Building A Law Firm

The world moves in cycles. Every up has a down. We've been up for a long time (7-10 years) and we're due for a down cycle. Is your law firm ready for a crash? After this it will be. Here are three ways to prepare for the pending economic downturn. 1. Perfect Your Systems Efficient systems ensure a few different things. First, they ensure a great working environment. Second, they ensure a great customer experience. Third, they ensure a steady flow of clients to your law firm day after day. These three truths operate in reality whether times are good or bad. The better your client and marketing systems are, the more equipped your law firm will be to handle a crash. 2. Create A War Chest There is nothing safer and more comforting than cash. Cash pays the bills. Cash keeps employees around. And cash gives you the freedom to make rational decisions when things aren't going well. I'm building up a war chest right now. My goal is to have one years worth of cash on hand at all times. I'm not doing this

There are two ways to get successful at it. [1] Try and fail. Try and fail. Try and fail. Try and succeed. The downside to this method is that the try and fail cycle can last an extremely long time. You can't be sure if you're on the right track. You can't see the roadblock ahead. All learning is experiential. [2] Get a coach and go fast. LeBron James has a coach. Jordan Spieth has a coach. I have a coach. My coaches have coaches. The reason for this is simple. Coaches help you go fast. They can see your blind spots. They've seen people where you want to be and have experienced those people getting there. They know the trials and tribulations you are going to face and know how to help you navigate them so you can face them and beat them without having to try and fail time and time again. If you are tired of spinning your wheels I'd suggest you look into getting some coaching. Yes, it costs money. But the value is immeasurable. You just have to ask yourself if you want to go slow and try and f

There are a couple of people in the Building a Law Firm Facebook group (if you aren't in there yet what are you doing?!) that are law school students thinking about opening their law firms right out of school. There are whole bunch of limiting beliefs that come with that, and if you pile on some bad advice it could be a recipe for disaster. So I thought I'd drop some knowledge for you today and tell you what I'd do if I were a law school student starting a law firm. Pick a Niche Niches get riches. Experts get paid. Handymen work until they die. That's it. If you want to be a handyman, stuck on the treadmill of life, then be my guest. If you want to win, pick a niche. And if you're not sure what you want to do because you're a law school student starting a law firm there's an easy solution - while you are in school go work for different people for free. See how the sausage is made and find something you like. Charge Flat Fees Ours is one of only a few industries where the better you get at something th

How many heart surgeons do you know that also do brain surgery? How many Mexican restaurants also serve Italian food? Not very many. And certainly not the good ones. Then why do you think it's okay to have three or four different practice areas with your law firm? When starting a law firm it is so easy to fall into the multiple practice area trap. You have no money. You have no clients. And you want a lot of both. Someone calls you and needs help with something. You feel like you have to say yes so you can eat. It's this scarcity mindset that will wreak havoc on you for the rest of your days, prevent you from charging the fees that you deserve and working with the clients you want. Picking isn't tough. There is no right answer. You just choose. And from that moment on you are that type of lawyer. Do you have the guts to do what is right for your law firm?

We all know how important it is for a law firm owner to have a unique competitive advantage. We sit and we think about what that can be. And then we think some more. And eventually we all come up with the same ideas: Experience Price Results Process The problem is that the fact that all of these are the same things everyone else comes up with automatically knocks it out of the unique competitive advantage category. Everyone racing after those things makes everyone blend right back in together. Your Unique Competitive Advantage is YOU Oddly (and amazingly), enough, your unique competitive advantage is sitting right in front of you. You might not see it right now. You might be scared shitless to let it out. But your unique competitive advantage is YOU. There is no one else like you. No one with your style. No one with your philosophy. No one with your approach. The sooner you come to grips with that, the sooner you own that, the sooner people start knocking down your door to work with you. If you

I was talking to a BLF Society member the other day and we were talking about going after some new business. "You should take on some probate clients ASAP," I said. "Easy money." "Yeah," he said. "I've been thinking about it, I just want to make sure I know enough about probate before I get started." Destroyed by a desire to be perfect. Today's podcast is simply a reminder to stop doing that. Perfection = Time = Safety The sooner you realize that chasing perfection is really a sneaky way for your subconscious to hide from failure, the sooner you'll see unparalleled success. The thing about perfection is that it is never realized. There is always another question to be answered. There is always another case to read. There is always another scenario to figure out. The pursuit of perfection of your work is okay, but you've got to be able to put out product fast. Take Action. Figure It Out Later. Think about when you opened your law firm. How much did you really know? How much did you learn once you

We all have experience problem clients with our law firms before. Think, for a second, about those problem law firm clients. Now, instead of your client's face, I want you to see yourself doing the exact same thing. Because, unbeknownst to you, you are doing some things that your problem law firm clients are doing, and it's costing you... Don't Believe You Have All the Answers You ever have that client that just knows everything? Everything you say they respond with "oh yeah, I knew that." And, on top of that, they don't want to hear anything you have to say because they believe they already know everything they need to know on the subject. In many ways in your role as a law firm owner you fall into this trap. I hope you are educated on how to marketing your law firm and start your law firm. But there is so much more out there that you haven't even sniffed yet (me too). Don't miss out on that. Listen You ever have a client that just won't listen to you? No matter what they say they just aren't paying

For some reasons law firm SEO wraps around most law firm owners like a warm blanket. It's something we can see, it's something we can track, and it seems like it should be something that if we had more of it we'd make more money. Unfortunately that's not the case. Law Firm SEO is a Joke You are the only one that's not in on it yet. If you don't believe me just do me a quick favor and google your favorite lawyer search term. I guarantee you this is what you will see: [1] A set of 3-4 advertisements; [2] A set of 3-5 google map listings; [3] Way down the page some organic search results (that are typically avvo or yelp. It's important that you can't and YOU DON'T WANT TO win this game. It's for suckers. To find out why law firm SEO is broken, listen to the podcast.

One thing that really confused me when I started my law firm was how fast it should be growing. I had big goals, but I wasn't sure if they were appropriate, reasonable, or even in the ball park of what was to be expected. All I knew was that I wanted my business to keep growing and keep growing fast, and I was going to do whatever I could to make my law firm the best it could be. Fast forward now to my second law firm startup and I've got a pretty good barometer for what to expect when it comes to growth. And the starting a law firm math is pretty easy. [Year 1] In year one you should literally just make as much money as you can and keep as much in the business as you can. Pay your bills, eat, and invest the rest of that money into hiring a coach to help you go even faster. When you get to the end of year one tally it all up and see where you are. [Year 2] The math for year two is easy. Take year one, multiply it by two, and you've got your goal. By the end of year one you should have your general

I used to believe that long-term goals were important for starting a law firm. What I mean is, I'd make plans for 3, 5, and 10 years out, and sometimes I would do something and say to myself "this doesn't make that much sense in the short-term, but long-term it's going to work out amazingly." Well, all of that has changed. Sort of. Lately I've been thinking about what I'm doing on a daily basis and I came to a conclusion everything that is good for the short-term is good for the long-term. This is true particularly if what you are doing in the short-term is good for your clients and good for your business (i.e. you aren't scamming people). The point here is to stop making excuses for not making sales calls, for not following up, for not creating content because you are too busy doing stuff for the long-term. Start setting meetings. Start making sales. Start creating satisfied clients. That's good for the short-term and long-term success of your law firm. Don't forget to pick up your free starting a l

You need to be creating content right now. Not tomorrow, not the day after. You don’t need to plan. You don’t need to come up with a list to talk about. That content can be all kinds of fun stuff. It can be frequently asked questions. That’s probably the easiest to start. You should also be doing audio and video and written content. You can do them all at once. You can do three out of one. You just turn your camera phone on, hit the record button. Answer a question, answer like you’re talking to somebody else and you put that thing on YouTube, pull out the audio, make a podcast, make a blog post and put both of those things on it and you’re good to go. You get clients from the content that you create. It makes people feel that they know you. The other content you can crate is social media content. In particular, LinkedIn and Facebook depending on who your clients are. If your clients are businesses, you might want to consider LinkedIn. On a truly social basis, Facebook is a gold mine. There are groups, you c

When you’re starting and building it’s important to just focus on the essentials and then add that other stuff if you need to and as you can afford it. Essential number one is you’ve got to have a practice area. Niches get riches. If you aren’t focusing on one space, if you’re not letting everybody know that you’re good in one thing then you’re missing out in an amazing opportunity in the short and long term. When you can tell somebody that you are good in one thing and you are the best, people will come to you for that. If you do multiple things, you’re messages are weaker, vague and cloudy. Essential number two is delving a little deeper and deciding you’re ideal client within that niche. For example, families with more than 3 million dollars in assets. Will you take other clients? Yes, you help everybody but your marketing, messaging, tone and advertising are geared towards your ideal client. The quicker you do this, the quicker you get clients because you’ll be able to speak specifically to the people t

In reality this is a check, a reminder, that image does matter. The way that people see you and the way you are perceived matters. It matters with the type of clients that you get, the people that will work with you, the people who will take the next step to learn more about you. 1. You are not using a unique URL for your email Having an email ending with gmail.com, aol.com and other public domains is unprofessional. Having a unique URL is cheap and very easy. It’s very easy for people to refer you. This makes a big difference. People can make decisions with this small items. 2. You have a fallback which says that you don’t have to do it Your initial response should be – I wonder if that will work. I should try and experiment or any alternative. You should think how you can make it work. Try to see everything as an experiment and as testing as a hypothesis. If you think that it won’t work, then you’ll not get anywhere. Unitl you can adopt a can do attitude, you won’t be a PRO. 3. You believe that you don’

Creating a name in the industry helps to build trust. It helps to build expertise. It helps to create rapport with your audience with your potential clients. It also helps get referral from professional connections. When you can be seen as someone who really knows their craft, good things happen. If I ask you, who is a really good ‘blank’ that you have? For example, if you ask me, who is a really good estate planning attorney, besides yourself? I won’t be able to tell because I don’t know a lot of estate planners. but even if I did it would be difficult to say who is good and who is not. Think of how you’re gonna make that decision if somebody ask you that same question? What you would do is sort of you go to their resume. What accolades do they have at the back of their name? you would think about where they have spoken. You would think about, maybe, the clients that they have. It’s difficult. And because it’s difficult, it’s an opportunity to shape your reputation and the people see you as a thought leader

The sooner that you understand that law firm marketing is a numbers game, the sooner your business will take off. There are people who carry their chickens before they’re hatched. There are lawyers who have posted online that they had a great meeting or consultation but in the end these people don’t sign up. This ruin the lawyer’s confidence, his day or his week. There are also people who are crying who thinks “What am I doing wrong?” You should realize that business is a numbers game. Law firm marketing is a numbers game. All of a sudden nay one person that you’re talking to becomes less important and less critical to the success of your business and when that happens a bunch of different things will happen. The potential clients will sense that the supply and demand curve have switched and the demand is higher and the supply is shorter. This will make them want to sign up with you more. You will also relax and have the confidence that confidence that people are looking for when they want to hire somebody t

Why is Facebook so important? It’s really critically important that you learn how to use it professionally. You can hire people to manage your Facebook page like an intern so it could be cheap or free. There are people right now who are using Facebook and if you don’t get into the game, in years, you’re gonna be playing catch up. If you’re new to the game, then it’s perfect. If you’re not creating great content, a lot of people are in front of you. You need to create content of Facebook because it gives people a way to know who you are. Why Facebook? There are 234 million monthly users. That’s Canada and United States combined. And it’s growing every month. People are getting in touch with their families so the people who are using it includes the older ones. It’s the same with Instagram. The second reason why you want to use Facebook is for targeting and retargeting. You have the ability to get in touch with people and enter yourself into their lives in a good way. The third reason is even though that the

Some of you are not doing so well. Some of you are not achieving the results that you want. You are not seeing the results that you need and you’re not sure why. This is in no particular order. First reason: You care what people think. You’re scared of what people would think. You’re afraid that other attorneys would think that you’re not good. You’re scared that clients would not like you. You’re scared that the prosecutor would not think you’re coo. You’re scared that your peers would not recognize you for being a good attorney. You’re scared that people would think that you’re not a great business owner. The point is you’re just worried of what people are thinking. The sooner that you get that out of your brain and the sooner that you can internalize success and everything you do to the point that the only thing you care about is whether or not you are doing the things you know will get you to where you want to go, then you’re gonna be holding yourself back. This is where self-awareness will come to play

The 3rd component of law firm marketing machine is ‘Networking’. This gets into the sort of trust part of business. it’s not necessary being friends but just having someone you can trust. You want to see the success of your network as well. They get to know about you, your family, your dreams, your goals and people can’t help but want to be a part of that success. That’s what network can get you. Keane Ng, who is a very good mortgage broker and also a greatness tracker subscriber, networking has come out in one of his trainings before. If it comes to networking, it’s really easy to get trapped. If you constantly go to coffees and lunches and make calls, reach out and do things then it can become a job in itself. There is a fine line between networking and becoming a slave to the network. Networking is definitely a component and it can get your business up from the beginning. It can work, you should utilize it. you should just be careful about putting all your eggs into one basket even in the networking bask

This is very important particularly in the modern age. There are a lot of people who are better than you or as good as you. It’s really important to be intentional in building the brand of you. This episode is born out of a lot of from observation. What is not observed is any sort of differentiation from anyone which is not good. 1. DRESS NICELY If you can stand out, all the better. Anytime people can remember you. First impressions make a huge difference. You have the ability to control your first impression 100%. Take advantage of it. As an example, every time I go to the office I wear a suite even if I don’t have meetings. To everyone in the building I’m known as the guy who wears a suit. the suits need not to be expensive, but they fit well. You know you look good when people tell you that. take some time to know what looks good on you. I’m not saying that you wear a suit every day but what I’m saying is don’t blend in with everybody. Have clothes that fit right and make you look great. 2. ALWAYS BE YOU

This episode is focused on the 2nd step of the law firm marketing machine which is content. Content is extremely valuable - but why? Here are some reasons why you should be creating content on a regular basis. It will allow you to establish expertise. It will create trust. It will differentiate you from everyone else. Plain ol’ SEO. What do we talk about? Answer frequently asked questions. You can do case studies. You can talk about myths related to your practice area. You can do expert interviews. You can talk about your philosophy, values, and your story. How do we create content? Create one piece of content and use it in different ways like using it is a podcast, a video, or a blog. It is important to remember that in this day and age, if someone is referred to you, they initially Google you. So with content available, it builds your credibility and they will immediately assume that you are an expert in your practice area. Links Mentioned in the Show Building a Law Firm Website buildingalawfirm.co