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

How much do lawyers earn?

September 18, 2013 by
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How much do lawyers earn? A lot, apparently. According to a recent study, law firm net profit margins were among the highest in the world of commerce, at nearly 20 percent. In contrast, the average net profit margin for private companies is around 7 percent.

But so what? Does knowing this help you in any way?

Unless you are an economist (or the mother of a lawyer) there’s no point in comparing the legal “industry” with any other. You are not the industry.

In the same way, there’s little point in comparing your profit and loss statement with that of any other lawyer. True, you may learn that you are spending too much on rent or employees or advertising, relative to your gross revenue, and maybe you could make some adjustments. But what really counts isn’t how much you spend running your practice, it’s how much you take home.

If your net margins are “only” five percent but you take home millions, who cares that you spent a fortune on advertising or payroll?

On the other hand, if your net income is one-third of revenue, much higher than the average, but your gross is only $150,000, you don’t have much to brag about.

I’m not suggesting that you pay no attention to the cost of overhead. In fact, I’m a big believer in keeping fixed costs as low as possible. But, your number one priority isn’t low overhead, it’s net profit.

How much did you take in? How much did you spend? How much was left?

Don’t forget to subtract the value of your services before you calculate your net. If it would cost $150,000 to hire an attorney to do what you do and your net income is $150,000, your net profit is zero.

A cynic would say, “you don’t own a practice, you own a job”.

Yeah, but I’ll bet you’re the best boss you’ve ever had.

Get more clients and increase your income. Get this.

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Increase your income, Law office management, Legal industry Tagged With: , , ,

The 80/20 Principle and your law practice

September 11, 2013 by
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One of my favorite books is The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch. In it, Koch makes the case first articulated as The Pareto Principle, that “a minority of causes, inputs, or effort usually lead to a majority of the results, outputs, or rewards”.

The idea is that as much as 80% of your results may come from 20% of your effort. In the context of practicing law, that might mean that 20% of your clients produce 80% of your income. The actual numbers, however, aren’t necessarily 80/20. They might be 90/30, 60/20, or 55/5. The point is that some things we do bring results that are disproportionate to our effort and that it behooves us to look for those things and do more of them.

Koch says, “Few people take objectives really seriously. They put average effort into too many things, rather than superior thought and effort into a few important things. People who achieve the most are selective as well as determined.”

We’re talking about focus. About doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t. About using leverage to earn more without working more.

Look at your practice and tell me what you see.

  • Practice areas: Are you a Jack or Jill of all trades or a master of one? Are you good at many things or outstanding at one or two?
  • Clients: Do you target anyone who needs what you do or a very specifically defined “ideal client” who can hire you more often, pay higher fees, and refer others like themselves who can do the same?
  • Services: Do you offer low fee/low margin services because they contribute something to overhead or do you keep your overhead low and maximize profits?
  • Fees: Do you trade your time for dollars or do you get paid commensurate with the value you deliver?
  • Marketing: Do you do too many things that produce no results, or modest results, or one or two things that bring in the bulk of your new business?
  • Time: Do you do too much yourself, or do you delegate as much as possible and do “only that which only you can do”?
  • Work: Do you do everything from scratch or do you save time, reduce errors, and increase speed by using forms, checklists, and templates?

Leverage is the key to the 80/20 principle. It is the key to getting more done with less effort and to earning more without working more.

Take inventory of where you are today. If you’re not on track to meeting your goals, if you are working too hard and earning too little, the answer may be to do less of most things, the “trivial many,” as Koch defines them, so you can do more of the “precious few”.

My course, The Attorney Marketing Formula, can help you.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity, Specializing, success Tagged With: , , ,

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:

How to make more money as a lawyer

June 12, 2013 by
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I’ve had lawyers say to me, “I should be earning more.”

I give them a dose of reality: “No, you shouldn’t. Because if you should, you would.”

If you deserved to earn more, you would earn more.

We are all paid exactly what we are worth. No more, no less. In a free market, our income is in direct proportion to the value we deliver to the marketplace.

If you want to know how to make more money as a lawyer, the answer is to deliver more value.

“Maybe I’m just not good at communicating the value I deliver. I need to get better at doing that, better at marketing my services.”

Yes, but that’s all part of your value. Value is a relative term. It’s based on perception. And the market is never wrong. If they don’t see that you are worth more to them, by definition, you’re not worth more to them.

If you want more clients to choose you instead of other lawyers, you have to give them a reason. Show them an advantage to choosing you.

If you want clients to pay you more than they do, you have to give them more value.

My new course, “Make the Phone Ring,“ shows you how to make more money as a lawyer. Get it here.

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Filed Under: Increase your income Tagged With: ,

Do attorneys charge too much?

May 6, 2013 by
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A lot of people think attorneys charge too much. But you can’t charge too much. It’s not possible. If someone is willing to pay what you ask, then, by definition, it’s not too much.

Unless, somehow, an attorney has some kind of monopoly–government hook up, union contract, that sort of thing, or someone else is paying the bill–in a free market, the market determines price.

Willing buyer, willing seller, and all that.

Actually, many attorneys fees are too low. They don’t charge what they could. Why? Several reasons:

  • They try to match their rates to what other lawyers are charging, so they can “stay competitive,” and everyone gets locked into thinking that what everyone is charging is the “right price”.
  • They believe they will get more clients by offering rates somewhat lower than other attorneys.
  • They haven’t factored in the costs of overhead or inflation.
  • They start out low and are afraid that if they raise their rates they’ll lose clients.
  • They lack confidence in themselves and their abilities or think they don’t have enough experience to charge top dollar.

How do you know if you could charge more? You raise your fees and see what happens. Start with new clients. If there’s little or no resistance, roll out the increase with existing and former clients. Keep raising fees until there is “significant” resistance. I can’t tell you what that is, but you will know it when you see it.

Here’s the thing: the best clients don’t shop around for the lowest priced attorney, and you don’t want the ones who do. You should never compete on price. You’ll attract the worst clients, and besides, there will always be someone who charges less.

The best clients — the ones who return again and again and refer others — understand that you get what you pay for. In fact, if you charge less than most other attorneys, you’ll actually make them nervous. What would you think if you found out that the doctor who was about to operate on your brain charged much less than other surgeons?

You don’t want a reputation for being “low priced”. Instead, you want clients to think of you as “charging top dollar but worth every penny.” In this way, you get the better clients and maximize your revenues and profits.

Regularly survey the market and keep your fees at least in the upper one third of fees in your area. You don’t have to be the most expensive in town to get the best clients (although that may be an effective strategy for some lawyers), but you do want to be among that group.

Will you lose some clients as you raise your rates? Yes, but far fewer than you might imagine. And the revenue you lose by their loss will be more than made up for by the gains from other, higher-paying clients.

In fact, you may find that by raising your rates you actually find there is more demand for your services. More clients at higher rates? That would be okay, wouldn’t it?

The Attorney Marketing Formula: How to Earn More Than You Ever Thought Possible. Click here.

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing, Increase your income, Legal industry Tagged With: , ,

Don’t let your reason why become your excuse not to

April 11, 2013 by
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You say that one of the reasons you want to increase your income is to have more free time. Time for family, hobbies, travel, fun.

Those things are important to you but you’re always working and don’t have enough time.

More free time is the “reason why” you want to earn more.

But then I hear you say you don’t have time for marketing. You’re too busy.

Do you see the problem here? You want time (your why) because you don’t have time (always working) so you use the fact that you don’t have time as your excuse for not marketing, even though marketing is what will eventually give you more free time.

It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

You’re letting your reason why become your excuse not to.

“But I have to do the work,” you say. You can’t slow down. It’s a Catch 22.

You could hire someone to do some of the work.

“I can’t afford to hire anyone,” you say.

Okay, now you’re being difficult.

You hire someone so you can work less so you can have more time for marketing so you can earn more so you can have more free time.

Try saying that ten times really fast.

It’s called leverage. Working smart. Treating your practice like a business.

You can’t wait for more free time to appear before you start marketing. You must start marketing to create more free time.

You can make money or you can make excuses, but you can’t make both.

I can teach you how to leverage your time. Click here.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Personal development, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With:

Save 50%–but only for a few days, and then never again

April 3, 2013 by
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Yesterday, I wrote about the subject of scarcity and how you can use it in your marketing to get people off the fence. When something is in limited supply, or the clock is ticking and a deadline is approaching, a fear of loss kicks in and motivates action.

The ultimate in scarcity is “no longer available.” When you know that something you want (but have not yet purchased) is going away and may never come back, The Force compels you to reach for your credit card. Or something like that.

For many years, I sold a referral marketing course for attorneys. It was the first of its kind and I sold millions of dollars worth of that course, all over the world. I took it off the market a couple of years ago, intending to update and re-release it.

I still hear from attorneys who bought my course, way back in 1996. They want to know when I’m coming out with the new version. I also hear from attorneys who have heard about the course and want to know when they can order it.

The answer is, I don’t know. It’s a big project and I’m working on other things right now and my plate is full.

“Not available” is about as scarce as it gets. People want it but can’t have it. Value increases. Demand increases. The point is, if it was always available and you could order it at any time, that demand and that perceived value wouldn’t be the same.

That’s the rationale behind the “product launches” you see on the Internet. There’s a big run up to the launch and then the product is removed from the market. Once it’s gone, you can’t get it at any price. No surprise, they sell a lot more of the product during the launch period because people don’t want to miss out.

So. . . what if you announced to your clients that you from this point forward, you would only accept clients who are referred to you by other clients. What do you think would happen?

Yes, demand would go way up.

We see physicians do this. When you hear that a doctor is no longer accepting new patients, that’s the doctor you want, isn’t it?

“Who do I know who can get me in!”

Well, you may not be ready to announce something like this. But what you could do is announce that starting next month, you are strictly limiting the number of new clients you will accept.

You’re super busy and can’t give proper attention to everyone (or you want more time for your family) and so you have to be much more selective about who you accept as a client.

That’s something you should do, anyway. Continually upgrade your client base by eliminating (or not accepting) smaller clients and cases or the ones who give you the most trouble.

Announce it, promote it, and you should see demand for your services go up.

Something to think about.

Okay, announcement time.

Later this month, I’m changing over to a different shopping cart and payment system. In order to do this, I am taking two of my products off the market. I probably won’t re-release them, at least for the foreseeable future.

Anyway, before I remove them, I wanted to give you a chance to pick them up at a great price. So for the next few days, you can order either Cash Flow for Attorneys or The Quantum Leap Marketing System at 50% off the regular price.

Here are the details:

Cash Flow for Attorneys shows you how you can increase your cash flow in the coming year by re-structuring your fees, tightening up your billing and collections, and utilizing other strategies for bringing in more cash. Check it out at http://cashflowforattorneys.com

To get the 50% discount, click on the order button and enter the code <final> (no brackets) in the coupon box. Click to “validate” and you’ll see the price change below to reflect the discount.

The Quantum Leap Marketing System shows you how to quickly bring in a lot of new business. It’s over ten hours of videos and comes with some great bonuses. You can see what’s included at http://quantumleapmarketingsystem.com.

Important: When you get to the big box that says, “Add to Cart,” scroll down a bit and click on the link for “one payment”.

On the next page, (near the top), you’ll see a box that asks for a “Coupon”. Enter the code <final>  (no brackets) and click the link to validate the code. The price will change below to reflect a 50% discount.

After you order, you’ll receive a confirming email with download and/or access instructions. Please make sure to download everything as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please email info@attorneymarketing.com.

Please note, all sales are final–there will be no refunds accepted, so make sure this is something you want before you click the button.

You have the rest of the week to get these. And then. . .  they will be gone.

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Filed Under: Fees and Billing, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, News
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