Law office management Archives - Page 32 of 45 - The Attorney Marketing Center

Friday is pink, Saturday is yellow

November 1, 2013 by David M. Ward

When I was a kid, each day of the week had a different color. Friday was pink, Saturday was yellow (sunny?), Sunday was white. I don’t know why. Maybe I had seen a calendar with the days displayed in different colors.

Mondays were blue. Not because it meant going back to school. We had a housekeeper come on Mondays who often wore a blue dress. Tuesdays and Thursdays were dark gray, probably because on those days I attended an after school event I didn’t like. Wednesdays were Orange, a bright color signifying a respite between the dark gray days, no doubt.

Whatever the origin of these colors, my attitude towards each day of the week was slightly different. That’s true even today. Today is Friday and I’m looking forward to the weekend. I’m more relaxed, more likely to write something light, maybe even fun.

How about you? You may not see the days of the week in different colors, but I’ll bet you see each day a bit differently. Your energy is different on different days. You probably get more billable work done on certain days than others.

Of course the same is true throughout the day. Clearly, we have times when we are more productive than others. I think this is also true throughout the year. During summer and during the holidays, we work a bit less, play a bit more.

So, what does this mean? It means we’re not machines. It means we have cycles. Our energy ebbs and flows. There is a natural rhythm to our lives. Unfortunately, we’re often out of sync with that rhythm. We have school and work five days a week and we have to show up and produce, whether we feel like it or not.

I’m not suggesting we abdicate our responsibilities, only that we be a little less rigid about our schedules and a little more open to going with the flow. Listen to our inner voices instead of always doing what’s next on the list.

When we don’t feel like doing something, we usually push harder, “because we have to”. The work has to get done. But maybe the resistance we feel towards the task means something. Maybe if we put the task aside temporarily, when we came back to it we could get it done faster, with better results.

Anyway, too much thinking for one day. Today is pink and I feel like having some fun.

Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development Tagged With: flow, natural rhythm

How to prioritize your daily tasks

October 10, 2013 by David M. Ward

I use my own version of GTD (Getting Things Done) as the backbone of my productivity system. Every day, when I sit down to prioritize my lists and choose what to work on for the day, I chooseÂ three “MIT’s” (Most Important Tasks). If I get my MITs done, I call it a good day.

Some people recommend the 1-3-5 system: 1 big thing for the day, 3 medium things, and 5 small things. Others use the 3-2 method: three big things, two small things. And then there’s the ABC/123 method.

For me, “three things” is about right.

Many days, it’s just one or two MITs. The number really doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am effective because I’m getting important things done.

But how do you decide what’s important? How do you look at a long list of tasks and projects and select three Most Important Tasks?

I don’t know. I just do it.

Sure, there’s a certain amount of logic in the process. I look at deadlines and appointments and reminders. But more often than not, it’s my gut that tells me what to do.

In “The 4-Hour Work Week,” Tim Ferriss offers a suggestion for deciding what’s important. He says, “Imagine you’ve just suffered a heart attack and are allowed to work only two hours a day. What would you do during those two hours? And if you had another heart attack and were allowed a maximum of two hours of work per week, what would you do?”

Ferriss also says, “. . .requiring a lot of time does not make a task important,” and I agree. He is also a proponent of making a “don’t do list,” ignoring things that aren’t important so you can focus on what is, which I wrote about recently.

I like learning about new productivity systems. But most of them are too complicated and time consuming to learn and use. I like the simplicity of focusing on just “three things”.

If you want to know how to prioritize your daily tasks, start by acknowledging that some things are much more important than others. Think 80/20. A minority of tasks, perhaps 20%, will contribute to the majority of your results.

You’llÂ never get everything on your list done, and trying to categorize and prioritize hundreds of things that aren’t important, or as important, as your three things, isn’t efficient or effective.

This post is one of my MITs for today. Next for me is to finish another writing project. I’ll get to that right after I check my calendar.

I explain my productivity system in my Evernote for Lawyers ebook.

Filed Under: Law office management, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: effectiveness, efficiency, evernote-for-lawyers, getting things done, gtd, most important tasks, prioritizing, The 4-hour work week, the 80/20 principle, the 80/20 rule, Tim Ferriss

Grow your law practice today by getting excited about tomorrow

October 7, 2013 by David M. Ward

Your employees (and you) come to work every day knowing pretty much what to expect. You’re going to have documents coming in, you’re going to produce documents and send them out. You’ll open some new files and close others.Â You’ll be on the phone talking to people about the same things this week as you talked about last week, and the week before.

Same old, same old.

Where’s the excitement? Where’s that something new that gets people out of bed in the morning with their pulse beating a little faster? Where’s that something different that people can talk about and look forward to?

You need to find that something.

Something you can promote to your team so they can get excited and creative and work harder than they’ve ever worked before. Something that makes them look forward to coming to work each day, glad to be a part of your team.

What are we talking about?

It could be money. A bonus for achieving certain results. A trip. A weekend. A dinner. (You do know that your employees can bring in a lot of business, don’t you?)

It could be recognition. Employee of the month, who gets featured on your blog and gets the last Friday of the month off, with pay. Recognition is powerful. Men die for it. Babies cry for it.

It could be a cause. Something in the community you are passionate about. Something you want to change or build.

It could be new tools or techniques. Cool new tablet computers. A new training program. A new way of doing what you’ve always done.

Create an environment that’s fun and exciting, where your folks don’t know what’s going to happen every day.

Every day, you should either have something to promote or something to recognize. It could be progress reports on something already announced. It could be something new. Or it could be something that’s not yet here but is coming next week or next month.

How do you make things fun and exciting for yourself? Set a goal and a reward for reaching it. If you bring in so many new clients this month you get to take that trip to Tahiti. If you really want to make it exciting, tell your team (or family) about the goal and the reward so they will hold you accountable.

Same old, same old may get the job done, but if you really want to grow your law practice today, you have to get excited about tomorrow.

Want more referrals? Quickly? Try a 30 Day Referral Blitz.

Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Personal development Tagged With: leadership, promoting

Lawyers: your messy desk is costing you business

October 2, 2013 by David M. Ward

I’ve written before about how to clean up a messy desk and how doing so can make you more productive. But there’s another reason why a messy desk is bad for business: It gives your clients (and others in your office) a negative impression.

A messy desk implies that

You have an equally messy (confused) mind
You are inefficient and waste time
You are disorganized and may forget things
You take longer to do things, costing your clients money
You don’t pay attention to detail
You have too many other clients and don’t have time for new ones
You are sloppy in other areas (i.e., billing, deadlines, negotiating, drafting, research, personal hygiene, etc.)

Most of all, a messy desk tells people you don’t care.

Yes, you want clients to know you are busy. Busy means you are in demand, that other people value your expertise and want to give you money to help them. But you can be busy and organized. You can be busy and care about making a good impression.

If you have a messy desk, some clients won’t hire you again. You make them nervous. Neither will they refer their friends.

Clients want to know that you know what you’re doing, that you do it efficiently, and most of all, that you care about them. Why give them cause to think anything else?

Marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients. Everything. Here’s the formula

Filed Under: Client relations, Image, Increase your income, Law office management, Productivity, Referrals Tagged With: cluttered desk, first impressions, messy desk versus clean desk

Creating an operations manual for your law practice

October 1, 2013 by David M. Ward

Early in my career I rented space from an attorney who had a very lucrative high volume personal injury practice.

He had half a dozen employees, including one attorney, and everything ran very smoothly. The office was busy but quiet. Everything was orderly. They never seemed to miss deadlines or suffer a major crisis.

One reason why the office was so successful was that the attorney had prepared an operations manual. Every aspect of the practice was documented. Every employee knew what they were supposed to do.

He created the manual, I was told, so that if someone quit or went on maternity leave or got sick, the new hire or temp would be able to quickly get up to speed.

The manual explained how to open a new file, how to close a file, and everything in between. There were forms and checklists for every stage of the case, and fill-in-the-blank form letters, too. The calendaring procedure was spelled out in detail.

As a result, nothing fell through the cracks. The cases got worked and settled or tried. Things moved quickly. Mistakes were rare.

I never saw the actual manual but hearing about it inspired me to create my own. I started by making extra copies of every letter I wrote and putting them in a separate file. I created checklists for repetitive tasks. I asked other attorneys I knew for copies of their forms and form letters and re-wrote them to suit my style and work flow.

I was also able to build a sizable practice with a relatively small staff, in part, because of my manual.

One of the benefits of going through this process is that it forces you to think about everything you do, allowing you to find ways to do them better. You find holes in your procedures, places where mistakes can happen, and you can patch them. You find wasteful tasks and can eliminate them. You see opportunities for doing things faster.

You also find ways to improve client relations. For example, you may discover gaps in communicating progress to clients about their case, or find ways to make their experience less stressful. Repeat business and referrals will increase because you always send welcome letters and thank you letters and remember clients’ birthdays.

The bottom line is that creating an operations manual for your law practice will save time, save money, help you avoid errors (and malpractice claims), and make your practice run more smoothly and more profitably.

If you don’t have an operations manual for your practice, I encourage you to start one. If you have staff, enlist their aid. If you do have a manual, make a note to review it periodically, so you can update it with changes in the law, new forms, and new ideas.

You’ll thank me later.

For more on creating an operations manual, see The Attorney Marketing Formula

Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Client loyalty, Client relations, Communication, Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity Tagged With: avoiding malpractice, client satisfaction, creating an operations manual, law practice management, managing your law firm, training new employees

Increase Productivity with a Don’t Do List

September 23, 2013 by David M. Ward

Most people say they don’t like meetings. They’re boring. Nothing gets accomplished. The same information could have been delivered by memo.

The leaders say, “We’ve got to make our meetings better.” They read books and attend seminars. They hire consultants. They buy better equipment.

The meetings improve. They pat themselves on the back. Success.

Or not.

Instead of trying to improve their meetings, maybe they should have eliminated them.

One of my favorite Peter Drucker quotes is, “Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”

Go through your calendar. What meetings or conference calls could you safely eliminate?

Go through your tasks and project lists. What are you planning to do that should not be done at all?

Observe your daily work flow. Which steps could be eliminated? Which parts could be delegated?

Efficiency means doing things better. Effectiveness means doing the right things. It matters not how well you do things if they should not be done at all.

So try this: for the next seven days, compile a “don’t do” list. Write down everything you do that isn’t necessary or doesn’t contribute to your most important goals.

Take stock of whatever is left, whatever should be done. Look for ways to do them quicker, better, or more efficiently.

Make sure your partners and employees do the same. At your next office meeting…wait, never mind. Just send a memo.

Earn more and work less. Click here.

Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: effectiveness, efficiency, getting things done, getting-the-right-things-done, peter drucker

How much do lawyers earn?

September 18, 2013 by David M. Ward

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Get more clients and increase your income. Get this.

Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Increase your income, Law office management, Legal industry Tagged With: attorney earnings, law firm profits, lawyer earnings, legal industry profits

What are you NOT telling your clients?

September 12, 2013 by David M. Ward

There are no little things in marketing or client relations. Everything is important.

I just spoke to someone who went to his dentist expecting to pay $80 for a cleaning but when he went to pay the bill, he had to fork over $128. It seems that when he called to inquire about the cost of the cleaning (he’s on a budget and wanted to make sure he had enough in his account), he was told it would be $80. He was NOT told that there would be an additional charge for the exam.

It is a lot of money (to him). It is a big deal (to him). When he called to ask “how much,” the dentist should have made sure he was told what the total charge would be.

A professional (or any business) cannot be sloppy about details, especially when it comes to money. People notice. Any trust they had for you before will be in jeopardy.

“What else aren’t they telling me?”

Never assume your clients know anything. If you’ve told them the fees and costs, tell them again. If there might be extras, make sure they know and get their okay before you go ahead.

I’m not suggesting you get all paranoid and lawyer-like, (wait, that’s redundant) and get their initials on everything, in triplicate. Just be aware. And sensitive.

Your client is your mother, and trust me, you don’t want to mess with Mom.

Marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients. Everything.Â

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

If your five year old was managing your law practice

September 6, 2013 by David M. Ward

It’s been a long time since I had a five year old in house but not so long that I can’t remember what kids are like. Hey, I can even remember what I was like.

So, what if kids ran the world? More to the point, what if your five year old was managing your law practice? What changes might they make? What would they tell you to do?

1. Have fun. Find ways to put some fun into what you do. Because if you don’t, you’ll burn out. Or get sick. Or ruin your marriage.

That might mean you need to delegate more tasks. Eliminate others. And loosen up. Find some light in the darkness. Find something to smile about and laugh about every day. Put some play into your day. Because if your practice isn’t fun, at least some of the time, you probably need to do something else.

2. Learn stuff. Kids love to learn. It’s keeps them young. If you’ve stopped learning, you need to rekindle your innate thirst for knowledge and learn something. Legal stuff doesn’t count.

Read and listen to things outside your normal areas of interest. You can use those nuggets in your blog posts, articles, speeches, and conversations.

Schedule weekly learning time and study marketing, writing, speaking, leadership, management, and productivity. Read history. Read profiles about business leaders and creative people. Go to museums and art galleries.

3. Tell me a story. Kids love to read stories and have you read them stories. You do, too. You just forgot. So, read some fiction now and then. All facts make Jack a dull boy.

And tell stories to your clients and prospects. Stories are the best way to show people what you do and how you can help them. They are interesting because they have people in them and because something happens to them. Put stories about clients and cases in your marketing materials.

Visuals can tell stories, too. Put photos on your website. Use charts and diagrams to deliver information (but only if they are simple and interesting).

Oh yeah, make sure you have some coloring books and crayons in the office so your client’s kids have something to do.

4. Could I have a dollar? Kids like to have their own money to spend so we pay them for chores or give them an allowance. If they ran your practice, they wouldn’t understand it if you did work but didn’t get paid. Get rid of clients who don’t pay. Ask people who owe you money to pay you (but don’t cry or throw your toys if they don’t).

5. Nap time. Stop running all day. Take breaks. Get some rest. Have a snack. And make sure you get a good night’s sleep because tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

If your five year old were managing your law practice, your law practice would be pretty cool place.

Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Dealing with stress, Increase your income, Law office management, Personal development Tagged With: Law office management, law practice management, managing your law firm