Learn how to ask you clients for their budget. It avoids big misunderstandings later.
Also: Last Year’s Resolution
Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 2
Have a bunch of favorite business books you’ve read (or not) sitting on your shelf? Try this: Each week, set aside 60 minutes for uninterruped reading, and grab five books and read a random chapter in each. Make sure you have a notebook handy when you’re reading to capture any cool ideas you have.
Also: Last Year’s Resolution
Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 1
I’ll start the 2005 Resolutions with the number one favorite tip I’ve gotten in 2005. Resolve to make Five “Unreasonable Requests” each week. From my original post:
I had the pleasure of a long telephone conversation with Lisa Haneberg yesterday. Lisa gave me some great tips I’m sure to implement in my Innovation Coaching Program, but one thing she told me really got my attention. Each week, she resolves to make at least five “unreasonable requests” to people she has no business asking for favors. She reasons that if just one request is granted, she’s gotten a bit of a bonus that week. Doing a quick google search, I realize I’m not the only one impressed by Lisa’s approach.
I’ve been doing this religiously over the last two months and the results have been astounding. If there is only one thing you will resolve to do in 2006, make it this.\
Also: Last Year’s Resolution
Resolutions for Lawyers - 2005 Edition
One year ago, I posted this:
Because we all want to become better lawyers, make more money, work less, spend more time with our families, and generally retire rich, happy, and healthy, the dawn of every new year is the time we finally decide, "Well, now I'm going to do X,Y, and Z to improve my _______, stop doing ________, and be a better ________." And even though we never have any problem filling in those blanks, I'm going to complicate matters by starting a new, limited-run series titled, "Resolutions for Lawyers."
Until January 1, I'll be posting a number of Resolutions. Basically, it will be a collection of quick ideas and simple suggestions for things we all can do in the next year to become better lawyers and run our businesses better.
Well, now I’m going to do it again. Between now and December 31, I’ll post 31 all new resolutions and repost a few of my favorites from last year. E-mail me at Matt@LexThink.com if you’ve got any you’d like me to add.
New Niche for Lawyers?
Looking for a practice niche? Mike McLaughlin has an idea for you:
It’s estimated that more than 40 percent of employed workers plan to begin job searches during the next 12 months, and almost 25 percent are already looking.
This study, conducted by Yahoo/HotJobs, is unscientific but shows a noteworthy trend.
Most people are looking for new jobs because they’re not happy with their current compensation. And almost half of the respondents believe their current jobs offer "no potential for career growth." The news gets worse: One in four people feels underappreciated as "valued employees."
Imagine feeling stuck in a job, unappreciated and underpaid. That’s a dangerous combination, which leads to unnecessary turnover.
Some employers risk getting blindsided by this trend, so it’s a compelling topic for discussion with most any client.
With 40 percent of employed workers looking for different work, how about marketing yourself as the Career Change Lawyer? You could offer a flat-rate package that included review of (and advice concerning) any non-compete/confidentiality agreements, severance packages, benefit issues, etc.
Heck, you accountants, bankers, and financial planners out there should do the same.
Grab the domain now and start your blog tomorrow!
"Presentation” does not mean “Documentation"
This post’s title comes from a comment in this 43 Folders thread on presentation tips. I’d also recommend this post from Particle Tree sharing some more PowerPoint/presentation resources.
Should You Give it Away?
Continuing with the pricing theme for today is this post from Presentation Zen that discusses the differences between giving away services and discounting them:
I may be naïve, but my philosophy concerning public speaking has long been to remain open to non-paid opportunities, outside the business world, if I can actually be of help. Doing "free gigs" does not lower the value of what I usually "sell." In fact, doing the unpaid work outside of business probably adds value to my "brand" so to speak. My thinking is that discounting my services, say, to an investment firm, may indeed cheapen my brand. So I don't do that. However, I do not think doing some (sometimes more) work 100% free of charge cheapens what you have to offer, depending on the circumstance. Discounts cheapen, but free is free — and some of the best things in life are free. (They don't say, "Some of the best things in life are...discounted 50%"). Selling yourself (too) "cheap" is different from "giving it away." For example, Starbucks is not going to discount their drinks, but maybe they'll give free hot chocolates on Christmas Eve evening in certain stores for tired, procrastinating shoppers.
Set Your Billing Rate to $10,000 per Hour.
Steve Pavlina has an interesting take on hourly billing:
The big problem is that when you tell yourself your time is worth $50/hour, you’re simultaneously telling yourself that it isn’t worth $75/hour or $200/hour or $10,000/hour. You’re programming your subconscious mind to limit the range of opportunities you will notice. Because you won’t be on the lookout for $10,000/hour ideas, you’ll overlook them completely. If you tell yourself you earn $50/hour, you’ll think in terms of $50/hour opportunities.
Thinking in terms of an hourly rate may help limit your downside, but it also severely limits your upside. And that’s a really bad trade-off, bad enough that it requires me to dismiss this whole paradigm as utterly stupid. There’s no way the upside of turning some $20 hours into $50 hours can compensate for missing those $10,000 hours. That’s penny-wise, pound-foolish.
One $10,000 hour is worth 200 $50 hours. That’s more than a month of full-time work! You don’t need too many of those huge payoff hours to pick up the slack of some of those less productive $0-20 hours, but if you miss out on even one of those $10,000 hours, it’s a crippling blow that overwhelms all other thoughts about financial productivity.
In the long run, your greatest financial risk isn’t whether you made the mistake of succumbing to doing $20/hour work when you could have done $50/hour work. Your greatest risk is missing those $10,000 hours. And most people miss out on them completely. It’s ironic that people think of being a salaried employee as being low-risk and being an entrepreneur as high-risk. The reality is just the opposite. One of the reasons I chose the entrepreneurial path is that it’s just way too damn risky to be an employee. I’m not kidding. It’s easy to hit a good number of those $10,000 hours as an entrepreneur, but it’s a lot harder to do so as an employee.
How many $10,000 hours did you enjoy this year?
Go ahead and read the whole post. Really thought provoking.
Price like Wal-Mart?
Will Keller has a great post up on his Accounting Blog disecting WalMart’s pricing strategy:
WalMart goes to great lengths to have an alluring and unbeatable opening price point item in each category- from TV sets to cosmetics to bathing suits. These are the "unbelievable" prices that the company has become famous for (for example, a microwave oven for $14.67). The psychological impact of this opening price point is huge- consumers are led to believe that all of WalMart's prices are this low. However, the reality is quite different. As confirmed in interviews with former store managers, WalMart does not have the lowest price on every item in every category. In fact, the company often has higher prices than other big retailers (i.e. you might get a better deal down the road at Target). However, in most cases the game is already over because consumers believe that WalMart's prices are lower across the board. Furthermore, evidence shows that most shoppers don't even buy the opening price point item. Instead, the low price lures them into the department, where they end up buying a brand name or higher quality item that they are more comfortable with. (emphasis added)
That’s pretty powerful stuff. The price gets customers in the door, but they don’t even buy the products whose price brought them there. Anyone out there using this strategy with success among professional service providers?
More Friday Fun
I think I’ll use some of these charts and graphs in my next presentation. (Found via one of my new favorite blogs: Creative Generalist).
Friday Time Waster
Who thought reading an encyclopedia could be fun? Well, now with Wikipedia (and WikiQuote) on the scene, you can’t go wrong with a little bit of encyclopedic knowledge on a Friday afternoon. Don’t say I didn’t warn you (see title of the post):
Simpsons Quotes, Simpsons Neologisms, and finally Bart’s Chalkboard Gags.
Taking Blogging Personally
One of the topics at BlawgThink was how much a person’s blog should say about them personally vs. professionally. Fred Wilson’s post The Soul of A Blog answers the question for me:
… most people like getting a sense of who I am. They can quickly scan past the posts they don't want to read. But having those posts there gives them a sense of the other parts of me.
As I said to my friend when he told me about Dan's comments, "a diversity of post topics is the soul of a blog". All head and no soul makes for a boring read.
Introduce your clients to blogs.
Not everyone “gets” blogging. If you’d like to introduce your clients to blogs, why not give them a pre-populated list of blogs that are relevant to them and their business area — heck, include some blogs that reflect their personal interests, favorite hobbies, sports teams, etc. Make sure it includes yours, of course. Here, from Steve Dembo, is a quick way to do it:
If you go into Bloglines, click on My Feeds and scroll down to the bottom of the left hand frame, you’ll see a link called “Tell a friend”. Clicking on it allows you to enter in a list of email addresses and to pick among blogs you currently subscribe to. It will send out an email with a link to bloglines that will allow someone to register a new account at bloglines prepopulated with your chosen blogs!
Wow, I wish I’d known about this the last few times I got people started on bloglines. MUCH easier than having them jump from place to place to place subscribing to blogs without really understanding what it’s all about yet.
It’s kind of like a personal gift that keeps on giving. It is like you are introducing your client to dozens of people that could directly help their businesses. That’s pretty powerful relationship building.
If you use this tip, though, at least promise me you’ll include the [non]billable hour in the list. ;-)
Who else thinks conferences can get better?
Seth Godin does, and so does Garr Reynolds. If I quoted the best parts of each post, I’d just end up cutting and pasting the whole things, so go directly and read them instead.