RJon Robins

How to manage your legal marketing so you don’t have too much of a good thing

July 14, 2015 by RJon Robins

How to manage your legal marketing so you don’t have too much of a good thing.

How to manage your legal marketing so you don’t have too much of a good thing.First of all, the best way to kill a poorly run business is with great marketing because great marketing is going to give you many, many, many more opportunities to fail at a much faster pace. So the first thing is you got to get your factory under control, your processes, your policies, your systems and procedures. You’ve got to understand, you’ve got to just blueprint it out, just flowchart it out, how the work flows through your firm from beginning to end; just flowchart it out on a whiteboard. You don’t need any kind of fancy computers or anything.

And you figure out what is the capacity, if our firm can handle a capacity of, let’s just say for argument sake,100 active cases or matters at a time and our marketing, right now let’s say we’re at 50 active cases or matters and we’re adding ten every month and we’re closing five every month that means we’re growing at a net rate of five per month, right? If we’re at 50 and we grow net five per month then we know that in ten months, I’m not a math guy either, in ten months we’re going to reach capacity.

And when we reach capacity if we don’t turn down the dial on the marketing, if we don’t turn that switch down, turn that valve off or slow it down, we’re going to overwhelm our staff, we’re going to overwhelm our systems, we’re going to overwhelm our procedures and what’s going to start to happen is your clients are going to start getting disappointed, your staffs going to get stressed out, you’re going to get burned out and too much of a good thing will have been the downfall of your business. So you’ve got to get your factory under control, you’ve got to understand what is making your marketing work and you’ve got to run out your projections 3, 6, 9, 12 months out to know when are we going to reach capacity and either turn down the marketing dial or build up the factory in anticipation of reaching that point.

Three Ways to Motivate Your Law Firm Employees

July 14, 2015 by RJon Robins

Your people are an important part of your law business, for better or for worse.

Talented, motivated, and engaged employees provide excellent client service. They execute systems and procedures consistently. They keep the firm running, allowing you to spend your time thinking like a business owner, doing work that you choose to do, and taking vacations.

On the other hand, disengaged employees cause major problems. They provide poor service. They cut corners and disregard established procedures, often with disastrous results. Their lack of motivation forces you to spend all of your time looking over their shoulder… or even worse, doing their work for them.

Here are three quick tips to keep your employees motivated.

1) Help employees understand how their job can help them build the life they want. Ultimately, motivating your employees is about them, not you. You need to show them how this job will allow them to get what THEY want out of life. Salary is an obvious motivating factor, but so is the knowledge they will acquire, the connections they’ll make, the skills they will learn. It’s your job to understand what motivates your employees and to help them understand how their position in your firm will help them build the life they want.

2) Set clear guidelines and document processes so that there is no ambiguity. Ambiguity is frustrating for most employees. Assuming you’ve hired the right people, they actively WANT to do a good job. So it’s up to you to put them in position to succeed, and a big part of that is clearly documenting every aspect of their job and teaching them how to get it done properly. Everything should be systematized and documented – from answering the phones to setting appointments to your billing process. Failure to do this will stress out your employees, confuse them, and cause your practice to run chaotically. Don’t let that happen.

3) Provide regular feedback, both positive and negative. Your employees need to hear from you (or from their direct supervisor) regularly. In addition to correcting mistakes, this means providing positive feedback for a job well done. Human beings thrive on recognition and appreciation, and expressing appreciation to your team is a critical function of a good leader. Note that this DOESN’T mean lowering your standards in order to pat employees on the back. Hold them accountable and demand performance – just be sure to praise them when they deliver it.

Keeping your people motivated and engaged is critical for the success of your firm. Contact us today if you’d like to learn more!

Build a Million-Dollar Law Firm: It Starts with Your Mindset

July 7, 2015 by RJon Robins

The most important requirement for building a million-dollar law firm isn’t your marketing budget.

It’s not the caliber of your people.

And it’s definitely not your legal abilities.

It all starts with you – specifically, with your mindset.

Do you believe that you can build a profitable law firm that allows you to enjoy life without compromise? Are you determined to seek out the knowledge and the guidance you need to build a seven-figure law business? Are you willing to stop looking for excuses and instead focus on solutions to your biggest challenges?

If you can say “yes” to the above, you’ve already done the hard part.

It’s been conclusively demonstrated that it IS possible for a single-shareholder law firm to gross well over one million dollars annually. Many of our own members are proof of this.

Not only that, but we’ve created a road map to help you get there. The policies and procedures that you need have been documented. The critical parts of your law business – from your people to your marketing to your factory (the actual delivery of services) have been identified and our members learn how to optimize them. The challenges you’ll face have been foreseen and planned for. The tools you need have been identified. The community you need exists.

So why are most single-shareholder lawyers miserable and stuck in barely-profitable firms?

Because they don’t believe their life can be anything BUT miserable. Because they’re not interested in learning how to run a massively profitable law business. Because they make excuses from the minute they wake up in the morning until the minute they go to sleep.

Building a million-dollar law firm isn’t complicated. A proven road map exists. You just have to want it. Do you want it? Contact us today to learn more.

Three Ways to Escape Your Law Firm Cash Crunch (And One Fatal Mistake to Avoid)

March 3, 2015 by RJon Robins

Every law firm has been there. Cash is tight, payroll is due next week, and you’re not sure where the money is coming from.

Long term, you can liberate yourself from this stress with the right strategic approach to financial management. (For more on that subject, including an overview of the six key financial metrics that your firm MUST be tracking, watch this short video.)

In the short term, you’ve got three basic options to generate the cash you need.

One, you can sell more work. You can rattle the bushes looking for cases. Work your referral sources. Call past clients and ask them what else you can take off their plate.

Two, you can get more work done. How much work is currently in-process? Speed up the production of your factory, get the work done ahead of schedule, and bill for it earlier than you thought you’d be able to.

Three, you can collect Accounts Receivable. What does your A/R sheet look like? If there’s a significant amount of outstanding billings, the quickest way to generate cash is to go after it.

Now, here’s what NOT to do: Don’t borrow. And if you absolutely must borrow, you must have a plan of action to make a profit with the borrowed funds.

There’s a difference between performing debt vs. non-performing debt. A law firm that loses money because it has no operational or business plan borrows non-performing debt.

A firm that borrows the exact same amount, on the exact same terms, can make it performing debt by deploying those borrowed funds against a business plan that’s been reasonably calculated to service the debt and make a profit for the business.

Sadly, in the absence of either a written budget, cash flow projections, budget variance report or written business plan, most struggling business owners fail to make this critical distinction and wind up digging a hole for themselves. They can often be heard yelling up to their rescuers “Don’t bother me right now, can’t you see I’m busy digging!”

What Does a Legal Administrator Do? When, Why & How to Hire One For Your Law Firm

March 3, 2015 by RJon Robins

I think the biggest mistake that most lawyers make when they tackle the question of how to hire the right firm administrator is they forget to ask when to hire the right firm administrator and what they end up doing is they hire the right – they start looking for the right firm administrator when they’ve reached a point of overwhelm and desperation.

Clearly, overwhelm and desperation is not the right mindset to be in for how to hire the right legal administrator so you want to be able to project the growth of your firm by looking at your business model, by looking at your financial projections, by looking at the marketing and the sales that you’re building today and see where, if this stuff works, which we hope it will, where is this going to have your firm in six months? And if in six months your firm is going to need a legal administrator the time to start looking is now not six minutes before it needs a legal administrator and sure as hell not six months after you should have hired a legal administrator because you’re going to need time to screen, to test, to vet, to train, you’re going to have to make an investment in this process because this is a really important position for the growth of your firm; so how is in the right mindset of being proactive. That’s number two.

Clearly define the job of a legal administrator. That means you’ve got documented processes and policies and systems and procedures and job descriptions which define this is the job of the legal administer so you know what position you’re actually hiring for. Then what you do is you, this sucks, I know this sucks, but this is what everyone goes through to build a multi-million dollar firm.

It’s not easy but I promise you, this is worth it. You – you do the job of the legal administrator yourself for at least 90 days. Take this written job description you come up with and follow it and learn it and understand it and live it then you’ll know when you’re interviewing prospective candidates you’ll know whether they get it or don’t get it because you’ve done the job. They’ll never be able to hold you hostage, you’ll always be able to spot check them to know if they’re doing the job right or wrong and you’re never going to have that fear factor of, oh my God, desperation, what happens if they quit?

If you know how to do the job in your firm, I’m not saying you should do it, but you should know how it’s done so you can never be held hostage and then you’ve got to have a screening, testing mechanism, a way to vet prospective candidates before they waste your time and last, and definitely not least, and I don’t provide this service myself so I have no vested interested in telling you this other than I want you to be successful, hire a professional. You can’t be a brilliant lawyer and a brilliant recruiter, they just don’t go together. You focus on being a brilliant lawyer, let the recruiter find you the brilliant legal administrator. Please don’t try to do that job yourself. This isn’t a DIY, this isn’t a do-it-yourself. Get the professionals to help you with that.

Replace Yourself in Order to Build a Million-Dollar Law Firm

March 3, 2015 by RJon Robins

“I’m a lawyer. So I have to spend most of my time practicing law.”

This line of thinking is both common and dangerous for solo lawyers. It’s not true.

Not only do you not HAVE to spend most of your time practicing law, but once you’ve created a successful practice, you SHOULDN’T spend most of your time practicing law if you want to build a million dollar business.

What you need to do is replace yourself. You need to hire an experienced attorney, give him/her the title of Senior Associate, and turn the legal work over to them.

Then, you can spend your time building your business – working ON your business instead of IN your business. You can work on your marketing. You can perfect sales systems. You can brainstorm. You can innovate. You can take a vacation!

What you can accomplish with this free time will easily pay for the additional salary – not to mention that your new associate should bring in work as well.

It’s really a no-brainer. So why is this concept so tough for most solo lawyers to grasp?

It’s the trap of “False Economy.” At first glance it makes sense to avoid adding money to your payroll when you’re perfectly capable of doing the work yourself. But that calculation doesn’t account for the opportunity cost of your time.

To illustrate, let’s assume that you pay your associate $80,000 annually.

In exchange, you are now free to spend the majority of your time marketing, innovating, and looking for growth opportunities. Let’s conservatively project that these efforts enable you to generate one new case per week, and that your average case is worth $5000. You’ve just generated $260,000 in new revenue for your firm.

Would you rather save $80,000 by doing the work yourself, or generate $260,000 by replacing yourself? That’s the choice you’re making, and I hope that you can see it’s an easy one.

If you’re serious about creating a million-dollar law firm, you need to replace yourself. Stop looking for excuses and take the plunge. You won’t look back!

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