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

It’s been over a year since I opened the Personal Family Lawyer and Creative Business Lawyer programs to new members.

In that time, our lawyers have been thriving more than ever.

You can read some of their stories here:
http://lawbusinessrevolution.com/resultsmatter

I’ve spent the past year retooling both programs, making them WAY MORE AFFORDABLE and accessible, and making it so we can help you even more.

And this could be the last time this year we open the programs.

Join us on Thursday to hear all about it:
http://lawbusinessrevolution.com/pflcall

I’ll be taking your questions live on the call so do try to be there live if at all possible.

The other reason you want to be there live, if you can, is because there is so much demand for these programs that we have already had lawyers ask us to hold their spot in the program for them without knowing any of the details.

We now have less than 30 slots available when we open the doors and this email is going out to thousands of lawyers.

So be on the call live. Register here:
http://lawbusinessrevolution.com/pflcall

Yesterday was a full day of coaching lawyers for me and it’s one of my favorite things to do because the transformations are so immense when you get the right support.

One of our Creative Business Lawyers shared that his revenue is up 65% over last year!

So, what is he doing differently this year than last?

He has a system in place for making offers and getting to yes with the people who respond.

He has a recurring revenue membership model in place that his prospects can say yes to and he is more confident than he has ever been about what he offers.

And he didn’t reinvent the wheel himself trying to do it all alone out of stubborn willfulness.

He released his skepticism and decided to give it a try figuring he did not have much to lose when it came right down to it, but he sure had a lot to lose if he did not turn things around.

Fortunately, he did and now he is on the way to having the practice he has always wanted as a trusted advisor to his clients.

What about you? Is trying to figure it all out yourself keeping you stuck in the same old same old that really isn’t doing it?

Not to worry we have answers coming soon.

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.”

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.

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 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.

As lawyers, we advise our clients on how to keep their assets safe from lawsuits. And yet so many of us are like the cobblers kids who wear no shoes and have not set up our own business in the right way to protect our own personal assets.

When I first opened the doors of my law firm, I asked around about whether I should incorporate my business and the universal response I got from other lawyers (!) was that there was no real benefit because I would be on the hook for my malpractice whether I was incorporated or not. I asked my CPA and she told me there was no real tax benefit, so I didn’t incorporate.

Unfortunately, what I later came to learn is that this is TERRIBLE advice.

Everyone who runs a small business should put a shield between their business activities and their personal assets, especially lawyers.

Sure, your business entity won’t protect your personal assets from any potential malpractice claims. But, your business entity will absolutely protect you from any claims by employees or independent contractors, claims against you as a result of actions taken by your employees or independent contractors, claims against you as a result of injuries on your property, etc.

Then, once you get your business entity set up with the right corporate form based on your state laws, be sure you maintain the entity and don’t make the mistake many business owners make of thinking all you need is to file with the State and get a tax ID number from the IRS.

You need resolutions, annual meetings, updated annual meeting minutes, and to ensure you maintain all of your business bank accounts totally separately from your personal accounts.

Get yourself a credit card in the name of your business and never pay for anything personal with that card. 

Be sure to absolutely record any contributions of capital you make into your corporation so that when you sell your business down the road you’ll pay less capital gains tax. And, you are building your law firm to sell one day, right?

Last, be sure not to inadvertently subject yourself to personal liability by either 1) signing legal documents personally and not as the President or CEO of your business entity or 2) signing legal documents, like a property or equipment lease, that have a personal guarantee included that you could potentially have negotiated out of, if only you’d read the document.

It’s pretty funny that I’m writing this article for lawyers, but like all business owners it’s very easy to get caught up in working in our business that we make poor decisions when it comes to setting up our business in the right way.

About the Law Business Revolution

The Law Business Revolution is a legal marketing and training organization focused on helping attorneys attract quality clients, start and manage productive law firms, systematize their businesses and ultimately help lawyers attain more time and greater resources than ever before.

Training through the Law Business Revolution includes (but is not limited to), private and group coaching led by professionals that surpassed the 7-figure mark in their own firms and businesses, client engagement strategies, client attraction strategies, educational, relationship-based marketing techniques designed to get results, lead generation training, campaigns for consumers, referrals and prospects and systematizing a firm to run on autopilot.

Licensed attorneys are welcome to download over $22,500 of free practice building resources courtesy of the Law Business Revolution at http://www.lawbusinessrevolution.com .