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

The day I met Doris Day

May 13, 2019 by
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Doris Day died today. She was 97 and left the world a better place.

If you remember her movies, TV show and singing career, you know. If you’re not familiar with her career, do yourself a favor and explore some of her work.

In the latter half of her life, she was active in animal rights causes. I remember her speaking about that on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

I thought about that the day I met her, walking three of her dogs.

I was in high school and my family lived in Beverly Hills. It was early on a Sunday morning, quiet and foggy, and as we drove through “the flats,” there she was.

My father pulled up beside her and spoke to her. He didn’t acknowledge that he knew who she was, he talked to her about her dogs. I think the rest of us just stared.

When you live in Beverly Hills you see a lot of celebrities. Many of them do their best to ignore you. Miss Day wasn’t like that. She was about as nice as a person could be.

This morning, when I heard the news about her passing, I remembered that story. I thought about how she’d had a full life and will be remembered fondly.

It made me think about the word legacy and what mine might be. What will I leave the world? How will I be remembered?

Something we all need to think about from time to time.

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Filed Under: Inspiration

Who stole my client?

May 10, 2019 by
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You know how some clients just stop calling? One day they’re here, the next day they’re gone, and you don’t know why?

Sometimes, another lawyer lures them away. More often, the client wanders away on their own.

They were unhappy about something. They had a problem–with you or your staff–and decided it was time to go.

If only they had told you about the problem–you could have fixed it. You could have prevented a small issue from becoming a big one. Made amends. Made them happy.

But they usually don’t tell you. They just leave.

What can do about that?

How about this:

When you sign up a new client, tell them their happiness is important to you and that if they ever have any problems with you or your staff, any issues or complaints or unanswered questions, you want them to tell you about it.

If they will do that, you promise to fix it. No ifs, ands or buts.

And ask them to agree that they will do that.

Good, right?

Hold on. One more thing. Put this in your retainer agreement and get the client to initial it.

Your new clients will be glad they chose you as their attorney. They will see that you are serious about “customer service”.

And if they ever do have any issues, they’ll be more likely to talk to you instead of leaving without saying a word.

Marketing is easier when you know the formula

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations

Do you take work home with you?

May 9, 2019 by
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I read an article about how a manager at Microsoft organizes the home screen on her smart phone.

She groups the apps by the way she uses them, as I’m sure most of us do, and by color, which sounds challenging.

She also uses a separate phone for work, so when she’s working, she’s not looking at, well, other stuff.

I’m guessing you don’t have a separate work phone, but do you do anything to keep your work separate from the rest of your life?

On your phone, do you have folders or screens set up for work apps, and if you do, do you assiduously avoid them when you’re not working?

On your computer or tablet, do you have groups of apps or browser tabs for different parts of your life?

Do you have a separate work computer? If you work in an office, do you often take work home with you?

Me? One phone, I work from home, and I don’t draw any hard lines.

You might find me playing a game in the middle of the day, or doing work at 1am. I might take a day off in the middle of the week, or work through an entire three-day weekend.

That’s just how I roll.

I can see why people need to keep things separate. Work when they work, shut it off when they go home.

My daughter does that. But then, she has a separate work phone and computer. And she’s not an attorney.

Just saying.

How to get more referrals from other professionals

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Filed Under: Productivity

Oh no, not another list!

May 8, 2019 by
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Just when you thought it was safe to get back to work, I have another list idea for you. Actually, more than one.

Hold on. You might like this.

And no, it doesn’t matter which productivity system or app or planner you use. You can do this with tags or notebooks or paper.

This is about the subject of projects.

If you’re like me, you have a lot of them, and if you’re like me, your list often becomes unmanageable.

Which project should I work on right now? What do I have on tap after that?

Note, when I say “projects,” I’m not talking about a GTD-type project, i.e., anything with more than one step. I usually lump those in with tasks. I’m talking about things with bigger heft and longer time-lines.

Anyway, in order to gain some clarity and peace of mind, I recently took my project list and divided it into two lists:

(1) “Current Projects”. This is for projects I’m working on now (or should be). Having this list in front of me helps me focus and keeps me from neglecting things I need to work on.

Each project has a list of tasks and sub-tasks, notes, resources, ideas, and so on.

I try to limit this to 3 projects at a time.

(2) Next Projects. This is for the projects I intend to work on once I’ve completed the current projects. This helps me to prepare for those projects, providing a place to record ideas, notes, and so on.

Out of sight, but in a safe place.

Feeling more relaxed already.

But then I realized that I have other projects I need to put on a list, lest they get buried and forgotten. So. . .

(3) Ongoing & Recurring Projects. This is for things like writing my newsletter, updating my website, promoting something, content creation, and other responsibilities.

Nice. Every project has a home.

Alas, as I sat back to admire my work, something else occurred to me. What about projects I plan to do in the future?

Behold:

(4) Future projects. For projects I plan to do, but not “now” and not “next”.

Crazy, huh? Wait, don’t leave. I haven’t told you about my someday/maybe list.

Got referrals?

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Filed Under: Productivity

Chalk?

May 7, 2019 by
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As a kid, I had a favorite pen–the Parker Jotter, stainless steel with a thick barrel.

I thought it was cool looking, like something James Bond would use. I liked the way it felt in my hands and the way it wrote.

I just checked Jeff’s store and sure enough, they still make it.

That was a long time ago. Now I buy whatever’s on sale.

Probably because I do most of my writing today on my computer and yes, I have my favorite writing apps.

But I don’t want to talk about pens or apps right now. I want to talk about chalk.

Chalk?

The other day, a video came up in my feed with the curiosity-inducing title, Why the World’s Best Mathematicians Are Hoarding Chalk.

I had to know.

Do people still use blackboards (and chalk?)? I thought everyone had moved to whiteboards and markers.

Is chalk on the endangered species list?

What’s going on?

It turns out that a certain Japanese company makes the “best” chalk in the world and the company is going out of business.

They make a chalk “to die for”. Okay, that’s me speaking. It writes better and is easier to use than anything made by anyone else and when it was announced that it would no longer be sold, math folks started hoarding it.

One mathematician had put away enough chalk, he reckoned, to last him ten years.

That’s a lot of chalk.

We love our favorite tools, don’t we? Our favorite pens, our favorite apps, our favorite chalk.

Do we work better when we use them?

I think we think we do and maybe that’s all that matters.

Evernote is my favorite note taking app

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Filed Under: Productivity
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