Hungry for Success?

Consume the Right Diet by RJon Robins

Another year came and went. Hello 2019. Did your firm meet its goals for the year? Did you? Have
you been on the fence about taking action in some way in your firm?

• You know you are two months too late in hiring a paralegal.

• Your business plan is past due and you are just not sure how to take the first bite out of it.

• Perhaps you have been trying to decide if How to Manage is right for you.

The thing is, another year is going to pass whether you do any of these things. It always
does. The hunger you have for a firm that serves you personally, and that serves the
community the way you know it can is not going to go away. Sure, you can satisfy your
appetite by small burst of starts and stops in your firm, but without that decision to act
consistently, you will likely be having this same conversation with yourself one year from now.

How are you making decisions in your life? In your firm?

1. Are you taking advice from someone who not have what you want?

2. Is your broke family member telling you how to get more clients and manage your staff?

3. Have you tracked your numbers in your business to help you know what is working
and what isn’t? (Do you even know this is a thing?)

4. Are you still answering the phone, meeting with clients and prospects, and making the
coffee in your firm?

It can be overwhelming figuring everything out on your own. Maybe you have no idea
even how to jump in and get busy. Everyone has been there. Whether you are someone who wants
to power through it all and grow quickly, or you just want to see progress, you have that power.

It’s all a decision. Followed by a whole lot of action.

Remembering 2019 is coming, ready or not. Make the Decision. Take the Action. Trust the
System and JUMP.

We got your back if you want us to.

Happy Holidays and TAYEASTUYA in 2019.

– RJon

Meet Holly Moore of Moore Family Law

A How to Manage 18-month Reflection

Holly Moore was drowning. Her law firm had been helping family law clients for 10 years. But something was wrong.

“I had no systems, no policies, no defined procedures, and I had no idea about who to hire or even when to hire or the right person to look for. “

“My firm was in chaos.”

Holly was considering a career change around the time she learned about HTM.

“Family Law practice is very draining. When you add the chaos and you do not have the help you need, it’s a disaster. I knew I had to do something or die of a heart attack.

Holly and her firm took the plunge July 17th of 2017. At first, she thought to herself “That won’t work or I don’t want to do that!” Remembering her commitment to her husband, her firm and herself, she went all in and trusted the process.

HTM showed her while building a law firm is not easy, it IS simple. She learned to build a very basic structure of systems throughout the seven parts of her business.

“It was groundbreaking–The Moore Law Firm changed in every way,” says Holly.

The chaos was gone and my staff grew happier. Her systematic and structured firm allowed her to triple the firm’s revenue. Plus, one amazing unexpected benefit was the shift in Holly’s personal life. She was able to abandon the practice of working around the clock, cramming court preparation, and living a frenetic, unhealthy existence. She now works a normal work week schedule.

The beginning of becoming a Happy Lawyer with a healthy firm begins with being fiercely

honest and self-aware. She says there are two questions attorneys must be able to answer with conviction:

1. Why are you in the law firm business?

2. Why does it matter?

Without the WHY, Holly explains, no one does what’s uncomfortable. And without tackling what’s uncomfortable, growth rarely happens.

“Working with HTM to get my firm on a structured, solid path improved my family and my team. I have always had core values in my firm, and I always knew my why, but now our team is excited about the mission too. It’s awesome to love what I do again.”

TOUGH QUESTIONS, HONEST ANSWERS WITH HOLLY MOORE

Was it harder than you imagined?

“Yes, of course it was harder. It’s all a part of growth. Growth for your firm and even more, growth for you as a person.”

What was harder, living the day-to-day to chaos of your former firm or putting How to Manage to work in your firm?

“There is no question. Living the chaos far more difficult, not only for me but for my entire team.”

What would you say to a person who is on the fence about taking the plunge?

“I’d say get out of your comfort zone and go for it. Today, my firm is a machine that not only serves me and my needs, but feeds six or seven families.”

When you are told by a colleague: “I don’t know if I can swing the cost,” how do you answer?

“You cannot afford NOT to do this life changing thing. The benefits–structure, smooth procedures, policies, satisfied clients, stable staff– offers you a chance to enjoy life and work again.”
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Entrepreneurs and Everyone Else

by RJon Robins

Which Are You?

There are two different kinds of people in the world: entrepreneurs & everyone else. If you don’t see the world this way then you’re still in the second category.

Entrepreneurs see the world in a completely different way than everyone else. When you are an entrepreneur, this fact is very obvious. It is, however, NOT very obvious nor is this phenom understood by the rest of everyone. How Do You Know if You are an Entrepreneur?

One way to know if you’re an entrepreneur is to ask yourself what kind of time you use.

Everyone else uses what I call “Clock Time”. How many hours will this take me to do this? How many hours did I work? How many hours are left in the day?

An entrepreneur CAN use clock time but most do not. Instead, we use what I call “Calendar Time” most of the time instead. How quickly can I get this accomplished? How many weeks until I can achieve the next objective? How will I make the most of the next month? What’s it going to cost me
if I can get this done in a year instead of getting it done in a week?

Imagine your car has broken-down and you’re stranded in a town you don’t want to be in. Plus, you are alone and you have no other way to get to the place you want to be. It’s a place where an opportunity awaits that can earn you hundreds of thousands of dollars of sustainable
income for the rest of your life. But, the hitch is, you must get there in two days.

When you ask the mechanic “How quickly can you get this done?” as an entrepreneur, what you really mean is

“How-quickly-can-you-get-me-back- on-the-road-to-my-goals, to-making- a-better-life-for-me, my-children,my-great-grandchildren, so-that-I-may- leave-my-mark-on-the-world?”

When the mechanic answers that the job takes

20 hours, you ask again, “How quickly can you get me back on the road?” The mechanic answers in the only language he knows and that is “Clock Time” language repeating that the job takes 20 hours.

The mechanic doesn’t understand at all when you ask him again so you rephrase it:

“What if you brought in an assistant so that you can work extra-fast overtime and I will pay you “book rate” for the job. THEN could you get me back on the road this afternoon?”

When you say it this way, the mechanic responds: “Sure but it’ll cost you!”

Entrepreneurs know that nearly anything is possible. It is all in the way you look at problems and solutions.

Which are you?

Before planning, it’s all about the decision

The Decision

Before you begin thinking of AR and numbers and metrics to help you decide the plan for your next year, the most important thing is understanding that all that stands between you and what you want for your firm is you.

Before you begin your calculations and planning, the fuel you need to move ahead in a big way lies in the power of the decision. It is – by far – the toughest part. And, it is more than one single decision.

Decisions for the year ahead …

1. How much income do you want to earn?

2. Which projects are the ones you need and want to mark
the milestones?

3. How many days do you want to work next year?

4. How will you spend your resting days?

5. What “stuff” will you want to add to your law firm or your
personal life next year?

You will tweak these decisions throughout the year, so don’t get stuck in the weeds over this.

Why tweak?

Part of the process lies in adjusting and evolving your goals as they grow more visible and tangible. You will also begin to realize how much more you are capable of in your growth and you will begin to dream even bigger. Additionally, you will also decide how much you must make nest year to set up for the following year.

The Planning Begins

Next, it’s time to do a brain dump of where your opportunities lie, where your leaks are, and where you can tighten up your processes, projects, and systems. A round number for most attorneys (if they are honest) is about 100 items with some being projects, to-dos, tasks, or more decisions.

Projects require planning. Tasks simply require an appointment to knock out.

As you begin planning the entire year, leave off the tasks as they are not big picture – still important – but tasks are not strategic.

Example of a task:

Writing the long overdue thank you note to someone you met.

Example of a project:

Setting up a dedicated station in the office to write thank you notes, training the team on when, why, and how to write thank you notes. Installing a monthly thank-you-note writing contest and a system for keeping track.

Who Does What

If you are very small, it will be simple to decide who does what. If your team is larger, bring your leadership together and choose ownership of those top three to five projects in each category.

Choose priority projects that will yield the quickest return on investment.

Only projects that produce fast results are allowed on the list.

When you are broke and have no line of credit, no angel investors, no saviors, you are not thinking of those “nice to have tools” like blogs or newsletters. No; you are thinking about which stepping stone is going to result in the biggest push forward. Be ruthless.

You must be ruthless.

The number of projects you choose to focus on is directly related to your growth continuum. If you are early along the timeline, you are likely doing more things yourself. Realistically, you and your team are unable to take as many projects. As you grow, the number of people taking on projects grows, therefore, the number of projects also grows.

https://howtomanageasmalllawfirm.com/before-planning-its-all-about-the-decision/

You know how when you feel like your back is up against the wall, you sometimes make decisions you’re not 100 percent happy with? The emotional pressure of a financial situation causes you to take on a client that you know will be a nightmare. Anxiety about an appointment turns into a $20 parking fee you could have avoided by leaving on time. A quick judgment about an employee’s performance presents itself as a heated or bitter reaction … and they walk out on you. You get the idea. The question is, in the context of your law firm and business, where do these issues stem from? Emotional decision making happens when you operate without a plan. In business and in life. Wandering aimlessly, with only a faint idea of where you want to be in two, three, five or even 10 years, doesn’t allow your mind to fix on a goal. And without a goal, you can’t make a plan. What separates the successful from the floundering is a steadfast decision to set a goal and work toward it — tirelessly, day and night. Obstacles appear, successful lawyers keep going. Setbacks happen, they keep going. Milestones are reached … they keep going. Why? Because they know they still have a long road ahead, and that winning the race is about focus and endurance. They are playing for something greater than themselves — goal that almost always improves the lives of everyone around them. When you create a formal plan for your law firm and life, you take the emotion out of it. You look at cold hard facts, real numbers and, often times, a harsh dose of reality. (That $100K in annual revenue isn’t going to pay a hefty mortgage or college tuition.) Then, hopefully, a spark happens. For the first time, you are able to step away, separate yourself from your feelings and realize what you need to do to make your dreams come true. For most attorneys, the business planning process is completely foreign. And that’s surprising, considering most lawyers are very logical people, trained to focus on facts and remove the emotional component from a client’s situation in law firm client care so they can help them resolve a pressing legal issue.

So Why Can’t We Do This for Ourselves?

The day-to-day grind of running a law firm consumes your every thought. Because … until you have a greater plan and purpose, you have nothing else to focus on. Emotional decision making is what keeps a law firm in a revenue slump. It’s what creates employee turnover, and what drives our industry’s skyrocketing depression and substance abuse rates. At How to Manage a Small Law Firm we provide you with an outside Managing Partner, CEO, COO, CFO, or a combination of the preceding. The first order of business is to write your business plan and take you through a 12-week crash course in business acumen. You are immersed in a community of our members — attorneys … just like you. So you can be real, sharing and screaming, “Why is this happening?!” whenever you need to. It’s OK, they’ve been there. Everyone has challenges, everyone has curveballs thrown at them, everyone has cash flow issues. But there’s a point when you have to make a decision to change your course and take matters into your own hands. There is no magic bullet CLE program that can teach you these skills in one hour or even one day. That’s a fact. Every successful business owner has had a stable of mentors to turn to, draw support from, and call upon when times got tough. To build a profitable law firm — one that doesn’t kill your soul in the process — you must remove the emotional component and think like a business owner. The need to focus on metrics, law firm sales and delivery — and finally be honest with yourself about the fees you need to charge — is no longer an option, it’s a requirement. So, here’s how to start building a better tomorrow for yourself, and everyone you care about.

Start Here

So, here’s how to start building a better tomorrow for yourself, and everyone you care about. Download our free “Business Plan Workbook,” then take a good hard look at where you are today and where you want to be tomorrow. Be honest. Don’t adjust numbers to make them feel comfortable or safe. Because at the end of the day you won’t be cheating anyone but yourself. When you’re ready for help or have a question, schedule an appointment with our team and we’ll be here to help. How to Manage a Small Law Firm has built its business on helping small law firm owners grow their organizations from less than $50,000 a year to millions in annual revenue. We believe that building a sustainable law firm doesn’t have to result in depression, guilt, or self-sacrifice. Our goal is to see our members making money, of course, but also building happier lives for themselves and their staff. We start with your goals in mind and work backwards to create a plan that works for you.