Building A Law Firm

No More Excuses Every two weeks I have a meeting with a couple of financial advisors. They are more than just referral partners, they are friends. Almost every time, without fail, by the end our lunch we start talking about marketing and what everyone is doing to get business. They keep telling me the same things over and over - and all of these entail a lot of work, a lot of hours, and a lot of grinding (think old school outreach). Then I tell them what I'm doing... a little networking, consistent content creation, and things are going really well. Next (and remember, this happens EVERY time) they ask me some specifics about what I do from a content creation and distribution standpoint. So I tell them. And EVERY TIME I start telling them what I do I immediately get push back with excuses. "This won't work because of 'x'." "This won't work because of 'y'." "It sounds like it's going to take a lot of time." "I'm not sure what to create." The thing is, I hear the same thing from all of you all the ti

How I'd Spend $500 on Law Firm Marketing So you've got an extra $500 in the bank account and you know you should be using it on law firm marketing but you're not sure what to do? Today I'm going to tell you what I'd do with it (and you might want to listen since what I'm going to tell you is what I'm ACTUALLY doing in my law firm to get new clients every day). 1. BEFORE we even get to what we'd do with the $500 for law firm marketing we need to do something VERY important... We need to do a little math. We need to figure out how we are going to know if this $500 law firm marketing advertising budget is working or not. Fortunately for me (and for most lawyers out there) the math is simple. All you need to know is if the money you spent resulted in you having more money in your bank account or less money in your bank account. And here's a quick tip for you - money in bank account = good. Money not in bank account = bad. For example, my typical client comes in at about $2,000. That means, for me, with a

5 Law Firm Lessons Learned from Vacation A few weeks ago I took a vacation. We packed up our bags and went to Palm Spring, California for 6 days. I played golf, I jumped in the pool, I went to Stagecoach, I hung with my family, I had a really fun time. On the way home from the vacation I was reflecting a little bit on our time there and putting it into context with where I originally was in my law firm ownership journey. I realized something, in fact, 5 things. I wanted to talk about those right here. 1. Your law firm won't fail. No matter how scary it might seem to leave your business for a few days, going on vacation will NOT spell the demise of your business. It's simply a fear your subconscious mind creates to mess with you. When I left for that amount of time I actually got back with more business, not less. My firm was better off, not worse. This may not be the case for you, because you may not have the systems or framework in place for your business to run while you are gone, BUT you can and S

How to Get Your Law Firm into the Google Maps 3 Pack In my private Facebook group for my Lifestyle Law Firm Accelerator peeps someone asked a question about getting their law firm into the Google Maps 3 pack. More specifically, their question was about paying someone five hundred dollars a month to do this! I told her not to worry, getting into the three pack wasn't that difficult IF she followed my advice and did what I suggested she do. Here's what I told her: 1. Claim your google maps profile This might be an obvious step one, but it's something a lot of people miss. To do this, just google "how to claim my google maps profile" and you'll find the directions. 2. Build out your profile COMPLETELY Once you've got that claimed, you are going to want to build that thing out as much as you can. Add in pictures, videos, descriptions, and anything else you can think of. 3. Start creating regular content Google wants to put businesses that are relevant in the google maps three pack. Therefore, having goo

What I Would Do If I Were Starting a Law Firm From Scratch TODAY I figured today would be a good day to get a little tactical and stop talking about mindset all the time when it comes to starting a law firm. So today we're going to hop in the hypothetical machine and imagine what I'd do if I were starting a law firm today. I came up with 4 things I'd do right off the bat, and you're probably going to think they are a little strange (just trust me, it works). So, if you are starting a law firm and looking for a plan of action or an old pro looking for some ideas for jumpstarting your law firm, here you go. 1. Get online calendar to auto-book appointments. https://buildingalawfirm.com/acuity 2. Get email autoresponder program. https://buildingalawfirm.com/activecampaign 3. Zapier 4. Hire VA to answer the phone (I use conversational reception). To get the details, and the full story, listen to the episode. Cheers. Christopher Small P.S. - Looking for the formula to create a law firm that gives you

Your Lawyer Ego is Your Enemy Ever wonder why starting a law firm is so hard? Why your law firm marketing efforts don't work? Why, no matter what you do you seem to always regress to the middle? The reason is simple - your ego is getting in the way. In this week's episode I talk all about my conversation with my friend Ryan, a chiropractor and business owner, about why it's so hard for professionals to get out of their own way when it comes to starting and running a successful business. A couple of things to consider: Are you worried how people view your skills as an attorney? Are you afraid of giving up control of your legal work to someone else ("no one can do it as good as I can" is a sign this is a yes for you)? Are you against marketing because you think it's unprofessional? If any of these ring true then this is a must watch episode for you. Cheers. Christopher Small P.S. - Wish you could own a business that would make great money AND allow you to pursue your passions and live your best lif

Pricing Law Firm Services Clients Can't Wait to Pay Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with one of my law firm owner clients about pricing. He was trying to figure out how to price a one off product he was presenting to a client and he was having trouble settling on a price. See, he'd already made the fantastic decision to stop billing by the hour and instead bill for value (which means thinking about what the client is actually getting instead of figuring out how many hours something will take and adding that all together). As we talked through the process of valuing this offer, something hit me - there is a tremendous amount of perceived value in IMMEDIATE cost savings or tangible results when compared to long-term results. To give you an example, when an estate planning client comes into my office and I tell them I can save them $50K this year on their taxes they experience a lot more value than if I told them I could save them $500K after they were dead. It's the immediacy coupled with the

Should I Start a Law Firm YouTube Show? To answer this question I must first ask you a couple of other questions. 1. Are you interested in being seen as a thought leader in your law firm/city/practice area? 2. Are you interested in people coming to see you ready to sign up? 3. Are you interested in ways to create trust without having to do anything personally? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you MUST have a YouTube show for your law firm. Yes, a law firm YouTube show works wonders for SEO. Yes it helps great for exposure. But it does one thing that is hard to do any where else - it allows you to create a personal connection with a potential client BEFORE they meet you. If you are starting a law firm or own a law firm and are looking for law firm marketing ideas, don't do anything until you start a law firm YouTube show. Post a new episode every week and in no time you'll have steady, amazing potential clients coming through your door. You must listen to this episode. It's a game ch

 Great Law Firm Owners Don't Have to Wake Up Early For some reason I had it in my head recently that to be successful I had to wake up early. I spent a lot of time thinking about what a great law firm owner I'd be when I started waking up at 5 am every day. The journaling I'd do. The meditating. The reading. The legal work. It was going to be AMAZING. And then something happened that kind of threw it all off. The alarm started going off at 5 am, and I didn't wake up. EVER. On the 10th day I finally called it quits. No more 5 am wake ups (or alarm bells, I guess, since I never work up). That's what today's episode is all about - finding the right path for YOU to be successful with your law firm. Listen in to get the full scoop. Cheers. Christopher Small P.S. - Looking for the formula to create a law firm that gives you the lifestyle you want? Then you'll want to see my three secrets to creating a lifestyle law firm.

Your Attitude is Your Liability I had a conversation with an Infinity Clients Workshop member the other day that really kind of made me mad. See, things weren't going well for him. He was encountering a lot of resistance in his life. And while he was telling me what was going on I kept hearing a theme repeated over and over and over. "They" are doing x, y, and z. And "they" aren't doing x, y, and z. And if only "they" would change what they were doing things would be wonderful. It was at that point that we started talking about what the real problem was - HIM. If you find yourself blaming others for the things happening around you. If you find yourself frustrated that the world is not working the way that you want. If you wish there was a way to turn the ship, to get things working properly, and to get the fires that pop up in your life out of sight, then I've got good news for you. This episode will help with that. Cheers. Christopher Small P.S. - Wish you could own a business that would make gr

5 Mistakes of Struggling Law Firm Owners I see it all the time. Law firm owners struggling. Grinding hard but not seeing the results they want. And they can't figure out what the problem is. Well, today I decided to tackle five of the most common mistakes I see struggling law firm owners make. 1. Negotiating 2. Scarcity mindset 3. Inconsistent 4. Wrong priorities 5. Wrong sequence If you want the full explanation of these, listen to the podcast. Cheers. Christopher Small P.S. - Looking for the formula to create a law firm that gives you the lifestyle you want? Then you'll want to see my three secrets to creating a lifestyle law firm.

Q2 Law Firm Goals In the last episode I looked back at my Q1 law firm goals and reflected on how I'd done and the progress I made. This time we're looking forward to Q2 and laying out our law firm goals. To get the full scoop you're going to have to listen to the episode, but I can tell you a couple of things I'm going to be focusing on this quarter: 1. Creating good habits around scheduling, particularly around waking up at a specific time and completing a morning routine. 2. Focusing planning for the next day at the end of the previous day. 3. Setting aside specific time to get specific tasks done that I know will grow my law firm and get me to where I want to go. I am implementing these ideas and goals based on an exercise I did about identifying EXACTLY where I want to go and how I want to get there. You must listen to this episode. It's a game changer. Cheers. P.S. - I've got a ton of free resources for you. Click here to take a look.

Law Firm Goals Q1 Review Can you believe the first quarter of 2018 is already over? Are you and your law firm where you expected you'd be right now? Sadly (though expectedly), I'm NOT where I thought I would be. In fact, I'm not anywhere CLOSE to where I thought I'd be. Do you want to know why? Do you want to know how you can use my shortcomings and my process with your own law firm? Then you'll want to make sure you check out this episode. Cheers. Christopher Small P.S. - I've got a ton of free training for you. Click here to check it out.

 How I Create Systems and Processes Systems and processes are everything. I have a coaching client who knows how valuable they are, is dying to create/implement them, but just can't. His excuse is that he just doesn't have enough time. Here's the truth - you don't need time. You can start your law firm, build your law firm, and build processes and systems at the same time. Today I'm going to tell you how I do it, and the simplicity of it all is going to blow your mind. If you want to take the next step with your law firm, if you want live the life of your dreams, you'll listen to or watch this episode and get going right away. Cheers. Christopher Small P.S. - Have you seen all of the free resources I put together for law firm owners? Click here to check it out..

Why You Should Avoid Bitcoin Bitcoin was, for a long time, the hottest thing going. The returns were staggering. There seemed to be no end in sight to it's growth. We all know things have changed recently, but I wanted to talk about why you should have never invested in Bitcoin in the first place. The fact is, you already have an investment vehicle at your fingertips that can give you 100%, 200%, even 100% returns. All you have to do is pour your money into it and watch it grow. And the best thing about all of this is that there is very little downside to this investment. What investment am I talking about that can give you better returns than Bitcoin? Your law firm. Starting a law firm is the best investment you can make. The returns are great. You have total control. And there is safety in ownership. When it comes to investing of any kind, when you are first starting out or you have let to get deeply established, no other investing makes sense other than in your business. Not retirement accounts.

How to Create a Lifestyle Law Firm I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is, it is 100% possible to create a lifestyle law firm. What is that? It's the thing that allows you to do EXACTLY what you want to do. Spend time with family. Golf. Make beer. Draw. Practice law. Whatever that thing is that you want to do, the lifestyle law firm supports you in that endeavor. The bad news is, there are no shortcuts, and if you do it wrong you get the OPPOSITE of the lifestyle law firm - you get trapped in a job that gives you anything but the life that you wanted. So, how do you get there? Easy. You get there the same way you get to a 7 figure law firm. You market. You niche down. You create systems. You utilize leverage. You network. You win. The only difference is that you level off and just maintain when you get to where you want to be. If you want to learn more, watch the video. Cheers. Christopher Small P.S. - Have you seen all of the free resources I put together for law firm owners? Cli

It's Time to Stop Talking... Do any of these things sound familiar to you? "I need to work ON my business instead of IN my business." "I just don't have time to create content." "I need to do a little more research on that thing before I launch it." "I'm perfecting it a little more and plan to finalize it soon." If so, then today's podcast is for you. The theme is to STOP TALKING AND START DOING. No more researching, procrastinating, excuses, catchy phrases, or anything else that lets you off the hook from actually taking action. If you want to get to where you want to go you've got to get your ass in gear. So, today, instead of talking about what you're going to do get out there and do it! Cheers. Christopher Small P.S. - I've got a ton of free training for you. Click here to check it out.

Networking Secrets: Be Selfish... When it comes to networking and starting your law firm it's really easy to fall into the habit of saying yes to everything. Yes, I'll take that coffee with you. Yes, I'll go that "networking" event. Yes, I'll go to that bar association event. When I look back on that time spent, however, I realize that, while it felt good at the time in reality it was a huge waste of time. What I should have been doing instead was being selfish with my time. I should have been asking myself what the expectations were from spending time at this event. I should have been asking myself if that coffee meeting at least checks the boxes for what the minimum requirements are for my network partners (1 - in an industry that can refer; 2 - enough experience to be generating their own business; 3 - they look cool from a distance). If not, I should have started saying no to those meetings. Eventually I did start doing that. My good relationships grew even stronger and my time opened up for doi

Law Firm Mindset Secrets: The 25 Hour Work Week I was sitting around the other day thinking about everyone in Infinity Clients Workshop and how I could better help them get ahead with their law firms and I started doing some calculating. My law firm is successful by the measure of most people, including myself. In year one we did right at $100K. In year two we were just under $200K. And in year three I'm shooting for $400K. The thing is, I have a lot of other stuff going on. 3 kids under the age of 5. A golf addiction that takes me out of the office nearly every Friday, rain, snow, or shine. And a couple of other businesses I run (including this one). After taking all of that into account I calculated that I'm probably only working on my law firm 25 HOURS A WEEK! Isn't that crazy? After doing those calculations I decided I'd talk about how I do it. That's what today's episode is all about... Cheers. Christopher Small P.S. - Interested in learning how to create a law firm that caters to your life

SEO Secrets: How Long Before My Law Firm SEO Works? When I started my first law firm 8 years ago or so I thought SEO was the best thing since sliced bread. It was easy. It was cheap. It was effective. That trifecta was a winning combination in my book. And I used law firm SEO to make a lot of money. Then things changed. First, the rules changed. It became a lot harder to do what I used to do and stay out of trouble. And second, the market changed - everyone and their brother became an SEO expert ready to help you get to the top of the search engines for only $3K/month. The truth is, law firm SEO can work. But the hard truth is you are probably approaching it all wrong. The timeline for law firm SEO should be into perpetuity. It should be something you work on all the time, forever. If you want to learn more, watch the video. Cheers. Christopher Small P.S. - Still stuck? Come and check out Infinity Clients Workshop and hang with other successful law firm owners AND get the strategies and tactics I'v