Think Inside The Box
New attorneys want to be clever. It might be because they’re younger and more in touch with technology so they want to be novel. Maybe it’s because they see how hard it is to build a profitable client base and they’re desperate to try something new. Maybe it’s because what they’ve been doing haven’t been working so they think a clever marketing idea would work. Whatever the reason, thinking outside the box is great but only after you’ve thought inside the box.
Inside the box is the foundation – the basics. Our quick pace world leads us naturally to skip steps. We want to get to step 3 by skipping step 2. It doesn’t work that way. Marketing and building a successful practice takes time and it takes a good foundation to keep it going.
There will always be some new technology or new marketing idea and you’ll want to try it and that’s fine. But try it with the knowledge that if it fails to produce the results you want, you will still have other avenues of income.
Old Fashion Resources for Starting a Law Firm
…By old fashion, I mean traditional paper books. When I started my law practice 3 years ago, I didn’t read real books to learn the how-tos – I used the internet and listservs and forums to get the information I need. However, there are those that like a book in hand. Here are two of the leading books on the topic of starting a law firm and how to succeed.
Carolyn Elefant’s book “Solo by Choice: How to be the lawyer you always wanted to be” is cited often as the modern Foonberg (next on the list) book. I’ve had the pleasure of having her donate a copy to me for the Mass Bar and I read through it. It is very informative, of course – but what surprises me is that she lays out more than one road to success. That makes sense because not every lawyer wants to build a large firm and multi-million dollar corporate book of business. There should be different options for different types of lawyers.
Next is the classic Jay Foonberg “How to Start & Build a Law Practice”, which has been a staple since the first edition back in the ’70s. I admit that I do not have this book and I’ve never read it. However, it’s been highly recommended and so I recommend it to you as a good physical resource for starting a law practice.
Even though there are lots of other books you can get on places such as Amazon that “teaches” you how to build a law practice, these two are the best. However, don’t limit yourself to only those resources that teach lawyers. Building a law practice is not so different from building a lot of other types of businesses, so take inspiration from other businesses. Here are other non-legal books I recommend:
Keith Ferrazzi’s “Never Eat Alone” teaches how to build relationships and how to network.
Henry Beckwith talks about “Selling the Invisible” – services, not products off a shelf.
Robert Kiyosaki’s claim to fame book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” is a great read. Though some has criticized his marketing strategies after the hit book and his over-reliance on real estate investment, learning the fundamentals of how to build wealth is still valuable in and of itself.
Six Lessons I’ve Learned Since I Started Working for Myself
This is a repost from Robert Green’s DIY.
In May of 2009, I was living in North Dakota and formed 2 LLCs: Green Web Publishing, LLC and Battery Powered Games, LLC. I formed two because the 2 businesses are unrelated and have totally different risks. LLCs and Corporations are specifically to mitigate risk so it made sense to do that and I’m still glad I did because if one crashes for any reason, I still have the other making money. I have a few active websites run by GWP and 5 games now published under BPG. Both businesses are profitable in that they make money even when I only do the bare minimum maintenance work. That’s nice because it gives me time to continue investing in them and is the exact reason I chose the businesses I did.
If you’re looking to work for yourself, here are some of my experiences and suggestions:
1) Give yourself lots of time.
It usually takes a lot longer to get good solid money coming in than you planned on. Don’t underestimate this. I remember last summer when I was honestly convinced I could publish a game that would reliably make me 50k in the next year. Not true! Of course there are exceptions but when you’re in a highly competitive market with low margins and fickle consumers – you can’t bet on anything! Give yourself LOTS of time to get started. A full year MINIMUM. 2 would be good. In my experience and with talking to others in the same boat, it seems like it’s a good 2 years of R&D and learning about the market and how to sell your products before you’re making what you originally thought you should be at 2 months.2) Keep your overhead LOW! Running out of money is horribly stressful.
You don’t have a regular paycheck. On a good month, you’ll make a few thousand. On a bad month, you’ll make next to nothing. Business expenses will pile up, including new equipment costs, contracting, legal fees and other. If it costs you $2500 per month just to stay afloat and you only have 10k in savings or 10k available as credit, you’re not going to last long! You must get your monthly expenses down if you’re serious about doing this. That means selling your car if you’ve got a car payment. It means buying cheap groceries and rarely ordering food or eating out for a year. It means cancelling cable/sat tv – you won’t have time to watch anyway. My wife and I found ways to rent really cheap or house sit for people we knew for over a year. That saved probably $1000/month for a year. It may not be an option to most people but don’t rule any cost savings out. You NEED to keep your overhead low because you won’t be able to make good decisions when you’re desperate.3) Network. Network with everyone.
Find local common interest groups and go. Talk when you’re there! I go to game development and mobile interest groups here in my local area and I’ve met some of the most valuable leads in my life at them. I’ve also seen people who show up and don’t say a word, getting very little out of the ordeal. Just go and get to know everyone. Most people are very friendly at those things and you may end up making a few good friends out of the deal as well 🙂4) Make yourself known.
This blog alone has developed into good leads for my business. All I’ve done is blog about the Android development that I’ve done and even though I haven’t really written much in the last year, it seems that what I wrote has been enough to get the attention of a few important people here and there and it’s given me opportunities I couldn’t have dreamed of before.5) Be persistent.
Your first attempt at what you’re doing may very well fail. In fact, the second and third attempts might also be unfruitful. It gets tough – especially when you’ve got those glistening, big bright eyes staring at the prize and it all seems to slip through your fingers as the game, app or website you’ve developed simply doesn’t take off. There’s a lot to learn about designing, developing and marketing a product that really takes hold. For 99.9% of us – it doesn’t happen overnight and certainly doesn’t happen on the first attempt. I’m still searching for that magic bit of gluey game design that makes people rave about a title. I haven’t quite found it but get a little closer with every try.6) Be patient.
This may be reiterating a point made above but these things take time. Though it’s happened to a few, don’t plan on winning the lottery with your first bit of IP. Stay the course, keep refining and improving and keep calm.This may seem very abstract if you haven’t started anything up yet but it’ll make more sense down the road. Of course there are always exceptions but these things have been very important for me so far in my venture.
Working For Yourself: Part 1 [Robert Green’s DIY]
The Power of Google Search Marketing – An Example
On September 4th, the Google logo was changed to celebrate the discovery of the Buckminsterfullerene molecule.
When users clicked on the logo, it brought them to a google natural search for the term “buckyballs.” Buckyballs, in case you don’t know or don’t have children, are little balls of magnets that you stick together and shape into anything you want.
Due to the unintentional promotion from Google search, sales of buckyballs sold 10,000 units or $250,000 in that one day alone. [via BetaNews]
Now imagine the income you could generate if you could capture the top spot for searches relating to your law practice area.
A Picture Illustration of Why Yellowpage Marketing Doesn’t Work
(via Cheezeburger.com)
Why is it that most yellowpage advertising doesn’t work? Simple. No one uses the yellowpages anymore.
Legal Networking Done Correctly and Effectively
Most people’s idea of networking is going to a function, handing out a bunch of business cards and collecting a bunch of business cards. If you’re a bit more tech savvy, you might even have a LinkedIn account where you add connections. You then sit back and see nothing happen.
Dustin Cole of the AttorneysMasterClass has a term he calls MBWA – Marketing By Walking Around. That is what people do when they think they’re networking. They’re just walking around, without a purpose, handing out cards as if their business card is made out of honey and they’re trying to attract insects.
In any “networking” event, your purpose should not be “How can I network to bring in business?” Instead, when you meet someone, you should be thinking, “How can I help them with their business?” By turning your thinking around, you will naturally be more engaging to others because your purpose is no longer selling yourself but you’re now listening. People love to talk about themselves and you will stick out in their mind as someone who listens. Follow up by seeing if you can send clients their way. The best way to get clients is to give clients.
If you connect with someone on LinkedIn, apply the same rules as if you met them in person. First, meet them in person and then see how you can help them with business. Meeting people in person, even those you meet online, is important. People typically don’t remember you until the 3rd time you’ve met them. So the more frequently you connect with your top business associates, the more likely you are of getting referrals from them. This is more commonly known as Top of Mind.
Now go out there and Never Eat Alone!
Bad Clients Only Refer Bad Clients
I presented at and attended the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Annual Conference this year and I got an opportunity to hear Dustin Cole speak. The one thing that stuck with me that I want to share with you are these words of wisdom: bad clients only refer bad clients.
Haven’t you ever taken on a case with a horrible client that you can’t stand and rarely wants to take calls from and yet the only reason why you maintain the relationship and continue working on the case is because the client pays (probably only sporadically) and the client promises that his friends will come see you too. And if you stick around long enough, you start to realize that his friends are sucky clients too!
The truth is that we all like to associate ourselves with those like us. We tend to gravitate towards people that share our views and values. That’s why they’re friends and we get along with them. Well, if your client is a bad client and he refers you business from his friends, guess what – just like the initial client, they’ll be bad too!
Get rid of bad clients and focus your efforts on good clients and getting more of them. Good clients will refer good clients.
The Psychology of Those Who Succeed
I read a great post from Brett Steenbarger on his blog called “The psychology of those who win“. He studies stock traders and he makes them better traders. What he noticed when he gave his talks and presentations is when he offered to speak to his attendees at no charge after the meeting, rarely do people call him up and take him up on the offer. He concludes that those who win are those that reach towards higher grounds and takes advantage of opportunities.
I’ve been invited to speak at a lot of events lately on topics such as “Taking your law firm marketing to the next level” and “How to increase your law office efficiency”. I’ve been happy to speak at these events and share what I know and learned about marketing and what I’ve contributed. Like Mr. Steenbarger, I typically tell the attendees that I’ll speak with them at no charge. Just give me a call. I’ve been asked why I do this because won’t other’s marketing efforts take away from my business? Well, no.
I’ve gotten some calls and emails from each of my events but in comparison to the total number of people attending the events and conferences, it is a very small percentage. So what’s the lesson? How do you become successful?
Most people know what to do in terms of marketing and being successful in a law firm – it’s drive and determination and hard work. It’s that simple. Those who win or succeed are those that grab hold of opportunities to speak to presenters and actually follow through with marketing.
How to improve your Avvo rating
Love it or hate it, Avvo is not only here to stay but all lawyers in Massachusetts, whether they choose to or not will be on it. Personally I love it not because I think it’s a flawless system that can be totally relied upon to give a perfectly accurate rating of an attorney, but because I understand that there’s no use in fighting the system. If you have a low score, then instead of fighting the site, learn how to work with it and turn it into a positive (and profitable) marketing site for your firm.
First, claim your profile on Avvo. Since the site is searched by potential clients all the time, you want to be able to control any and all the information that’s floating out there in cyberspace about you and your firm.
Next enter in all basic information such as office location, website, practice areas, schools, etc. You’ll find that the simple fact of providing Avvo with information will raise your score. This is because the more that Avvo knows about you and your qualifications, the more they have to score you on.
As with most online profile sites, include a picture. If you don’t have a professional picture, go and take one. You need to have a professional headshot on hand just for situations like this and also for PR purposes in the future. In addition, people tend to trust people they can see. Clients will look for a picture.
Now, the trick to really improving your Avvo score is knowing which sections affect your score and which do not. Naturally the longer you have practiced, the higher your score goes up. But if you have nothing else on Avvo but years of experience, you’re not going to get a very good score. Lawyer endorsements is the easy way to raise your score but there’s a limit when your score will no longer go up due to another lawyer’s endorsement. Until then, email all your contacts and ask for endorsements. Offer to endorse them in return. If you have more than one attorney in your firm, their endorsement of you will not affect your score.
Client endorsements are nice for potential clients to see but it doesn’t affect your score at all.
If you’ve gotten awards for legal work, then list it because it will raise your score.
Listing particular types of associations will raise your score. If it’s legal based and if you hold a position in the association then it will help. For example, listing that you’re a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association doesn’t raise your score, but if you list that you’re the President of the Massachusetts Bar Association, that will raise your score. Being on Boards also helps.
Legal guides and Avvo answers, though they’re helpful and resourceful, don’t actually help with your score. They will however, provide your potential clients with insight into your legal knowledge and how you counsel your clients.
Lastly, publications and speaking engagements will raise your score. So every article that is written about or by you, you should list on your profile. Every speaking engagement should be listed as well.
This is a short list of some of the things that will help raise your Avvo score. It is by no means an exhaustive list.
**Update 1/26/2011
Avvo revises their algorithm once a year, usually in January. So if you see a change in your rating at the beginning of the year, this might explain why. Also, your rating might change over time because Avvo’s algorithm ranks newer information more relevant and therefore gives more points than older information. So essentially, a new published article is worth more to Avvo than an article published years ago. If you don’t have any new information for Avvo in a while, your score will go down because the value placed on older information is worth less.
How do you consistently blog?
One of my primary marketing efforts is devoted to blogging. The key to effective blogging is blogging often and writing about something of substance. Naturally, I get asked this question all the time, “How do you consistently blog?” The concern is that after a while, you run out of ideas.
I currently run or contribute to 6 blogs (including this one and 7 if you include Mass Bar e-Journal’s Tip of the Weeks) and I’ve been legal blogging for 3 years. Needless to say, I know a thing or two about problems with finding fresh and new materials to blog about.
Answer Questions
As a lawyer, we encounter clients asking us questions everyday. They’re not always the same questions. They’re similar but usually with a twist so you have to tailor your advice to suit your client’s needs. Why not take those questions that you encounter in everyday practice and convert them into blog posts?
Break it Down
Many new bloggers think about the big picture too much and don’t focus on the details. For example, if you’re blogging about divorce, you might get stuck after blogging about “How to get an uncontested divorce”. However, you might want to break it down into manageable pieces for your readers by posting follow-up posts such as “What is a Separation Agreement” or “How do you fill out a financial statement”. If you think about the steps you take in your field of law, you’ll see that you routinely perform many steps to get to the end of a case. Each of those steps is a blog post.
Reuse, Renew, Recycle
After you’ve blogged for a long time, you might want to go back and reuse some old posts and recycle them. I don’t mean copying it word for word and reposting it. Take a post, and put a fresh spin on it. Update it with new law and new rules that applies. There are a lot of ways to say the same thing. Sometimes people need to hear it more than one way to understand. And with law, it’s often incomprehensible the first time around. Recycling is good for the environment and good for your blog.
A Current Affair
Take current affairs, breaking news stories and interesting articles you’ve read in print or online and talk about them. Your legal posts don’t always have to do with being in court or negotiating a contract. Talking about how it applies to real life scenarios and talking about the human element will soften up and lighten up your blog for easier and more interesting reading.