How to stand out from the crowd
“There are so many attorneys who do what I do. How do I stand out from the crowd?” I was thinking about this the other day as I was browsing through the app store. There are thousands of apps for...
View ArticleHow to get more business clients
An article in Entrepreneur, “Hiring a Lawyer: Five Mistakes to Avoid,” tells startups what to do to save money and avoid getting hurt when hiring a lawyer. If you want to get more business clients, you...
View ArticleThe 80/20 Principle and your law practice
One of my favorite books is The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch. In it, Koch makes the case first articulated as The Pareto Principle, that “a minority of causes, inputs, or effort usually lead to a...
View ArticleHow to get better clients
A lawyer emailed wanting to know how to get better clients. He said he is in a slump. “People come see me but they don’t have the money to retain our services. It’s been a tough month. What can I do?”...
View ArticleLawyers: the world’s second oldest profession
We’re mouthpieces. Clients pay us to advocate their position. We don’t have to believe in what our client wants, or like them personally, we do their bidding. Kinda like the world’s oldest profession....
View ArticleBeing a sole practitioner doesn’t mean doing everything yourself
In response to yesterday’s post about taking the day off, a subscriber asked, “So how does a sole practitioner disconnect on vacation and turn off the phone? I haven’t had a real vacation in 15 years”....
View ArticleIf Bruce Lee had practiced law
If Bruce Lee had practiced law he would have specialized in one practice area. Maybe a subset of one area. Lee believed in being the best and never settled for good enough. And he knew that being the...
View ArticleDon’t stop to pick up pennies or you’ll miss out on the dollars
At one point in my legal career, another lawyer and I were flipping real estate. The market was hotter than Hades and we were making a boatload of money. I thought, “Why not get a broker’s license and...
View ArticleAnother “fee raising” success story
I spoke to another attorney yesterday who told me that, at my urging, he increased his fees approximately 40% and has received no resistance. His fees were low to begin with, he said, but this has...
View ArticleTwo lawyers walked into a bar. . .
Okay it’s not a bar, it’s a networking event, but a bar is funnier. Oh, and guess what? You’re one of the lawyers. I’m there too, but I’m not me, I’m the owner of a small chain of restaurants and I’m...
View ArticleThinking is hard but it pays well
If you have multiple practice areas or offer a variety of different services, which one or ones do you promote? Your best sellers? Your weakest? Your most profitable? Do you lead with a low priced...
View ArticleLawyers, what’s wrong with this picture?
A business owner’s truck was in front of me in traffic the other day. I knew it belonged to a business owner because there was a decal on the back window of the cab that advertised the owner’s...
View ArticleIf I could save time in a bottle
If I could save time in a bottle. . . I’d sell it. I mean, who wouldn’t want to buy more time? More time with your family. More time for hobbies or worthy causes, more time get more work done. How much...
View ArticleLawyers as clients
They say that lawyers make the worst clients in the same way that physicians make the worst patients. They know too much and have their own ways of doing things. They second guess everything and often...
View ArticleWhat if you don’t like what you do but can’t change that?
In response to yesterday’s trip down memory lane, attorney RG asked, “What if you don’t like what you do (law but can’t change that). . .” I love a good challenge and “can’t change that” is about as...
View ArticleA simple way to build trust
I don’t know if you know this but, uh, you’re not perfect. You can’t do everything, nor do you do everything equally well. Instead of trying to hide your weaknesses and risk sounding defensive when...
View ArticleHow to get paid more for your services
If you want to earn more than other lawyers in your field and do it more consistently and with less effort, I have some advice for you: Target people with money. Not the low end of the market. Not the...
View ArticleTwo goals for your website
When someone arrives at your website, you want two things to happen. First, you want them to give you their email address, so you can follow up with them since the odds are they won’t call you on...
View ArticleThe key to marketing a general practice
The key to marketing a general practice is simple: don’t do it. You’ll get much better results marketing each practice area or service separately, because most prospective clients are looking for...
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