David M. Ward – Page 312

What do you do when you f****d up?

October 15, 2012 by David M. Ward

The other day an attorney asked me, “What do you say to your client when he says “you f***d up and I’m not going to pay you?”

I told him that if he did do something wrong, the answer is easy: admit it, fix it, and be prepared to offer a refund.

Don’t blame others for your mistake. Be honest about what you did or didn’t do. Your client will understand and respect you for admitting it. Then, do whatever you have to do to fix the problem.

The good news is that when you do the right thing after making a mistake, when you fix things to your client’s satisfaction, they often feel a stronger allegiance to you. You didn’t try to hide it, you took responsibility and respected them enough to admit your mistake. And, of course, you fixed the problem.

Even if the problem cannot be fixed, if you bite the bullet and offer to pay compensation, most of the time you can save the relationship. So when you mess up, see it not so much as a problem but an opportunity.

Of course the next thing you need to do is to figure out why you made the mistake and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Ask yourself some questions:

Are you taking on too much work?
Are you taking on work outside your core competencies?
Are you promising too much or too soon?
Would a checklist help?
Could you get someone to help you?
Are you allowing enough time to review your work before the deadline?

The most successful people in the world often attribute their success to having made more mistakes than anyone else. They learned from those mistakes and got better at what they do. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes or admit to them. Use them to get better.

But we’re not done with the subject.

What do you do when a client blames you and accuses you of making a mistake you did not make? Clients often blame their lawyer when they don’t get the results they want. Do you have to take the hit?

Not at all. When you aren’t at fault, stand firm. Show the client that you did everything you were supposed to do, everything you could do, and that whatever happened was the result of something outside of your control. If the facts are on your side, and you handle things firmly and respectfully, in time, most clients will see the light. Often, they will apologize.

But we’re still not done.

You will have far fewer unhappy and ready-to-blame-you clients by managing your clients’ expectations at the beginning of the case, rather than trying to explain things at the end. Clients need to acknowledge, before you take their money, that:

You don’t promise results of any kind (other than best efforts)
They understand the risks and contingencies you have spelled out for them
They have declined certain options or a course of conduct you have recommended
They know what you will do for them and also what you will not do

You can’t be so heavy handed about this that you scare the client off, but you do need to make sure the client understands, from the beginning, what to expect of you and their case. Then, if something goes wrong, it will be clear that you are not the one to blame.

Get more clients and increase your income. Read The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Law office management, Personal development

What do you like best about practicing law?

October 12, 2012 by David M. Ward

“What do you like best about practice law?” I was asked that 1,000 times when I was practicing and I’m still asked that today. I’m sure you are, too. My standard reply is that I liked helping people and I liked making money, and that’s the truth. That’s why I went to law school, after all.

Do I like the title or the prestige of being a professional? Actually, it’s not important to me. When I’m introduced to people and they find out what I do [did], something changes in the dynamic and while sometimes it’s a good change, just as often it’s not. I can’t put my finger on it but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. They look at you like you’re not a regular person. They become guarded, as if you’re going to ask them some tough questions and find out their secrets.

What about the work itself? There were some things I really enjoyed and some things I despised. Most of what I did I found boring.

But that’s me. How about you? What do you like best about what you do?

Make a list of all of things you do as a lawyer, and all of the things that being a lawyer means to you. Write down the big things and the little things, about the work, the people, the challenges and the rewards. Look at your calendar, look at the files on your desk or in your computer, look at how you spend your time.

Write down everything and when you’re done, look at your list and put a star next to the things you like best about what you do. And then, focus on those things.

Do more of what you like. The rest–the things you don’t like or the things you are bored by–don’t matter. Eliminate them, delegate them, or just do them, but focus on the things that you do like.

In my case, I focused on the people. My clients. Much of the work may have been routine and boring, but the people never were. They were unique. Every one of them. I enjoyed meeting them and finding out about their lives. I enjoyed explaining how things were going to get better for them and then helping make that happen. I enjoyed delivering the results and watching them smile and say thank you. And I enjoyed getting calls from their friends who had heard about me and wanted me to help them, too.

That’s what I enjoyed and that’s what I focused on. It made everything else, all of the things I didn’t like, relatively unimportant. It’s also what made my practice grow.

Whatever we focus on grows. By focusing on what you like about your practice, you will create more of it. Focus on your problems and you’ll have more of them. Focus on what frustrates you and you’ll have more to be frustrated about it. Focus on what you love, what gives you meaning, and you will create the life that you want because you will be doing more of what you want.

You don’t have to know how it works, just know that it does work, and do it.

If you want to earn more than you ever thought possible, downloadÂ The Attorney Marketing Formula

Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Client relations, Increase your income, Inspiration, Referrals Tagged With: what-do-you-like-about-law, what-do-you-like-about-practicing-law, what-do-you-love-about-practising-law

We won!

October 11, 2012 by David M. Ward

Have you ever noticed that when your team wins you say, “we won!” but when your team loses you say, “they lost”?

It’s understandable. When your team wins, you want to be associated with that success. It’s a subtle way of suggesting that you contributed to it. But you don’t want to be blamed when the team loses.

In truth, unless you own the team or play on it, you don’t deserve the credit or the blame. But that’s okay, it’s just sports. No harm, no foul. It’s not okay, however, in your law practice where you are the owner and star player.

When you win the case you deserve credit for your skill and hard work. But what about when you lose? If you blame the judge or the jury or the evidence, you may learn nothing from your loss. If you made a mistake you may be destined to repeat it. Maybe the judge was an idiot but maybe you should have known that and prepared for it.

Personal growth starts with personal responsibility. If you blame others for your losses, you relinquish your power. You can’t change anything when someone else controls the outcome.

And yet taking all the credit for your wins doesn’t increase your power, it diminishes it. Michael Jordan wouldn’t have won championships without teammates passing him the ball or a coach setting the plays. When his team won, he freely credited his coach and teammates. When they lost, he took responsibility.

Michael Jordan never said, “they lost.” And that’s one reason why he could so often say, “we won”.

The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you how to build a championship practice.

Filed Under: Inspiration, Personal development Tagged With: we-won

If my cat managed your law firm

October 10, 2012 by David M. Ward

They say that dogs think of you as a member of their family and cats think of you as their employee. Our Tuxedo cat, Seamus, agrees. (He told me to keep this post short and get my ass back to work.)

Anyway, if Seamus was managing your law firm, I imagine he would tell you not to sweat the details. “Take care of the basics,” he would say, “and everything will be fine.”

For Seamus, the basics (that we are required to supply) are food and water, a clean litter box, and some play time. He takes care of grooming, sleeping, and staring out the window. If the basics are taken care of, Seamus is happy, although he has put in a request for more of that laser light thingie.

What are the basics in managing a law firm? Well, you need clients so marketing would have to be at the top of the list. You need some staff to help you because doing everything yourself is not a smart use of your time. And you need some tools: a computer, phone, and access to a library. Of course I am assuming you have the knowledge and skills to take these resources and put them to work for you.

Seamus says humans spend too much time fussing with little things. You don’t have to read everything, know everything, or do everything. Just cover the basics. Time management? That’s for sissies, he says. There’s plenty of time for the important things, as long as you cover the basics.

You can run a multi-million dollar practice with only the basics. And still have time to play with your cat.

Seamus says you need clients and recommends The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Filed Under: Inspiration, Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With: google+

What to do when the yogurt hits the fan

October 9, 2012 by David M. Ward

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.

Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Personal development Tagged With: downward cycle, seth godin

If Donald Trump managed your law firm

October 8, 2012 by David M. Ward

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, getÂ The Attorney Marketing Formula. You’ll get some great questions and even greater answers.

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With: donald-trump-law-firm

Is Goofus or Gallant managing your law firm?

October 5, 2012 by David M. Ward

The children’s magazine, Highlights,Â 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’sÂ 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.

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With: attorney-marketing-blog

Should you upgrade or repair your law practice?

October 4, 2012 by David M. Ward

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.

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

My one page productivity system

October 3, 2012 by David M. Ward

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.

Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: evernote, evernote-for-lawyers, httpwww-attorneymarketing-com20121003my-one-page-productivity-system, lawyers-guide-to-gtd-on-iphone, planningeverything-on-one-page, use-workflowy-for-gtd, using-workflowy-for-gtd, Workflowy, workflowy-getting-things-done

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

October 2, 2012 by David M. Ward

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.

Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Dealing with stress, Law office management, Leverage, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: Avoiding burn out, burned out attorney, burned out lawyer, how-to-avoid-lawyer-burn-out, how-to-deal-with-lawyer-burnout, self-employed-attorney, self-employed-lawyer-job-security