sometimes, it pays (long term) to do work for certain clients at a discount or even free. That’s right, I said it. I said the “F” word. F-f-f-ree. As in no charge. Let them see what you can do and when they fall in love with you and want to hire you again, full price, baby!

If there’s a big client you’d love to work with, make them an offer they can’t refuse. If you do unlawful detainers or collection work, for example, you might pitch a prospective client with “first case is free”. If you do estate planning, you might offer a simple Will package at a steep discount.

Get your foot in the door, win them over, and one day you’ll be telling the story about how you took over your market.

Marketing is simple when you know The Formula

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Spank me and send me to bed without supper

December 16, 2016 by
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I blew it.

Yesterday I said that referrals are number one and advertising is number two on my list of favorite marketing methods. When I said that, I was thinking about the days when I was practicing. Back then, those were my top two favorites.

Today, I would give you a different answer.

For most of my days in practice, the Internet wasn’t a thing. At least not something most lawyers had access to. We didn’t have email, either. Cell phones? I wore a pager and used pay phones. For a long time, I didn’t have a fax machine.

Anyway, if I was practicing today, I would tell you that referrals are number one and email is number two. Advertising would be third on the list, not second.

If you don’t like advertising or aren’t allowed to do it, this should come as good news to you because email marketing is something just about any lawyer can do.

It’s easy. There’s little or no cost. It doesn’t take up a lot of time. And it works incredibly well.

If you’re not using email for marketing, the best place to start is to use it to stay in touch with clients and former clients. Remind them that you’re still around and can still help them and the people they know.

Most attorneys can get most of their new business from people who have hired them before and email is the easiest way to do that.

If you are currently using email to stay in touch with clients and former clients, great. But be honest: When was the last time you emailed all of them? When do you plan to do it next? NB: if you have to think about this, you’re not emailing often enough.

Next, start using email as a tool for courting prospective clients. People who have connected with you but haven’t yet hired you. They are much more likely to hire you or send you referrals than someone who doesn’t know you from Adam.

Bottom line? If I had email when I was practicing, I would have grown much bigger, much faster, and with a lot less effort. Today, my entire business is built around email.

So yeah, I should have told you that yesterday. My bad.

Referrals, first and always. Then email. Advertising if you want to take things to the next level.

How to use the Internet and email to build your practice

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Filed Under: Email, Marketing legal services

What’s your second favorite method for marketing legal services?

December 15, 2016 by
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Let’s face it, referrals are pretty much everyone’s favorite marketing method.

What’s not to love? Clients come to you, pre-sold, so you sign up a high percentage. They tend to be better clients than the unwashed masses who find you online. They are less likely to complain or try to mico-manage you. They tend to stick around longer. And they are themselves more likely to refer.

We love us some referrals, don’t we?

Anyway, other than referrals, what’s number two on your list of favorite marketing methods?

Me? No question about it. Advertising.

Advertising gives you control. You run an ad and if it works you continue to run it. And run it more frequently. And buy bigger ads. And run ads in more publications or on more sites.

If your ads don’t work, you change something–the headline, offer, copy, publication or list–until you find the right combination.

You can start with a small budget. If your ads work, you scale up. If they don’t, you pull out.

You can use ads to test new markets, new services, and new offers.

You can advertise your services directly, or you can advertise your seminar, book, or report, and build a list that produces clients over the long term.

Advertising can bring in clients fast. Run an ad this morning and you can have new clients this afternoon.

Yep, advertising works. I’ve done a lot of it over the years and swear by it. It’s my number two pick, however, because you have to know what you’re doing. (The preponderance of horribly ineffective attorney advertising proves my point.)

So, start with referrals. Make them the foundation of your practice-building strategy. Then, if you have a mind to, use advertising to scale up your practice, but take your time to do it right. Your referral-based practice will give you the time to do that.

If you do it this way, referrals first, you’ll also have more flexibility with your advertising. You can run ads that break-even, for example, because you have a system in place for getting referrals from those new clients.

Make sense? Good. Now go make some dollars.

Marketing legal services via referrals

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Filed Under: Advertising

I know you can’t but what if you could?

December 14, 2016 by
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What if you had a new way of getting ideas, solving problems and achieving goals? What if this new way was as simple as asking yourself a simple question? What if asking this question would either give you an immediate answer or program your subconscious mind to deliver the answer overnight?

What if I shut up and tell you the question?

If you’ve read this far, you may know the question because I’ve repeated it several times: “What if?”

It’s a question that helps you look at things in a different light. Some call it “possibility thinking” because it helps you to see what’s possible and take a step towards finding the solution rather than getting stuck on the problem.

Try it right now and see what it can do. Think about something you would love to do but don’t know how or don’t think you can. Ask yourself, “What if I did know?” or “What if I could?”

You can also ask yourself how things would be different if you achieved the goal. “What if I did find my perfect mate?” “What would my life be like if I could stop working and still get paid?”

Once you’ve asked the question, let it go and let your mind go to work.

Does it work all of the time? I don’t know, but what if it did?

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Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With:

Why you should do something other than practicing law

December 13, 2016 by
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You work long hours, most of which are spent doing the same things with the same people (or type of people) and while this may be a factor in building a successful career, it might also be holding you back.

Doing the same things day after day, decade after decade, can lead to boredom, a loss of perspective and a stifling of creativity.

Even if you don’t have the time to do it, or perhaps because you don’t have the time to do it, you should consider doing something outside of your practice.

Starting a part-time business would almost certainly allow you to network with people you otherwise might not meet in your “day job”. It could allow you to create additional income, develop new skills you can use in your practice, and give you something to do when you retire.

Taking classes in an unrelated field could stimulate your mind, teach you something you’ve always wanted to learn and provide you with fodder for your blog, newsletter, or presentations.

A new hobby, or the resurrection of an old one, could give you something pleasant to look forward to on weekends.

Joining a club or group might help you meet people who share your interest in something important or entertaining and give you a pleasant distraction from the stress of practicing law.

You are more than the sum of your legal experiences, or at least you could be. As you plan for the new year, consider doing something different. Look at your “someday” list or bucket list or pick something at random and dip your toes in.

You might find something that gives your career a new dimension, or, as I did, a completely new career.

I built my practice, and found my second career, by getting good at getting referrals

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Filed Under: success

Why should I buy your hamburgers?

December 12, 2016 by
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If you were going to open a coffee shop, you would start by researching the market. You’d look at the existing restaurants in town and size up the competition.

How many coffee shops are there in a one-mile, three-mile, and five-mile radius? What’s on their menu? Do they have any specialties? What are their prices?

You would look at population density, traffic patterns, parking, and a hundred other factors, in an effort to find an unmet need in the market or an opportunity to improve on what other coffee shops do.

And then, you would come up with an angle, something that would make your coffee shop stand out from the competition. It might be the furniture, lighting, or decor. It might be the name of your coffee shop, your menu, or prices.

You would look for something you could do to get customers to notice you and give you a try. You would then give them the best experience possible so they would come back again and tell their friends about you.

Which is exactly what you need to do with your law practice.

You need to give people a reason to notice you and hire you instead of the legions of other lawyers in town with a similar menu. You need to stand out from the competition by being better or different.

So tell me, why should I buy your hamburgers?

How to develop an angle for your practice

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: ,
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