If you want to be loved by your clients, command higher fees, and become absolutely indispensable, it all comes down to this…

You have to stop seeing yourself as a litigator or transactional lawyer.  Litigation leaves clients miserable and legal documents on their own are virtually worthless.

When my father-in-law died, after spending a few thousand dollars on a set of estate planning documents with his personal lawyer, I thought that lawyer must have committed malpractice because the documents didn’t work.

Why didn’t they work?

Because the lawyer completed the transaction (legal docs) for my father-in-law and never followed up with my father-in-law to make sure his assets were owned properly or that he’s legal documents stayed up to date with the changes in his life.

Divorce lawyers finalize their client’s divorces and never make sure their estate planning documents are updated.

Business lawyers put in place LLCs and S-Corporations and never make sure share certificates are issued, agreements are put in place with vendors or team members, or that the client has the right insurance in place.

Are we really helping our clients when we see them as a transaction, a case, or a matter?

No, we aren’t offering anything more than our clients would get if they went online.

So my question for you is what will you do when they realize they don’t need you?  Or has it already begun?

Please don’t tell me that you’ll deal with this by decreasing your costs and becoming a virtual law office providing unbundled legal services as seems to be the trend these days – that’s a recipe for failure unless you do it so that you are creating a killer experience for your clients that they cannot simply replicate by going online and doing it themselves.

So many lawyers are trying to compete with online companies providing “buy them as you need them” document preparation services.  But unbundled legal services, deep discounts and doing nothing but turning out reams of paper do nothing to build relationships with your clients.

It’s a one shot deal at best and doesn’t provide an ongoing revenue stream for your business.  That’s a recipe for misery and a Going Out Of Business sign (as many law businesses, even large ones, are learning).

As I learned in building my own practice to more than $1 million in revenue, the best way to keep your clients coming to you (and referring their friends and family) are to follow these 5 tips:

1.    Give away the legal documents for free. Yes, free. You’re not selling the paper – you’re selling the client YOU, your energy, your counsel, your advice.  Clients call lawyers because they need help. They want you to take care of them, to love them, to make it easy for them.  The documents are merely the by-product of the relationship.

2.    Give away free legal documents on your website to generate leads you can then build a relationship with and convert into lifetime counseling clients. As an example, we do this at http://www.KidsProtectionPlan.com where we let people name guardians for their kids for free because we know that many of those people will need a fully counseled estate plan once we develop a relationship with them.

3.    Narrow your niche.  Stop trying to serve everyone who calls or walks in your door.  It devalues your service and who you are.  Decide who you love to serve and who you do your best work for and build your business around deeply serving these most perfect clients.

4.    Create a billing structure that encourages your clients to communicate with you without fear of the cost. Most of the time, clients don’t want to talk to you because they know they’ll get a big fat bill at the end of the month.  This can keep them from telling you about significant changes in their lives or businesses.

5.    Learn to love your clients again.  Stop seeing them as cases, transactions, and matters and return to the reason you went to law school.  Connect at a heart level, whether you do it virtually or in-person.  In this new economy, it’s the only path to your success.

Why did you go to law school?  When I ask this question, I almost always receive one of three answers:

1. Because I didn’t know what else to do
2. Because I wanted to make a lot of money and law seemed like a good way to do it
3. Because I really wanted to help people

I fell into the latter category.  I always wanted to be a lawyer because I thought it was my best chance of helping people who couldn’t help themselves.

And, like many of the others I know who share that calling, it didn’t take me long to figure out that the outdated model of practicing law was simply not going to work for me.

It was too painful because deep down inside, I wasn’t helping people.  I was preparing form documents for them and sending them on their way knowing those documents were unlikely to work when their family needed them.

I had considered being a litigator, but I quickly saw that I wouldn’t feel as if I was helping people then either because even when they win a case, it’s the rare client who comes through litigation and out the other side happy.

The reality was the practice of law can really suck.  The constant grind of billable hours, cranky clients and antagonistic opposing counsel, and trying to keep up with all of it ourselves is a reality none of us expected when we fell in love with the idea of a career in law so we could make a difference for our clients.

I’ve heard it called a soul crushing existence.  But, it doesn’t have to be that way.

And, it’s time for you to do everything you can to discover how to do things a whole lot different than you have up until now.

Unless you make some radical changes to the way you practice, your livelihood is seriously at risk.

If you keep the same old practice model in place, the day is coming when your clients will discover they don’t need you – businesses like Rocket Lawyer® and LegalZoom® will put you out of business.  Your job is on the line.  Not because they are better than you, but because they are better business people than you and they have nearly unlimited marketing budgets.

Can you compete with that?  Maybe.  It depends if you are willing to step outside your comfort zone and start seeing yourself as the lawyer you went to law school to be instead of the lawyer your business model has forced you to be.

To be continued …. Next week, in the continuation of this article I’ll share the specifics of:

How you can become indispensable to your clients and command higher fees that your clients are happy to pay;

How you can utilize the concept of collaborating with your biggest competitors to leverage the marketing power of the online legal document providers to your advantage;

What love has to do with it.

I’ve been having some very interesting conversations with well-known lawyers throughout our industry about the future – where we’re going and what lawyers need to do to be prepared.

I’ll be interviewing several of them who I believe have the answers for you as part of a telesummit I’m hosting in September.

In the meantime, I want to make sure you don’t have to wait to see how you may be putting yourself and your clients at risk so you can do something about it now.

If you are still seeing yourself as a transactional lawyer or a litigator, you are likely screwing yourself and your clients.

You are neither of these things and it’s time to stop thinking of yourself in this way.

If you see yourself as a litigator, every case that comes in is ripe for litigation.  That is NOT what is best for your clients.

In some cases, litigation may be appropriate, but in my experience litigation almost always means that even if someone wins, they lose.

If you see yourself as a transactional lawyer, you probably don’t have any sort of a real relationship with your clients. They are a transaction, a matter, a one and done.

That’s the old, outdated model that will put you out of business.

It incentives conflict escalation and a constant focus on the next new retainer.

It’s time for lawyers to begin seeing their clients not as cases or transactions or matters, but as people with a lifetime of issues they need resolved.

It’s time for you to become the trusted advisor for your clients – the person they turn to for objective guidance about hard decisions in their lives and businesses.

To do this, you need to start seeing yourself differently and help your clients do the same.

When you successfully make this transition from transactional lawyer/litigator to counselor, you will stop leaving money on the table and start knowing  you are really making a difference for your clients.

Isn’t that what you really want?

It’s certainly what your clients want and it’s only a  matter of time before they no longer need you.

Are you ready to really do it?  More to come soon.

One of the least expensive ways to increase your new client flow is to generate more business from your existing clients.

If you are practicing with the new law business model, your clients love you and want to send you business. You just need to make it easy for them.

Here are three ways to do it:

1.  Ask for the referral:

At the end of your first meeting, when your clients are thrilled with the process you’ve taken them through because they feel so relieved you are going to be taking care of them and their matter, ask your clients to send them anyone you know who is just like them.

The best way to do this is to get three of your business cards.

On one of your cards, write your cell phone number and tell your clients to call you on that number in case of an emergency.

Hand them the other two cards and tell them they are for friends or family just like them who need your services.  It’s that simple.

2.  Ask them to host you for an event:

We teach our Personal Family Lawyers to do guardian naming workshops as one way to generate new clients.

Some of them are hosting these events in the homes of their clients for their clients’ friends.

“Show your friends how much you care by helping them name legal guardians for their kids just like you did for yours.”

It’s an irresistible offer, especially if you give anyone who hosts you a discount of their legal work.

How could you apply this to your practice area?

3.  Establish a membership/maintenance program and give clients who enroll a discount on legal work for other family members:

Once a client works with you, figure out how you can put them on an ongoing membership/maintenance program and as one of the enrollment bonuses, give family members a discount on legal work.

We would give our clients a 50% discount on parent’s legal planning and as a result I ended up often doing legal work for the whole family.

It was totally worth it because I knew that the initial up front free I collected from a client was only a small part of the lifetime value of each client to me.

Do you have other ways to increase the number of referrals you receive from clients?

If so, let me know and I’ll share them with the group.

You’ve invested years of your life and tens (hundreds) of thousands of dollars in your education.  You are smarter than most people.  And it simply doesn’t make sense that you should be working so hard and keeping such little money at the end of the day.

And yet for the vast majority of lawyers in private practice, that’s the case.

Lots of work and not a lot to show for it at the end of the day, whether that day is the end of the month, the end of the year, or the end of a career.

This email series will lay out how you can experience something different.

Before I get into it, there’s something I want you to know.  I will always be straight up honest with you.  That’s how I live my life and that’s how I run my businesses – straightforward, direct, no B.S.

I always tell you like it really is.

Everything you are doing to run  your business right now probably feels hard, really hard.

But, it’s comfortable.

The things I am going to suggest you do as part of this email series are pretty easy things to do once you know what they are.

But, they are likely to create short-term discomfort for you.

Change is hard.  For everyone.  And especially for lawyers.  It triggers our control issues.

But, you have to change or you’re going to stay stuck.

Here are some of the things that are keeping you in the rut:

1.  Continued focus on how bad the economy is and using that as an excuse to keep you from moving forward.

Pay attention to how often you talk about the economy or how hard things are right now.

2.  Taking every case that walks through the door.

It’s nearly impossible to build a streamlined business that allows you to work a reasonable schedule unless you strategically focus on serving a narrower group of people than you likely are right now.

Now, I’m not saying to stop taking the work that is keeping food on your table, at least not yet.  Over time though you will need to narrow your focus, master serving one group of people with excellence and then, if you want, you can expand to additional groups.

3.  Invest resources in building your business before the revenue is there.

This can be the most difficult one for lawyers.  We want to build our practices out of revenue without investing in the business.  I wish it could work this way, but for the most part it can’t.  Building a business almost always requires an out of pocket financial investment.

Here’s the great news … you don’t have to buy a franchise or invest in someone else’s business, you are your very best investment when you’ve got the right tools and resources and the commitment to making it work.

One of my clients invested in one of those quickie massage places you see springing up everywhere – at $50-$75 a pop, she’s got to work hard to get enough business to make it work.  And, she’s doing it!

Your transaction fees are far higher than that, so the next time you feel frustrated, think about that poor massage parlor owner and know that if she can do it, so can you.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing specifics on how you can get out of this rut and into the kind of action that will really make a difference for you.  In the meantime, watch your mind for the self-sabotaging thoughts that are keeping you stuck right where you are.

The financial success of your business depends on your profit – the amount you keep at the end of the day after paying all your expenses.

In the beginning of your business, you are pretty much entirely focused on revenue because you are already spending as little as you possibly can.

Once you’ve got revenue going, you’ll start to notice that your expenses slowly start to creep up.

And it might feel like for every dollar of revenue you bring in, you add another two dollars of expenses.

That is not a winning proposition.

So, today I’m going to share with you three sure-fire ways to increase your revenue without adding any more overhead.

Way #1: Engage More Prospects

One of your biggest expenses is very likely to be marketing.  You are either spending a lot of money on it or a lot of time on it or both.  If you are marketing and not engaging at least 75% of the prospects calling your office, you are losing a whole lot of profit because getting your phone to ring is where all the cost is.

You’ll increase your revenue without increasing overhead if you just start hearing yes from more prospects.

Way #2:  Offer More (Expensive) Services to Your Clients

You can add more revenue to your office without adding any additional overhead by offering those clients who do say yes additional complementary services.

I did this with the Kids Protection Plan  – adding a more comprehensive form of planning for parents with minor children at home added $1,000 to my fees.

And then I found other services I could provide that my clients wanted and were happy to pay me for.

Once I figured this out, I was collecting an additional $1,000-$3,000 on each engagement with no additional overhead.

Way #3:  Get More Referrals

Every time one of my clients sent me a client, I was increasing my revenue without adding any overhead.

So, I built systems into my office that resulted in more referrals.

I always made sure my clients knew how valuable referrals were to me because I worked that into my client engagement process.  I developed a system in which I could comfortably ask for the referral without feeling strange.  And I was always publicly thankful for all referrals – whether they turned into clients or not – by acknowledging the referrer with thanks in my monthly newsletter.

Try one or all three of these and let me know how much additional revenue you make without increasing your overhead.

One of the biggest challenges for every small business owner is management of cash flow.  Attorneys in business are no exception.

So, how do you do it?  How do you manage cash flow when sometimes there are more expenses at the end of the income?

It starts with awareness.

I always hit my financial objectives IF I knew what they were.

I remember how scary it was to run my business “paycheck to paycheck” so I’ve put together a few things I learned along the way.

1. Bring in more/consistent revenue – stop billing hourly, move to flat fee, and consider a recurring revenue based model. Look at how you can increase the value of each client you serve. Know the lifetime value of each client so you know what you can invest to acquire a client.

2. Recognize you are running a business and that requires investment to grow. Fortunately, in most cases and with the right knowledge, you are your best investment. Much better than the stock market.  Don’t reinvent the wheel. Invest in learning the shortcuts you can take from people who have been there and done what you want to do.

3.  Know your numbers – make sure your chart of accounts is set up well to produce the weekly/monthly reports you need to know if you are on track to meet your projections. Look at your numbers every day, if necessary.  Focus on what you want and then take the action steps to make that a reality.

4. Don’t stop marketing – look for ways to market your business every day that don’t cost much or anything at all. Do some marketing activity everyday and show the money Gods how serious you are about making money by being willing to do things that make you uncomfortable.

5. Know where the problem is and fix it. Is the problem getting your phone to ring? Getting prospects into the office once they do call? Or engaging once they get there? Solve the right problem.

6.  Worst case, manage your payables with open communication and not by hiding.  I used to think every bill had to be paid as soon as I received it, but they actually don’t as long as you are in active communication with your vendors. Don’t hide, just communicate.  Ask for longer payment terms.  Be honest and don’t be afraid to say, I’m having a hard time with cash flow and need help.  The worst thing you can do is just not pay and not communicate.  That’s where you get in trouble. And, what I know is that if you stop paying your bills and not communicating, it’s not long before you start seeing your clients stop paying their bills.

If you haven’t already downloaded my Law Business Manifesto and other practice resources, do so at http://www. LawBusinessRevolution.com.  Tell your friends.

I’ve been where you are and built a million dollar law business with the resources I give you there.

You CAN do this.

Not long ago on the Lawyerist Lab discussion board there was a whole string of discussion regarding how lawyers answer their phones.

As usual when lawyers talk about things like this, I was surprised to hear how many lawyers are answering their own phone when they are in the office or having calls directly transferred to them.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised though because I used to do it too when I was first in practice and didn’t know any better.

I felt overwhelmed by all there was to do in the early years of my business (even when i didn’t have a whole lot of clients) and yet when the phone rang, I lunged for it like a teenage girl waiting for her suitor to call.  (It could be a client or even better, a prospect!)

Little did I realize how answering my own phone was the worst thing I could possibly do.

It’s counter-intuitive in a way.  I thought I HAD to answer my phone to be a responsive lawyer.  In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. Make these small changes and watch your life (and bank account) improve, dramatically.

1. Have Your Phone Answered With a Smile By Someone Other Than You

Whatever you do, do not let your phone be answered by someone barking “law offices” into the phone upon pick up.  Make sure whoever answers is smiling when they do.

If you have to use voicemail, make your voicemail smile.  Add something quirky or different. So that you come across as a different kind of lawyer right off the bat.  Unless you enjoy being stereotyped in the same bucket as all the other lawyers.

Call Ruby and Total Attorneys both have great services.  (And if you mention I sent you, each of them will likely give you a free test out period.)  I believe Total Attorneys can even schedule appointment for you, which is really important because as you will see below, you want all your phone calls to be scheduled.

2.  Never Take an Unscheduled Call (Except In Case of Emergency)

When you allow the phone to interrupt you and your day even for a few minutes of the time, you will often find yourself at the end of the day wondering why it feels as if you did not get anything done. (a Microsoft study indicated that it can take as much as 15 minutes to get back on task after an interruption and then it often takes longer to get the task completed.  Add up those 15 minutes and you can lose a whole lot of day.)

So, set yourself up so that everything is scheduled. Use time blocking and hire a scheduling assistant to schedule your calls.  Or, if you are more of the virtual type use TimeDriver, Genbook, or BookFresh.

3. Do Better Work & Get More Love

When you stop allowing your phone to interrupt you throughout the day, you are going to get so much more work done and be far more productive.  That means your family is going to be giving you a lot more love because you are going to be home in time for dinner.

Plus, your prospects are going to love you a whole lot more because you are going to be more in demand than if they can get you on the phone right when they call. When’s the last time you got your surgeon on the phone when you called with a question before surgery?

And, your clients are going to love you because you are going to establish right from the first meeting that the reason you don’t take unscheduled calls is because when you are focused on their matter, you are focused and doing great work for them and refuse to be interrupted. When you DO get on the phone, you’ll always be on time (no more annoying phone tag!) and prepared for the call.  You’ll become the responsive lawyer everyone loves.

Finally, you’ll be doing better work.  And ultimately, that’s what it’s all about.

So stop answering your phone and feel the love.

Over the past several months, I’ve done some personal soul-searching about my business and my life.

And I had to look at why I was serving lawyers and whether continuing to do so is the best use of my time, energy and resources.

I made the decision that it was, but only if I was willing to move beyond my safe 2nd stage business and build a business that would radically
and completely change the way legal services are provided to families and small business owners throughout the US and Canada.

To do that, I recognized I’d have to deconstruct my business – release what wasn’t working and re-build on what is and was.

It’s been a difficult process and it’s far from over. But, it’s given me a lot of compassion for those of you who are not satisfied with the old paradigm and are having to deconstruct and reconstruct your law practices to create something truly meaningful.

I wrote about the three stages of the entrepreneurial roadmap on my personal blog a couple of weeks ago and saw that it can help you here too.

So, this week’s Law Business Revolution blog applies the entrepreneurial roadmap to the business of practicing law.

The Law Firm Entrepreneurial Map

The three stages of the entrepreneurial map, as it applies to your law practice transforming into a business.

Stage 1: The True Solo

Stage 1 is all about brand new-ness. It’s about the idea, the vision, and just getting started and getting it done. It’s about figuring out your revenue model (where the money comes from) and getting on the road to freedom.

Generally speaking, you are probably working alone or with a partner. There is no team support or perhaps one person helping youout on a part time basis. (When I first started, I rented office space from other lawyers and my sister sat across the desk from me, helping me out. Within about
three months, I brought in my first part-time employee.)

You have no systems. And probably just one revenue stream, which will be your main service offering. You may be taking anything
that walks through the door just to make your bills.

You are probably charging hourly or very low flat fees.

Many (most?) lawyers remain in Stage 1 indefinitely. You may feel frustrated, tired (or exhausted), and as if you are not making as much of an impact (or money) as you’d like.

Stage 2: Enterprising Entrepreneur

When you get tired of doing it all alone, you’ll bring on some team. That’s one of the major signs you’ve made it beyond Stage 1.

You’ll also begin to realize that there’s a pattern to what you do and how you do it.  Yep, you’ve got systems and processes.

You are still working pretty hard, but you begin spending more time working on your business instead of always in your business.

And you may begin to realize that you can’t take everything that comes through the door – you have to narrow your focus to serving one market or just providing services in one practice area.

Financially, you are doing okay. You know how you make money in your business and you are constantly surprised by how much money it takes to make money.  You’d probably like to keep a bit more than you are.

While you have some team support, you are the one managing the team, for the most part. You dream of the day you get to spend all your time doing the parts of your business you really love and let go of the rest.

Stage 3: Legacy Builder

When you hit Stage 3, your work will continue, even if you aren’t there to do it. You spend your time primarily working either on the business or in the business, but not both.

You are clear on who you serve and what you do for them.

If you got sick, took a long vacation or the long permanent vacation, your business would continue.

You’ve got documented systems and process, a team, and other leaders in the company besides just yourself.

The transition from Stage 2 to Stage 3 will be harder than you expect, at least that’s my experience so far.  But, it will be well worth it.

If you try to make this transition too quickly and without the right people in place, the whole thing will blow up in your face.

No matter where you are today and how far it seems you have to go on the journey, if you are in business for yourself, stop for a minute and celebrate.

You are working for yourself. You are in control of your destiny.  You are on the road to freedom.