Maybe you should start a side business

March 18, 2016 by
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During my career, I’ve started more than a few businesses. While not every business was successful, each business taught me something about commerce and marketing and about working with people–partners and customers alike.

And that’s one reason I suggest you start a side business.

Selling products is different from selling professional services. You’ll be introduced to strategies and techniques you may have never considered and be able to use some of them. You might, for example, find that advertising isn’t an abomination and find ways to use it to build your practice.

The second reason for starting a side business is that the business itself might be an excellent way to indirectly expand your practice. If you handle PI, divorce, estate planning, bankruptcy, or other consumer practice areas where almost anyone is a potential client, your side business could introduce you to a world of new contacts. Some of those contacts will need your services. Others will become new referral sources.

The third reason for starting a business is that it might provide you with additional income for retirement, or an exit strategy when your practice tells you it’s time to move on.

My network marketing business has been all of those things for me.

I know you’re wondering how you could possibly justify taking time away from your practice to start a business. I asked myself the same thing when I started looking.

The answer to that question is “part time”. Find a business that doesn’t require full time to run. Fortunately, there are many businesses today that fit the bill.

Also, look at your ROI. Yes, it will take time to run a side business, but if the time you invest therein brings lots of new clients for your practice, or lots of income from the business itself, if your ROI is big enough, then your investment will have paid off.

I don’t know if starting a business is right for you, or if you will find the right one for you, but I encourage you to look at what’s available. Even if you never take the plunge, you’ll learn some things and meet some people, and the next time you meet with a prospective client who owns a business, you’ll have a lot more to talk about.

Leverage is key to increasing your income

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services

Owning your future without breaking any laws

March 17, 2016 by
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I met a law student once who told people she was a lawyer. I explained to her that she could get herself into trouble that way, that it’s illegal to tell people you’re a lawyer when you’re not. Why she didn’t know that is beyond me.

I don’t think she had any nefarious intent. I think she was trying to own her future, to motivate herself and take a step closer to making her dream come true.

I see other people who go too far in the other direction. I read an article this morning by someone who described herself as an “aspiring writer”. I’ve got news for her, she wrote the article I was reading, ergo she is a writer.

She may not be getting paid for her writing but she’s still a writer and she should own that.Telling her subconscious mind she is an aspiring writer might keep her “aspiring” and make it less likely she will get paid.

How about you? Do you aspire to fame and fortune or do see yourself already on that path? If you aspire to it, you might not be owning that future. If you already see yourself as the person you are working to become, you’re closer to making your dream become your reality.

Or are you?

You’ve heard people say that we should envision our desired future, in detail. See yourself with lots of zeros in your bank account and lots of clients in your waiting room, if that’s what you want. But if you believe that there is some truth to the Law of Attraction, as I do, telling yourself you’re something you’re not might help you create a future that’s just the opposite of what you want.

Why? Because when you think about yourself raking in the dough, or whatever, or you use affirmations to tell yourself that you are rich and successful and you’re not, your current reality intrudes and tells you otherwise. You start thinking about all of the reasons why you’re not the success you envision, the obstacles in your way, and so on, and your focus is then on “not having” and you attract more of that.

It comes down to the fact that deep down, you don’t (yet) believe that you can achieve that dream.

Since our beliefs create our reality, you’re better off envisioning something you can believe.

Instead of thinking about the results you want (e.g., new clients, money, fame, etc.) think about doing the activities that will bring about those results. See yourself in court, for example, delivering a closing argument. See yourself talking to prospective clients and telling them how you can help them.

If you believe you can do those things, you will attract cases that require you to go to court, and prospective clients who want to know how you can help them. And that’s how you will create your successful future.

Own your future. Just make sure you don’t break any laws along the way.

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Filed Under: Personal development, success Tagged With:

Give prospective clients a little somethin’ somethin’

March 16, 2016 by
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I found a video I was interested in watching but I wasn’t sure I wanted to commit 27 minutes out of my busy day. I could start it and see if it’s worth continuing, or I could save it for later, which is what I did, but I knew that “later” would probably never arrive.

I do the same thing with blog posts and articles. I can skim them, of course, and usually do, but my appetite is often bigger than my stomach and more often than not, I save blog posts and articles for later consumption. But I have hundreds of them saved for later and, you guessed it, more often than not, I don’t get around to them.

If you use content to market your legal services, and you should, you have to factor this dynamic into your strategy. Your target market is busy and while they may be interested in your topic, they may never get around to hearing what you have to say.

What do you do? The answer is simple. You issue a mix of long and short posts and videos.

Someone will watch a two minute video, for example, and see that you offer value. So when you post a 15 minute video or a 27 minute video, they are more likely to watch it. You’ve earned their attention and made it to their short list of approved content producers, aka, lawyers.

Short content allows you to offer people a taste of your wisdom and makes it more likely they’ll come back for more. It’s like the Chinese restaurant in the food court at the mall, handing out samples of tempura chicken on a toothpick. They give you a sample, you like it, so you order a complete meal.

They might spend $100 a day giving away free samples, and in return sell $1000 worth of additional meals.

Sampling works. Give people a taste of “you” and if they like you they’ll come back for more. If you’ve ever conducted a free consultation you know that most people who avail themselves of your offer will hire you.

Now, if offering short samples of your content and your advice work, how about offering samples of your actual services?

Think about all of the services you offer, and all of their component parts, and see if you can offer a sample. What could you offer at a discount or free?

Discounts? Free services? That’s crazy talk, right?

Give it some thought, will ya? Because investing $100 to earn an extra $1000 is a good thing in any business.

Marketing for attorneys who want to work smarter: here you go

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Is multiplying your income simply a matter of time?

March 15, 2016 by
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Okay, so your practice is a well-oiled machine. You have the staff you need, your marketing is working, and your income is growing. It’s only a matter of time before you reach your bigger goals, right?

Not necessarily.

You may see incremental growth–going from $100,000 to $300,000 over five or ten years, for example–but to go from $100,000 to two million dollars will probably require something more than the passage of time.

It takes a different set of skills, attitudes, and resources to develop a much bigger practice and while experience is a great teacher, it’s usually not enough. If it were, you would consistently see the majority of lawyers who have practiced for twenty years earning significantly more than the lawyers who have only practiced for ten.

We’ve all seen lawyers who rise to to the top of the earning pyramid in a few short years. How do they do it? They started out with, or developed, the skills, attitudes, and resources that made this possible.

If you want to grow, you have to do the same.

You can’t expect to “get big” if you essentially do the same things over and over. Repetition doesn’t necessarily lead to expertise.

You have to do things differently. And do different things. You have to get out of your comfort zone, and you have to be prepared to fail. In fact, failure is a big part of growth because if you’re not failing some of the time, you’re not taking enough chances.

Make a habit of embracing change. Continually ask yourself, “What can I do that I haven’t done before?” and “How can I do this differently?”

Because if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.

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Filed Under: Personal development

You’re good, but not at everything

March 14, 2016 by
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You’re smart. And good at what you do. But other people are better at some things and if you’re not hiring them or networking with them or letting them inform you through their books and presentations, you’re working too hard and limiting your growth.

I’m guilty of this myself. I do things I know are not my strengths, because I think I’m “good enough” or out of false economy (“I don’t need to pay someone to do that”). Or I fall into the trap of thinking, “It’s quicker if I do it myself.”

Even if that’s true, speed is not always paramount. Not for the long term, anyway.

There’s an old African saying on point. It says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Some say that TEAM (T.E.A.M.) is an acronym for “Together Everyone Achieves More”. No matter how good an individual is, no matter how much he or she can produce on their own, a team can produce more.

As Aristotle put it, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

What’s more, a team is more efficient because each individual doesn’t have to do their job and everyone else’s. You won’t have as much time or energy to try cases if you also do your own bookkeeping.

Whether you run your own practice or work for a firm or a company, you have a team. They may not be an employee, they may never have worked for you, in fact, but they’re out there, just a phone call away.

Think about all of the tasks that go into doing your job or running your practice. Some tasks should only be done by you. Many tasks, however, are best done by someone else.

Go find them and hire them. Or learn what they can teach you.

Earn more, work less: The Formula

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Filed Under: Leverage, Productivity, success Tagged With:

You’ve got to be a little abnormal

March 11, 2016 by
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In Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein, Dr. Frankenstein asks Igor whose brain he gave him, which brain he had just transplanted into a very large and very agitated Gorilla.

Dr. Frankenstein: Whose brain was it?
Igor: Abby someone
Dr. Frankenstein: Abby someone. Abby who?
Igor: Abby. . . Normal

I’ll bet that’s how some people think lawyers are created.

Okay, no. Most lawyers are normal. Ridiculously normal. Bland and boring normal. And generally, that’s a good thing.

Society doesn’t want weird lawyers or crazy lawyers. We don’t want overly flamboyant lawyers or lawyers who say or do things that make us want to run and hide.

We may embrace the crazy in our celebrities, but not in our professionals.

And yet, a little bit of Abby Normal is a good thing in a lawyer.

It’s true.

If you don’t have something that makes you stand out, well then, you won’t stand out. And standing out is critical because if you don’t stand out, you don’t get chosen.

George Bernard Shaw said, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

(Maybe we need to re-think this “reasonable man” thingy.)

Anyway, if you want to stand out, be unreasonable about some things. Not big things. Little things, like wearing bow ties, taking up an unusual hobby, or publicly advocating a controversial cause.

Find something that makes people see you as different. And then make the world adapt to you.

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Filed Under: Image

5 ways to fix a stalled writing project

March 10, 2016 by
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If you have a writing project that you’re having trouble finishing, the best solution is to look at your material with “fresh eyes”.

Here are some things that work for me:

1) Break it up into smaller parts

When I find myself stuck on a project, one of the first things I consider doing is breaking up long chapters or sections into smaller parts. I can then re-arrange those parts, again and again if necessary, until I find the best places for them, whether that’s another part of the chapters they came from or another chapter entirely.

In time management, it’s called “The Salami Technique”– breaking up big projects or tasks into smaller slices which are easier to handle. It works the same way with writing.

In Word, you can cut and paste parts of your chapters into separate documents. I use Scrivener, which makes this much easier. At a glance, I can see all of the parts, without having to scroll through long chapters, and it’s easy to move those parts to anywhere in the document.

2) Write a new outline

Outlines are meant to be a starting point, not a rigid mold into which you must pour your words. If your original outline isn’t working for you, write a new one.

You can “re-write” the outline you started with, or, as I often do, put everything out of sight and write a new outline from scratch.

I often do this on paper because it gives me a different perspective. I might go in another room with a legal pad, think about my project, and quickly write a list of the subjects I want to cover in the order I want to cover them. I’ll usually start with the subjects I’m certain about, then come back and fill in the others.

I might do a mind-map, on paper or on the computer. This gives me a visual overview, making it easier to see where I might be going off track.

Sometimes, I re-write my mind-map or outline several times, until it feels right to me. I might do it again later in the project if a particular chapter or subject is giving me trouble.

3) Put it away

If you don’t have a deadline for your writing project, put it away and come back to it later. Give it a few days or weeks, or even months, and work on other things. When you pick it up again, you will be able to be more objective.

When I do this, I often see entire pages and even chapters that don’t belong. I also see gaps I need to fill in, with unanswered questions I need to address.

Things jump out at me–paragraphs that don’t make sense (“What did I mean, here?”), repeated ideas, and ideas that need to be fleshed out. As a result, problems that had once plagued me are easily fixed.

4) Get someone else involved

When I’m stuck, sometimes I sit my wife down and “explain” to her what the project is about. She gives me feedback and asks questions that allow me to clarify what I mean. Explaining it to her also allows me to “hear” if what I’m saying makes sense, and gives me clues about what I need to do to finish the project.

5) Read it out loud

If I’m on the third or fourth edit and something is still bothering me (i.e., something’s missing, something doesn’t make sense, I’ve got too much of one thing and not enough of another), reading the document out loud helps me to see what I couldn’t see before.

So that’s what I do to fix a stalled writing project.

One more thing. Sometimes I find that despite my best efforts, I can’t make the project work and the best solution is to abandon it.

I find that my best writing doesn’t “fight me,” it flows smoothly and I finish it quickly. If the current project doesn’t, I have no problem moving onto greener pastures.

What are the most important elements of an effective website? This has the answer

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Filed Under: Writing Tagged With:

You’re (still) not thinking big enough

March 9, 2016 by
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When you sit down to set some goals, you probably look back at the previous month or year and use that as your guide.

That’s okay, but every once in awhile, you need to think bigger.

Instead of always setting “normal” goals, think up some big, hairy, audacious ones. Goals that stretch your imagination and condition your subconscious mind to reach for much bigger and better outcomes.

A goal to bring in one additional new client per week is a fine goal, but it’s so ordinary. What if you could bring in one additional new client per day? What if you could bring in five additional new clients per day?

What if, instead of increasing your income by 20% this year you “allowed” yourself to think about increasing it by 200%?

That’s the kind of thinking I’m talking about.

If you always think ordinary thoughts and set ordinary goals, you can’t expect to achieve anything but ordinary results. If you let logic determine your future, you may never discover what’s possible.

Logic be damned.

Giant leaps are possible. We’ve all seen people who accomplish amazing things in just a few years.

Why not you?

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve,” Napoleon Hill said.

I’m not suggesting living in a fantasy world or suspending common sense. I’m saying it’s a good thing to regularly ask yourself, “What if?”

Have some fun with this. Brainstorm and write down lots of ideas. Say to yourself, “Wouldn’t it be nice if. . .” and let your inner child come up with ideas. Crazy ideas, impossible ideas, but exciting ideas that put a smile on your face.

Questions like these can stimulate your imagination and plant seeds for future growth.

Just start throwing out ideas and see where it takes you:

“Wouldn’t it be nice to work only four hours per day, or four hours per week?”

“Wouldn’t it be nice if I didn’t have to do litigation any more?”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to build my practice with only 10% of my current overhead?”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to practice law without any clients?”

Go crazy. Tickle your funny bone with wild ideas. Write down as many silly questions as possible.

Because you’ll never know what’s possible unless you think big enough.

For a simple marketing plan that really works, get this

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Filed Under: Goal Setting

Finding more places to market your legal services

March 8, 2016 by
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I finally converted a Kindle book to paperback. It’s the same book, re-formatted and published on a different platform (CreateSpace), exposing my wares to paperback buyers, libraries and bookstores, and others. I plan to do the same thing with other ebooks.

With very little effort, I am increasing my income. You can do the same.

You already have marketing methods and channels that are working for you. Why not explore ways to extend what’s already working for you into different channels or markets, or increase your exposure in existing markets?

For example, you already get referrals from other lawyers, right? A simple way to get more clients is to find more lawyers who can and will send you referrals. (My Lawyer to Lawyer Referrals course shows you how to do that).

Go through your existing marketing mix and think about how you could find or develop

  • More professional referral sources
  • More places to run your ads
  • More free and paid online directories and referral services you can sign up for
  • More places to publish your content
  • More cities and venues for conducting live seminars
  • More podcasts and blogs to interview you
  • More online and offline publications to publish your guest posts or articles
  • More social media platforms where you can network, push out content, and gain more followers
  • More ways to get more subscribers to your email list
  • More professionals to interview for your blog, podcast
  • More websites, blogs, podcasts, to target different searches or market segments, or promote different services
  • More websites, blogs, podcasts, to target the SAME searches or market segments
  • More videos on youtube
  • More groups where you can speak and network
  • More clients empowered to recognize your ideal client and refer them
  • More (new) niche markets, client types
  • More ways to use existing content (i.e., re-purpose posts, presentations, videos, ebooks, etc.)
  • More new content to publish on existing platforms (i.e., new articles, blog posts, videos, etc.)
  • More ways to surprise and delight your clients (so they return, refer, provide positive reviews, and send traffic to your web site)

And so on. Maybe even more bookstores to sell your books.

It’s called working smarter. It’s called leverage. Taking something that’s already working and finding ways to make it work harder. So you don’t have to.

Get more referrals from your clients with MAXIMUM REFERRALS

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Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services

What’s new? I’m glad you asked!

March 7, 2016 by
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When someone asks you, “What’s new?” what is your typical reply? If you’re like most people, you say something akin to, “Not much,” am I right?

If so, you’re missing out on an opportunity to promote yourself and your practice in an easy, non-promotional way.

Instead of deflecting the question, tell people what’s new.

Share some news with them. Tell them about an interesting case you just signed up or just settled. Tell them you just hired someone new or you’re looking for someone. Tell them about moving your office, or that you’re thinking about it.

Your news, however inconsequential it might seem to you, is far more interesting than saying “not much” or engaging in small talk. News has intrinsic energy. It shows you doing things, taking action, moving forward. It tells people that you’re growing and successful.

News gives you a talking point that allows you to start a conversation with someone you just met. It also gives you an excuse to contact people you know with something to share.

Never leave home without something news to share.

What’s that? You don’t have any news? Make some. Write an article or report or a short video and post it on your website. Tell people about it–what it does and who it helps. Invite them to go see it or offer to send them a copy. Ask them to share it with people in their network who might be interested.

If you don’t have a new article, tell them about an old one and ask if they’ve seen it. Or tell them about one that you’re working on or thinking about writing.

There’s always something new.

Now, don’t keep your news under wraps, waiting for someone to ask, “What’s new?” Reach out to clients and professional contacts and share your news. Use your news as the excuse for re-connecting. “Hey, I just wanted to let you know about. . .” or “Hey, I wanted to ask if you saw. . .”

When you meet someone new, after you introduce yourself, tell them about your new article or your updated article or the article that just got mentioned on another website, and invite them to check it out.

When you always have news to share, you’ll always have something to promote. You don’t have to promote yourself or your services. Promote your article or report and let it promote you.

How to write a report worth sharing: click here

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking
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