Last week we talked about recurring revenue here in the Law Business Revolution weekly briefing memo.

As a quick reminder, that’s when your clients are paying you monthly or annually instead of hourly or per transaction.

And you want recurring revenue so you don’t have to start every month over at zero, depend on sending out invoices to get paid, and you have consistent, reliable income you can count on.

The key to keeping your clients happy on a recurring revenue model is frequent communication.

As you know, one of the biggest complaints clients have about their lawyers is that they never hear from them after they write their check.

But that won’t be the case for you ever again. Your clients will love that you are regularly communicating with them, keeping them informed and checking in to see what additional support they need.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “that sounds real nice, but I do not have time for that.”

But, here’s what’s really cool. With technology today, you can automate it with software and yet your clients feel as if they are receiving personal attention directly from you.

And that keeps them coming back for more and sending all of their friends, family, clients and colleagues to you.

Next week, we will talk about your software options for making this super easy for you.

Until then…keep loving your clients and they will love you.

Alexis

Law Business Revolution

PS – what is the biggest challenge you need or want to overcome in your law practice right now that if you changed it, everything would be better for you? Hit reply, let me know and I may solve that challenge for you in an upcoming briefing memo.

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.

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.

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.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve given you practical how-to’s on attracting more clients to your law firm.  What I haven’t talked about is that the heart of client attraction is about becoming clear about the authentic you.

Let’s face it.  You can be the smartest lawyer, the savviest marketer and even an outward success, but if you aren’t happy with what you are doing and who you are being, your leads and prospects will ultimately feel that energy and be repelled.

Referrals will slow down as your clients simply don’t feel comfortable sending people they love to you for help. You won’t have the kind of impact you should be having on people that keeps them coming back for more.  And worst of all, you won’t be giving each client your “all” out of frustration, annoyance or boredom with your work.

All of these traits drive clients away from your business.  The only way to fix the issue is to take a cold, hard look in the mirror and figure out who you are, who you want to be and how you can contribute more value to the world.

No matter how “out there” this sounds, if you can’t attribute meaning and value behind the work you do on a daily basis, you’ll never reach your full potential as a lawyer.  You’ll never reach the income levels that are truly possible for you or the impact your business can have on the world.

A lawyer who is confident and secure in herself, on the other hand, who knows he is changing lives and making an impact on the world will attract more of what is needed to keep moving forward-namely clients and income.

None of that can happen until you identify what you are really passionate about and the area of law which ultimately provides you with the most personal fulfillment.

If you are finding that your client attraction strategies simply aren’t working the way you wish they would, consider that it might be because you are not putting yourself out there as much as you could because you are not happy with the lawyer you’ve become.

If that’s the case, consider a new practice area.  It’s never too late to make a change.

If you are in a practice area you are passionate about and are ready to serve a whole lot more of your ideal clients, be sure you’ve registered for my client attraction coaching call today at

http://lawbusinessrevolution.com/holiday/

One of my personal passions is helping lawyers really love their businesses and clients really love their lawyers.  I’ll be sharing the big picture of my single best strategy for generating a lot more business for your firm in 2010.  So be sure to register here and prepare to bring more satisfaction, fulfillment and happiness back to your law business!

PS. After your register for the call, be sure to review the rest of the e – course by clicking here for video 2 here for video 3 here for video 4.

See you then!

One of the easiest ways to continue the momentum after successfully engaging a client is to thoroughly automate the client service process.

This not only ensures you are continuing the WOW experience after your initial meeting but it also helps  the client to justify…and feel really good about the investment they just made into your firm.

This process will also make a HUGE difference in how your clients talk about you to their friends, family, clients and colleagues, which will result in far more referrals for you in the long run.

So by now you should already have (or at least be researching) a practice management system to help you keep track of your new clients and the action steps that must be completed on their behalf.

However, you don’t necessarily need a practice management system to get started with this. You can revamp your entire client service system in less than 24 hours by merely setting up an excel spreadsheet that lays out what needs to happen (and more importantly WHEN it needs to happen) after a prospect becomes a paying client of your firm.

And ideally, you’ll want to sit down with your team when you do this (starting from the minute the client leaves your office after successful engagement to the completion of the work they’ve paid you for) so everyone is on the same page and knows what’s expected of them.

To give you an example of what I mean, here are some of the action steps that happened in my own law firm after a client said yes to working with us:

1. Immediately set time and date for their next appointment at the meeting.

2. Personal phone call within 2 days from attorney checking in and thanking  client for choosing the firm.

3.  Series of 4 follow up emails sent over two week period welcoming client to our firm and introducing them to the team and process they’d be experiencing so they knew what to expect.

And the list goes on….in fact, I had a 14-step follow up process documented out and automated once someone became a client.

This follow up process turned my clients into raving fans because it was so different than anything other lawyers were doing.  And, it eliminated that feeling that most clients have after they engage a lawyer of falling into a big, black hole.

Plus, it saved us time because we eliminated 99% of those time-sucking “just checking in to see what progress you’ve made on my file” phone calls because the client now knows what you are working on and where they are in your process.

The key to making this work in your firm is automation.  If it’s left to a human to make this happen, it won’t.  At least, not consistently.  Automate your client service process and watch the magic happen.