Are you planning to make any changes this year? Before you do. . .

January 16, 2013 by
Share

So this year I’m planning to make some changes. How about you?

I’m looking at things that didn’t work well and eliminating them or looking for ways to make them better. I’ll get more information, ask for help, or try things a different way.

But I’m not going to spend a lot of time on that. No sir. Instead, I’m going to look at the things that did work and do more of them.

You should, too.

For example, if last year you got a lot of referrals from a letter you sent to your clients, maybe you should think about sending them another letter. If you got a lot of sign-ups for your newsletter when you added a couple of videos to your web site, you should probably think about adding more videos. Or, if you met some good new referral sources on LinkedIn but none on Facebook, it sounds like LinkedIn is where you should spend your time.

Most people focus on fixing what’s wrong. They work on their weaknesses. The smarter, more leveraged strategy is to work on your strengths.

Don’t ignore your weaknesses. But don’t spend a lot of time on them.

Homework:

Take a few minutes and write down three things that worked well in your practice last year. Then, look for ways to do them again or do them bigger or better or more often.

Find the spark in your practice and pour gasoline on it.

Have you read The Attorney Marketing Formula? Click here to find out what you’re missing

Share
Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Productivity Tagged With: ,

What did I do to piss you off?

January 15, 2013 by
Share

We’ve had the same gardener for the last eight or ten years and we’re very friendly. Last week, out of the blue, something was different. My wife greeted him as usual but got little more than a grunt in return.

My wife was puzzled. Marcos is usually very talkative and engaging. Now, he wouldn’t even look her in the eye.

My wife thought she might have said something that angered him. Maybe he was disappointed with his Christmas bonus. Whatever it was, she’s been on edge all week, knowing that this morning she might have to have it out with him.

He’s here now. My wife just came back in the house. She talked to Marcos and he was his usual jolly self. No problems. Everything is fine.

Last week? He was probably just having a bad day. Or didn’t feel well. Whatever it was, he’s over it now.

But here’s the thing–when you’re having a bad day, you can’t let your customer know it. Especially if you make the customer think she may have something to do with it.

How about you? Do you let your clients know it when you’re having a bad day? If you can’t hide it when you’re in a bad mood (or worse), you shouldn’t talk to clients. Have someone else do it until you recover.

But here’s the other thing–you can’t let your employees see you like that either. You may think that because you pay them you can let your guard down. Not a good idea.

Your employees need to see you at your best. It’s not fair to saddle them with your burdens. If you’re having an off day, it’s okay to let them know, maybe ask for some time, but even if they know it has nothing to do with them, nobody wants to be around Mr. Grumpy Pants all the time.

Putting on a pleasant face comes naturally to my wife. If she’s upset about something or having a bad day, you would never know it. When she went to talk to Marcos this morning, he never knew there had been an issue.

Me? I have a harder time hiding it. That’s why I did my best to hire naturally upbeat people. Then I married one of them.

Get more clients and increase your income. Click here to find out how.

Share
Filed Under: Client relations, Law office management, Personal development Tagged With:

Don’t make me come over there and S.W.O.T. you!

January 14, 2013 by
Share

Relax. I’m not going to hit you.

S.W.O.T. is simply a tool to help you with your marketing. It’s an analysis of your Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. It can give you a clearer picture of where you are and help you get where you want to go.

Before you create a plan of any kind, it’s important to know what you’ve got to work with. Your current reality.

So you sit down with pen and paper or spreadsheet or text editor and you make a list. You can do this for just marketing or for all aspects of your practice.

Start with your STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES:

  • Knowledge (Legal, marketing, market data, trends)
  • Skills (Trial, writing, closing the sale, presenting, negotiating)
  • Habits (15 minutes of marketing every week day, personal thank you letters to all new clients)
  • Assets (Contacts, marketing documents, lists, personnel, testimonials, reputation, location)
  • And so on

Your web site might be a weakness or a strength. Or it might be a strength in some areas (i.e., great content) and a weakness in others (i.e., low or low quality traffic). If you advertise, the low rates you have negotiated might be a strength but your copy might be a weakness.

Start recording everything you can think of. What you’re good at and what you need to improve. Talk to your staff, your clients, and other lawyers who know your practice and see what they think. You may be taking for granted something about yourself that is a strength. And, let’s face it, third parties almost always see our weaknesses more clearly than we do.

Next, make a list of OPPORTUNITIES. To some extent, these are derivative of your strengths and weakness. A weakness you want to eliminate, for example, is an opportunity to improve results in that area. Capitalizing on a strength is an opportunity to compound results.

Other opportunities might include contacts you have not yet followed up with, creating a new seminar, or joining a networking group.

Finally, write down any THREATS. If you depend on advertising and another firm is dominating the airways with their ads, this could be considered a threat. If one of your big clients might be thinking of hiring another firm, that is obviously a threat to your income. Anything that poses a challenge and could lead to loss should be identified and added to your list.

Now you have a snapshot of your current reality, and a list of projects to work on this year.

This will help create a marketing plan that really works.

Share
Filed Under: Goal Setting, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development Tagged With: ,

Is it time to put your practice on a diet?

January 11, 2013 by
Share

Yesterday, I did a strategy session with an attorney who was thinking about getting out of practicing law. After several decades of practicing, he said, “I don’t have the enthusiasm for my practice I once felt. I’ve had difficulties staying focused on my practice and delivering my work product in a timely fashion.”

In other words, the thrill was gone.

He does tax and estate planning, trust and estate administration, and tax compliance. Much of his malaise was centered on a feeling of being bogged down in administrative minutia. As a sole practitioner, there was simply too much to do and too much to keep up with and he was overwhelmed.

I asked him if there was any part of what he does that he liked. He said he enjoyed working with individuals and helping them with estate planning. I said, “If you could have a successful practice doing nothing but that and none of the other things you’re currently doing, how would that be?” “That would be great,” he said.

Problem solved.

He didn’t need to get out of practicing. He needed to put his practice on a diet.

By getting rid of practice areas (and clients) that weighed him down, he could have a leaner, more robust practice doing what he enjoyed doing. I told him there was more than enough business available for the kind of estate planning he liked and that he didn’t have to do anything else.

Many attorneys suffer from “practice bloat,” a term I just made up but which seems to accurately describe what happens over a period of years. You start out lean and mean, excited, and enjoying the process of building your practice. At some point, you take on additional practice areas because the work falls into your lap or because you want to have another profit center or something to fall back on. In time, your practice no longer resembles the one you started. You have too much to do, too much to keep up with, and you start falling behind. At this point, many attorneys start thinking the law is not their calling and they start looking for something else.

Some attorneys start out doing too much. I did. I took anything that showed up. I thought I had to because I needed the money. Soon, I was overwhelmed and frustrated, convinced I’d made a mistake in becoming a lawyer.

In both cases, the answer is to put the practice on a diet.

Get rid of practice areas you don’t enjoy. Get rid of clients who drive you crazy. Get rid of work you’re not good at but continue to do because “it’s part of the job”.

The vacuum you create by getting rid of things that do not serve you will soon be filled with work that you love and are good at. You’ll breathe life into a moribund practice, attract new clients, and increase your income. Most importantly, you’ll look forward to going to work every day.

There are more than enough clients available who want and need what you love to do. If your practice is bloated and the thrill is gone, it may be time to put your practice on a diet.

Does your practice need fixing? A new focus? Do you have marketing questions? I can help.

Share
Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Dealing with stress, Law office management, Marketing Plan, Specializing Tagged With: , ,

Digitize your life with Evernote’s “Paperless Challenge”

January 10, 2013 by
Share

When I want to find something stored in “My Documents” on my Windows machine, I have to open and close a lot of documents to find the one that has what I’m looking for. When I want to find something stored in Evernote, I rely on its ability to search through the entirety of those documents to find what I need. Very fast, very accurate.

Finding something in paper files are even more challenging, of course, and that’s one of the reasons so many people are “going paperless.”

If you’d like to join the crowd, Evernote is conducting a “Paperless Challenge” to help you. It started January 8 but there’s no reason why you can’t get started right now. Make sure you download Jaime Rubin’s “Paperless Challenge Checklist” to use as a guide.

Lifehacker just posted a comprehensive article, “How I Went Completely Paperless in Two Days.” I think two days is a bit ambitious for most attorneys due to the amount of paper in our possession, questions about security issues, and our innate resistance to change, but even if it takes two years instead of two days, it’s worth it. I’m not yet completely paperless but my file cabinets are empty, I’ve trashed dozens of boxes of paper collected over thirty-plus years, and we get very little (important) postal mail these days. I’m well on my way to digitizing and simplifying my life.

Speaking of security issues, this article has a summary of some of the options. (Hat tip to Robert Oschler, developer of the forthcoming Evernote search client for Windows desktop, BitQwik.)

Finally, my own Evernote for Lawyers ebook discusses security issues and how to deal with them, as well as helping you through the process of going paperless.

By the way, even if you don’t use Evernote these resources can still help you in your quest to reduce or eliminate the paper in your life.

Did you know: Evernote for Lawyers has a chapter on using Evernote for marketing.

Share
Filed Under: Law office management, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do you charge wealthier clients higher fees for the same work?

December 27, 2012 by
Share

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Staples website quotes different prices for the same merchandise based on where the user is located when he visits the site. Staples said this is based on how close the visitor’s location is to a competitor’s store and various costs of doing business, but it appears to also be based on the customer’s ability to pay.

In New York, for example, certain products are priced higher in the boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. By contrast, the same items sell in Brooklyn and Queens at a discount. These price differences come despite no more than 20 miles separating any two locations.

In other words, a Manhattan resident would save money on an item simply by driving to Queens and making the purchase there either online or through a mobile device.”

Apparently, this is not an uncommon practice among retailers.

It’s not illegal but is it “fair”? More importantly, is it smart business?

I think it is smart, and also fair. The retailer is entitled to charge whatever the market will bear. It’s called “free enterprise”. Where it gets dicey, however, is when customers learn about these practices and object to them. A retailer may win the pricing battle but lose the loyalty war.

Of course a savvy customer who knows about this practice might play the pricing game, logging onto web sites from different locations, to see which one gives him the lowest price.

Anyway, I got to thinking about this in terms of legal services. Is it smart business for a lawyer to charge different fees to different clients based on their ability to pay? From a business standpoint, I say why not?

If your clients don’t know (and there are no legal or ethical restrictions on doing so), why shouldn’t a lawyer be able to charge what the market will bear? Some attorneys routinely do precisely that. They size up a new client by their clothing or car or occupation and quote a fee commensurate with what they think that client can afford.

I can’t recall ever charging a client a higher fee because I thought he could afford it, but in looking back, had I thought about it, I probably would have. I sometimes charged clients lower fees, either because I wanted to help them out or because they were steady clients and I wanted to reward them for their allegiance. If there’s nothing wrong with this, there should be nothing wrong with charging some clients higher fees. Of course, by definition, charging some clients less means some clients are being charged more.

What do you think? Is there anything wrong with charging some clients more than others? Have you ever done it? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Getting ready for the new year? The Attorney Marketing Formula will show you what to do to make it a great year.

Share
Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Fees and Billing, Law office management Tagged With: , ,

If J. Paul Getty were managing your law practice

December 21, 2012 by
Share

Billionaire J. Paul Getty, once described as the richest man in the world, wrote a book describing how he made his money. In “How to Be Rich,” he offered three keys to wealth:

  1. Be in business for yourself
  2. Have products in demand
  3. Multiply your efforts through other people

If you are self-employed or work for a firm that compensates you for helping the firm grow, you are “in business for yourself”. If you offer services your clients want and are willing to pay for, you have “products in demand.” And if you have employees, you are “multiplying your efforts through other people”.

But if J. Paul Getty were managing your law practice, he might point out that while you are doing the right things, you might not be doing them enough.

If you are doing any work in your practice that could be delegated to someone else, you’re losing money. You should do “only the work that only you can do” and delegate everything else, he would tell you. “I’d rather have one percent of the efforts of 100 people than 100 percent of my own efforts,” he said.

Once he had you leveraging the efforts of the people who work for you, I think Getty would turn his attention to the efforts of people who don’t work for you: your clients and professional contacts. They may not be getting a pay check from you but every one of them can help your practice grow.

The quickest path to “multiplying your efforts through other people” is to get more clients to send referrals.

Getty made most of his money in oil and understood the power of leverage. The more wells he drilled, the wealthier he got. Your clients are like oil wells. The more of them who refer, the wealthier you will become.

But Getty didn’t stop there. When he found a well that produced oil, he had his engineers look for ways to increase the yield from that well. He didn’t settle for a well that produced 100 barrels a day when that same well might product 200 barrels a day.

Your clients work the same way. If a client is sending you one referral a month, you should look for ways to get that client to send you two referrals a month.

If J. Paul Getty were managing your law practice, he would tell you there’s oil in your client and contact list and while you will hit many dry wells, if you drill enough, you will also hit some gushers.

Download The Attorney Marketing Formula to learn more ways to multiply your efforts and your income

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

Do you have long term goals? That’s your problem

December 18, 2012 by
Share

A wealthy business friend of mine does a lot of speaking to other business owners. They come seeking to learn how they can reach the levels of success he has attained. On the subject of marketing, he usually asks the audience, “How many of you have long term goals?” Hands are proudly raised. “That’s your problem. You’re thinking about long term when you should be thinking about today.”

He tells them the only thing that matters is how many times your company’s story is told today. How many people hear about what you have to offer. What can you do today, right now, this afternoon, to get your story told?

Of course tomorrow you’ll do the same thing. That’s how a big business is built–one day at a time.

My friend will acknowledge the need for planning beyond “today” but he says too many people spend all their time planning and not enough time doing. “You don’t have to read your car’s manual to know how to make it go,” he says.

My friend says success is about mastering the fundamentals. He coaches junior football and says, “We teach those kids how to pass, punt, block, and tackle. You get good at those four skills. That’s how you win games.”

Building a successful business or law practice works the same way. You learn the fundamentals and practice them. You get good at a few things.

You don’t have to know everything about marketing or bookkeeping. You don’t need to have the latest technology. And you don’t have to read the manual.

Unless, of course, it’s mine.

Share
Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, success

Build the law practice you would want to represent you

December 14, 2012 by
Share

If your law practice would fit in a box and I could buy it at a store, what would I see when I opened that box? Would I see something so beautiful it would make me smile? Would I admire the clock-like precision and attention to detail? Would I be so enamored by what I saw I would tell everyone I knew to go buy one?

Or would I see flaws? Things that don’t work right? Missing parts?

Most law practices aren’t broken, but neither are they great. They’re good enough and for most clients, good enough is good enough. But is it good enough for you? How would you feel if you were the client of your firm, knowing what you know about what goes on behind the scenes?

In an interview, Steve Jobs offered an excellent description of the standard befitting a great company, or a great law practice:

We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not. We weren’t going to go out and do market research. We just wanted to build the best thing we could build.

When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” [Playboy, Feb. 1, 1985]

For Steve, good enough was never good enough.

If you want to build a great law practice, you need great clients. Learn how to get them here.

Share
Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Inspiration, Law office management Tagged With: ,

Evernote for Business: Is it right for your law firm?

December 4, 2012 by
Share

Evernote has launched Evernote for Business, which promises enhanced sharing capability for the workplace. For lawyers, the idea is that your firm would have it’s own business account, with a library of shared notes (documents) which employees (with permission)  can access. You and your employees can also have your own personal Evernote notebooks which are private.

Does your firm need this capability? I’m not so sure.

Personal Evernote accounts already allow sharing. You can set up one or more notebooks in your account and share those notebooks with others in the firm. Sharing basic firm documents such as email templates, checklists, and blank forms is pretty straightforward. Where things get hairy is with sharing client files or other non-public information.

In Evernote for Lawyers, I discussed the idea of storing client files in Evernote. If it’s just you who is accessing that information, your comfort level will depend on whether you feel the need to encrypt that information before uploading it. The more critical issue is sharing that information electronically with others in your firm.

Evernote can be accessed anywhere there is an Internet connection, so if your employees aren’t as careful as you are, someone who is not authorized to access those shared notebooks might be able to do so. If your secretary’s laptop is stolen, for example, your client files could wind up in the wrong hands.

I don’t know how Evernote for Business handles permissions and other security issues, but if it makes shared access to private information more secure, that alone would make it worth considering. The added functionality it promises would be icing on the cake.

Evernote for Business is $10 per month per employee, a small investment if it allows you to set up a secure virtual filing cabinet for your firm. But that remains to be seen.

Are you planning to use Evernote for Business? Let me know in the comments.

Evernote for Lawyers shows you how to use Evernote for marketing, GTD, blogging, AND storing client files.  

Share
Filed Under: Law office management, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »