Un-Billable Hour: Business Management Strategies for the Busy Lawyer Around the Community Table

In this episode’s discussion around the Community Table: Why did your quarterly revenue plummet? Before you panic, look for anomalies like production capacity, weird payment timing, and changes in Google search algorithms. Fix what’s broken, but be rational. (What’s “Demand-Based Marketing?”) Stop personally handling every little issue and designate tasks across your team. How to set boundaries and ween staff off your direct involvement in routine matters. Trust and empower your team. How to use daily meetings – “huddles,” “scrums,” and “standups” – to facilitate peer management, teamwork, accountability, and productivity. Mentioned in this episode:Google Business Profile Join the next Community Table live. What’s on your mind?

In this episode’s discussion around the Community Table: How to say no to some cases (without losing clients). It’s great to “niche down” to your expertise, but never say no. Say, “I know someone who can help.” Be both – the lawyer and the referral source. When it’s time to grow into a new market, everything starts with location. Do the research, know the territory, and establish the “look” that meets client expectations. Considering a new location? Clients will come to you, but your team is equally important. Your office location matters as much as your expertise, both for clients and team members. Mentioned in this episode:Author Bob Burg

Let’s talk about marketing (because we know you love to, the numbers don’t lie). But let’s talk about how podcasting fits into your law firm’s marketing mix.Guest Robert Ingalls calls himself a “recovering attorney.” While he had a law degree and his own firm, Ingalls wasn’t happy and wanted to do something else. He landed on creating his own legal-oriented podcast … and something clicked. If he found value in creating a podcasts, so might other attorneys.His company, LawPods, podcasting for lawyers, was born.Ingalls knows you may be a great lawyer but don’t know anything about podcasting. With his experience, both in the field of law and in content production, he helps lawyers sound good, stay focused, and create a podcast people want to listen to again and again. Ingalls polishes and presents the best you.How do you start? Find out on this episode of the Un-Billable Hour.Resources from This Episode:Spotlight BrandingSamsung Q2U micAudio-Technica ATR2100 micGaragebandAudacity 

Guest Sandrene “Sandy” Ryan is the senior director of recruiting at Level Legal. She’s built a unique process that focuses on quality and creating “the right match” over putting bodies into slots. Culture fit can be more important than a specific skill. You can teach a skill, but you can’t make the wrong person fit your own culture.Production is the lynchpin of your firm. Acquiring new clients and ensuring profit are the bookends, but we must produce. To do that, we need to recruit.Finding the right people for your firm, whether it’s a contract hire or a full-time position is, at its heart, marketing. What’s your story? Do you know how to make your firm attractive to new hires. Do you understand what candidates are selling. It’s a two-way street. Learn how to create a process that makes candidates sign on with you, and also do their best work for you.A quick match can be more of a time waster than a longer, thoughtful process.You may be surprised at how the COVID pandemic’s shift to remote working created a wider pool of candidates. If someone doesn’t have to be in your office, you’ve got more to choose from. But it comes with new challenges as well. Nothing stays the same.

This episode’s discussion around the Community Table: Sometimes when it comes to your brand and marketing, doing everything is doing nothing. What is it you want to be known for? On the fence about hiring support staff? Do the math. Would more staff create more business, better reviews, and happier clients? The next step could be more profit. Gamification – cash rewards for individual and team goals (even promotions) – can energize your team. Retain your best players. And what about offshoring some tasks? Mentioned in This Episode:CalendlyAccuity

This episode’s discussion around the Community Table:  Is hiring a temp I’ve already worked with previously a mistake? “It’s not personal,” it’s personnel. I need a body, even if s/he won’t stay with me. Is this reasonable? Sometimes, a contractor (even one you already know and know won’t stay with you) is the answer. Mr. Right vs. Mr. Right Now. How do you test the “seriousness” of a job candidate? Are you dealing with a real job candidate or just a person out fishing and wasting your time? Or is this 007 work from a competitor checking you out? Should I be overlapping an exiting employee with their replacement?  Trying to squeeze out a bad employee while simultaneously onboarding a good employee – can this be done? And will keeping a less-than-perfect employee onboard, while offboarding and bringing in a new person, help?

Today's guests, Erik and Elliot, will be joining Christopher on our upcoming Community Table live Q&A on February 16, 2023 to discuss all things marketing. Sign up here (it's free) to join us so you can get your questions answered!-----Acquisition, from cold lead to paying client, is the important stuff. Marketing is one of three pillars of a successful firm: finding and signing new clients. Guests Erik and Elliot Alicea, co-founders of Empirical360 legal marketing, have a passionate focus on law firm marketing built on ROI, return on investment. Get real bang for your marketing buck.Automation may not be your best bet when it comes to generating cold leads. The process differs from referrals, you need to be personal. People only look for a new lawyer when they are in trouble, so be compassionate, be human. Reach out. And by all means, answer the phone.Learn to measure the return on your marketing dollar. There should be accountability and measurable results. Know what it’s costing you to land every new client. How do you know if you got your money’s worth? And when you get a lead, hey, that’s not the end. Get the contract signed, that’s work.(Plus, if you had only ONE channel for marketing your firm, which would it be? Can you guess the answer?)

Let’s look at your law firm’s culture when it comes to tech. It’s bottom up and top down, a full circle. You can’t delegate this stuff to one department or one level. Don’t be afraid of change. Embrace efficiencies. Be better. It’s not easy, but you can do this.Guests Anthony Seale and Isabel Parker understand today’s tech better than most, and they never stop innovating. They’ve seen law firms that embrace technology and process management to improve not only the bottom line but also client satisfaction. Get better results and happier clients with tech. Listen to younger associates, ask what you don’t know. You are never too successful to get on this train. But where to start?In this episode: Resistance to today’s tech advancements is futile (and it’s costing you money). Listen to younger associates and tech experts. Make more money, make clients happier, and be better by incorporating the best of today’s newest technologies and efficiencies. Mentioned in This Episode:Open AIChatGPT“Firms of the Future: Overcoming the Barriers to Legaltech Adoption”

This episode’s discussion around the Community Table: How to focus your practice. If you’re not known for something, you aren’t known for anything. The one thing all clients in every business want: A better life. How do your services make my life better? The steps you must take after firing an employee. It’s not just about the employee, it’s also about the clients. Mentioned in This Episode:Advertising on NextdoorMeetUpTrustAndWill.comHelloprenup

In this episode: Law is intense, and you love your business. But are you trying to do everything? Trust the team you’ve hired. You can do too much, and you’re not that special. Make the best use of your time, don’t micromanage. It’s not sustainable and it’s not profitable. Learn about “calendar blocking,” building space for success. The habit you must learn. Guest Corine Rogers, a Clio systems and efficiency master, has a vital message: You can’t do everything, and you aren’t that important. Help your law firm build business operations systems, then trust your team.“Systems” are the repeatable ways you delegate tasks to others you trust. You selected your team, but do you let them do what you hired them to do? Do they believe that you believe in you? Get out of the way.Start with the tasks that you simply don’t like. Baby steps. Don’t fall victim to drowning in the mundane and the things that aren’t the best use of your time.You can’t create more hours in a day. So free yourself to do more of what you are best at and let others inside your business do the other tasks. In this important episode of The Un-Billable Hour, we hold up a mirror to help you see what you are doing to yourself if you can’t let your team shoulder some of the load. Plus, what doing your laundry can teach you about your business.