Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 27

Here’s one of my personal resolutions for 2006:

Make a list of the twelve people you know who could really help you improve your life in 2006, and then write down the one thing each could do to help you the most.  Each month, resolve to take one of them to dinner to a nice restaurant and ask them to do that one thing. 

If you want to be ambitious, make a parallel list of the twelve people you don’t know who could help, and do the same thing!

Here is last year’s resolution:

I read a lot of non-legal books — mostly business books — to help me generate ideas on improving my legal practice and to get ideas for posts in this blog.  I usually buy the books I read, and fold down the corner of each page that has something I want to come back to.  However, what tends to happen is that I end up with a bunch of books on my bookshelf with beat-up pages that I’ve not looked at since I read them in the first place. 

This brings me to my resolution for the day (and a simple Knowledge Management tip):

Whenever you finish a book, copy each page you “marked” while reading it.  Put the copies in an idea file that you review regularly — or at least when you are stuck and need to think creatively.

Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Days 24-26

Take a vacation with your family.  These resolutions are coming to you a bit late (though I’ve backdated them) because I took my own advice.  Here are some pictures from our trip up California’s Highway One, from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Oh, and here are the resolutions from last year:

December 24:

Identify the most successful businesses in your community and find out who is second and third in charge there.  Ask those people to lunch.  Learn everything you can about their business.  Don’t “sell” your practice or your services, but offer to help them in any way you can.  Follow up with a personal thank-you note after the lunch.

You will start to see business from these people and their businesses before next year is out! 

December 26:

Now that the holiday season is over, think about the one present you saw (on television, while shopping, under the tree) that made you say to yourself, “Boy, if I were a kid again …,” and go buy it for yourself.  Whenever you are having a tough day at the office, or really need to do some creative thinking, pull it out and play with it.  Here is the “present” I bought myself while shopping for my daughter’s Christmas presents — a Lego Ferrari F1 Racer.  I can’t wait to put it together.

links for 2005-12-24

• Glass shape affects drink size
  (tags: holidays alcohol)

Happy Holidays from the Homann Family!

Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 23

Start a Think Tank.  Invite five of the coolest and smartest people you know and let them each invite one additional person.  Set up a monthly brainstorming meeting where you each bring an issue or idea you want to discuss.  Charge a new person each month with the task of introducing a different creative thinking process to the group.  Each month, invite a “guest thinker” to join the group for that session.

Here is last year’s resolution:

Find employees who want to work second and third shifts and experiment with one or two days a month where the firm never closes.  Advertise these days, and find out how many people who've never had time to meet with a lawyer come calling!

Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 22

Resolve to ask your employees the one thing they’d like to change about your business.  Then commit to trying it for a month, no matter what it is.  Thanks to Zane Safrit for this one.

Here is last year’s resolution:

Every week, pick one of your "standard" forms (like retainer agreement) and give it to a sixth grader.  Ask them if they understand it.  Then rewrite it from scratch.

Technology Problems

Typepad’s outage late last week and a really flakey internet connection has kept me from posting for a few days.  I’ll get caught up on my resolution series by tomorrow.  Thanks.

Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 21

Take some time to answer this question:

What would I do differently at work if I knew I couldn’t fail or be criticized?

If you want to find more questions like this one, check out Mitch Meyerson’s 35 Questions That Will Change Your Life (pdf).

Here is last year’s resolution:

Find the biggest problem in your community and have a competition to solve it.  Involve the schools and retirement homes.  Give a prize for the best solution.  Make sure everyone knows your firm sponsored the competition.  Set aside another part of the prize money to go towards funding the solution.

Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 20

Resolve to see your office as clients do.  Spend some time in your waiting room.  Listen in as a friend calls your office for an appointment.  Answer this question from Howard Mann:

What if you took some time away from trying to figure out what your clients want next and spend time every month experiencing how they actually see you today?

Here is last year’s resolution:

Create a Firm Master To-Do List -- This list isn't for client matters, but for firm matters.  Make marketing and firm development high priorities.  Make sure everyone has access to the list and place at least one item on the calendar each week to make sure it gets done.

Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 19

Here is another favorite idea from the past year: 

Resolve to write down ten of the most fundamental changes you could make to your business without destroying it.  Once you’ve completed the task, try to make an objective and convincing argument why you shouldn’t make the change.  If there are one or two fundamental changes you can’t make a compelling argument against, give them a try.  (Via Report 103)

Here is last year’s resolution:

Look for space in your office where you can have a comfortable conversation with a client, partner, or staff member.  Having a white board or other brainstorming tool would be a big plus.  Make it a fun place to think.

Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 18

Resolve to focus on what is “wrong” in your business.  Each week, identify two or three small things that are “wrong” with your business (kind of like Jeff Bezos does), and fix them by week’s end.  If you want to think more positively, identify three things that are “right” and take the week to make them incrementally better.

Here is last year’s resolution (one of my favorites):

Prepare a list of client commitments and stick to them.  Include returning phone calls within a specified period of time.  Send the commitments to clients with every bill.  Offer discounts if you don't live up to any of your commitments.  Give clients a small discount if they send back a "Report Card" with their payment.  Make it look like the ones kids got in the fifties.  Follow up with them on any grade they give below an "A."

links for 2005-12-18

• Set Up Productivity Triggers to Get More Done
  (tags: productivity lifehack procrastination)
• Eight Life Hacks for Health, Wealth, and Happiness
  (tags: productivity happiness simplicity)
• HP Virtual Conference Rooms
  (tags: unconference virtual+conference)
• Conference vs. Unconference
  (tags: unconference conference collaborations)
• The Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us Users
  (tags: del.icio.us tags tagging)

Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 17

Resolve to say “no” more often in your business.  Read Sam Decker’s entire post to understand why.

Here is last year’s resolution:

Before you buy your next computer, try a Tablet PC.  Use it for fifteen minutes or so.  Once you experience the "magic" of using ink on your computer, you will have a difficult time with that boring old Dell or Thinkpad.

links for 2005-12-17

• Cobblestones are Good for You
  (tags: health feet)

Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 16

As you make up your “to change” list for 2006, remember the Chinese proverb:

If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.

Via 43 Folders.

links for 2005-12-16

• Why I'm Not Joining ALA
  (tags: conference unconference speaker attendee)
• BuzzMachine » Panelists, unite!
  (tags: unconference speakers panelists)

Resolutions for Lawyers Redux - Day 15

Turn your clients on 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. ;-)

Here is last year’s resolution:

Pick the three computer programs you use the most (or should use the most), and learn how to use them better.  Set aside an hour per week to spend reading the manuals and playing around with the software.  Better yet, get a “Dummies” book and read it through.  You will be amazed at the amount of time you can save just learning the in’s and out’s of most computer programs.  You would also be wise to make the rest of your office (especially staff) do the same thing.

links for 2005-12-15

• Thoughts on AHA!
  (tags: brainstorming collaboration lexthink)
• Collaboration and Virtual Games
  (tags: collaboration lexthink unconference)
• Yahoo! Think Tank
  (tags: creativity brainstorming ideas)

E-Mail Newsletter Do's and Don'ts

If you send out an e-mail newsletter (or even use e-mail for client communications), check out these Seven E-mail Landmines.  One tip that’s made me rethink my e-mails is this one:

The top 145-200 pixels of an email's height are the most critical. Key information to include above the fold:

• Company logo and link to the home page
• The main call to action, plus a link to act on that call
• A visual that enhances the brand image
• A headline that encourages readers to read the rest of the message

From a design perspective, the most common mistake is to clutter this section with graphics. If stripped out or blocked, they negatively affect your message.

Benefits are in the Eye of the Beholder.

My friend Jim Logan (who still blogs at JSLogan) is now posting his great business advice to a new blog:  Biz Informer.  Great stuff from Jim, as always, and I highly recommend it.  Here’s a bit of a taste, from his post If Your Market or Customer Doesn’t Care, You Can’t Call it a Benefit:

Assuming you’re not the only company on the planet that provides products and services similar to yours, what is it about your offering that’s unique? As with benefits you offer your customers, your uniqueness needs to be tied to things valued by your customer. Your uniqueness is your ‘orange’...your ‘orange’ as compared to other's ‘apple.’

Being different only counts to the extent your target customers acknowledge the difference as a benefit. For example, if your difference is that you support 1000+ color choices for your ‘widgets’ however, your target customers only buy or care about 4 basic colors, then your difference in having 1000+ color choices is of no benefit to your customer and has little to no market value.

Your difference shares space with your benefits as the ground you stand on to compete for your prospective customer’s business. The things you highlight as differences are the items you most want to compete on and are in effect ‘traps’ you set for your competition.

Look for difference in your offering that is tied to the use of your product and service. Your difference is your unfair advantage over your competitors. Another way to look at it is your benefits are what your customer gets from your products or services; your difference gives cause as to why your benefits and solution are unique.

Remember...Difference without benefit is of no value to your customer. Be sure to highlight difference that is recognized by your customers as benefits they are willing to pay for.

Take a look at your marketing materials.  What “benefits” do you brag about.  Do your customers really care?