Law office management

If The Three Stooges managed your law firm

July 2, 2015 by David M. Ward

“Moe, Larry the Cheese!”

If that puts a smile on your face and brings back memories of your silliness-obsessed youth, welcome to my world. If you don’t get the reference, I’ll meet you in Niagara Falls.

I confess, as a kid, I loved The Three Stooges. What can I say, they made me laugh. They still do. I might just watch me some Stooges on YouTube after I finish this.

My wife doesn’t share this opinion, although she did see the Stooges movie that came out a few years ago and didn’t hate it. I think very few woman like The Stooges, and that’s okay. I’m not crazy about shoes.

Anyway, I’ve written before about what might happen if your Mom managed your law firm, and if my cat was in charge, and a few other critters, and I got to thinking, what would it be like if The Stooges managed your firm.

For starters, you’d have to increase the amount of liability insurance you carry, because God knows something is going to happen to one of your clients who runs late or doesn’t want to pay their bill. You also need a first aid kit in every lawyer’s office.

But despite their penchant for hitting and falling down and putting heads in a vise, you’ve got to admit that The Boys were hard workers. They might not have been very good at hanging wall paper or fixing the plumbing in the upstairs bathroom, but this wasn’t for lack of effort.

They wanted to please the boss. The customer was always right. Service with a smile, yessir.

So if they were in charge of your firm, they would insist that you put your clients first. Unless they were bad. If they are bad, all bets are off. The bad guys always get clobbered.

More than anything, if The Stooges ran your firm, every day would be an adventure. You would never know what might happen, you just know that before the day is out, someone will have their face slapped and their eyes gouged, and someone will be laughing.

And that’s my point.

There isn’t enough laughter in the law business. It’s much too serious.

Yeah, we deal with serious matters, and no, you can’t go telling your clients jokes all the time, but can we all lighten up a bit and have some fun?

You don’t agree? Pick two.

Filed Under: Just for fun, Law office management, Legal industry

It’s all about keeping your clients happy

June 30, 2015 by David M. Ward

Nobody would argue that keeping your clients happy isn’t vital. Clearly, it is the genesis for repeat business, referrals, and getting paid on time. But is keeping your clients happy paramount?

No. Keeping your employees happy is more important.

If you don’t keep your employees happy, you can forget about keeping your clients happy.

By the same logic, keeping yourself happy is more important than keeping clients happy. If you’re not happy, you won’t be much good to anyone else.

In response to yesterday’s post about not negotiating fees, a personal injury lawyer wrote and saidÂ he disagreed. “It’s all about keeping your clients happy, so they will return and refer,” he said.

Yes, smother your clients with love and attention. Remind them often about how much you appreciate them and want to help them. But just as a parent doesn’t need to buy his kid a pair of $300 sneakers when he asks for them, lawyers don’t need to buy our clients’ love by agreeing to cut our fees.

I showed my clients I cared about them by takingÂ cases with questionable liability and negligible damages. I showed them that I was on their side and would fight for them when they asked for my help, even whenÂ I thought we would probably lose the case, and even if we won, I knew I wouldn’t earn much of a fee.

I also waivedÂ my fee on many cases, or cut itÂ voluntarily. When it’s your idea, you are a hero. When the client asks (or insists), you’re just a commodity.

So be generous with your clients. But do it because you choose to do it, not because you might lose them if you don’t.

The writer also said he doesn’t think his other clients know when he cuts his fee for a client who asks him to.

Question: What happens when client A (who got a discount) refers client B? Does he offer the same discount to client B? If he doesn’t, what happens when the new clientÂ finds out that you charged his friend less?

And what happens when client A returns with another case? Does he get the discount on that, too?

CuttingÂ fees is a slippery slope.Â I know. I once had an office in a market where all of the PI lawyers ranÂ dueling ads promisingÂ increasingly lower contingency fees. You charge one-third, the next guy says he’ll take the case for 25%, three more lawyers advertise 20%.

When it got down into the 8-10% range, I’d had enough and closed that office.

With low overhead and high volume, I was still making aÂ profit. But I wasn’t happy.

For more, see The Attorney Marketing Formula and Getting the Check

Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Client loyalty, Client relations, Fees and Billing, Law office management, Marketing legal services

Would you like that in tens and twenties?

June 26, 2015 by David M. Ward

In law school, my torts professor told us thatÂ he was able to close his practice (retire) because he settled a particularly big case and banked a big fat fee.

It was close to 40 years ago, but I remember thinking, “Sounds good to me.”

One reason I chose personal injury over other practice areas is because big cases happen. One case could retire you, and that was my plan.

But it didn’t happen. I had some big cases, but not big enough to let me fold up my tent.

I was thinking about this on my walk this morning and I thought I would ask you a question. Here it is:

Would you rather have a big pile of cash (from any source) or enough cash flow coming in (from any source) to accommodate your desired life style?

Five million dollars in cash earning a four percent return, for example, equates to $200,000 in cash flow per year. Would you rather have the five million or $200k in passive income?

When I was in law school, I would have said gimme the cash. With what I know now, I’d take the income.

Aside from the fact that I’ve put on a few years and my priorities are different today, if I had the cash, I’d be afraid of squandering it. I might spend it or make bad investments. I’d have to spend time nurturing my nest egg, time I could spend doing other things.

How about you? Which would you take? I know, you’d take both. Touche, mon frere.

But this isn’t just a fanciful exercise. There is a point to it.

What you want in the future influences the choices you make today. To some extent, your cash or cash flow preference will dictate the direction of your career.

If you prefer cash, you need to consider practice areas that makes that possible. You might target start ups for clients because theyÂ might offer you a piece of their company in return for your services.

If cash flow is your thang, in the short term, you’ll want clients who have ongoing work for you. Business clients rather than consumer clients. For the long term, you’ll look at investing in income producing assets.

You could also start a business. That’s what I did. A series of businesses, actually, that provide me with passive income and allowed me to retire from practicing law.

One lesson in all this is that long term plans are often like an oral contract. They’re not worth the paper they’re written on.

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

Marketing metrics for attorneys

June 3, 2015 by David M. Ward

When it comes to marketing, I don’t obsess over the numbers. But I don’t ignore them, either. Neither should you.

Tracking numbers allows you to see trends in the growth of your practice. If you’re not growing, you’re dying.

Tracking also allows you to test new ideas and make better decisions about where to spend your time and money. If something isn’t working, you can take steps to fix it. Or abandon it in favor of something else. If something is working, you can look for ways to make it work better.

Every practice is different, of course, but here are the types of marketing metricsÂ you should consider tracking:

Traffic to your website(s)–unique visitors, page views, bounce rate,
Traffic sources (social, search, keywords, page referrers)
Email subscribers-new, total
Leads–inquiries, requests for consultation, questions
New clients (quantity, fees, source)
Source of new clients (ads, referrals, website, individuals)
Revenue–first time clients, repeat clients, total
Revenue–compared to previous month/quarter/year
Revenue per practice area, service
Expenses–overhead, variable (e.g., advertising, etc.)
Net profit (after draw)
Retention–how many clients return/hire you for something else
Referrals–quantity, source (from clients, from lawyers, from others)

Some things you track daily. Some weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Some you look at once in awhile.

You probably don’t need to track all of these. You also don’t need to get into the minutia of things like open rates and click through rates. I know I don’t.

I mostly pay attention to two things: the number of new subscribers to my email list and monthly revenue. As long as both are growing, I know I’m doing okay.

How about you? Which of these metricsÂ do you track? What else do you track and why?

Marketing online for attorneys: go here

Filed Under: Law office management, Legal industry, Leverage, List building, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing

How to find the time to grow your law practice

June 2, 2015 by David M. Ward

On my walk yesterday, I listened to an interview with Michael Hyatt on The Smart Passive Income podcastÂ (episode 163). One thing he talked about was how he hired his first outside assistant after he had resisted doing so for a long time.

He told a story about an entrepreneur he knows who had also resisted hiring help. A friend showed him the light.

First, his friend asked how much his time was worth. He estimated $250 an hour. Then the friend askedÂ himÂ to name a task he did in his business that he wasn’t particularly good at. “Updating my website,” he said. The friend asked, “If you did hire someone to update your website for you, would you pay them $250 an hour?”

The entrepreneur said no, of course not. “But that’s exactly what you’re paying now,” his friend said.

Hyatt said that when he realized that a virtual assistant Â could free up his time to do the work that he does best, he decided to give it a try. He started slowly and hired someone for just five hours a week.

He quickly realized how much more high-value work this allowed him to do and increased it to ten hours a week. Because he was doing more of what he does best, his business really took off. He now has a stable of employees and virtual assistants who do the work that they do best, allowing him to focus on his strengths.

I thought about that and realized that all of usÂ could find enough tasks in our week to keep a virtual assistant busy for five hours. If the assistant costs $10 an hour, that’s only $50 a week.

Who wouldn’t pay $50 to free up five hours?

What if that allowed you to bill an additional five hours a week? What if you used that time to bring in more clients?

If you want to grow your law practice, this is a place to start. Make a list of things you do that you’re not good at or don’t enjoy and find an assistant who can do them for you.

What will you do with all that extra time?

Learn more ways to leverage your time. Click here

Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, Productivity Tagged With: Delegating, virtual assistants

Do you make clients feel welcome?

May 27, 2015 by David M. Ward

Most people have never hired an attorney before. When new clients or prospective clients come to your office, they are nervous. Do you make clients feel welcome? Do you make them feel comfortable?

If you do, you take a big step towards ensuring that they like you, hire you, and recommend you.

First impressions count.

What are you doing in your waiting room to make clients comfortable? What do they experience when they talk to the receptionist? What impression do they get when they meet you for the first time?

Take inventory of what it’s like to come to your office for a first appointment, or any appointment.

Here are some suggestions:

Reception Desk

Greet client with a smile
Ask about traffic, parking, weather
Make it easy to fill out paperwork: sticky notes, highlights, clipboard, pen
Tell them how long it will be before attorney will see them
Offer coffee, water

Waiting Room

Something to read , TV–take their mind off their situation
Kids: coloring books, toys
Plants, pleasant decor, comfortable seating

You/Your Office

You come to get them
Business attire, well groomed
Handshake, smile, eye contract
Greet by name, ask how they are doing
Comfortable small talk
Offer coffee, water, refills
Explain what will happen at the appointment
Free consultation: explain no cost or obligation
Ask open-endÂ questions, take notes, ask”confirming” questions
100% attention: no calls, texts, emails; continue making eye contact
Summarize plan of action before they leave
Walk them back to reception room
Consider: brief office tour, introduce staff

Make clients feel welcome and appreciated. Help them relax. Show them that you are a professional and that you will take good care of them. Show them that they made the right choice when they chose you.

Filed Under: Client relations, Law office management

When to hire your first (or next) employee

May 22, 2015 by David M. Ward

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, hadÂ 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.

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

Delegate and grow rich

May 20, 2015 by David M. Ward

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

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

If your mom managed your law practice

May 11, 2015 by David M. Ward

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.Â 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?

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

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

May 4, 2015 by David M. Ward

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 howÂ

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