Are you getting stale?

October 23, 2015 by
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You’ve been a lawyer for more than a few years and you’re good at what you do. So good, you could do most of your job in your sleep.

You know the forms to use and the words to say. You know the best places to park at the courthouse. You know the judges and other lawyers, and they know you.

Your job has become routine. Easy. Life is good.

Don’t get too comfortable. Before you know it, some rookie lawyer will come along and eat your lunch.

They may not know what you know or be able to do what you can do, but they’re fresh and hungry. Everything is new and exciting. They’ve got energy and drive and something to prove.

And let’s not forget that they have been using computers since pre-school.

If you’re not careful, as their practice grows, you may see yours diminish.

But you can stay ahead of them by re-inventing yourself and your practice. Become a new lawyer again. Look at everything with fresh eyes.

Imagine that you have just opened your doors and you don’t have any clients. Get hustling and bring some in before the end of the month.

Take classes in your practice area and also in practice areas you know nothing about. Take classes in business, marketing, sales, writing, and speaking.

Take some cases you’ve never handled before. Find another lawyer to associate with you or mentor you.

Start over, from scratch, and build your practice again.

In the military, for a day or for a week, a unit will periodically stand down and review all of their operations. You should do the same thing. Examine all of your office management procedures and forms, look for holes that need to be patched, find expenses that can be reduced or eliminated, and processes that can be improved.

Do the same thing with your marketing. Find ways to make it better. Eliminate things that aren’t working, do more of  the things that are, and find new ways to bring in business you’ve never tried before.

Examine every piece of paper in your office and every electron in your computer. Resolve to get organized, eliminate clutter, and streamline your workflow.

And from this day forward, do something new every week. New ideas, new projects, new people, will keep you fresh and alert and sharp and open new doors for you.

Get excited about the future you are about to create and then go eat someone else’s lunch.

Get your marketing plan here

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Goal Setting, Increase your income, Inspiration, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity, success

The one thing you need to do to build a successful law practice

October 7, 2015 by
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Do you remember the Billy Crystal movie, “City Slickers”? There is a scene where Jack Palance’s character, Curly, is about to tell Mitch (Crystal) the secret to life? “There’s just ONE thing,” Curly says, holding up one finger. All eyes are fixed on Palance. What will he say? What is the “one thing”?

Curly never does answer. When I saw the scene, I thought he would say, “That’s what you have to figure out”. That’s your quest. Figure out the one thing and everything else will take care of itself.

I don’t know if that’s what he meant, but it makes me wonder, is there “one thing” for building a successful law practice? One thing that can take a lawyer from where they are to where they want to be?

Yes there is. For most lawyers in private practice, the one thing that would make all the difference is getting more clients.

Getting better clients is important, of course, and should be on every lawyer’s to-do list. But for both short term and long term success, getting more clients is the one thing that changes everything.

More clients means more money. More money allows you to improve your lifestyle. More money means you are able to help more people and leave the world a better place.

Yes or yes?

Okay, so more clients is the main ingredient. With a side dish of better clients. The next question, of course, is what’s the one thing about getting more clients?

You know the answer to that, amigo. It’s marketing. That’s how we get clients, after all.

But marketing is big and scary. There are too many variables. I don’t know what to do. Tell me, is there “one thing” about marketing?

Hold on, now, you want me to sort through everything there is to know about marketing professional services and tell you the “one thing”?

Okay, I will.

It’s referrals. Get referrals right and you may not have to do much of anything else.

Referrals have always been the number one way clients find attorneys and it still is today. The Internet is important, vital even for many types of practice, but it’s number two on the list.

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. To build a successful law practice, referrals are king. But. . . but. . . what’s the “one thing” about getting referrals?

You ask a lot of questions, Chachi. No worries. That’s what I’m here for.

Anyway, whether it’s referrals from clients, other professionals, or anyone else, the one thing, the Holy Grail about getting referrals is. . . delivering value.

Not just doing good work and treating people with respect. That’s expected. That’s the standard of care. Every lawyer should do that, and most lawyers do. No, if you want to get more referrals and stand out from the crowd, you have to do what most lawyers don’t do.

You have to do more than do your job.

The lawyers who get the most referrals are the lawyers who do things for their clients and contacts that transcend their work and their professional relationships. They help them, unselfishly, without being asked and without expecting anything in return.

Yes, the golden rule.

There, I said it. Call me a sentimental fool, but there you go. Help others, give to others, treat others the way you would like to be treated.

What’s the “one thing” when it comes to the golden rule?

That’s what you have to figure out.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Referrals, success

A simple way to increase your income you’re probably not doing

September 16, 2015 by
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Your ad is bringing in clients. Your website is making your phone ring. Your seminar results in client appointments every time you run it.

Your marketing is working, and that’s good, but what if it could work better?

What if a different web page would bring you 20% more traffic? What if a different ad would bring in 50% more clients? What if a different offer at the end of your seminar resulted in 18% more appointments?

They might.

A different ad, a different headline, a different offer, and other variables, can result in dramatic differences in results. A few simple changes might bring in double or triple the number of clients, without any added expense.

It’s called testing and it is the essence of direct response marketing.

Author Tim Ferris invested $200 on pay-per-click ads testing different titles for his book. “The 4-Hour Workweek” got more clicks than any other title by a huge margin.

Keep running the ad that’s working and also run a different one. Don’t change anything on your webpage but send some traffic to a different page and see if you get better results.

You’ve probably heard about the value of testing. If you’re like most people, however, you’re probably not doing it, at least as much as you could. When things are working, it’s natural to want to leave them alone and focus on other things.

But test you must.

Talk to your marketing or web people about running some test ads, pages or offers. When you find something that works better than what you’re doing now, make that your “control”. Then, test additional changes against it, because no matter how well things are working, you never know if something else could work better.

Get more clients and increase your income with your web site, here

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

How to create passive income in your law practice

September 15, 2015 by
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I love passive income. You hear me talk about it all the time. Passive income allowed me to retire from the practice of law. Passive income allows me to do what I want with my time because the income comes in whether I work or not.

I enjoy consulting but don’t do much anymore because there’s nothing passive about it. Instead of spending hours each week speaking with lawyers and getting paid once, I’d rather invest my time in creating more passive income.

I built a business years ago that provides me with passive income. It still pays me, month after month, year after year. I also get passive income from my books and courses.

Why earn $500 from consulting when I could spend that time creating a new book or course that pays me $500 per month, every month?

Do it once, get paid over and over again.

Set it and forget it.

Okay, so hurray for me. What about you?

Well, you could create passive income by building a side business like I did (contact me if you want me to show you how), and you could create books and courses or other products that sell over and over again. Or you could invest in income-producing assets.

But maybe none of that is right for you.

Can you use your law practice to build assets that provide you with passive income?

In a way, yes.

Instead of creating intellectual property, you can create relationships.

Find clients who have lots of legal work you can do, instead of one time clients. Find referral sources who can send you new business every month.

You have to spend time nurturing those relationships, and you still have to do the legal work (or supervise the people who do), but once you have a new referral source or client with ongoing work, the work will come to you without you having to do much more.

Not quite true passive income, but close. The next best thing.

Each relationship is an asset that provides cash flow. Each relationship gives you access to everyone in that person’s network.

Robert Kiyosaki said, “The richest people in the world look for and build networks; everyone else looks for work.”

This week, how will you build your network?

How to get more referrals from lawyers

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Leverage, Referral sources, Referrals Tagged With:

Building a successful law practice without marketing

September 8, 2015 by
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Is it possible to build a successful law practice without doing any marketing?

The answer is no. It’s not possible, because there’s no such thing as practicing law without marketing.

Everything you do in your practice is marketing. Everything.

You’re either doing a good job of it or you aren’t.

The way you treat your clients is marketing. Treat them well (good marketing) and they will come back to you and send referrals. Treat them poorly and they won’t.

Building a successful law practice takes more than just winning the case or delivering the work product. Not when clients can choose one of your many competitors instead of you. Building a successful law practice means getting a lot of little things right, to make your clients feel appreciated and see the value you deliver, and you either do a good job of that or you don’t.

When someone asks, “What do you do?” the way you answer that question is marketing. Your response either tells them how you can help them or someone they know, and makes them want to know more, or it doesn’t.

Good marketing or bad marketing, but marketing nonetheless.

Do you have a website, social media accounts, or a listing in a legal directory? Do other lawyers ever send you referrals? Have you ever handed out your business card to anyone?

You’re marketing.

You might hate marketing, and refuse to admit that you’re doing it, but doing it you are.

Even if you have a job that doesn’t require you to bring in clients, you’re marketing. Every day you go to work and “sell” your employer on continuing to employ you. Do a great job of marketing and they might give you a raise. Do a bad job of marketing and they might let you go.

Everything you do is marketing.

The question is, how well are you doing it?

No matter how well you are doing it, or how poorly, you can improve your marketing and get better results.

You can also do MORE marketing. There are other ways to attract clients than whatever it is that you’re doing now.

Speaking, networking, writing, advertising–they all work. You can do some of them, or all of them, or you can decide to stick with what you’re doing now and do more of THAT.

So we agree, then, you are marketing. You can improve your marketing and you can do more of it, but you cannot avoid marketing, and you can’t build a successful law practice without it.

Need a marketing plan? Here you go 

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

The best way to increase your income

August 31, 2015 by
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My wife is a good shopper. On major purchases especially, she does her homework and makes sure that we always get a good price. She saves money by shopping online as much as possible. She buys fruits and vegetables at one grocery store, and paper goods at another. And she’s pretty good at finding sales when she buys clothes.

But although she is a good shopper, she’s not a great shopper. She doesn’t count pennies, she doesn’t clip coupons, and she doesn’t drive miles out of her way to save a dollar or two.

And that’s good because her time is valuable.

Now, how about you? Are you a good shopper or a great shopper?

I know attorneys who are good at keeping their overhead to a minimum. That’s good, but some attorneys go too far. If you want better clients, you have to have a decent office and clothing. It’s part of the deal.

I also know attorneys at the other extreme. They spend money needlessly. Ten dollars here, fifty dollars there, and before you know it, they’re wasting hundreds or thousands of dollars per month.

Every attorney should periodically audit their expenses. Do this for your practice and your home. Look for ways to cut expenses and lower your overhead. It’s the easiest way to increase your income.

Focus mostly on big expenses and recurring expenses. If you buy a new piece of software, it’s okay if you don’t get the best deal in town. But if you’re buying insurance or renting a new office, it obviously makes sense to invest extra time to find or negotiate the lowest cost.

But don’t spend too much time. I don’t want you to save 0 a month when you could use that time and energy to find ways to earn an additional ,000 a month.

Be a good shopper, not a great one.

Earn more without working more. Here’s The Formula.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management

What should I have my virtual assistant do for me?

August 21, 2015 by
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I got an e-mail from attorney who uses a virtual assistant “to write and edit letters to prospective clients”. He asked me what else he could have her do.

Great question.

To answer it, I’ll share a (slightly edited) email I received in response to a post I did about justifying the cost of hiring outside assistants:

I have a full-time VA in the Philippines. She costs me about $75 per WEEK (full time). I gladly pay this even though I often don’t have 40 hours’ worth of stuff for her to do. I don’t let her handle much for my law practice. Her English grammar is a bit off sometimes, but she updates websites, edits video, does show notes for my podcast, handles blog posting, social media promotion of my stuff, etc. She’s been invaluable in getting my courses and info products created and published. This frees up some time for marketing, client service, and for ME… I get to have dinner with my kids almost every night.

Letting go of control is my big challenge, but I’m working on it, and Managing a VA is a skill set that needs to be developed, too… the time/distance and cultural differences require some finesse… But I’m glad to have Joanna on my team. I encourage everyone to find a VA to help out with things.

So, here’s what I would do.

Make a list of every task that is performed in your practice, by you or anyone on your behalf. Write down everything, from opening the mail, opening and closing files, meeting with clients, writing articles, and everything in between.

Then, look at that list and put a check mark next to every task that can only be done by YOU.

You probably do a lot of things that someone else could do. They may not do it as well, but as long as they can do it at an acceptable level, you should let them do it.

Make sure break down the tasks that only you can do into sub-tasks that others can do.  You may be the one who conducts the trial, but you can have others assemble documents and write (the first draft) of motions.

Now, what about the tasks that nobody is doing? What could you have a VA or employee do to help you with marketing, for example? That depends on your objectives and what you’re willing to do to accomplish them.

If you want to do Facebook advertising, you can have an assistant find keywords, create the ad graphics and copy (or co-ordinate with freelancers), and manage the campaigns.

If you have my new course on getting referrals from lawyers, you would have your assistant find other lawyers that you can contact to discuss referrals and joint ventures. The VA can compile details about what they do, make the initial contact on your behalf, and follow-up with those who respond affirmatively.

Do only those things that only you can do and delegate everything else. But first you have to figure out what needs to be done.

Get more referrals from other lawyers: click here

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , ,

Be different or be gone

July 30, 2015 by
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Albert Einstein said, “The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The one who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been before.”

Most lawyers don’t want to walk alone. They don’t want to stand out. They do what other lawyers do, read what other lawyers read, and do what other lawyers do. They even look like other lawyers look.

And that’s why the average lawyer is just average.

If you want to be better than average, if you want to earn a bigger income or leave a bigger mark on the world, you can’t do what everyone else does. You have to be different.

You can’t network in all the same places most lawyers network. You can’t write what they write, say what they say, or do what they do. When they zig, you need to zag.

You often hear me say that you need to tell the world (clients, prospects, referral sources, etc.) how you are better than other lawyers, or how you are different. You have to differentiate yourself and give the world a reason to notice you and choose you.

You don’t have to be a radical, or a visionary. Just different.

Speak out about something. Join a group. Or start one.

Change something about how you do your work. Or change your appearance.

Move away from the mainstream and follow your own path.

Do things other lawyers don’t do and you will go places other lawyers don’t go.

Learn how to differentiate yourself

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Filed Under: Image, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, success

Another “fee raising” success story

July 24, 2015 by
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I spoke to another attorney yesterday who told me that, at my urging, he increased his fees approximately 40% and has received no resistance. His fees were low to begin with, he said, but this has emboldened him to increase his fees even further.

He said the top of the market is still 70% higher than his new fee, and we talked about what he would need to do to justify another increase.

You don’t have to be the top of the market, I told him, but you should at least be in the top one-third to 20%.

But don’t be so quick to dismisss “top of the market” fees. Why couldn’t you be the most expensive guy in town?

You could. The question is how.

Much of marketing is about perception. To some extent, you’re worth more because you say you are. Who’s to say any different?

Your lower-priced competitors, you say? See, that’s where you’re missing the boat. There is no competition at the top of the market. It’s at the lower 80% of the market where everyone does pretty much the same thing and competes on price and good looks.

If you’re mucking about in steerage, you’ll never maximize your potential.

But there is a limit to how much more you can charge simply because you want to charge more. You’ve got to find something you do better or different than other lawyers, and make that a point of differentiation.

One way to do that is to specialize not only in the services you offer but the clients for whom you perform those services. Choose a niche market to target, focus on it, and groom yourself to become the “go to” lawyer in that niche.

There are big advantages to this strategy. Besides being able to charge higher fees, marketing is easier and more effective. Instead of networking with or advertising to “anyone” who might need your services or be able to refer clients, for example, you can concentrate your efforts on marketing exclusively to prospective clients and referral sources in your niche market.

That’s what this attorney said he will do.

He’ll save time, spend less on advertising (if not eliminate it completely), and develop a name for himself in his niche.

Word of mouth travels fast in niche markets. By next year at this time, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he has indeed become the “go to” lawyer in his market.

Learn more about niche marketing, with this

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Image, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Networking, Specializing Tagged With: ,

How to increase your income ten-fold

July 21, 2015 by
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What would I have to do to increase my income ten-fold? That’s a question you should ask yourself periodically.

Yesterday, I did a consultation with an immigration lawyer and asked him a similar question. We were talking about his fees and I said, “With your experience and reputation, you could probably triple your fees, right now, and get it, no questions asked. Who’s to say you’re not worth three times what you now charge? What you need to do is figure out how you could increase your fees ten-fold. What would you have to do? How would you have to package your services in order to get that?”

Because he could. Because you can, too. The challenge is to figure out how.

Okay, too much to ask? I’ll ask a different question that might make you more comfortable. “What would you have to do to increase your income ten-fold in the next year?” The answer would entail a combination of increasing fees and getting more clients, yes?

Good stuff.

I heard an interview with an author recently who said his goal was to increase his income ten-fold within the next year. His plan calls for a combination of writing more books and selling more of them (marketing).

Will he reach his goal? I don’t know. But I do know that as a result of thinking this way, he’s bound to increase his income, undoubtedly much more than he would if he didn’t ask “how”.

Ten fold is big. But not impossible. You have to ask questions like this. It’s no fun to ask, “How could I increase my income five percent?” Snore.

So, what would you have to do to increase your income ten-fold? What new services would you offer? What new (higher-priced) markets would you target? What would you have to do to increase your fees? What would you have to do to get more traffic to your website, viewers of your ads, or attendees at your seminars? What would you do to get more referrals?

Think. And maybe you’ll grow rich.

How to increase your income ten-fold: Go here

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Goal Setting, Increase your income, Inspiration, Law office management, Marketing legal services
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