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

How to build a successful appellate practice

October 21, 2015 by
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When I was a brand-new, wet-behind-the-ears attorney, I had a case that went up on appeal. I wrote the brief and argued it before the state appellate court. I lost, but I thoroughly enjoy the experience and remember thinking it would cool to have an appellate-only practice.

I never achieved that, but I recently interviewed an attorney who did.

Steve Emmert is a Virginia attorney who built an appellate-only practice when other lawyers told him he couldn’t. He went on to become one of the most successful appellate attorneys in the Virginia.

This morning, I published a short Kindle ebook with the complete transcript of that interview. You can download it for just .99 cents, or free if you have Kindle Unlimited.

And you should download it, even if you don’t do appeals or have no interest in doing so.

In the interview, Mr. Emmert shares advice for building a successful law practice that applies to any practice area. Go look at the sales page and you’ll see what I mean.

Please let me know that you downloaded the book, and please leave a review. And if you know any appellate lawyers or lawyers who would like to have an appellate practice, please tell them about the book.

But there’s another reason why you should grab this book. You will see how easy it is to turn an interview into an ebook, something every attorney should do.

A book like this can bring traffic to your website. It can bring you new clients and new referral sources. It can lead to new speaking and networking opportunities, and it can help you build your list.

In fact, I’m writing a book on how to that. (Stay tuned).

Get How to Build a Successful Appellate Practice

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Writing Tagged With: ,

Are you too good at your job?

October 16, 2015 by
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Your clients want you to solve their problems. The quicker you can do that, the better, right?

Maybe not.

If you’re too good at your work, if you finish too quickly and display an apparent lack of effort, your clients may not appreciate your superior ability and may object to the amount you charge.

Psychologist Dan Ariely tells a story about a locksmith who told him that as he got better at his job, his customers didn’t value what he was able to do.

“He was tipped better when he was an apprentice and it took him longer to pick a lock,” he said. “Now that it takes him only a moment, his customers complain that he is overcharging and they don’t tip him.”

“What this reveals is that consumers don’t value goods and services solely by their utility, benefit from the service, but also a sense of fairness relating to how much effort was exerted,” Ariely explains.

So what should you do if you’re too good at your job?

Perform some magic. A little slight of hand.

Don’t let clients know that you did the work without breaking a sweat. If you can prepare a document in 30 minutes, because you have the forms and because you’ve done it 100 times before, consider holding onto it for a few days before sending it to the client. Let them think that you worked and re-worked the document to get it just right.

Caveat number one: Don’t lie. It’s okay if they think you took three days to do it, but don’t tell them you did. Also, if you bill by the hour, obviously you shouldn’t bill for more time than you actually took. (Yet another argument in favor of jettisoning the billable hour.)

Caveat number two: Don’t overdo it. Many clients do see a benefit to your ability to get the work done quickly. In fact, quick turnaround might be a marketing point of differentiation for you. So don’t drag things out.

The best course of action is to manage your clients’ expectations. Under-promise so you can over-deliver. If you can do it in 30 minutes, promise to deliver it in a week. Then, deliver it in three or four days.

Marketing legal services is easier when you have a plan

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing, Image, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Salesmanship

Five keys to growing a law practice and increasing cash flow

September 29, 2015 by
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You probably know most of what I am about to tell you, but knowing something doesn’t mean you’re doing it or that you can’t do it better. So consider this a helpful reminder to regularly examine these five areas of your practice:

1) Marketing

Marketing is everything you do to get and keep good clients, and it should be your top priority. Examine the marketing activities you now do and see how you can do them better. Look at other strategies you can implement. Look for ways to expand what’s working and minimize or eliminate what’s not.

2) Systems

Every practice should set up and maintain manuals that detail every aspect of work flow and office management. Detailed checklists, forms and templates, and the like, help you do what you do more quickly and efficiently, train new hires and temps, reduce mistakes, save money, and increase profits.

3) Personal Development

Everyone associated with the practice needs to continually re-fresh and improve their professional and personal skills. These include staying current on law and procedure, learning how to use technology, and improving their writing, speaking, salesmanship, marketing, and productivity skills and habits.

4) Human Resources

Hiring and outsourcing are an important part of improving profitability. You need to regularly review who’s working for you, what they’re doing, what else you can assign them, training, scheduling, and incentives. You should also consider when to hire additional staff or replace the ones who aren’t doing a good job.

5) Infrastructure/expense management

Every dollar saved is a dollar earned. This category includes offices, leases, service contracts, technology, library, supplies, repairs, insurance, etc. Can you get it for less elsewhere or by buying in bulk? Can you negotiate? Can you eliminate it? Also look for ways to make the work environment safer, more compliant, and more pleasant for staff and clients.

Of these five categories, most lawyers should focus 70-80% of their time and resources on marketing. When you bring in more clients, bigger cases, or higher fees, the rest of the things on this list will be relatively easy. When you don’t, the rest don’t matter.

Marketing plan for growing a law practice: Go here

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

Lawyers need an “Easy” button

September 18, 2015 by
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Apple has a new app that makes it easier for Android users to switch to iOS. It allows new users to securely transfer contacts, photos, videos, email accounts, calendars, and so on, and helps them reconstruct their Android app collection on their new iOS device.

That’s smart. Very smart. By making it easier to switch, more people will.

There are probably millions of people who have thought about switching but hesitated because it seems like a major headache to do it. If this app makes it quick and easy to switch, I’m sure many more users will come to the dark side.

I thought, “Lawyers need an app like that.” They need a way to make it easy for clients to sub-out their current attorney and sub-in with them. They should supply them a document that explains their rights to switch lawyers, what to say to their current attorney, their rights to their file, and so on.

Actually, lawyers should make it easy for clients at every stage:

  • A lawyer’s website needs a page or widget that directs first-time visitors to the content that is specific to their interests.
  • Lawyers should have checklists or forms or a kit that makes it easier for new clients to gather up the information they need to bring to their first appointment.
  • The person who answers the phone should have a checklist or script that allows them to zero in on what the caller needs, tell them what they need to know, and transition them to making an appointment.
  • Lawyers should give their clients materials that help them identify prospective clients and refer them.

To grow your practice, make it easier for clients to find you, hire you, work with you, and send you referrals.

This makes it easier to get referrals from other lawyers

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Referrals

Are you excited about practicing law?

September 17, 2015 by
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Are you excited about practicing law? I was, when I started. But it didn’t take long before the thrill was gone.

I liked helping people and I liked the challenge of building something from scratch. But I didn’t love what I was doing.

Is that all there is? Is that all there is? If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing.

I kept going because I had invested so much into my career, how could I walk away?

How could I not? How could I wait twenty years before finally giving myself permission to do something else.

Successful people are passionate about what they do. Monday morning can’t come soon enough. They can’t imagine doing anything else.

Successful people don’t need to push themselves, they do what they do because they love doing it. Steve Jobs said, “If you are working on something exciting that you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed. The vision pulls you.”

That’s what I want for you.

I’m not saying you need to leave the law, although that may be the right thing for you at some point. I’m saying you need to find a way to get excited about your work.

How?

In The One Thing You Need to Know, Marcus Buckingham distilled years of research about personal success down to one thing: “Find out what you don’t like doing and stop doing it.”

Get rid of the things you don’t love about your practice so you can do more of what you are good at and enjoy.

It sounds simplistic but imagine if the things you don’t like about your work were gone. Handled. Not something you need to think about.

It would be liberating, wouldn’t it?

Is this possible? Could you delegate or outsource all of the things that cause you stress? Probably not. When you’re in charge, there are always burdens on your shoulders. But if you could get rid of 80% of the things you don’t like, you might smile a lot more.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Dealing with stress, Law office management, Personal development, success

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

Your doctor doesn’t use an away message so why do you?

September 2, 2015 by
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I saw an article this morning about how to write a good out-of-office email and reminded myself that I’ve never used one. I don’t want to tell anyone that I am in or out of the office. I don’t want a leash.

Why do your clients need to know where you are? And why does it matter if you’re out? Do you need to be “in the office” to receive or reply to an email?

No, you don’t.

“What about when I’m out of town and cannot be “reached” (i.e., on vacation?) I won’t even look at their email for two weeks. Don’t I need to tell them that?”

No. Nobody needs to know where you are, or for how long, or when you might read or reply to their email.

Yes, you do need to be accessible. Clients need to know that when they need help, they can count on you. But that doesn’t mean they should expect a personal reply to every email or phone call. You have staff to do that for you.

In fact, why are you even giving your clients your email? Do you have your doctor’s email? If he provides one at all, it’s for his office, and if you write to him, someone in the office will reply. You don’t know whether your doctor is in the office, at the hospital, or on the golf course. If it’s an emergency, someone will be able to reach him.

And that’s how it should work for you.

If you are a lone wolf, have one email for your office, another for you in your capacity as a lawyer, and another for personal matters. Don’t give everyone your lawyer email. Give them the official office email, and make sure they know that someone else will be reading it.

Don’t give everyone your cell number, either. Get an answering service who can call you if it’s an emergency, and take messages if it is not.

When I started practicing, in the days before email and cell phones, I had a secretary, an answering service, and a pager. A client could reach my “office” at midnight if they wanted to, but unless it was a true emergency, nobody called them back until the morning.

I was accessible, but on my terms. I served my clients, but I wasn’t at their beck and call.

 

 

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Filed Under: Client relations, Communication, Law office management, Time Management Tagged With: , ,

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: , , ,
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