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Rainmaker Report
Practice Building Tips for Today's Attorneys
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February 2017
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888-588-5891
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8 Tips For a Balanced Life & Better Law Firm in 2017
If there is one thing that all the attorneys I've trained (18,000+ and counting) have in common, it's that they are ALL too busy.
Busy generating leads. Busy meeting with prospects. Busy preparing for trial. Busy running their business. Busy going to court. Busy putting out fires. Busy going to networking events. Busy, busy, busy!
Have you made a resolution that "this year my life will be different" - that you'll actually carve out the time you need to enjoy your life?
Unfortunately, that rarely happens. This is usually because most of us don't know how to prioritize when a million demands are being made of us. We react, rather than consciously act.
As you gear up for 2017,
consider this useful advice on how to prioritize your days, starting with the activities that provide the highest ROI on your time investment.
Sincerely,
Stephen Fairley
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1. First, write down your goals.
I'm not a big believer in "resolutions," but I am a believer in writing down my goals. For the last five years I've taken time at the beginning of each year to write down my personal, relationship, and business goals. When I did this a funny thing started happening, I started achieving more of them.
Whether it was the simple act of formalizing them in writing or being clear about how I would measure my success, I don't care. I now write down annual goals and monthly goals and keep them on my cell phone where I can easily review them at any time. For this year I have ten business goals and ten personal goals. begins.
2. Second, do the one thing that is most important to you personally.
Maybe it's breakfast with the kids. Maybe it's starting to write that book you've always wanted to write. If you don't do the one thing that means the most to you in the world, years will go by and you will regret it. If it's a series of events set them as appointments in your calendar. If it's a project, break it down into bite sized chunks.
3. Third, find someone to hold you accountable.
Achieving your goals long-term requires accountability (generally not your significant other). Whether it's a business coach, a colleague, or a close friend, you need to find someone to share your goals with and ask them to hold you accountable each month. Once per month I meet with a group of other like-minded business owners to go over my goals and talk about ways to grow my business.
4. Next, do the one thing that is most important to the health of your law practice.
For most of us, it is doing something that will increase revenues - and that usually means marketing or sending out invoices. When you make marketing a priority, you are ensuring that the one thing that feeds your business - new clients - doesn't dry up for lack of attention.
Lawyers are notoriously bad at sending out invoices on a timely basis. Require yourself and your team to input their billable time at the end of every day. A recent ABA article estimates lawyers underestimate their billable time by 20-30% when they don't immediately put it into their time and billing software. Make it a point to send out invoices every month, like clockwork.
Put someone, other than yourself, in charge of emailing and calling clients who are more than two weeks overdue in their payments. Once an account becomes more than 90 days overdue the chances of collecting it are very slim.
5. Next, do the one thing that is most important to fulfilling your business obligations.
This is all the stuff you have to do to stay in business. And it's not just taking depositions and working on case files, it's the entirety of serving clients how they deserve to be treated. And that starts with hiring great people to serve them. Some thoughts on that:
- Only hire passionate, smart people. Put together a process for hiring that ensures you get the best possible people. Ask people what they are passionate about. It's hard to motivate someone to care about producing excellent work if they don't care about anything in life.
- Ask for references. Be sure you actually call or contact them.
- Get rid of the weak links. Bad employees kill the motivation in good ones. As soon as you discover you have a rotten apple, toss it.
- Give them freedom. Good people hate being micro-managed, so as soon as they have proven themselves, give your employees the freedom to do their jobs. If they have a great idea for doing something different than the way you've always done it, listen. Incentivize them for ways to cut costs and serve clients better.
- Make it easy for them to do their jobs. Why make it more difficult for your folks by having outdated systems, tools, technology, or processes? There are so many great automated tools out there to make the work process go more smoothly; invest in as many as you can and you will reap the benefits in a better work product from your people.
- Celebrate! I love to celebrate with the people I work with, whether it's an informal lunch in the office where we can spend a little downtime just shooting the breeze or it's a big holiday party.
6. Next, do the one thing that is most important to your current business operations.
This category not only includes answering emails, returning phone calls, putting better systems into place - all the stuff that is essential to your current business operations - but also ensuring you have written systems in place to automate as much of your operations as possible. These include:
- Processes and procedures to capture major marketing metrics and data. You have to know the "lay of the land" if you are to be effective.
- Tracking mechanisms to measure lead sources and results. Know where your referrals and leads come from and chart the volume of those leads and referrals.
- Reports for tracking the effectiveness of your law firm marketing efforts. You have to know what is working and what is not. Don't waste time and money on techniques that are not effective for you.
- Metrics for quantifying ROI of all major marketing initiatives. If technique A has a ROI of 10 and Technique B has a ROI of 5, which one should receive the bulk of your attention?
- An online marketing system to generate leads and prospects. Use your website, blogs, news releases and YouTube videos to help generate leads for your firm.
- A system to develop relationships with potential referral sources and generate consistent referrals. Take people to lunch. Meet face-to-face and ask how you can help them with their business.
- A system for connecting with prospects, clients and referral sources on a regular, consistent basis. This includes monthly newsletters, annual client satisfaction surveys, keep-in-touch letters, referral education system, etc.
Be sure to train your staff on how to use the systems you have put in place. The best plans in the world are useless if they are not implemented consistently.
7. Next, do the one thing that has been nagging at you - it's an obligation that has to get done, but is not necessarily critical to your business.
If you made a commitment, honor it. You don't want to be known as being untrustworthy, but when you're running a firm, these items usually fall to the bottom of the to-do list.
8. Finally, go live your life.
Are you working so you can work more, or so you can have a better life? No one on their deathbed ever wished for more money, they wish for more time. If you don't take the time out to enjoy the fruits of your labors, you are missing the whole point (plus a lot more).
If you're ready to take your firm to the next level this year and would like some assistance in creating a lifestyle law firm, I invite you to sign up for a complimentary strategy session with one of our trained Rainmaker Law Marketing Consultants by calling 888-588-5891 or filling out this form.
If you'd like to learn more proven strategies for business development, I invite you to attend a Rainmaker Retreat, our two-day law firm marketing workshop. We have sessions every month around the country - go to RainmakerRetreat.com to check the schedule.
We have helped over 18,000 attorneys across the nation discover the secrets in building a financially successful and personally satisfying legal practice and we would love for your law firm be our next success story!
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 UPCOMING EVENTS
Are you ready to discover proven strategies that will move you closer to achieving a lifestyle law firm in 2017? The
Rainmaker Retreat is our 2-day Marketing Boot Camp where we teach lawyers how they can have it all; increase the number of clients they have, double their income, and yet work less.
Friday, March 10 & Saturday, March 11
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Friday, March 24 &
Saturday, March 25
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Friday, April 7 &
Saturday, April 8
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Our Client Spotlight:
Gary Medlin of The Medlin Law Firm
Gary Medlin shares with us his journey from Chief Prosecutor to building his own criminal defense firm. In this interview, he explains how he achieved an incredible 80% growth from 2015 to 2016.
Read the interview |
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"How to Develop Your Law Firm Marketing Plan"
Join us for this
60 minute free webinar to learn the step-by-step actions you should take throughout the course of the next 12 months to substantially increase your revenues.
Get a preview of what you will learn at the Rainmaker Retreat, our 2-day marketing boot camp. Also find out why a thousand attorneys across the country attend and rave about the Rainmaker Retreat. Capacity is Limited.
Upcoming dates:
Tuesday, February 21 at 1:00 pm (in your local time zone)
Thursday, February 23 at 11:00 am (in your local time zone)
Learn More
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