When to hire your first (or next) employee

May 22, 2015 by
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A sole practitioner asks, “How do I know when I can afford to hire my first employee?”

That depends. If you think like a lawyer, you’ll wait until you have so much work piled up you can’t keep up with it. Hiring your first, or your next employee will be a matter of necessity.

But you’re not just a lawyer. You’re also a business owner and if you think like a business owner, you will invest in the future of your business (practice).

You won’t wait until it’s obvious you need help. You will imagine the future of your practice the way you want it to be and make sure you get there ahead of time.

In other words, you’ll hire staff before you absolutely need them.

I did this. I hired people when I didn’t yet have enough work to keep them busy. I expected my practice to grow and I wanted to be ready.

I did the same thing with office space. I got bigger space before I needed it. I was nervous about signing a long term lease, but I filled the space every time.

Don’t dwell on where you, imagine where you want to be. Buy some big boy pants and know that you will grow into them.

I was once in the real estate business with another lawyer who thought even bigger than I did. He wanted us to lease the penthouse suite in a building on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The rent was gag-inducing. He also wanted us to hire several secretaries and buy new computers, and the business was barely getting started.

We did it. We invested in the future we expected to create and our investment paid off.

Of course we were also motivated by a tremendous fear of loss. We had huge overhead and had to make it work.

We charged higher fees, took out bigger ads, and worked out tails off. In less than a year, we were paying all of our expenses, had leased top of the line Mercedes, and took home six-figure draws, and this was in the 80’s when six-figures meant something.

If you expect your practice to grow, invest in that growth. Take on bigger space before you need it. Hire more people before you have enough work to keep them busy.

Start with employees, because they are scalable. Unlike a lease, if the work doesn’t materialize, you can easily downsize.

If you’re still not sure, start with temps or part time help. If you share space with another attorney, talk to them about sharing a secretary.

Don’t be reckless, of course. But don’t play it safe, either.

If you wait until you’re sure, you’ve probably waited too long.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, success Tagged With:

Delegate and grow rich

May 20, 2015 by
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Okay, you (finally) agree that you can’t do it all and that if you want to earn more and not work yourself to death you need to delegate (more).

Where do you start?

You start with the philosophy that you should delegate everything, except “that which only you can do”.

That’s not as much as you might think.

If you have attorneys working for you, start there. Give them as much work as possible.This is clearly a “20% activity that yields 80% of your results”. It’s why the big firms are the big firms. It’s where you can take giant leaps in increasing your income.

If you have business clients, you can still be the “account representative”. You meet with the clients, hold their hands, take them to lunch, and keep them happy. Let your staff attorneys do the grunt work. Okay, you can show up for trial, but only if you must.

If you have a consumer oriented practice, you can meet with the clients on their first appointment and at their last appointment. Let your attorneys and other staff do the rest.

So, job one: if you don’t have attorneys working for you, get some.

If you don’t have enough work to justify that, set this as a goal. Get enough new business coming in to justify hiring your first attorney.

If you don’t want the hassle of hiring and supervising attorneys, set another goal–to bring in enough new business to justify hiring attorneys AND someone to hire and supervise them.

If you have other staff (secretaries, assistants, office managers, HR, IT, bookkeeper, etc.), they’re next. Make sure they are tasked with all other tasks, except two:

(1) Signing checks.

Call me paranoid, or call me a lawyer, but I always made sure that I saw and signed every check issued in my office. Today, with everything digital, you have to be even more careful.

(2) Marketing.

Marketing professionals services is about building relationships and you can’t delegate that. You’ve got to talk to people. Don’t relinquish responsibility for this. It’s the most important thing you do in building a practice, even more important than the legal work.

However. . .

There are many aspects of marketing that can be delegated. Too many to mention here. So get as much help as possible but make sure you have a hand in all of it.

If you don’t have any staff, or enough staff, hire people or outsource. Immediately, if not sooner.

Don’t let the absence of delegatees stop you from delegating.

If you want to get better at delegating, get this

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Filed Under: Law office management, Productivity Tagged With: ,

If your mom managed your law practice

May 11, 2015 by
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If your mom managed your law practice I have no doubt she would make you eat a good breakfast before you show up for work. She would tell you that you can’t watch TV until you do get all your work done and cleaned up your desk.

No work, no play. That’s how mom rolls.

If your mom managed your law practice, she would also tell you that if you won your case, she would take you out for ice cream or make you your favorite dinner.

Reward and punishment. Carrot and stick.

Mom would offer the employees extra incentives for getting their work done on time. She would put a little extra spending money in their pay envelopes when they come up with a money-saving idea. And make them employee of the month when a client gives them a five star review.

You could take a lesson from mom. Figure out what you want your staff to do and offer them bribes for doing it.

While you’re at it, do the same thing for yourself.

Look at your list of tasks and goals–for the day, for the month, for the year–and promise yourself a reward for getting them done. Empty your email inbox today and you get to take off at noon on Friday. Bring in a new client this week and you get to buy the tablet you’ve had your eye on.

Isn’t this kind of bribery cheap and manipulative? Sure. But mom knew it worked and who are we to argue?

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Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, Productivity, Time Management

Ten ways to earn an extra $1,000 per month

May 4, 2015 by
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How would you like to earn an extra $1,000 per month within the next 90 days?

I chose $1,000 because that seems to be big enough to whet your whistle, but not so big that it’s out of reach. Feel free to pick a bigger number if you want to.

Now, time for some brainstorming.

Let your mind run wild and throw some ideas on paper, on a white board, or on your screen. Shoot for a minimum of ten ideas, ten different ways you could earn $1,000 a month, or more, within 90 days.

The best way to come up with ten viable ideas is to start with twenty or thirty. So keep writing as many ideas as you can.

Don’t edit or judge anything. Just write it down. Nothing is silly or impossible when you are brainstorming.

Your ideas could be related to

  • Marketing your services–a new strategy, a new market, or a new way of doing what you already do
  • Managing your firm–eliminating unnecessary expenses, lowering costs
  • Creating a new service–a new profit center, a new “front end” service that creates more clients
  • Fees, billing, and collection–charge more, get paid faster, eliminate unpaid accounts
  • Creating a new offer–a free service, a discounted service for first time clients, bonus services, service package(s)
  • Finding new referral sources and/or joint venture partners
  • Offering your clients a product or service from a joint venture partner, or as an affiliate
  • Creating a new product (ebook, course, resource guide, etc.) to use as a marketing tool and new revenue source
  • Starting a new business
  • Contacting former clients, to stimulate repeat business and referrals
  • Setting up a new website, improving your existing website
  • Getting bigger clients/cases–bigger fees, bigger retainers, clients with ongoing legal needs
  • Getting more traffic, more subscribers, more prospect inquiries
  • Closing more prospects–better sales process, overcoming objections
  • And so on

With multiple ideas, you’re more likely to find one that you’re willing to do. Or you might find two or three ideas you can do that bring in an aggregate of $1,000 a month.

90 days is a long time. Maybe too long. You might be better off looking for ideas that could start producing in the next 30 days. A shorter deadline means there’s no time to think (or procrastinate), you have to start doing.

What could you do this week that could bring you an extra $1,000 a month?

Want to get paid faster? Collect unpaid invoices? Here’s how 

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

Consider offering your clients a maintenance contract

April 24, 2015 by
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We just got bids on a new heating and air conditioning system for our house. A couple of the vendors pitched us on their maintenance contracts. For $100 to $130 a year, they will come to the house three times per year to inspect everything and do minor servicing. If something needs repairing or replacing, you get that at a discount.

It’s a good deal for the consumer, although probably not necessary the first few years when everything is under warranty. I think one of the vendors was willing to give us the first year free.

It’s a good deal for the vendor because (a) it gives them first crack at getting hired for repairs, (b) it gives them the opportunity to get referrals, (c) it gives their service techs something to do when they’re not doing big jobs, and (d) it brings in revenue.

Could you do something like this? Offer your clients some kind of service or maintenance contract? If you handle small business matters or estate planning, no question this is something to consider. For other practice areas, maybe not.

A maintenance contract allows you to regularly get in front of clients and do issue spotting. You get to see if their documents need updating, and you also find out what other work they need, in their business or personal life.

If it’s something you don’t handle, you can refer it to other lawyers and other professionals (e.g., CPAs, financial planners, consultants, et. al.) who have agreed to offer discounts and other perks to these referred clients.

Clients get work done they might otherwise delay on taking care of, to their detriment. They get a good deal, too.

Also, you get face time with your clients once or twice a year which can only strengthen your relationships with them. They may not need any work themselves but you will undoubtedly get referrals.

Then there is the additional revenue this will bring to your coffers. If you have 200 clients paying you $200 a year, that’s an additional $40,000 a year, not counting any additional work or referrals.

If you don’t like the idea of charging clients for this for some reason, or your practice area doesn’t allow you to provide enough value to your clients to justify a fee, e.g., you handle personal injury only, consider offering this service to your clients at no charge.

You see them once or twice a year, or talk to them on the phone, or send them a form to fill out and then call them. If they need your services, they get to hire you at a discount and/or they get some added benefit.

If they don’t need your services but they need something else, you will refer them to high quality professionals (or businesses) with whom you have already negotiated a “special deal”.

Would a PI or criminal defense client avail themselves of this benefit if it were free? Why not give it a try and find out?

Lawyers are complicated; marketing is simple

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

Is working on weekends counterproductive?

April 20, 2015 by
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It’s Saturday morning (or Sunday) and you’re the only one in the office. You’ve wearing shorts and a teeshirt and haven’t shaved. That’s okay. You’re not going to see any clients today.

You put on a pot of coffee. It’s quiet. No phones ringing, no voices down the hall, and you can think. Maybe it’s too quiet, so you turn on the radio and get a background buzz of music or talk radio.

You’ve got a blizzard of files and papers on your desk. It’s been a busy week and you’re behind on a bunch of things. You push everything into one or two piles to clear some work space on the desk, and you dig in.

In a few hours, you’ve gone through most of the backlog. You’ve dictated letters and instructions to your secretary. You’ve dictated a declaration for a motion that needs to be filed next week. You’ve reviewed some older files and made notes about what needs to be done. You’ve reviewed and signed invoices that are ready to go out. You’ve signed checks to pay bills.

Finally, you filled your briefcase with files you need for court on Monday, turned off the coffee pot and radio, turned off the lights and went home.

Nicely done. It feels good. You’re looking forward to dinner and a relaxing evening with the family.

I remember this scenario well. I went through it often. Once every month or two I went to the office and got caught up and organized. I’d get a week’s worth of work done in a few hours.

But I knew guys who were in the office every weekend. They came in early and stayed late. Not just when they were prepping for trial–it was a regular work day for them. They would see clients and put in a full day.

That’s too much. You’ve got to recharge. You’ve got to have a life outside of work.

Apparently, what most of us intuitively understand has a scientific basis in fact. According to a study, “productivity per hour declines sharply when the workweek exceeds 50 hours, and productivity drops off so much after 55 hours that there’s no point in working any more.”

Working on weekends once in awhile is fine. If you’re working every weekend, however, you might want to consider whether it’s worth it because the odds are it’s not.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, Productivity, success, Time Management

Are you picking up what I’m laying down?

March 30, 2015 by
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What do you do when a client doesn’t follow your advice?

I was discussing this with a subscriber-friend via email recently. He said: “You fire them. . . I can get clients who make me happy. If a client makes me unhappy for an hour, I can’t get that hour of my life back.”

Yes, but, if the check clears, I’m happy. If I can say, “See, I told you not to do that. Maybe you’ll listen to me next time,” I’m happy. If I can charge them even more to fix the problem they created by not following my advice, I’m happy.

Okay, it’s not that clear cut.

Clients can make us unhappy in so many ways. And they do blame us when things go bad, even when it’s not our fault and we have the CYA letter to prove it. And clients do make us want to tear our hair out when they post nasty-grams about us on social media.

So yeah, we should be prepared to fire difficult clients, and replace them with clients that make us happy.

Fortunately, most of our clients are decent and follow our advice most of the time.

But it wouldn’t hurt to spend a little more time explaining the reasoning behind our advice, making sure the client understands that reasoning, and agrees to do what we recommend.

And maybe we should be a little more tolerant when they don’t.

As long as the check clears.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Client relations, Law office management Tagged With:

Could you make it on Rodeo Drive?

March 25, 2015 by
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Years ago, when I lived and worked in Beverly Hills, I wore Brioni suits, had a penthouse suite on Wilshire Boulevard, and was busier than a one-legged Irish dancer. So when I needed a haircut, naturally I shot over to Rodeo Drive and visited Vidal Sassoon.

Expensive? Yes. But worth it, at least to me at that time in my life.

They saw me on time and got me out quickly so I could get back to work. Everyone treated me like royalty. And it was peaceful–no chemical smells, bright lights, or incessant chatter.

There were other amenities: easy parking, pretty shampoo girls, soft drinks and snacks of my choosing.

A very pleasant experience, one that I looked forward to as a respite in my tumultuous day.

Oh, they gave a pretty good haircut, too.

I was reminded of those days when I read about a barbershop that charges more by providing better service than most barbershops. The article profiled a customer in New York City who couldn’t imagine paying more than for a haircut but who found, as I had, that it was worth paying more.

But enough about haircuts. The question of the day is, “How much more would your clients pay you for better service?”

Could you charge 20% more? 30% Double?

Doubling your fees is crazy, right? Well, I’m pretty sure I paid Sassoon triple what I would have paid elsewhere. Depending on what you charge now, perhaps double isn’t out of the question.

Next question: “What would you have to do to get that much?”

I can’t answer that for you, but I can tell you it always comes down to the little things. The little extras that make the client feel important, appreciated, and safe. The things that make them say, “Yes, I pay more but it’s worth every penny.”

Now, you may be thinking, “There’s no way my clients would pay a nickel more, no matter what I do.” I’m pretty sure that’s not true, but if it is, you need to get some new clients.

You don’t need to be on Rodeo Drive to be able to charge more. You might want to hire some pretty shampoo girls, however.

Marketing is easier when you know The Formula

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Client relations, Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services

If Bruce Lee had practiced law

March 19, 2015 by
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If Bruce Lee had practiced law he would have specialized in one practice area. Maybe a subset of one area.

Lee believed in being the best and never settled for good enough. And he knew that being the best requires focus, discipline, and a lot of hard work.

Lee said, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”

I did a consultation with an attorney recently. He doesn’t have a general practice, but he doesn’t specialize either. We talked about the benefits of specializing. I ran down the list:

  • More clients (because clients prefer to hire specialists)
  • Higher fees (because clients are willing to pay specialists higher fees)
  • More referrals (because other lawyers who won’t see you as a competitor)
  • More effective marketing (because your message is more focused)
  • Less work and overhead (because you only have to stay up to date in your practice area)

He said he’d like to specialize but he lives in a small town and there’s not enough work there for any one of the things he does.

“How far is the closest city?” I asked. “Thirty miles,” he said.

“How about opening a satellite office in the city?” I said. He should be able to find more than enough work in the practice area of his choosing.

He’d never thought of that.

Start slowly if you want. Find an attorney with a different practice area with a conference room or extra office you can use one or two days week to see clients. Let him use your office as a satellite for his practice.

If you’re not where you want to be in your career, take a step back and look at your situation with fresh eyes. You may see the answer, right there in front of you. If not, come talk to me.

Marketing is easier when you know The Formula

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

The problem with being self-employed

February 27, 2015 by
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Being the boss is a double-edged sword. I love being the master of my destiny but sometimes the weight of responsibility wears on me.

You too? Do you ever get anxious thinking about how many people depend on you or how much work remains to be done?

You’re not just cranking out widgets, after all. You do important things, with important consequences. Every day you make decisions that affect the lives of other people. You can’t let your guard down. You have to keep your eye on everything, and everyone.

It can be difficult doing our best work when we have so many other things to think about.

Yes, that’s the gig we signed up for and most of the time, it’s worth it. But if you’re like me, it gets to you sometimes.

Sometimes I think, “Wouldn’t it be great if someone would tell me what to do today so I could do the work and go home?”

I remember when I didn’t have clients of my own and did appearances for other lawyers. I enjoyed just showing up and doing the work. Argue the motion, take the depo, do the arbitration. I didn’t have to worry about anything but the assignment. When it was done, I went home.

When I started getting my own clients, I had responsibilities, overhead, employees, and things got very complicated. I grew into the role, of course, and would never work for anyone, but sometimes I look back fondly at the time when I could just do the work.

If you ever find yourself overwhelmed with the burdens of running a law practice, wishing you could just show up and be a lawyer, I have a suggestion.

Go get yo’self two hats.

First thing in the morning, or at the end of your day, put on your “boss” hat and make a list of assignments for your “employee”. Map out the day, and include contingencies in case something comes up that requires the bosses attention.

Then, take off the boss hat, put on your employee hat, and get to work.

When the first assignment is done, look at the list your boss gave you and do the next assignment. When all the work is done, take a break, put your boss hat back on and make a new list.

Well, that’s it for me today. The boss told me I could home.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Dealing with stress, Law office management, Productivity
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