Grow your law practice by adding new services

October 15, 2014 by
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So you want to grow your law practice and you’ve got an idea for a new service. Do you work out all the kinks and then offer it to the world? If you’re like most lawyers (i.e., perfectionists, slightly paranoid, risk-adverse), there’s a good chance you’ll never launch that puppy.

Instead, consider borrowing a concept from the start-up world. The idea is to create a “minimally viable product” (service) and offer it not to everyone but to a segment of your target market. Do it quickly and see if anyone wants it before you spend a lot of time or money.

Make it as attractive as possible, and price it as low as possible, but don’t polish it until it’s all shinny and near perfect. Get something out there, flawed though it may be, and see if it sells.

If it does sell, improve the service and put more effort into marketing it. If it doesn’t sell, if it’s what they call in the real estate investment world a “don’t wanter,” move on.

Don’t waste time working on something until you know people want it. It doesn’t have to be great. Good enough is good enough for testing purposes.

If you’re concerned about offering a service that’s not yet up to your usual standards, test it outside of your primary market. Put up some Google ads or Facebook ads and see if you get some traffic and opt-ins before investing your time learning the ins and outs of the new service. Or, partner up with another attorney who offers that service. If you get some “sales,” you can turn those clients over to them while you brush up on your knowledge and skills.

You can also use this concept to test marketing strategies for your existing services. Write a report in a day or two (instead of weeks) and put it out there to see who “buys” it (signs up for your list or inquires about your services). If you get decent results, go back and expand and improve the report and offer it in more places. If it doesn’t work, pull it and try something else.

What new service could you start testing?

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Marketing your legal services as if your life depended on it

October 7, 2014 by
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Many lawyers tell me they’re doing the best they can to bring in new business. But they’re not. Not even close.

How about you?

Be honest. Are you serious about marketing or is it something you do here and there? Do you do it every day or do you wait until you’re in a slump?

Okay, let’s play “what if”. C’mon, it’ll be fun.

What if you had to bring in ten new clients by the end of this month or. . . you would die? Literally. If you don’t have ten new clients signed up by the close of business at month’s end, terrorists will behead you.

For realz.

If this was true, what would you do? Would your attitude towards marketing your legal services be different? How much time would you spend on marketing? How much money?

The clock is ticking. What would you do?

What are you not doing that you would start doing immediately?

What would you do more? What would you improve?

Would you drain the kids’ college funds and run a bunch of ads, even if you’ve never advertised before? Would you get your ass out the door and get to some networking events? Would you personally call every former client you’ve ever had to see if they have any work or referrals?

If your life depended on it, what (exactly) would you do?

If you’ve ever told yourself you’re doing the best you can to bring in new clients, now you know the truth. If you’ve been honest with yourself, you know you could do more.

Now you have to make a decision. Business as usual, or something different? Your life might not depend on it, but your future sure does.

For a simple marketing plan that really works, get The Formula

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development

Creating a walk-away law practice

October 1, 2014 by
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How do you build a law practice you can one day own but no longer run? It starts with wrapping your mind around the concept that you don’t have to do everything yourself, or even closely supervise everything yourself.

You have to (eventually) delegate all of the work in your office.

If you don’t, you’ll never be able to walk away.

This is very difficult concept for many attorneys. We’re used to being in control. We thrive on micro-managing. Our egos fight against the notion that someone else can do what we do.

We also have a very difficult time dealing with the risk.

The truth is, your employees and outsourcers can get you in a lot of trouble. It is a very real risk. But that’s what errors and omissions insurance is for. That risk, and the insurance premiums we pay to minimize the potential damages therefrom, are a cost of doing business.

Building a business (law practice) is not about the elimination of risk. It’s about the intelligent management of risk. You do the best you can and if things go wrong, you deal with it and move on.

You can either live with this risk and the stress it might cause, or you cannot.

If you’re willing to take these risks, or you’re not sure if you can, dip your toes in the water. Delegate something and see what happens. Then delegate something else. Hire someone if you have to, but get someone else doing some of the things you now do.

The second thing you need to do to ready your practice for a walk-away future is create a detailed operations manual for your office. Everything you do should be memorialized, with forms and checklists and documentation of every process.

Pretend you are going to franchise your practice. Someone is going to open an office and do everything you do. They’re going to pay you to learn how to clone your systems, and then pay you a percentage of their revenue.

Make the effort to document your systems in enough detail that someone else could truly step into your shoes.

When you get this right, it will allow you to open a second office if you want to (or third or fourth). You’ll also have a valuable resource for hiring and training new staff or temps. And, if you’re ready, you can start reducing your work hours at the office. Eventually, you can tip-toe away to semi-retirement.

For more on delegating and creating systems, see The Attorney Marketing Formula

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Productivity Tagged With: , ,

It’s better to own a law practice than to run one

September 30, 2014 by
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An article in our local newsletter featured a neighbor who recently changed careers. I don’t know what they did before but a couple of years ago, they bought a fast food franchise and they recently opened a pizza restaurant in the food court of our local mall.

The couple have two young children and my wife commented that running two restaurants sounds like a lot of work. I pointed out that running a restaurant isn’t the same thing as owning one.

As the owner, you have employees who run the day to day operations. You may check in once a day, once a week, or once in awhile, but as long as you have good people working for you, and good people supervising those people, there isn’t lot for the owner to do. And, if you get big enough, you could structure things so that you don’t have to do anything at all.

Many restaurant chains are owned by investment groups. The owner-investors are not involved in the daily operations.

Most small businesses, and that includes most small law practices, aren’t there, however. The owner, or the partners, are still very much involved in running the business, and running a business is a lot of work.

Would that it could be otherwise.

What if you didn’t have to go to the office today, or for the next six months? What if the practice ran without you?

That would be nice, wouldn’t it? Scary, but you could get used to it, right?

Granted, a law firm isn’t a restaurant. Lawyers have more rules to follow with respect to supervising employees and such, and great penalties if they don’t, so you might never be able to go home and be a passive investor.  But you can come close.

And you should.

Because then, you could use your time any way you want to, to do anything you want to. You could even go to work if you want to, but because you want to, not because you must.

I encourage you to work towards this ideal. Work towards the point where other people do most of what needs to be done. You can (eventually) hire all the lawyers and legal assistants and other employees you need, and people to supervise them.

Seriously, put this on your list of goals. Because it’s better to own a law practice than run one.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, success Tagged With:

A recipe for better clients and bigger income

September 23, 2014 by
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The other night my wife and I watched “Jiro Dreams of Sushi,” a documentary about “Sukiyabashi Jiro,” a famed sushi restaurant in Japan and it’s master chef and owner, Jiro Ono. Actually, she watched it while I dozed, but I caught enough of it to realize a few things.

First, if the reaction of the restaurant’s patrons is any indication, I probably should try sushi one of these days. His customers practically swooned as they consumed their meal, and this in a country that eats lots of sushi.

The second thing I realized is that Mr. Ono is earning a small fortune. The bill for a meal starts at 30,000 yen, which is around $300, and you have to make a reservation a month in advance. That’s for locals. Customers fly in from all over the world and book a year in advance.

What’s the reason for his success? He charges premium prices for a premium meal. He uses only the best fish, which is laboriously prepared and presented. The result is an amazing culinary experience, earning Mr. Ono’s restaurant a coveted “Three Stars” in the Michelin guide.

And it’s a little hole in the wall.

Clean as a whistle, but no atmosphere. Just ten seats. You sit at a counter, Mr. Ono serves you and watches you eat, gauging your reaction. No dilly dallying, mind you. He serves, you eat, and you’re done. “No soup for you!”.

Actually, there is no soup. Or noodles or appetizers. Just sushi.

Anyway, the point is that if you want to have better clients who fly in from all over the world to hire you and pay you higher fees and tell everyone they know about you, you can, if you offer a premium service. Find something you do and make it the best of it’s kind.

You will attract the best clients, the ones who value quality and are willing to pay for it. By charging premium fees, you need fewer clients. But you will have just as many hours available each day and can devote more time to each client. This will allow you to deliver remarkable service that generates repeat business and referrals.

You’ll have it easier than Mr. Ono, however, because he has discerning customers who instantly know that his work product is the best they’ve ever tasted.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Fees and Billing, Increase your income, Marketing legal services Tagged With: ,

You’re not thinking big enough

August 19, 2014 by
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If you’re not wealthy, there’s a good chance you’re not thinking big enough.

In, 10 Ways in Which Wealthy People Think Differently About Money, the author says, “The wealthy think big”:

When you focus on just surviving through retirement or paying the mortgage, you will just survive through retirement or pay the mortgage. Your brain needs something big to dream about. You must aspire to be something huge. Stop dreaming of only a million bucks. Write down the biggest dream you can think of and multiply it by 10. That’s thinking big.

I agree. You get what you focus on, big or small, good or bad, so you might as well focus on the biggest and best.

Money may not be your primary motivation in life. I get that. But let’s put aside that debate for now and continue to use money as a metaphor for success because that’s how we keep score and because more money means you can do more of whatever else it is you want to do, even if that means giving away most of that money.

Anyway, if you haven’t already done so, before reading further, do the exercise. Pick a big number and multiple by ten.

Got it? Let it roll around in your brain for a few seconds. Imagine yourself in possession of that amount. That’s your annual income. Or your total assets.

Now, don’t think about whether or not it’s possible or how you could do it, just answer this question: When you think about that number how do you feel?

Does it feel good and proper or does it feel like an impossible dream? Does it feel exciting and make you smile or does it make you nervous or fearful?

If it feels good, great. Continue thinking about that number (or a bigger one) and use it to pull you forward towards a wealthier future.

If it doesn’t feel good, we need to talk.

Okay, no lectures, and no psycho-babble about self-esteem or about negative money messages that were drilled into you at an early age. But if the thought of big money scares you or makes you feel anything bad, it means something.

For one thing, it means you’re not on a path towards wealth. Your subconscious won’t allow it. It doesn’t want you to feel bad, it wants you to feel good. Pick a smaller number. Keep going smaller until you feel good about the number. Your subconscious mind approves of that amount.

So now what? If your logical brain says you want big(ger) money but your subconscious brain says you can’t have it, do you give up and surrender to your inner fears and limitations?

No. What you do is forget about the dollar amount for the time being and find a thought about money that feels better when you think it. If thinking about earning ten million dollars makes you nervous, reach for a thought you can accept. You might think, “There are things I could do to earn more than I earn now,” for example.

How does that thought feel? If it feels good, move forward. Think more thoughts that feel good about the subject, and keep doing that until you feel good about the subject most of the time.

What happens is that over time you’re subconscious begins to accept those increasingly positive thoughts about money as truths and good for you, not something it needs to protect you from. It will then guide you towards activities that lead to results that are consistent with those thoughts.

In other words, don’t try to force yourself into thinking big. It’s not about will power. Simply reach for a thought about money that feels better and continue doing that. Before long, you will find yourself thinking big about money, or at least bigger than you did when you started.

The process needn’t take a long time. Practice thinking thoughts that feel good (about money or anything else) and in thirty days or less you will see demonstrative changes in your attitude towards the subject.

Your attitude guides your activities, your activities determine your results, and your results determine your happiness. (Cue Pharrell.)

There’s the bell. Class dismissed. Open book test on Friday.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Personal development, success Tagged With: , ,

Slaying the perfectionism dragon

July 22, 2014 by
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A short article on the Entrepreneur.com website caught my attention. In “Start Before You’re Ready, Really,” the author urges us to launch our new business, project or idea before we are, or it is ready.

You can set up a quick Facebook page instead of a website, or a simple (ugly) web page just to get something “out there”. Run the idea up the digital flagpole and see who salutes it.

The author started her new business with just one strategic alliance partner (referral source), who sent her enough business to help her get her business off the ground. Had she waited until she had ten or twelve referral sources, she may still be waiting.

No matter what you do, you can improve it later. Even if you do wait before you launch, there will always be things to improve. So why wait?

Get something out there now and fix or improve it later.

I salute this idea. Hard as it is to show your ideas before they are fully formed, edited, vetted, and groomed, you must. If you wait, you’ll never be ready. In your lifetime, you will produce only a fraction of what you could.

I’ve done this many times. I’ve put up terrible web pages. Announced businesses and books when they were merely ideas. Advertised courses before I was finished writing them.

Some of my best stuff came because I put it out for the world to see before I was ready. Turns out, they were closer to being ready than I had thought. What’s a few typos among friends?

There’s nothing like a deadline to get you crackin’. Once you announce or launch or publish, you’ve got a deadline. You’re committed. You’ve got to finish it, or fix it, and you do.

The alternative is to pay homage to your perfectionism and wait until everything is right. That’s how so many people die with their music in them.

The most important part of any project is getting started. Whatever it is you want to do, do it. Give yourself permission to do it badly. You can fix it later. You can make it better. Or you can cancel it start something else.

There is greatness in you. Slay the dragon and let your ideas soar.

For a simple marketing plan that really works, get this

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity, Writing Tagged With: , ,

“Recruit and Grow Rich” ebook just released on Kindle

July 10, 2014 by
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How many ways can a lawyer create passive income? I’ll give you a minute. . .

The answer is not many. That’s the conclusion I came to over a decade ago when I was contemplating the concept of retirement. I realized that I would have to save or invest several million dollars to be able to retire and live off the interest or cash flow that those assets produced, and I knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Even if you earn hundreds of thousands of dollars every year, after taxes and expenses, most attorneys aren’t going to arrive at their retirement years with a big bucket of cash or a steady stream of cash flow.

When I admitted this to myself, I knew I had to find a plan b.

I started a network marketing business and began earning passive income. That income grew to over six-figures a year, which provided me with the retirement income I sought but had never achieved in over twenty years of practicing law.

I’ve written a book about it and it’s now available on Kindle.

It’s part “my story” but it is mostly training. It presents the system I’ve used to recruit hundreds of people (mostly lawyers) who wanted the same thing I wanted. It’s called “Recruit and Grow Rich” and it shows you how to work smarter in your network marketing business, instead of merely working harder.

If you have a network marketing business, or you have been thinking about starting one, this book could shave years off of your learning curve, and help you achieve your goals quicker and with less effort.

The first review came in, from an attorney, who said, “This book is an absolute must read for any attorney considering a network marketing opportunity.” He also said, “Building a network organization is counter-intuitive to the way attorneys have been taught to think and act.” He’s right.

Of course you don’t need to be an attorney to benefit from the lessons in this book. So if you know anyone who has a network marketing business, tell them about it.

Here’s the direct link to the book in the kindle store where you can get more information.

NB: You don’t need to own a Kindle device to read Kindle books. Amazon has free apps that allow you to read Kindle books on your computer, tablet or phone.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, News Tagged With: , ,

How will you increase your income next month?

July 2, 2014 by
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So next month will be better than this month? You’re going to bring in new business or bigger cases and your income will increase?

How? What’s your plan? What will you do to make that happen? Because these things don’t just happen by themselves.

What will you do this month that will bring in more business or increase your income next month?

Be specific.

What emails or letters will you send? Who will you send them to? What will you ask or offer?

What will you do to build your list? Get more traffic? Get more website visitors to call?

How will you get more referrals from existing clients? Former clients? Prospective clients and other contacts?

What new markets will you target? What services will you offer? What will you say to convince them to trust you and hire you?

How will you get more referral sources? What is their background? Where will you find them? How will you approach them?

What articles or blog posts will you write? Who will you offer a guest post to? Who will you ask to do a guest post for you?

Where will you speak this month? What seminars, webinars, or teleconferences will you conduct? What videos will you post?

How will you increase your social media followers? Stimulate engagement? Provide more value?

How will you get more prospective clients to make an appointment? How will close them? Get them to hire you for bigger engagements?

What will you do to collect money that is owed you? How will modify your billing practices to get more clients to pay on time? What changes will you make to your fee structure?

Will you start advertising? Increase your ad buys? Hire a new copy writer?

What will you do to lower your overhead? What can you do about rent, salaries, or other fixed costs? How can you get better deals on variable expenses?

I’m all for being optimistic. But thinking next month will be better without having a plan to make it better is not the way to run a business. Go through the above questions and write down three things you will do this month. Then, start doing them.

Want some help?

Okay, for a simple marketing plan, get this.

For help with your website and online marketing, get this.

For help with writing and referrals, this is what you need.

And if your billing and collection practices need a shot in the arm, run, don’t walk and get this.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

How to get more referrals by getting more referral sources

June 20, 2014 by
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Every attorney wants to know how to get more referrals. One way to do that is to get more referral sources. Here’s a simple way to do exactly that:

(1) FIND THEM. Find five people who advise or sell to your target market. Other professionals, business owners, and so on. You can ask existing clients and contacts for recommendations, or just find them on the Internet. Zero in on those who have high-ranking websites, decent content, a large social media following, and a newsletter or email list.

(2) STUDY THEM. Read through their site. Subscribe to their newsletter. Follow them on social media. See who they know (e.g., professionals, clients, centers of influence), what they sell, and how they sell it (sales people, online, seminars, speaking, writing, advertising, videos, affiliates, etc.) You’re especially looking for those who are active marketers.

Read their About page and social media profiles. Find a few articles or posts you like. Follow some links and see who influences them. Look through their blog comments and social streams to see who they influence.

(3) CONTACT THEM. Send an email, introduce yourself, and compliment one or two of their articles, their products or services, or something about how they do their marketing. Mention what you do, but only mention it. If you have mutual contacts, or like or follow the same resources, mention that, too. Don’t subscribe them to your newsletter without their permission.

(4) ENGAGE THEM. Contact them again and propose a guest post on their site, and/or, suggest the same for your site. Send them a link to a resource you found, or something you wrote, that pertains to what they do. Ask them a question about something they do or something they’ve written. Share their posts and tweets on social.

(5) HELP THEM. See who responds. Learn more about them. Look for ways to work with them, promote their business or practice. Send them referrals. Introduce them to others in their niche who can help them. Promote their blog, their business or practice, their product or event on social and to your list. If they are local, invite them for coffee and get to know them better.

Is this a lot of work? You tell me. If one out of five respond favorably, and you do this every month, in six months you will have six new referral sources. If each sends only one new client per month, would that be worth the effort? What if they send three?

Marketing is easy when you know The Formula

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Referral sources, Referrals
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