What to do when the yogurt hits the fan

October 9, 2012 by
Share

Something in Seth Godin’s post today caught my eye. He said, “Most things that go wrong, go wrong slowly.” That’s true, isn’t it? If you’re having challenges in your law practice, they usually take time to develop.

If you’re income is going down, it probably hasn’t happened all of a sudden. It’s probably been happening for months, maybe years. The good news is that because it happens slowly, there’s time to fix it.

When you are experiencing a downward cycle, Seth says the wrong thing to do is rationalize it and ride it out. Or, in the case of declining income, think that cutting costs is the only thing you can do.

The right way to deal with a downward cycle, he says, is learn to recognize it and replace it with an upward cycle. “Understand what triggers [a downward cycle] and then learn to use that trigger to initiate a different cycle,” he says.

So if your income has been declining, instead of waiting for the economy to improve, you have to do something to bring in more income.

But what?

Start by asking yourself some questions:

  • What did I do, or fail to do, that contributed to this situation? How can I change this?
  • What have I done before to turn things around?
  • What are other lawyers doing that’s working?
  • What do I need to learn?
  • What bad habits do I need to eradicate?
  • Who can help me? (Start with categories, i.e., CPA, marketing expert, banker, then look for candidates)
  • What do I need to do more of?
  • What do I need to get better at?

If I were coaching you, among other things, I would tell you to look at where most of your income is coming from now, or has in the past (practice area, referral sources, marketing methods, etc.) and expand this. Leverage your strengths. Do what has worked before.

And focus on what you can do, not on what you can’t do. You can’t change the economy, but you can make some calls.

If you want to learn how to earn more than you ever thought possible even if you’re in a downward cycle, download The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Share
Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Personal development Tagged With: ,

If Donald Trump managed your law firm

October 8, 2012 by
Share

The Donald knows a thing or two about making money. I’m guessing you wouldn’t mind getting some advice from him about ways you could grow your practice and increase your income. What could you do better? What should you do more of? What should you get rid of?

I’m guessing Mr. Trump isn’t available for consultation, but you and he can have a virtual conversation.

Imagine Donald Trump spending the day with you and your staff and examining what you do. Picture him with sitting in your office with his wild hair, firing questions at you. What would he ask? Take some time to think about this. His questions alone would be invaluable, wouldn’t they?

What would he want to know about your “operation”? What do you think he might say in response?

If you’ve read his books or seen him interviewed, or you’ve watched him on The Apprentice, you might have a few insights into the way he thinks. You know he thinks big picture and long term. He doesn’t rush into things. At the same time, he doesn’t let grass grow under his feet. He’s constantly moving, like a shark, looking for an opportunity, and when he finds it he’s ready to pounce.

He turns down most deals because most deals don’t pencil out. But he doesn’t need a lot of deals to be successful. One or two can earn him tens of millions.

He doesn’t get attached to a deal. If he can’t get something on his terms, he walks. But because he does his homework and because he is The Donald, he usually gets what he wants.

Mr. Trump may not know anything about practicing law and that’s probably a good thing. He won’t be hindered by traditional thinking. He knows how to recognize value and how to create it, and I’ll bet he could quickly size up your practice and tell you what to do.

What would he advise you to do?

In your mind, you can have a conversation with Donald Trump. Or with anyone else, living or dead. You could ask Abraham Lincoln or Albert Einstein for advice. I’ve talked to both men when I’ve been faced with difficult decisions. I imagined them in as much detail as I could and I heard them speak. Lincoln with his high, squeaky voice, Einstein with his heavy German accent. I asked them questions and listened to what they told me.

Steve Allen used to have a TV show, Meeting of Minds,a talk show of sorts where actors portraying prominent figures from history gathered around a table to discuss important issues. Cleopatra might be sitting next to Attila the Hun, Plato, and Frederick Douglass. Viewers got “first hand” depictions of history and insights into how to make better decisions for the future.

Having an imaginary conversation with Charles Darwin or Thomas Jefferson may seem weird, but unlike a scripted TV show, what they tell you in that conversation is, of course, really coming from you.

Am I saying you already know everything you need to know to solve your problems or achieve your goals? Of course not. But you probably know enough to ask some really good questions.

If you want to have a virtual conversation with me about marketing, get The Attorney Marketing Formula. You’ll get some great questions and even greater answers.

Share
Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Is Goofus or Gallant managing your law firm?

October 5, 2012 by
Share

The children’s magazine, Highlights, has a cartoon feature, Goofus and Gallant, which teaches kids the right and wrong ways to handle different social situations. Goofus is irresponsible and selfish; Gallant does the right thing. At a cross-walk, for example, Goofus ignores the elderly person while Gallant offers to help her cross the street.

If Goofus or Gallant were managing your law firm, they might illustrate the right and wrong ways to behave with Do’s and Don’ts like the following:

  • DON’T do something just because there’s money in it; you can make money at a lot of things
  • DO what you’re good at; if you aren’t good at it, you won’t be successful
  • DON’T do what everyone else does; be different–it will be easier to stand out
  • DO what you enjoy; chances are it’s something you’re good at
  • DON’T offer what people don’t need; if people don’t need what you do, what you do is a hobby
  • DO offer what people want; people buy what they want, not what they need
  • DON’T compete on price; there will always be someone who charges less
  • DO provide more value than anyone else; that’s what people pay for
  • DON’T use marketing tactics you don’t like; you’ll only do them poorly
  • DO give new marketing tactics some time; you might find you like them after all
  • DON’T try to eliminate risk; without risk there is no reward
  • DO follow the advice of successful people who have what you want
  • DON’T assume that hard work is the recipe for success; it’s just one of the ingredients
  • DO use the 80/20 principle to get a bigger return on what you do

Is Goofus managing your practice or is Gallant? Are you doing the Do’s or the Don’ts?

If things aren’t going well for you, there’s another Highlight’s feature you might want to know about. On the back cover is something called “What’s Wrong?” It is a picture of a normal scene but with several out-of-place or incorrect objects. The reader is instructed to find “what’s wrong with this picture?”

Sometimes, you might want to look at your practice and ask yourself that question.

If you want to learn essential marketing Do’s and Don’ts, you need The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Share
Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Should you upgrade or repair your law practice?

October 4, 2012 by
Share

The title of this post comes from an article I saw today, “Should you upgrade or repair your computer?” It had advice about how to repair software, how to repair hardware, and what and when you should upgrade.

I thought this was a good analogy for a law practice. Things slow down, they break, they need repairing and replacing. And, even if everything is working just fine, if you want to get to the next level, you need to continually upgrade what you’re doing.

Periodically examine the inner workings of your practice. What’s not working? What needs to be repaired or replaced? What can you upgrade?

Here’s an inspection list to get you started:

  • Broken relationships with clients and professional contacts
  • Sluggish client communications; “thank yous” and other initiatives that fail to show clients how much you value them; boring newsletters and blog posts
  • Malfunctioning processes that leave your clients vulnerable or in the dark
  • Out of date web pages, forms, form letters, templates, and checklists
  • Unnecessary or overly expensive overhead
  • Ineffective ads, social media, and networking
  • Offers that aren’t getting prospects to call
  • People who answer the phone but don’t get prospects into the office
  • Presentations that aren’t converting prospects into clients
  • Fees that don’t produce enough profit
  • Employees who aren’t worth what you’re paying them
  • Employees who are worth more than you pay them
  • Clients who leave; clients who don’t return; clients who don’t refer
  • Tasks that take too long to complete
  • Tasks that can be delegated, outsourced, or eliminated

Think of your practice as a machine. If you do regular inspections, maintenance and repairs, your machine will continue to function. If you don’t, it will slow down and ultimately cost you more when things break and have to be replaced.

And, every so often, upgrade your practice. Make things better and faster. Equip yourself and your staff with the latest tools. Stay ahead of the changing demands in the marketplace.

A brand new computer may be obsolete in six months. So can a law practice.

Does your marketing need an upgrade? Get The Attorney Marketing Formula and find out what to do.

Share
Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity, Time Management

My one page productivity system

October 3, 2012 by
Share

When I was in high school I used a simple system for planning my day: a single piece of paper. I folded it three times so it would fit in my shirt pocket. On the page I would list the things I needed to do that day: tasks, errands, classes, homework. As I completed each one, I crossed it off the list. At the end of the day I would look at my list and feel good about what I had accomplished. I would then write a new list for the following day.

Putting everything on one page forced me to decide what was important for the day. There were many things I could have done each day but I wrote down only the things that I intended to do. Sometimes I numbered them so that I knew what to do first.

There was room on my page for ideas, things to do tomorrow or next week or someday, or to jot down random thoughts about life.

My one page productively system was all I needed for the day. It worked so well, I stopped using it.

I still plan my day and sometimes I put it on paper, but most of the time, my plan is in my calendar and in Evernote.

The last few days I’ve been playing around with an app called WorkFlowy. It is a list-making/outlining application that lets you put everything on a single “page”. You can use it for your task list(s) or to outline projects. You can create nested outlines to unlimited depth. I’m using it to outline a book.

I’m also using it to create my daily task list. I add a #Today tag to tasks I want to do today and filter the master list so that it only shows those tasks. On one page is my daily task list, just like I used to use in high school.

But I don’t have to print that page to put it in my pocket. WorkFlowy has a free iPhone app that syncs my lists. (There is an Android app, too.)

Nothing is simpler than a piece of paper. But this comes close.

Do you use Evernote? Check out my ebook, Evernote for Lawyers: A Guide for Getting Organized & Increasing Productivity.

Share
Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

How self-employed attorneys can avoid burn out and increase their income

October 2, 2012 by
Share

One of my Facebook friends posted today: “Totally. Burned. Out. In desperate need of a day off, but then the work won’t get done. Ugh.”

He’s an attorney and works for a firm. I assume he is salaried. I assume he cannot give the work to someone else to do. He has to do it because the work is assigned to him or nobody else is capable of doing it.

Either way, he’s stuck. That’s the way it is with most jobs.

But most self-employed people say the same thing. They either don’t have any employees or partners to whom they can give the work or nobody else is capable of doing it.

Either way, they’re stuck, too.

The employee understands the trade off. They exchange their time for dollars and don’t have to deal with the administrative and marketing demands of being self-employed. They give up some of their freedom in exchange for “security” (or so they think; there are no secure jobs). The self-employed person values freedom above all and is willing to take on the additional responsibilities and longer hours, in order to “be their own boss.”

For most of my career, I have been self-employed. I worked for my father for a year out of law school and I didn’t like it. I wanted to “do my own thing” (that’s how we described it in the ’70’s). I was willing to take on the additional responsibilities and long hours and give up the “security” of a job to get it.

But only to a point.

After a few years, I got Totally. Burned. Out. I wanted to take time off, but the work wouldn’t get done. I was stuck, and that’s when I made a decision to change what I was doing.

I realized that “if the work won’t get done unless I do it,” I didn’t own a business (practice), it owned me. I worked hard but if freedom was my goal, and it was, and I couldn’t take a day off when I wanted to, or six months when I wanted to, I might as well get a job.

I decided that I would hire more people and delegate to them as much of the work as possible. I supervised them and did the legal work that nobody else could do. I soon found out that there wasn’t much legal work that nobody else could do and while that may not have been good for my ego, it was very good for my well-being and my bank account. It meant I could concentrate on marketing and building the practice, and that’s what I did.

And then, I was able to take lots of time off because I owned a business (practice) and it no longer owned me.

If you are self-employed and “the work won’t get done unless you do it,” you should consider making similar changes. Hire more people, outsource, associate with other attorneys. Do what you have to do to lesson the need for you to do the work.

Not only will you avoid burn out and increase your income, you will have more time to post on Facebook.

Your time is precious. Learn how to leverage it to earn more and work less in The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Share
Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Dealing with stress, Law office management, Leverage, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Marketing legal services like a Grandmaster

October 1, 2012 by
Share

In the game of chess there are strategies and there are tactics. Strategies are the plans–how you will gain space or material that leads to a winning advantage. Tactics are the battles–the maneuvering of your pieces and exchanges of material that allow you to execute your plan.

Marketing legal services is very similar. You create a plan and you execute that plan. Your plan might be to get more referrals from your professional contacts by strengthening your relationships with them. Your tactics might include sending them referrals, taking them to lunch, and inviting them to join you at your next networking meeting.

In chess, the best strategies aren’t created randomly, they emerge by observing the board. You look at your strengths, where you have an advantage, and build your strategy around these advantages. If there aren’t any advantages, you look for differences in your positions and use those differences to create your strategy.

The same goes for marketing legal services. You may not have any significant advantages over other attorneys, but you do have differences:

  • Your background, outside interests
  • Your knowledge and experience
  • Your style and personality
  • Your professional contacts
  • The size of your client list
  • Your web site
  • Your lists (email, mail, directory)
  • Your awards
  • Your publishing credits
  • Your content (articles, reports, books, audios, etc.)
  • Your niche market
  • Your experience
  • Your social media network
  • Languages spoken
  • And so on

You can use these differences to create a marketing strategy.

If you are an “Ambassador” at your local Chamber of Commerce, know how to make and publish youtube videos, or you are personal friends with a prominent blogger, these can all become a part of your marketing strategy.

Where are you different? What do you know how to do? Who do you know? Don’t take those differences for granted. They may not seem significant to you but they can be enough to create a winning strategy for marketing your services.

The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you key strategies for marketing your practice. Click here for more information.

Share
Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

Getting started with mind maps for notes, outlines, and brainstorming

September 28, 2012 by
Share

Mind maps are a non-linear method of organizing information. I use them to take notes, to create outlines for presentations and projects, and to brainstorm ideas. If you have not used them, I suggest you take a look at this excellent overview.

I usually create mind maps on paper. I grab a legal pad and put the basic idea in the middle. As ideas come to me, I quickly add them as branches and sub-branches. In a minute or two, I can outline a complete presentation or project.

As the overview clearly shows, the advantage to the mind map is that it allows you to capture ideas as they occur to you, “out of order” so to speak, which is how the mind works. One idea leads to another and that leads to another, and so on, which is very different from the linear outlines we’re so used to. Once you have captured those ideas, however, it’s easy to re-write them into a formal outline.

I also use mind map software. Freemind is simple and easy to use and, well, free. There are many other choices. I don’t use the software often, but I do use it for bigger projects.

I’ve downloaded a few mind map apps on my iPhone but find them difficult to use. The “canvas” is too small, at least for me, and I find myself spending too much time working with the app rather than capturing ideas. Some apps do integrate with their desktop counterparts, however, so you could create the mind map on your computer and view it on your mobile device.

Some people create very detailed mind maps, with many sub-branches. They might outline an entire book (or legal case) on a large white board or fill several pages in a notebook. I usually keep things simple, using the map to get a general picture, but I have also used them to outline bigger projects.

If you’ve never tried a mind map you may be in for a pleasant surprise. Not only are they a practical way to discover and capture information you may otherwise overlook, they are a lot of fun.

I used mind maps to outline portions of The Attorney Marketing Formula. If you want to see how my mind works, download a copy today.

Share
Filed Under: Presentations, Writing Tagged With: , , , ,

Is your law firm listed on Yelp? You might be getting reviews and not know it

September 27, 2012 by
Share

When my wife is checking out a new restaurant or other local business, she often checks the reviews on Yelp. If they have a poor rating she usually moves on. She may also use Yelp’s directory to find businesses in our area. She found a great auto service business that way and we’re very happy with them.

If you target consumers or small businesses, prospective clients may be checking you out on Yelp. If you have a listing, it’s one more place people searching for an attorney can find you.

The thing is, clients can post a review about you even if you don’t have a listing. You might want to do a search and see if anyone has. While you’re there, create an account so that you can post your details and contact information. This article points you in the right direction.

Once you have an account, you can add your photo, additional details, and special offers (i.e., a coupon, a free report or video, etc.). You can engage with people who post reviews.

The listing is free and it’s easy to set up an account so there’s really no reason not to. Tell your (satisfied) clients to post their reviews. You may or may not get new clients from the directory, but if anyone hears about you somewhere else and goes to check you out on Yelp, you’ll be ready.

Are you listed on Yelp? Have you gotten clients from your listing? Let me know in the comments.

Share
Filed Under: Advertising, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , ,

Good news: your clients don’t want to leave

September 26, 2012 by
Share

If a client leaves and hires another attorney to replace you, the odds are you’ve screwed up big time. Sure, they leave for other reasons but generally speaking, clients would rather stay with the devil they know (that’s you) than take a chance on the devil they don’t.

They don’t want to take the time looking for another attorney, or take the risk. The next attorney could turn out worse, and then what? It’s easier to stay where they are, even if they’re not crazy about you.

It’s like the story about the old hound dog sleeping on a nail poking out of the floorboards. “Why doesn’t he get up off the nail?” his owner is asked. “Doesn’t it hurt?” “Sure it hurts, just not enough.”

So that’s the good news. You don’t have to be that nice to your clients to get them to stay. You don’t have to smile or show them you care. You don’t even have to be competent (as long as the client doesn’t figure this out). Just don’t treat them like crap.

Of course you would be a fool to set the bar this low. Clients may stick with you because it’s easier than replacing you, but will they come back? Will they give you referrals? Will they Like your page or tell their friends about your web site or seminar?

Your clients may not leave because the nail doesn’t hurt enough, but once their case is done, they’ll find another place to take that nap.

Learn how to make your clients love you. Get The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Share
Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations Tagged With: ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »