You’re good, but not at everything

March 14, 2016 by
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You’re smart. And good at what you do. But other people are better at some things and if you’re not hiring them or networking with them or letting them inform you through their books and presentations, you’re working too hard and limiting your growth.

I’m guilty of this myself. I do things I know are not my strengths, because I think I’m “good enough” or out of false economy (“I don’t need to pay someone to do that”). Or I fall into the trap of thinking, “It’s quicker if I do it myself.”

Even if that’s true, speed is not always paramount. Not for the long term, anyway.

There’s an old African saying on point. It says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Some say that TEAM (T.E.A.M.) is an acronym for “Together Everyone Achieves More”. No matter how good an individual is, no matter how much he or she can produce on their own, a team can produce more.

As Aristotle put it, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

What’s more, a team is more efficient because each individual doesn’t have to do their job and everyone else’s. You won’t have as much time or energy to try cases if you also do your own bookkeeping.

Whether you run your own practice or work for a firm or a company, you have a team. They may not be an employee, they may never have worked for you, in fact, but they’re out there, just a phone call away.

Think about all of the tasks that go into doing your job or running your practice. Some tasks should only be done by you. Many tasks, however, are best done by someone else.

Go find them and hire them. Or learn what they can teach you.

Earn more, work less: The Formula

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Filed Under: Leverage, Productivity, success Tagged With:

Finding more places to market your legal services

March 8, 2016 by
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I finally converted a Kindle book to paperback. It’s the same book, re-formatted and published on a different platform (CreateSpace), exposing my wares to paperback buyers, libraries and bookstores, and others. I plan to do the same thing with other ebooks.

With very little effort, I am increasing my income. You can do the same.

You already have marketing methods and channels that are working for you. Why not explore ways to extend what’s already working for you into different channels or markets, or increase your exposure in existing markets?

For example, you already get referrals from other lawyers, right? A simple way to get more clients is to find more lawyers who can and will send you referrals. (My Lawyer to Lawyer Referrals course shows you how to do that).

Go through your existing marketing mix and think about how you could find or develop

  • More professional referral sources
  • More places to run your ads
  • More free and paid online directories and referral services you can sign up for
  • More places to publish your content
  • More cities and venues for conducting live seminars
  • More podcasts and blogs to interview you
  • More online and offline publications to publish your guest posts or articles
  • More social media platforms where you can network, push out content, and gain more followers
  • More ways to get more subscribers to your email list
  • More professionals to interview for your blog, podcast
  • More websites, blogs, podcasts, to target different searches or market segments, or promote different services
  • More websites, blogs, podcasts, to target the SAME searches or market segments
  • More videos on youtube
  • More groups where you can speak and network
  • More clients empowered to recognize your ideal client and refer them
  • More (new) niche markets, client types
  • More ways to use existing content (i.e., re-purpose posts, presentations, videos, ebooks, etc.)
  • More new content to publish on existing platforms (i.e., new articles, blog posts, videos, etc.)
  • More ways to surprise and delight your clients (so they return, refer, provide positive reviews, and send traffic to your web site)

And so on. Maybe even more bookstores to sell your books.

It’s called working smarter. It’s called leverage. Taking something that’s already working and finding ways to make it work harder. So you don’t have to.

Get more referrals from your clients with MAXIMUM REFERRALS

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Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services

I’d rather have four quarters than 100 pennies

February 26, 2016 by
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I love keeping things simple. But simplicity for simplicity’s sake is a foolish economy if it results in fewer or poorer results. “Leverage” means getting MORE results with less effort, or at least more results with the same effort.

A marketing guy I follow echoed my philosophy when he said, “I’d rather have four quarters than 100 pennies”. He was talking about the value of having fewer but better clients.

Fewer clients with bigger cases, or fewer clients who have more work for you and are willing and able to pay higher fees.

Fewer but better clients means you have fewer hands to hold, problems to solve, and fires to put out. It means you can spend more time and more money bringing in new clients and keeping them happy. It means you can earn more income with less effort.

That’s why I talk about letting the mass market of lawyers handle the mass market of clients, while you focus on the upper crust. Let everyone else fight over the scraps while you feast on the steak.

Unless you are especially well funded or daring, you probably won’t be able to do this immediately. But you can immediately state this as your objective and start working in that direction.

When you make it your intent to transition your practice to better clients, you start looking at the universe of clients differently. You make changes to your ads and marketing documents and websites, you start networking with a different crowd, and you do other things that affirm the new direction of your practice.

Eventually, you will embrace this new paradigm and make bigger changes. You eliminate marginal practice areas, for example, and focus on one or two. You might cut down on marketing channels or techniques and focus on the ones that are better suited to the practice you are trying to create.

You may be nervous about some of these changes. I know I was when I started turning down business. There’s a big void in your file drawer when you no longer handle anything that shows up, but if your experience is anything like mine was, you will quickly fill that void with new and better clients.

Then, one day, you’ll get your first “quarter”–a big case or client–and you’ll realize that if you can get one, you can get more. And that’s when everything will change.

This helps you create a profile of your ideal client

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

How to simplify your marketing

February 5, 2016 by
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If you have ever assembled a piece of furniture from Ikea, you know that some items are more complicated than others. Even with detailed instructions and proper tools, it’s easy to mess these up, or take much longer than you were led to believe.

The same is true of any task or project. The more complicated it is, the more moving parts or steps, the more likely it is that you’ll get it wrong.

Some tasks and projects are so complicated we put off doing them. Or we make the effort, get flummoxed and frustrated and swear we’ll “never do that again!”

Marketing legal services is like that. Do yourself a favor and make it simpler.

On the macro side of the equation, that means using fewer strategies, and for each strategy, fewer techniques.

Try lots of things, and then settle in with a few things that work best for you. That’s what I do, and that’s what I recommend.

On the micro side, you simplify your marketing by using fewer apps and targeting fewer markets. You use forms, checklists, and “scripts”. You memorialize your process, in writing, to make it easier to train new hires and temps and so that you can continually examine your process and improve it.

When marketing is simpler, it is easier and takes less time. You get better at it and get better results.

It’s the 80/20 principle. Figure out what works best for you and do more of it.

Simplify your marketing by doing more of fewer things.

Referral marketing is one strategy every lawyer should use. Find out how

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Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With:

My biggest shortcut to success

September 24, 2015 by
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Think about someone you know, or know about, who has accomplished something you would like to accomplish. A lawyer, perhaps, who has the kind of practice you would like to build.

It might be someone you know, someone you met, or someone you’ve read about. It could even be an historical figure.

Find out all you can about them. Read what they have written and what has been written about them. Talk to people who know them or who have studied them. Immerse yourself in information about them–how they got started, their daily habits, the tools and resources they used, their philosophies, their priorities, and how they spend their time.

If you could talk to them and explain your situation and your goals, what advice do you imagine they would give you? If you know them or can meet them, ask them this yourself.

Study them and then reverse-engineer their accomplishments. Identify the steps they took to achieve their success. Then, use those steps to create a plan of action for yourself.

You may not do as well as they did. Talent, timing, and a host of other factors might see to that. But you might do better than you would if you didn’t follow their path, for one simple reason. They’ve shown you what’s possible.

When I wrote my first marketing course I knew about marketing and building a law practice but I didn’t know how to package and sell that knowledge. I’d never written a course before. How big should it be? What should it look like? How much should I charge?

I was fortunate to find a course that someone else was marketing to financial professionals and I used that as a model for my own.

I studied how he packaged his information, how he priced his course, and how he marketed it. I conscripted many of his ideas and my course finally began to take shape.

More than anything, what helped me get it done and (finally) up for sale, after three years of work, was being able to hold his course in my hands and know that I could create something like it, or, as it turned out, something better.

Without that course to model, who knows what I would have come up with. Who knows if I would have had the courage to come up with anything.

My biggest shortcut to success? Find people who have done what you want to do and model them. Let them show you the path, and let them show you what’s possible.

Need a marketing plan? Want to earn more without working more? Go here

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Filed Under: Leverage, Personal development, success

You can do more than you think, in less time than you think

September 23, 2015 by
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This is embarrassing. When I was in college I had a class that I never attended. Oh, maybe I went a few times, but I didn’t crack open the textbook. The semester came to a close and it was time for the exam.

I wasn’t ready. How could I be? I hadn’t gone to class or read the textbook. But that’s not the embarrassing part.

With only a couple of days left until the exam, I realized that if I didn’t do something, I would fail the class. So I did what many misguided college students do, I prepared a set of cheat notes.

I went through the textbook and took detailed notes. I had to skim the book, but the bullet points at the end of each chapter told me what was important. I wrote many pages of notes, referring back to the text to fill in the blanks. I then re-wrote my notes several times, each time condensing them.

The night before the exam, I had reduced an entire semester to two pages of notes.

I folded those two pages and put them in my shirt pocket for easy access. I hoped they would at least keep me from flunking.

The exam was in it an auditorium which seated hundreds of test-takers. I purposely chose a middle seat in a middle row so the proctors would have a harder time seeing me using my notes. They passed out the exam, I took a deep breath, and began.

When it was over, I felt pretty good about what I had written. I felt even better because I never did look at my notes.

I didn’t have to. I knew the material. I learned it in two days. What I thought would be a cheat sheet turned out to be a study guide and it helped me to get a B.

I was proud of myself, because I didn’t cheat and because I discovered that I was capable of doing some pretty amazing things. If I could learn an entire semester’s worth of material in two days, what else could I do?

(Don’t bust my chops; I realize I cheated myself by not going to class. I’m making a point here, Mom.)

Having a deadline helped. So did the looming potential of a failing grade. But when the chips were down, I found that I could more than I thought, in less time than I thought.

Oh yeah, I got something else out of the experience.

Years later, when I was studying for the Bar exam, even though I had gone to class and done the homework and taken mid-terms and gotten good grades, even though I was well-prepared for the Bar exam, I used my “cheat sheet” idea to create study guides for each subject. I took my all of my notes, and all of the bar review manuals, and everything else I had, and distilled them down to a few pages per subject, and finally, to a single page per subject.

I still wasn’t done. I took those seven or eight pages and reduced them to one. Three years of law school on a one page study guide.

Call me crazy, but there was no way I was going to take the Bar exam again. I didn’t have to, but decades later, I still have dreams about the damn thing.

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Filed Under: Leverage, Personal development Tagged With:

How to create passive income in your law practice

September 15, 2015 by
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I love passive income. You hear me talk about it all the time. Passive income allowed me to retire from the practice of law. Passive income allows me to do what I want with my time because the income comes in whether I work or not.

I enjoy consulting but don’t do much anymore because there’s nothing passive about it. Instead of spending hours each week speaking with lawyers and getting paid once, I’d rather invest my time in creating more passive income.

I built a business years ago that provides me with passive income. It still pays me, month after month, year after year. I also get passive income from my books and courses.

Why earn $500 from consulting when I could spend that time creating a new book or course that pays me $500 per month, every month?

Do it once, get paid over and over again.

Set it and forget it.

Okay, so hurray for me. What about you?

Well, you could create passive income by building a side business like I did (contact me if you want me to show you how), and you could create books and courses or other products that sell over and over again. Or you could invest in income-producing assets.

But maybe none of that is right for you.

Can you use your law practice to build assets that provide you with passive income?

In a way, yes.

Instead of creating intellectual property, you can create relationships.

Find clients who have lots of legal work you can do, instead of one time clients. Find referral sources who can send you new business every month.

You have to spend time nurturing those relationships, and you still have to do the legal work (or supervise the people who do), but once you have a new referral source or client with ongoing work, the work will come to you without you having to do much more.

Not quite true passive income, but close. The next best thing.

Each relationship is an asset that provides cash flow. Each relationship gives you access to everyone in that person’s network.

Robert Kiyosaki said, “The richest people in the world look for and build networks; everyone else looks for work.”

This week, how will you build your network?

How to get more referrals from lawyers

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Leverage, Referral sources, Referrals Tagged With:

Two six-month vacations per year

September 4, 2015 by
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Hey there. I’ve got something to share with you. But it will have to wait. I’ll be back in an hour. . .

Okay, I’m back.

Where did I go? What did I do? I didn’t go anywhere, and I didn’t do anything. I took the hour off because I wanted to prove a point.

My point is that we can all choose how we spend our time. If we want to take an hour off, we can. If we want to take the rest of the day off, we can. If we want to take Friday’s off, we can.

Who says you can’t? Your boss? Your spouse? Your clients? Your creditors? Okay, so you have obligations. I’m not suggesting you shirk them, just that you don’t have to be enslaved by them.

You have free will.

So the question isn’t, “Why can’t you?” it’s “How can you?” How can you take off Friday afternoons if you want to, and still meet your responsibilities?

Come in a little early? Work a little later on Thursdays? Do some work on the weekends?

Think. There are solutions. You can find them.

Once you’ve mastered taking off Friday afternoons, you can work towards taking off every Friday, if that’s what you want to do.

There are solutions and you can find them.

I know professionals who take off an entire week every month of the year. Why couldn’t you?

I know some who take two months vacation every year (and they’re not European). Are you interested?

I know people who have the ultimate goal of taking two six-month vacations every year. Yes, it’s a joke, but for some people, it’s a very real goal. If you have enough cash or income-generating assets or passive income, it can be done.

Start with the end in mind (the goal) and work backwards. What would I have to have? What would I have to do first?

You may have a tough time right now accepting the idea of taking even an hour off in the middle of the day, but you can. Once you get used to it, you can go for two.

It’s your life and you can live it on your terms.

You may have some ‘splainin to do to the people in your life, and you should probably start small and not announce you’re taking the rest of the year off just yet, but you can (eventually) spend your days on Earth any way you choose.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Goal Setting, Leverage, Time Management

You can expect what you inspect

August 13, 2015 by
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In marketing legal services, you need to know your numbers. You need to know where prospects and new clients and website traffic are coming from so you can do more of what’s working and less of what isn’t.

Knowing your numbers allows you to cut expenses (time, money) and increase profits.

For starters, ask your new clients how they heard about you. If they found you through a search engine, ask which one, and which keywords they used. If they saw one of your articles or blog posts or videos, on your site or elsewhere, ask them to identify it. If someone shared one of your blog posts or social media posts, which one?

Do the same for prospects who call to ask questions or schedule a consultation.

If the client or prospect was referred to you, you need to know the source of the referral. Was it a client? Another lawyer or other professional?

Who was it? What did they say about you?

You need to know so you can thank the referral source, even if the referral doesn’t become a client. When you show people that you appreciate what they have done, they are more likely to do it again.

What you recognize, grows.

Of course you also want to know which of your referral sources deserves more of your thanks and your attention. You may know 100 lawyers, but if four or five are sending you more referrals (or better referrals) than the rest, you’ll want to send your referrals to them.

When someone calls your office, they should routinely be asked where they heard about you. Your intake form should ask this question.

Because you need to know.

You can track referrals and other metrics with a simple text document, a spread sheet, or on a legal pad.

Once a month, examine your global numbers, i.e., how much new business (traffic, opt-ins, etc.) you got for the month, and from what sources. If one of your articles is drawing lots of traffic to your site, you need to know this so you can write more articles like it. If you’re getting more business from referrals and less business from social media, knowing this will help you know where to invest your time.

In addition, once a month, look at your numbers for each individual source of business–each ad, your blog, speaking, individual referral sources, etc.

Know your numbers, because you can expect what you inspect.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Referral sources, Referrals

Getting the right things done

July 28, 2015 by
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Venture capitalist Mark Suster has a rule he lives by that helps him be more productive and successful. The rule: “Do Less. More.” It means doing fewer things overall, and getting the right things done. “Success often comes from doing a few things extraordinarily well and noticeably better than the competition,” he says.

Richard Koch, author of The 80/20 Principle, says, “Everyone can achieve something significant. The key is not effort, but finding the right thing to achieve. You are hugely more productive at some things than at others, but dilute the effectiveness of this by doing too many things where your comparative skill is nowhere near as good.”

Koch also says, “Few people take objectives really seriously. They put average effort into too many things, rather than superior thought and effort into a few important things. People who achieve the most are selective as well as determined.”

So, what do you do better than most? What should you focus on? I asked this question in an earlier post:

Look at your practice and tell me what you see.

  • Practice areas: Are you a Jack or Jill of all trades or a master of one? Are you good at many things or outstanding at one or two?
  • Clients: Do you target anyone who needs what you do or a very specifically defined “ideal client” who can hire you more often, pay higher fees, and refer others like themselves who can do the same?
  • Services: Do you offer low fee/low margin services because they contribute something to overhead or do you keep your overhead low and maximize profits?
  • Fees: Do you trade your time for dollars or do you get paid commensurate with the value you deliver?
  • Marketing: Do you do too many things that produce no results, or modest results, or one or two things that bring in the bulk of your new business?
  • Time: Do you do too much yourself, or do you delegate as much as possible and do “only that which only you can do”?
  • Work: Do you do everything from scratch or do you save time, reduce errors, and increase speed by using forms, checklists, and templates?

Leverage is the key to the 80/20 principle. It is the key to getting more done with less effort and to earning more without working more.

Take some time to examine your practice, and yourself. Make a short list of the things you do better than most and focus on them. Eliminate or delegate the rest.

Do Less. More.

This will help with getting the right things done

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Filed Under: Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Productivity, success Tagged With: , , ,
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