“The best thing I did was to stop trying to build my practice”

December 4, 2013 by
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Attorney marketing colleague, Stephen Fairley, had an an interesting comment on one of his recent Facebook posts. I want to share the comment, by attorney Jules Cherie, along with my thoughts on the subject.

Here’s the comment:

“I know that many people will disagree with me, but the best thing I did was to stop trying to build my practice.

I find that just taking four or five personal injury cases per year is the best way to live both professionally and personally. You have more time for your clients and you have more time for yourself. You are always ahead of the defense and they can’t keep up with you. You also have less overhead. The more cases you take the more staff you need to manage them. This creates a mini-bureaucracy and then there is less personal contact with the clients. I like it when the phone DOESN’T ring.

I would also recommend that everybody read The King of Torts by John Grisham and take note of a character in that book by the name of Mooneyham. Contrast his practice to that of the protagonist.”

Here are my thoughts.

MARKETING

I assume Cherie’s new cases are coming in via referrals. If these are from clients, he gets them because he has built a career of serving those clients and earning their trust and gratitude. If they are from attorneys and other non-clients, they are the result of years of building his skills and reputation and relationships with those referral sources.

He isn’t building his practice today (marketing) because he doesn’t need to. He did it over many years. He planted seeds and is now reaping the harvest. Good for him.

BUSINESS MODEL

Knowing what you want, e.g., big(ger) personal injury cases, helps you to know what you don’t want (e.g., everything else). This is good. Specializing is good. Low overhead is good. Having little or no staff to manage and pay is good.

On the other hand, there is no leverage in a business model like this. It’s all about you and what you do. You don’t earn income off of other people’s efforts. If you get sick or want to slow down or retire, your income stops.

PRACTICE AREA

Four or five big(ger) personal injury cases can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in income. The same is usually not true for divorce or estate planning and many other practice areas. If you earn ten thousand dollars per case or client, you’re going to have a lot of clients or cases to earn six- or multiple six-figures. This may or may not require more overhead and more “marketing”.

You can get big(ger) personal injury cases through advertising and other means, but the biggest and best cases usually come from referrals. To get those referrals you need to be very good at what you do, and many attorneys are not, or if they are, don’t yet have the reputation or connections (pipeline) built to get those referrals.

Although I’m sure Cherie is extremely selective about the cases he takes, he still has risks. Losing even one case, or a judgment or settlement well below expectations, could have a significant impact on his income. He also risks losing whatever costs he might invest in building the case.

On the other side of the risk equation is the fact that one very good case could bring in millions of dollars in fees, more than enough to make up for any loses he might sustain. In addition, there is arguably less risk in handling bigger cases with significant exposure for the defendants and their carriers, and thus potentially greater settlement value, than small(er) cases which are often not worth litigating.

CONCLUSION

Cherie’s practice has many positive aspects. It allows him to focus on doing quality work without the many distractions and burdens associated with running a higher volume practice. As someone who ran a high volume PI practice, I clearly see the appeal. But this business model isn’t for everyone and those who would like to adopt it need to remember that it’s not something that can be accomplished overnight. It takes a long time to build your skills and reputation and make the connections needed to enjoy a small volume referral-only practice. There are no shortcuts.

When I was practicing, I didn’t have time to read fiction. Now that I do, I’ll have to pick up a copy of The King of Torts and learn more about what I was missing.

Leverage is the key to earning more without working more. That’s what The Formula is all about.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Marketing legal services, Referrals Tagged With: , ,

What’s your I.Q.?

November 12, 2013 by
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What’s your I.Q.? If something doesn’t work out for you, how quickly do you say “I quit”?

I’m sure you’ve hired someone who didn’t work out. You’ve tried software systems or apps that you ultimately rejected. You’ve tried new marketing methods and didn’t stick with them.

How much are you willing to put up with before you say “no mas” and move on?

Of course this is a rhetorical question. Everything is different. It depends on the cost (time and money), the potential return, the complexity, and market conditions. And it depends on you–your knowledge and skills, your finances, your goals, your work ethic.

And so there is no right or wrong answer. But clearly, we have all tried many things we have abandoned that might have produced the desired result had we given them enough time. As Thomas Edison said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Successful people have a long term perspective. They are willing to invest today for a return that might be a long time in coming. Unsuccessful people want instant gratification. And yet nobody wants to do something that’s not working and not likely to do so. When should you continue and when should you admit defeat and try something else?

One thing you can do to answer this is to find someone who has successfully done what you are contemplating and do what they did. In other words, find models and model them.

Because if they did it, there’s a very good chance that you can do it, too. Just knowing that will keep you going when you otherwise might quit.

Don’t necessarily compare yourself to others. When they started, they may have had more skills than you do, or a bigger network. It may take you longer to accomplish what they accomplished. It may be harder.

I’ve found this to be true in my life, and I am okay with this. If what I am attempting promises benefits that I truly want, it’s okay if it takes me longer. What I care about is knowing that I can do it. If I know that it’s possible, based on what others have done, I’ll keep going. In this case, I have a very high I.Q.

I admit, this is not always true. Sometimes, along the way, I discover something about myself or about the journey and change my mind about what I want or what I’m willing to do. But having that model at the beginning allows me to get started and keep going long enough to make that discovery. As a result, I’ve done more than I ever would have done had I waited for the right time or conditions.

What about innovation? Highly overrated. Most inventors will tell you that what they do is look at something that already exists and see it doing something different. Or, combining two things into something new. Entrepreneurs do the same thing.

If you want a successful law practice, find successful lawyers in your field and study them. Find out what they did to become successful and do that. It may take you longer and you may have a bumpier journey than they had. But at least you know that if you follow the same road map, there’s a very good chance that you will get to the same destination.

Want referrals? Quickly? Try The 30 Day Referral Blitz.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Personal development, Productivity, success Tagged With: , , ,

Thinking outside the box: what it means and why we need to do it

November 11, 2013 by
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Human beings live inside a box, the walls of which are comprised of our beliefs and habits. (For the record, lawyers live inside two boxes. In case one breaks.)

Our beliefs and habits protect us from harm. They help us avoid dangerous situations and make decisions that mitigate risk. They also make our lives more productive and less chaotic. Once we have found the love of our life, for example, our belief in monogamy keeps us from looking elsewhere. (Okay, we may look but we don’t touch.)

Our beliefs and habits our foundational to how we govern our lives and by and large, they serve us well. But if they are too rigid, they keep us from growing. In the context of marketing legal services, for example, our old beliefs can cause us to fall behind our younger, less constrained competition.

The world is constantly changing. We must be aware of, and responsive to, those changes. We must be prepared to try new things and learn new skills, and update the old ones.

But how? How do we get outside of our comfort zone?

With some things, we just do it. We pick up the phone and make the call. We show up at the meeting. We write the report.

With other things, we need some preparation. So we read about them and talk to people who are doing them. We make notes and jot down ideas. And then, we try something.

We start with something small and easy. We dip our toes into the cold water. Once we get used to it, we jump in. Or, if it’s harder than we imagined, we wade in. Eventually, what was once scary and difficult is familiar and easy. What was once firmly outside of our comfort zone is now comfortably inside.

But there are some things that are so far outside of the box we can’t imagine ourselves doing them. They are too difficult, too risky, or too far away. What then?

The first rule of change is having the desire to change. If you’re happy where you are and don’t want to try anything new, despite the possible rewards, then be okay with not trying. You can’t change if you don’t want to change. But if want something better, admit that you do.

Second, you must be willing to do the work associated with that change. That means being willing to invest time, physical effort, and money, in new things. Of course that means you will probably have to re-allocate resources from things you’re currently doing. There are only so many hours in a day and you only have so much energy.

Finally, and most importantly, you have to be willing to undergo the emotional transformation that takes place by thinking and doing things that challenge your existing habits and beliefs. That’s the hardest part of thinking outside the box, and why most people don’t do it.

Change is emotionally difficult. Giving up old beliefs and ingrained habits, learning new philosophies and methodologies, are the very essence of personal growth. This is the hardest part of the journey. And it takes place outside of the box.

Do your clients pay you on time and in full? If not, you should learn how to Get the Check.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Personal development Tagged With: , , ,

The wave of the future for attorney marketing

October 24, 2013 by
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In the 1967 film, The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman’s character was at a party, wondering about his future career, when he was taken aside and offered some advice. “Plastics. There’s a great future in plastics,” he was told.

Plastics were the next big thing in 1967. Today? Who knows.

The thing is, when it comes to attorney marketing, there is no next big thing. It’s still all about information and people. Always was. Always will be.

Technology changes. Fundamentals don’t.

Educate your market place about the law, about problems and solutions, and about the process. Stay in touch with your clients and prospects. Treat people the way you would like to be treated. That’s all attorneys have ever had to do to build a successful practice and it still is.

Don’t get hung up on what “everyone” else is doing or feel left behind if you aren’t following the latest trend. But don’t stick your head in the sand, either. Technology does make things easier, quicker, and cheaper.

Put content on a website or blog because it makes it easier to educate your market and communicate with clients and prospects, not because someone said you must. Use social media to find and engage people because it expands your reach (and you enjoy it), not because all the cool lawyers do it.

The wave of the future for attorney marketing is information and people, same as always. Slicker and more fun with an iPad, but still the same.

Starting or expanding your website or blog? Start here.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Client relations, Communication, Legal industry, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Social media, Technology

Creating an operations manual for your law practice

October 1, 2013 by
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Early in my career I rented space from an attorney who had a very lucrative high volume personal injury practice.

He had half a dozen employees, including one attorney, and everything ran very smoothly. The office was busy but quiet. Everything was orderly. They never seemed to miss deadlines or suffer a major crisis.

One reason why the office was so successful was that the attorney had prepared an operations manual. Every aspect of the practice was documented. Every employee knew what they were supposed to do.

He created the manual, I was told, so that if someone quit or went on maternity leave or got sick, the new hire or temp would be able to quickly get up to speed.

The manual explained how to open a new file, how to close a file, and everything in between. There were forms and checklists for every stage of the case, and fill-in-the-blank form letters, too. The calendaring procedure was spelled out in detail.

As a result, nothing fell through the cracks. The cases got worked and settled or tried. Things moved quickly. Mistakes were rare.

I never saw the actual manual but hearing about it inspired me to create my own. I started by making extra copies of every letter I wrote and putting them in a separate file. I created checklists for repetitive tasks. I asked other attorneys I knew for copies of their forms and form letters and re-wrote them to suit my style and work flow.

I was also able to build a sizable practice with a relatively small staff, in part, because of my manual.

One of the benefits of going through this process is that it forces you to think about everything you do, allowing you to find ways to do them better. You find holes in your procedures, places where mistakes can happen, and you can patch them. You find wasteful tasks and can eliminate them. You see opportunities for doing things faster.

You also find ways to improve client relations. For example, you may discover gaps in communicating progress to clients about their case, or find ways to make their experience less stressful. Repeat business and referrals will increase because you always send welcome letters and thank you letters and remember clients’ birthdays.

The bottom line is that creating an operations manual for your law practice will save time, save money, help you avoid errors (and malpractice claims), and make your practice run more smoothly and more profitably.

If you don’t have an operations manual for your practice, I encourage you to start one. If you have staff, enlist their aid. If you do have a manual, make a note to review it periodically, so you can update it with changes in the law, new forms, and new ideas.

You’ll thank me later.

For more on creating an operations manual, see The Attorney Marketing Formula

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Client loyalty, Client relations, Communication, Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity Tagged With: , , , , ,

Why you must only do work you love

September 30, 2013 by
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My first five years of practice I was unhappy and broke. I took any legal work I could find and wound up doing a lot of work I hated. Most of it paid very poorly and every day was a struggle to stay afloat.

One day, I was so miserable, I made a bold decision. I started turning down work I didn’t love.

When I was done cleaning house, I had only a few clients left and lots of free time to think about what I had done. I was scared, but something told me I had done the right thing.

It’s funny how things work. The vacuum in my practice quickly started to fill. I began attracting the kinds of clients I wanted and soon my practice was busy. I was making good money (for the first time in my life) and I was happy.

I know, it’s hard to say no to someone who wants to pay you. But if you’re taking on work you don’t love, it’s actually costing you money.

Turning down work you don’t love makes room for more of the cases and clients you enjoy, and creates a cycle of increasing prosperity and joy.

When you do work you love you are excited to do the work. Because you are excited by your work, you get better outcomes and finish faster. As you get better outcomes, you attract bigger cases and higher paying clients. Because you finish faster, you have more time to accept more good clients and your income increases further. As your income increases, you are more excited and attract more work you love, earning even more income.

Now, what happens when you take work you don’t love? You aren’t excited by the work. When you aren’t excited by the work, you get poorer outcomes and take longer to finish. As you get poorer outcomes, you attract poorer cases and clients and your income decreases. Because you take longer to do the work, you have less time for good clients and your income decreases further. As your income decreases, you are unhappier and attract more work you don’t love and earn even less income.

Prosperity starts by drawing a line in the sand and saying no to work that you don’t love.

Learn more about how I turned around my practice. Click here.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Dealing with stress, Increase your income

If your five year old was managing your law practice

September 6, 2013 by
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It’s been a long time since I had a five year old in house but not so long that I can’t remember what kids are like. Hey, I can even remember what I was like.

So, what if kids ran the world? More to the point, what if your five year old was managing your law practice? What changes might they make? What would they tell you to do?

1. Have fun. Find ways to put some fun into what you do. Because if you don’t, you’ll burn out. Or get sick. Or ruin your marriage.

That might mean you need to delegate more tasks. Eliminate others. And loosen up. Find some light in the darkness. Find something to smile about and laugh about every day. Put some play into your day. Because if your practice isn’t fun, at least some of the time, you probably need to do something else.

2. Learn stuff. Kids love to learn. It’s keeps them young. If you’ve stopped learning, you need to rekindle your innate thirst for knowledge and learn something. Legal stuff doesn’t count.

Read and listen to things outside your normal areas of interest. You can use those nuggets in your blog posts, articles, speeches, and conversations.

Schedule weekly learning time and study marketing, writing, speaking, leadership, management, and productivity. Read history. Read profiles about business leaders and creative people. Go to museums and art galleries.

3. Tell me a story. Kids love to read stories and have you read them stories. You do, too. You just forgot. So, read some fiction now and then. All facts make Jack a dull boy.

And tell stories to your clients and prospects. Stories are the best way to show people what you do and how you can help them. They are interesting because they have people in them and because something happens to them. Put stories about clients and cases in your marketing materials.

Visuals can tell stories, too. Put photos on your website. Use charts and diagrams to deliver information (but only if they are simple and interesting).

Oh yeah, make sure you have some coloring books and crayons in the office so your client’s kids have something to do.

4. Could I have a dollar? Kids like to have their own money to spend so we pay them for chores or give them an allowance. If they ran your practice, they wouldn’t understand it if you did work but didn’t get paid. Get rid of clients who don’t pay. Ask people who owe you money to pay you (but don’t cry or throw your toys if they don’t).

5. Nap time. Stop running all day. Take breaks. Get some rest. Have a snack. And make sure you get a good night’s sleep because tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

If your five year old were managing your law practice, your law practice would be pretty cool place.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Dealing with stress, Increase your income, Law office management, Personal development Tagged With: , ,

Fracking your law practice

September 3, 2013 by
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You’ve waited long enough. It’s time to finally open the floodgates of untapped resources that lie beneath your feet. New clients, better clients, and an abundant and fulfilling lifestyle await you. All you need to do is go get them.

Every law practice has natural resources that aren’t being accessed. What are these resources?

Your client list that could easily bring a steady stream of repeat business and referrals but is all but ignored in favor of expensive and time consuming efforts to find new clients.

Your knowledge and experience that could be packaged and presented in a way that makes you stand out from the crowd and be seen as the best lawyer for the job but instead, is shackled by the chains of conformity.

The passion that drove you to choose a legal career but has been dulled by low margins and mindless work could be rekindled with new ideas, if only you would slow down long enough to learn them, and loosen up enough to try them.

These and other resources, if allowed to surface, could transform you from struggle to success, from success to untold wealth. All you have to do is embrace these resources, develop them, and allow them to deliver their bounty.

Why aren’t you developing these resources? Adherence to tradition. Not wanting to admit there is a problem. Fear of what others will think or what might happen if something goes wrong.

Yes, there are dangers. If you start a blog it might take up too much time. But what if it doesn’t? What if it takes up much less time than you thought? And what if it brings you lots of prospective clients who see why they should hire you instead of anyone else, and do?

If you get started with social media, your unhappy clients and crazy clients may smack talk you and harm your reputation. But what if they are few and far between and your happy clients set the record straight and build up your reputation and increase your following?

If you stay in touch with your clients and former clients, you might waste time that could be spent getting work done. But what if staying in touch brings you so much work you can afford to hire staff to do most of it and you can get home before the kids are in bed?

There are dangers to doing things you’ve never done before. You might be embarrassed. There may be costs. Things could go wrong. But the greater danger is that you will never discover what was possible, never realize your potential, and never have the time or financial resources to make the world a better place.

If you’re ready to tap into your natural resources, this and this will show you what to do.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Client loyalty, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Productivity

Attention lawyers who hate practicing law

August 26, 2013 by
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If you hate practicing law I have a question for you: If you were earning five times the income, would you hate it any less?

If the answer is yes, you’re lucky. All you need to do is increase your income. Keep reading. I’ve got something that can help.

If the answer is no, then you might need to get a new career. Before you decide to jump ship, however, let’s see if there’s anything we can do about the things you don’t like (and that includes “not enough income”).

I’m going to give you a simple exercise to do. I’ve done this exercise before and I can tell you that it really does help.

Grab a legal pad and write at the top of the page: “What I don’t like about practicing law” or “. . .about my practice”. Draw a line down the middle of the page.

On the left side of the page, write down everything that you don’t like about your practice. Write fast. Don’t worry about repeating yourself. Take as much time as you want and get it all out.

Done? Good. How did that feel? When I’ve done this before I’ve had mixed feelings. It feels good to give voice to my frustrations. Cathartic. Therapy on paper. But I also feel angry that I have allowed things I don’t like to continue for so long.

The point of this isn’t to make you feel bad or to dwell on the things you don’t want, however. It is to find solutions. So, on the right side of the page, next to each item that you don’t like, write down what you can do about it.

You don’t like the stress of litigation? What can you do about that? Don’t think too much, just write whatever comes to mind. If you can’t think of anything, perhaps you can ask someone who might know or you can do some research. Write that down. Or, just skip it and keep writing.

What can you do about your high overhead, inconsistent income, or ungrateful and overly demanding clients? Write down what you can do even if it’s radical, strange, or not something you want to do. If it’s something you CAN do, write it down.

There will be things on your list that you can’t do anything about it. You can’t change people, for example, only yourself. Don’t worry about what you can’t do or can’t change.

Write down as many “can do’s” as possible. When you’re done, go through the list again and see if there’s anything you can add.

You don’t have to tolerate things you don’t like. You can fix them, delegate them, or get rid of them. You can find ways to make things better.

A “can do” list is very empowering. It gives you a list of tasks and projects you can begin to work on. It gives you a checklist of ways to make your practice better, more profitable, more fulfilling. Even if you choose not to do some of the things on your can do list, you’ll feel better knowing that you have that power.

Look at your list of can do’s. Before you had problems and frustrations. Now, you have a list of things you can do. Imagine how good you’ll feel getting those things done!

What’s next? Transfer your list of “can do’s” to your task management system and hide your original list. No sense looking at what makes you frustrated (the left side of the list). It’s time to focus on taking action to eliminate problems and improve results.

A few months from now, when things are better, take a peek at your original list to see how far you’ve come. Smile. Then, start another list.

Need more income? Want to know what you “can do”? Study this and this.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Increase your income, Inspiration, Personal development, Productivity Tagged With:

A simple marketing plan for lawyers

August 15, 2013 by
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The experts and gurus tell you you’re not doing nearly enough to market your legal services. They provide you with a laundry list of tasks you need to do and you had better do them, they say, or you will be left behind by your competition.

Screw ’em.

You don’t have to do everything. I certainly don’t. Not even close.

I write a daily blog post, I occasionally do some guest posts, and I spend about five minutes a day on social media. Okay, you got me, I also do a lot of reading. But I am not consumed with doing everything others say I must do. I don’t worry about what anyone else is doing, and you shouldn’t either.

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are,” Teddy Roosevelt said. He was replying to a request for more guns and soldiers during the Spanish American War. His generals wanted more. He told them they were fine with what they had. You are, too.

Yes, there are other things I’m working on. Because I want to, not because I have to. I’ve got the basics covered.

You may be different. You may have more time than I do. Okay, let me re-phrase that–you may want to spend more time on marketing than I do. You may love posting and pinning and tweeting and commenting and sharing and instagramming. You may be a video stud or a mobile maven.

And that’s fine. It’s great, in fact. God bless you. You’re doing what you enjoy and it’s working for you. That’s the way marketing should be.

Because if it’s not, if marketing is something you loathe in all it’s forms and iterations, you shouldn’t do it. Why make yourself miserable? Partner up with someone who likes marketing. Or get a job.

Because marketing must be done.

If you want to do more, do more. Not because you see other lawyers doing more and you think you must keep up with them. Do it because it makes sense to you and you want to do it.

Start by learning about what’s possible. This blog is a good place to start. My course, The Attorney Marketing Formula, provides a system for marketing legal services and includes a simple marketing plan for lawyers. My other course, Make the Phone Ring, shows you how to do marketing on the Internet.

I mentioned Teddy’s quote in a previous post where I also quoted Mark Zuckerberg. He said we often start projects with the hard parts, figuring we can always do the easy bits. He says that instead, we should start with what’s easy. This way, we will have started and starting is the most important part.

If you start, you can get better, maybe even learn to like it. If you never start, that can’t happen.

Starting is easy. Starting includes things like reading and thinking and making notes.

So don’t worry about what anyone else is doing, or what anyone says you must do. You can market your services any way you want. Find out what’s possible, do something and see how it goes. And start with easy.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing Tagged With: , , , ,
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