Before your parents (or your best friend) explained the birds and the bees, you probably had no idea where babies come from.

Perhaps you thought it was the stork or getting married or sleeping in the same bed that made a baby.

Of course, no matter how many people you married or slept in bed with or storks flew over, you cannot make a baby without something very specific taking place and if you do not know what that specific thing is, you are out of luck. No baby no matter how hard you try.

Well it’s the same with clients.

If you do not know where clients come from or you are slightly off on how to reach them, your marketing simply will not work.

And unfortunately, I see a whole lot of lawyers doing the kind of marketing that would be the equivalent of trying to make a baby by praying for the stork to drop one off.

Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to learn the birds and the bees of marketing so you can start bringing in clients more consistently.

Watch this space over the next couple of weeks because I’m going to be sharing with you what our Personal Family Lawyers and Creative Business Lawyers are doing to market and have a steady flow of new business, even with all this craziness in the economy.

That way you can get down to business and finally be the lawyer you have always wanted to be.

Got questions? Hit reply and let me know. I’m here to help you put in place consistent, reliable, predictable systems for attracting, engaging, serving and retaining your client for life.

Alexis

Law Business Revolution

PS: if you have wondered about how you can be a PFL or CBL, our next enrollment call is on June 22. Details to come

It’s an exciting time here at the Law Business Revolution where we are actively transforming the new Personal Family Lawyers and Creative Business Lawyers into trusted advisors their clients can count on.

For those of you who didn’t make it in before we closed the program, thank you for letting us know you want in next time.

We can see that there is strong demand and will try to open enrollment again before the end of the year.

Today, I want to talk with you about recurring revenue because it’s such an important piece of the new paradigm law business model.

One of my biggest challenges as a lawyer with a traditional business model was that every single month it felt like I was starting over at zero.

It felt as if I had to constantly scramble for the next new client, constantly worry about where the money was going to come from to support me, my team (once I got up the guts to hire people to help me), and pay my rent.

I hated feeling as if every month I was starting over from scratch.

Once I implemented the new law business model that included recurring revenue everything shifted.

I stopped worrying, I felt like I had a real business, I had revenue I could count on and most importantly my clients loved the model I created because it didn’t just mean money for me every month it meant I had a real relationship with them, not just a one-time transaction.

What’s great about a real relationship with your clients is that you will know you are making a difference for them, really helping them and you will love being a lawyer again.

So, I invite you to consider what you could right now offer to your existing clients that would inspire them to want to pay you on a monthly or annual recurring revenue basis and allow you to truly serve and develop a relationship with them that they appreciate.

When you do that, you will never have to worry about starting every month over at zero again and you will know you are making a difference in your client’s lives.

Be back again next week with more. Until then …

Alexis

PS – if you haven’t already let us know that you would like to be on the priority list when we re-open the Personal Family Lawyer and Creative Business Lawyer programs, hit reply and let us know that know.

In case you hadn’t heard…

Today is your last day to join both the Personal Family Lawyer and Creative Business Lawyer programs for one low, low, low investment.

Join us here now:

http://www.PersonalFamilyLawyer.com/order

OR

http://www.CreativeBusinessLawyer.com/order

If you want to join later this week, you can, but you will pay $200 per month more to be a member of both of our programs.

Stay with us just one year and save $2,400 of your membership fees. Stay with us 10 years and that $200/mo savings translates into a $24,000 savings.

And if the program is a fit for you, you will want to stay 10 years because we have created systems and structures for reaching the clients you want to serve that you could not replicate on your own for any less than what we are providing them for.

Plus, they will provide you with a steady flow of clients that just keep on coming, which means you are able to have a sustainable, predictable, consistent source of new business, revenue and cash flow.

Imagine that for a moment, and then join us here now:

http://www.PersonalFamilyLawyer.com/order

OR

http://www.CreativeBusinessLawyer.com/order

If you want to join later this year, you may be able to or you may have to wait until next year (we are not sure when we will open the program again) and you will likely pay hundreds more per month for just one of our programs.

When you join now, you lock in your investment forever. It can never go up, but it can and will go down after you have been a member for a year.

When you join our program, we are confident you will stay in because again, you could not replicate the resources we give you on your own less expensively because of our economies of scale.

(see the results and experiences of a few of our lawyers here)

Marketing campaigns, presentations, and lead-generation resources for reaching families and small business owners, such as books, kits, training programs and more that you would invest tens upon tens of thousands to create on your own.

We give it all to you for one low investment that will only get lower the longer you are with us and the more lawyers we serve over time.

But, it starts with one month – join us now and you are under no commitment to stay for any length of time. (We only want you with us as long as the benefits greatly outweigh the costs of your membership not because we have forced you to stay with a penalty for leaving.)

So join us now here:

http://www.PersonalFamilyLawyer.com/order

OR

http://www.CreativeBusinessLawyer.com/order
And if you have any questions at all or you are not sure if this is right for you, ask us for support by emailing us at support(at)FamilyWealthMatters.com &  letting us know where you are feeling stuck or uncertain. We can help, but you have to ask.

I hope to see you lock in these savings and get on the road to predictable, consistent revenue you can count on using systems your clients will love.

Alexis

When I first began in practice, I was not a happy lawyer. People told me it would get better, but I just couldn’t see how that was so.

Others told me to just suck it up – I was making a 6-figure paycheck from one of the most “prestigious” firms in town after all.

Everyday, I thank the Universe that I didn’t listen to those people (or my own mind) that said to give up my dream of making a difference in people’s lives, making a great living and trade it all in for security and prestige.

Instead, I hired a coach who helped me see how I could let go of what other people thought and step through my own fear to become the lawyer I had always wanted to be.

Within three short years, my life was completely different.

I had a steady stream of prospects calling and coming into the office, plenty of money coming in and clients who loved what our firm was doing for them.

I was serving people who cared about their families and their businesses. Deeply.

And I was doing it in a way I never could have imagined at the big law firm.

I was reminded of all this the other day when Martha Hartney, one of our Personal Family Lawyers posted on Facebook the following note:

“I’m so in the right business–a client put flower petals in a note to me!”

Yes, that’s what it’s about when you are practicing law in a way that feels great to you and your clients – you are regularly appreciated for what you do and you appreciate what you are doing in the world.

Why would you want to live life any other way? It’s why you went to law school, right?

Stephen O’Neill was in practice for more than 30 years when he tried out our Client Engagement System and after his first meeting using our model for his initial consultation, his clients spontaneously said “this is the best thing we’ve ever done.”

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.

If you’ve been reading my Law Business Revolution Briefing Memorandum for any amount of time, you’ll know that I’m NOT a fan of hourly billing or you selling yourself short in the name of a “sluggish economy” or for any other reason.

I just had a laser coaching session with a lawyer last week who told me she didn’t want to build the kind of practice I had because she wanted to keep her fees low.  After talking with me though, she was able to see that not valuing the services she provides isn’t going to help her help more people, it’s going to run her into bankruptcy.

It’s heartbreaking to watch so many lawyers go out of business or not bring home enough bacon simply because they get trapped into thinking about their pricing the wrong way.

When you differentiate yourself based on price, you simply cannot provide value.  You end up competing on the wrong basis.

While price competitors have been in operation since beginning of time, it’s important to understand that if YOU want to build a sustainable, scalable and one day SALEable law business, a core foundational piece of that puzzle is that you are charging enough.

Is that possible in this economy?  Absolutely.

Let me shift your thinking outside the legal world and into the business world for a moment.  Stores that offer super low prices like Wal-Mart and Target are thriving in this economy.  So with that logic, you’d expect high-end stores like Nordstrom or Sacks 5th Avenue to be out of business right now…but they’re not.  In fact, Nordstrom’s profits more than doubled in the quarter ending Jan. 30 according to the WSJ.  Luxury cars like Mercedes and BMW also reported profits last year despite the fact that “no one has money to spend.”

And lawyers doing things the PFL Way are thriving, while charging much higher fees than their “competitors”. How can that be?
It’s simple, really.  People DO have money to spend… you’re simply not doing a good enough job showing them that your law firm is the best place to spend it.

You see, it’s all about the value.  And I’d suspect that you are not clear enough on the value you provide to convey it to your prospects.

This isn’t “blind theory” or Alexis Martin Neely’s random thoughts on life either.  I’ve done it, our Personal Family Lawyers® and Creative Business Lawyers™ are DOING it and so are millions of other small business owners/ entrepreneurs in this country right now.

So how are they doing it?  Here are some things you can do right now:

1. Stop Acting Like a Commodity.

Your prospects have no way to know if you are the best lawyer for them.  To regular folks, all lawyers are the same.  So when you compete on price, you’ll get price shoppers galore who see you as just like everyone else.   But, you are not like all the other lawyers, are you?

So, what makes you different?  And how do you show that to the marketplace?  That’s what you need to focus on and show the world.

2. Identify the Value of the Outcome You Provide.

Why can Nordstrom’s charge higher prices for products found elsewhere (i.e. cars, purses, ties, shoes)?  It’s because of the VALUE they’ve attached to their brand (i.e. social prestige, enhanced customer service, increased self-esteem).   They’ve moved themselves out of the commodity market and into the heart, emotion and primal urges of their clients.   You need to do the same thing in your law firm.  Yes, Mr. Customer can get an estate plan for $399 or set up their LLC for $750 or a bankruptcy for $1125 down the street, but what are they NOT getting when they work with that other firm or even worse go online to do it themselves?

3. Move Beyond the Billable Hour

There are only so many hours in a day and you’ll reach an income plateau very quickly when you are billing by the hour. Not to mention that you have to start every month over at zero and there’s absolutely no stability in that.  No matter what practice area you are in (with the exception of contested matters), you can begin billing on a flat-fee/value basis.   If you’re scared to shift, just think of the VALUE your customers will experience having an attorney using flat fee billing.  They won’t be nickel and dimed for every phone call, email and fax that comes through the office.  They can communicate with you as they wish without fear and they can pick their price point of choice if you have membership options.  And believe me, people are willing to pay more for certainty every time.  It’s a win-win for them– and it’s very much a win-win for the health/sustainability of your law firm.

Remember this:  People still have money to spend… even in this economy.  And they NEED your services.  It’s up to you to convey the intrinsic value of working with you (even at a higher price point) to command the income level you want…and rightfully deserve…this year.

PS- If you serve small business owners and want more information after reading this article on how you can participate in our Creative Business Lawyer Program and serve the entrepreneurial/business owner market using flat-fee, membership-based billing and differentiate yourself from all the other business lawyers out there, mark your calendar for March 18th at 12pm PT/3pm ET.  More details coming soon!

The results of our 2009 legal marketing/ law practice survey are in and the responses are sadly indicative of our industry as a whole.

According to the results, you are frustrated and tired of begging for business and struggling to turn a profit in your small and solo firms.  The statistics show 23% of lawyers surveyed made under $50,000 last year, while 40% of lawyers surveyed felt “very dissatisfied” with the amount they made in 2009.

A large majority also expressed dissatisfaction with the amount of time they wasted on tire kickers, price shoppers and clients who refused to pay their full fee…and quite frankly, what you know you are worth.

That’s a hard pill to swallow, especially after spending up to six figures on your law degree.

The most unfortunate part, however, is how many of these lawyers did do the right things in marketing their practices last year.   99% of lawyers surveyed tried at least one form of advanced marketing (if not many forms) and still failed to see consistent results or good ROI from their efforts.  As you can imagine, these attorneys were off the chart when it came to feeling “very dissatisfied” with their marketing efforts and practice as a whole.

But, here’s the important thing for you to know … the lawyers who felt “very satisfied” with their marketing, practices and income last year all had one thing in common:

They were not just relying on one source of business; instead, they had an automated marketing system to consistently market using a diverse set of strategies without fail-even (especially!) when times got tough.

A good client attraction strategy is like having a diversified investment portfolio.  When one sector bombs, your stock in an unrelated sector shields you from huge loss.  The same holds true with your marketing.  You want to have an integrated and coordinated marketing system set up so that if one source temporarily dries up, it doesn’t affect you.

I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Wow, that’s got to be expensive …I can barely afford to run a nice big ad in the yellow pages, let alone do all this marketing you’re talking about”.  The good news though is that some of the best strategies are low-cost or even no-cost provided you put in the time to set up the system to begin with.

The great news about a system though is that once it’s set up, it’s good to go and will produce consistent, reliable and predictable results for you on an ongoing basis.

So, what does an integrated, coordinated, automated system look like?

I laid it out in detail on this call I hosted.  Listen to it here .

And if you are ready to get your integrated, coordinated, automated system in place for 2010 and beyond, join us for our 2-day virtual event . It will change everything for you. I guarantee it.