Getting nine women pregnant

May 28, 2019 by
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How long does it take to build a successful law practice?

It takes as long as it takes and you can’t rush it.

As Warren Buffett said, “No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”

It also takes focus.

You may have heard this Buffett story:

One day, Buffett’s long-time pilot asked him for career advice. Buffett suggested he make two lists.

First, make a list of your top 25 career goals, Buffett told him. Once he’d done that, Buffett told him to circle his top 5 goals.

His pilot then had two lists and told Buffett that he would begin working on his top 5 goals. Buffett asked him about the other list, the 20 items he didn’t circle.

The pilot said those goals were also important to him and he would work on them intermittently, as and when he could.

Buffett told him that was a mistake. “Everything you didn’t circle just became your Avoid-At-All-Cost list. No matter what, these things get no attention from you until you’ve succeeded with your top 5.”

Buffett knows a thing or two about focus. In his long career, he has achieved extraordinary investment returns investing in a handful of companies at a time.

“Diversification is a protection against ignorance,” Buffett said.
“It makes very little sense for those who know what they’re doing.”

So, if you know what you’re doing as an attorney, if what you’re doing is working, even though it may not be working as quickly as you’d like, stay the course.

Be patient. Stay focused. Your baby will be here when he gets here.

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Filed Under: success Tagged With: , ,

It’s now or never

May 24, 2019 by
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We often tell ourselves things that aren’t true. We tell ourselves that we have to do something, right now, or we’ll never get another chance.

We tell ourselves we have to go “all in” or we can’t possibly be successful.

We tell ourselves we shouldn’t take certain risks because there’s too much to lose.

Too often, its just our fears talking.

Recently, I spoke with an attorney who is at a crossroads in his career. He was considering some strategies for growing his practice and wanted my opinion. Which strategy? What’s the best way to go about it? What other things could he do?

A few days later I heard from again. He decided he wasn’t going to do the one big thing he had been considering. In fact, he was thinking about retiring.

He had enough investments and income to do that but he wasn’t sure he was ready to walk away from a career that he identified with for so many years.

And he didn’t know what he would do with his time.

We talked about some of his options. I could see he was feeling pressured to make a decision but was worried about making a mistake.

I told him he didn’t need to decide immediately. I suggested he give a little time to several ideas and see how he felt about them.

He would have figured that out himself, but sometimes it helps to have someone talk you through it.

The next time you have a decision to make and you keep hearing those little nagging voices telling you what you “must” do, ask yourself what you would tell a client who came to you with that decision.

The odds are you’ll give yourself some good advice.

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Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With:

Are you worth $350 an hour?

May 23, 2019 by
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If you have clients who willingly pay the fees you charge, whether that’s hourly or flat fee or some other basis, it seems clear that you are worth what you charge, at least to those clients.

Ah, but I’m not asking if you’re charging more than you’re worth, in case that’s what you were thinking. I’m asking if you’re charging less than you’re worth, or, more accurately, less than the market will pay.

If you charge $350 per hour (or the equivalent), what if you could get as much work at $450 per hour? What would that do to your bottom line? Who says you couldn’t get $550 per hour?

C’mon, you know you’ve thought about this before?

When you set up shop, you looked at what other lawyers were charging and set your fees somewhere in the same neighborhood, right?

You have to stay competitive, right?

Then, when other attorneys raised their fees, you (eventually) raised yours.

Something like that?

Well, if “average” is okay with you, I understand why you would do this.

But what if you want to earn more than average? What if you’re worth more than the average?

There’s only one way to find out.

Increase your fees and see if the market will pay more.

You can do that with your existing clients. If you lose some, you might make up for that loss by the increased fees paid by the ones who stay, plus the higher fees paid by new clients.

If you lose 20% of your clients but you get 20% more from everyone else, you’re way ahead.

The other way to do it is to hold the line with existing clients (for now) and charge new clients the higher fee.

“What if clients won’t pay more?”

What if they will?

What if you don’t lose any clients?

What if you could increase your income by 30% with the stroke of a pen? What if you’ve been under-charging your clients for a long time?

Before you twist yourself into a knot agonizing over this decision, I have one more thought for you:

Raising your fees might actually help you attract more clients.

It’s true. There’s no competition at the top. The most expensive lawyers in town don’t usually have a shortage of clients.

Yes, there are other factors in play, but how much a lawyer is worth is subjective. If you charge more, in the eyes of many, you’re worth more.

Chew on that for awhile.

This may help you figure things out

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing

What are you excited about?

May 22, 2019 by
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My daughter is about to start a new job and move halfway across the country. My wife and I are excited for her and love hearing all the updates about the job, the move, and her new home.

We’re also excited because she’ll be living much closer to us.

It’s exciting to have something to be excited about.

Big or small, a new job or a new book to read, something that puts a smile on your face is a good thing.

So, what’s new and exciting in your life right now?

If you can’t think of anything, go get something.

Get a new client. Plan a vacation. Sign up for a cooking class or start outlining your novel.

Do something that makes you feel good when you think about it.

You know you’re got the right thing when you get busy with other things for an hour or two and then remember “it”.

Of course, it’s not the thing itself that gives you joy so much as the anticipation of it. Christmas morning is more exciting than the day after.

And, excitement is contagious. When you’re excited about something, the people around you pick up on the feeling. They like being around you.

Being happy is good for business. So go buy something that makes you happy. You can probably write it off.

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Filed Under: Personal development

Some attorneys shouldn’t be allowed to speak in public

May 21, 2019 by
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A developer wants to rezone a parcel of land just outside our gated community of single-family homes and turn it into high-density multi-family residential units.

Our homeowners association is up in arms about it and last night I went to a meeting.

The bottom line: nothing has happened yet and there’s nothing we can do yet, other than attend city council meetings and make ours views known.

In other words, something that could be communicated via email.

But don’t get me started on useless meetings. No, I want to talk about the speaker (an attorney) and offer a few comments about his presentation.

He began by telling us he was an attorney and said something about “land use” but didn’t explain that his firm was hired by our board and he was there to provide a report. I had to figure that out.

NB: Start by telling the audience why you’re there and what you’re going to talk about. (Or have someone introduce you.)

Over the next 35 minutes, he appeared to provide some information. I say “appeared” because he was very difficult to follow.

NB: Use an outline, with points and sub-points, or a timeline of events, or some other logical structure to your talk. Let the audience see where you’re going so they can go on the trip with you.

He droned. Long, run-on sentences, three words when one would do, lots of conditional statements. He didn’t talk to the audience, he talked at us. When someone rudely and angrily interrupted him, he was ruder and angrier.

NB: Speak like a human being. A little charm, a little animation, a story or two. Take a breath now and then. Engage the audience. Be nice to the audience, especially when they’re paying you.

Well, that’s my report. Meeting adjourned.

Here’s how to get lawyers to send you referrals

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Filed Under: Presentations

Multiple streams of clients

May 20, 2019 by
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Some preach the wisdom of multiple streams of income. “Don’t rely on your law practice,” they might tell you. “Diversify”.

Not so fast.

Building a successful law practice takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears and if you want to make it, you have to give it everything you’ve got.

Mark Twain, among others, counseled, “Put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket”.

I agree.

Once you’ve built a successful practice, you can consider other ventures. But don’t try to do two things at once.

On the other hand, you should diversify your sources of clients. Don’t rely on just one marketing source or method.

No matter how well something is working for you, something else might work better.

And, things change. A strategy that’s worked for you for years may cease to work or may cease to be available. I used to do a fair amount of yellow pages advertising. Need I say more?

Besides, why limit yourself? If you can bring in clients from a variety of sources, without burning out or exhausting your budget, why wouldn’t you?

Jeff Bezos says, “Be stubborn on vision, but flexible on details.”

Take some time to find some new strategies to your marketing mix.

I’ll give you one: marketing joint ventures with other lawyers and other professionals.

This will help.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: ,

RIP Grumpy Cat

May 17, 2019 by
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Grumpy Cat died. You know, the cat with the down-turned mouth who looked like he was perpetually in a bad mood. The cat who inspired hundreds of Internet memes?

Yeah, that Grumpy Cat.

Question: when you’re a grumpy cat, what do you do about it?

You shouldn’t be around clients when you’re in a bad mood. It’s bad for business. Nobody likes a Debbie Downer.

Your employees might give you a little slack (because they have to), but they’d rather not have you in the office when you’re wearing the weight of the world on your shoulders.

When you have a sad or you’re feeling mad, what do you do?

Put on some music? Actually, that’s a good idea. Listen to some tunes that lift your spirits, or listen to some music that makes you sad–for some reason, that works, too.

If music doesn’t fix you up, if you’re still feeling like Lucy took your football, you’ve got to fake it. Pretend you’re in a good mood. Act as if.

Put on a (fake) smile and soon you’ll be smiling for realz.

If music and fake smiles don’t help, if you’re really bad off, leave. Flee the scene. Go home, go to a movie, go do some retail therapy.

Get out of the office for a few hours and get your head right.

Grumpy Cat was cute. Grumpy Lawyer, not so much.

How to get your clients to send you more referrals

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Filed Under: Client relations, Dealing with stress, Law office management

Your clothes, give them to me. Now.

May 16, 2019 by
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No, I’m not getting frisky with you. Just quoting a line from The Terminator, which YouTube is offering in their new “free with commercials” program.

If you’ve never seen the original, or haven’t seen it in a long time, you might want to check this out.

But hold on. There are two versions. Which one is right for you?

The first is the TV version. It comes in at 1:29 and change. Next to it in the carousel is the theatrical version that runs 1:47.

Different versions for different audiences. Just like lawyers offer different versions of their services to different clients.

Wait, you don’t do that? You offer the same services to everyone? Same services, same fees, same marketing?

Who says you have to offer the same services to everyone?

Who says you have to charge all clients the same fees?

Okay, okay, you may not be able to offer different services or charge different fees (or want to) but you could create different marketing collateral for different niches.

Talk about issues people in that niche relate to. Use different buzzwords and examples. Share stories about their colleagues you’ve represented.

Physicians and entrepreneurs and accountants are different niches. High-tech, blue collar and “mom and pop” are different niches.

If you want more people in a niche market to see you as the best lawyer for them, you should market to them differently.

That’s all for me today. But. . . wait for it. . . I’ll be back.

This will help you find your niche

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Stop now, what’s that sound?

May 15, 2019 by
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You know that little voice inside your head that tells you to stop playing Fortnite or whatever it is that you’re doing instead of what you should be doing.

That, that voice.

When you hear that voice, and listen to it, all is well. You get back to work (or start doing what you should be doing).

What about when you don’t hear that voice?

For times like that, you need a prompt.

Maybe a recurring task that comes up when you’re planning your day. Or a sticky note on your monitor that says, “Procrastinating?” Or an alarm or reminder on your phone.

Whatever it is, it should prompt you to focus–so you can get your most important tasks done.

Some suggestions:

  • “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?”
  • “What is the most important thing I need to do today?”
  • “What is the ONE thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary” (from The One Thing)

Of course, there’s another way to go about this. Instead of a reminder to focus on what you should be doing, what if you had already done it?

What if you did your most important (difficult, unpleasant, valuable) task first?

Mark Twain said:

“If it’s your job to eat a frog — it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat 2 frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”

If you do that, you’ll have the rest of the day to play Fortnite. Or Frogger. Or read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

If your ONE THING is to get more referrals, here’s how

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Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: ,

Gotta minute?

May 14, 2019 by
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I did something different today. I added a few time-oriented tags to my task management set up: #5min, #10min, #15min, and #30min.

That’s nothing new in task-management world, but it is for me. I’ve previously avoided using a time-estimate tag because I’m notoriously bad at estimating how long something will take.

I think organizing some notes will take ten minutes and an hour later, I’m still at it.

So, why am I re-thinking this?

Because I realized that if I allocate ten minutes for something and after ten minutes I’m not even close to finished, it doesn’t matter. At least I’ve worked on the thing for ten minutes.

So, instead of thinking about these tags as “estimates” I’m going to think about them as “allocations”. “How long I’ll work on this task” instead of “how long I think this task will take”.

In a way, this is a form of time-blocking, using very small blocks of time. Five minutes to check email, ten minutes for brainstorming ideas, 15 minutes for research.

Maybe after I do this for a while, I’ll get better at estimating. I hope so. Because when I’m sitting in a doctor’s office and I have five minutes, I’d like to be able to call up my list of 5-minute tasks and actually get one of them done.

Allocate some time to get more referrals

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Filed Under: Productivity, Time Management
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