Hand-y Advertising for DUI Lawyers

Check out this post from Ankesh Kothari about a Bombay nightclub that stamps a public service message on the hands of entering patrons.  DUI lawyers, you've got to see the picture, and think about paying a bar to use a rubber stamp with your phone number on it to stamp the hands of everyone who enters the bar.  When they get pulled over later that night, they'll know who to call.  Not sure if ethics-safe, but inspiring nonetheless.

A Tip for Parents

Here's an absolutely brilliant tip for traveling with young children from Parent Hacks:

When we go to crazy places like amusement parks and fairs, we just use a Sharpieand write on the kids' stomachs "My mom's cell # is...." The kids areall drilled on what to do if they get lost, and we have photos of themat Disneyland and everywhere else, flashing their bellies with theemergency plan.

Resolutions III: December 31

Take Lisa Hanneberg’s advice.  Choose one resolution, and each day:

- Tell two people about it.
- Take two actions that support it.
- Make two requests that support it (no matter how unreasonable).

Resolutions III: December 30

Resolve to be your clients’ creative guru. 

You don’t just want to be your clients’ problem solver (though that is better than ‘problem resolver’), you want to be the person they go to when they need to think about ways to grow their business, tackle new challenges, make more money, and be happier. 

Here is an amazing list of almost 200 different creativity techniques that you can use with your clients to help them be more creative.  Who knows, you may just learn to be more creative yourself.

Resolutions III: December 29

Resolve to understand what you sell.  This is pretty straightforward.  Ask your clients what they are buying from you.  If they answer “time,” then by all means continue to sell it.  If they answer something else (and it will be something else), learn to sell that instead.

Just to get you started, here’s one of my favorite posts of 2006:

Having a difficult time “selling” your value as an advisor instead of a tecnician?  Here’s an easy-to-understand way to communicate the differences between Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom, from the Across the Sound podcast (via Howard Kaplan):

Data is "the sun rises at 5:12 AM"

Information is "the sun rises from the East, at 5:12 AM"

Knowledge is "If you're lost in the woods without a compass, follow the direction of the sun to find your direction"

Finally, wisdom is "Don't get lost in the woods"

Resolutions III: December 28

Resolve to rethink your business cards.  In August of 2005, I wrote about my new index card-sized business cards.  Here are the cards I’m using now for realBIGthinking:

I rarely get a negative comment when I hand the card to someone, and the cards almost always begin an interesting conversation.  And isn’t that what a business card is supposed to do?

Blawg Review Awards

Blawg Review's anonymous (and very smart) editor has posted his/her Blawg Review Awards for 2006.  This blog was named "Best Legal Consultant Blog." 

I'm honored, but the thing that struck me as I read through the list of award winners was that I know 22 of the other bloggers named, and have met at least 17 of them in person (18 if you count the Editor).  Every single one of them is someone I'm glad to know, and that but for the blog, I'd have never met otherwise.

So thank you Blawg Review for reminding me this holiday season how cool it has been to be a "blawgger."  More importantly, thank you for reminding me how many incredible people I've met along the way.

Lawyers Appreciate ...

Last week Gerry Riskin asked me to write a post that  begins with the words “Lawyers Appreciate”  (the idea was originally conceived here).  Here’s mine:

Lawyers Appreciate Gifts.  Here are three things I’d like to (belatedly) give all my lawyer friends for the holidays:

1.  A family who loves them.

2.  A community who respects them.

3.  Great clients who pay them. 

And if I didn’t spend all my budget on those three things, I’d add four more:

4.  One hour each day to dream about how they’d make their business better.

5.  The courage to try the things they’ve thought up. 

6.  The wisdom to ignore those who say those things can’t be done.

7.  Friends like Gerry to cheer them on.

Resolutions III: December 27

Another favorite tip:  When your clients come to see you, resolve to help them see you.

Ever have clients come by your office who need to read documents?  Get a load of this tip (for waiters and waitresses) from Tricks of the Trade:

Keep a pair of reading glasses at hand. At least once every few days you'll get a customer who forgot their glasses and are unable to read the menu. Produce your spare pair and a good tip is secure.

Reading glasses are cheap at Wal-Mart, Target, etc.  Grab a few pairs and your clients will “see” what a great lawyer you are. 

Resolutions III: December 26

Here is a really simple one.  If you want to get more done (and you don’t dictate everything), resolve to type better.  In fact, I’d be hard pressed to think of a cheaper and better way to improve office-wide productivity, than to get everyone typing faster. 

Of course, if partners responding to their e-mails could get the response off in a “.10” instead of a “.20” clients would benefit as well.

Resolutions III: December 25

Resolve to tell your family and friends how much you love them.

Resolutions III: December 24

Resolve to become aware of news affecting your cients before they do.*

1.  Using Google Blog Search or Google Alerts set up several searches for each of your clients.  Use their names, industry, competitors’ names, products, etc.

2.  Subscribe to the RSS feed for each search.

3.  Notify your clients whenever you see something relevant to them or their industry.

Extra Credit:

4.  If you use Google Reader as your RSS Aggregator, create a “tag” for each of your clients.

5.  For each tag, Google Reader allows you to create a unique URL for that tag that you can share with your clients.

6.  Give each of your clients their tag’s unique URL and everytime they open it in their browser, they’ll see everything you’ve “marked” for them to read.

*  This post will be expanded into a longer how-to in January.

Resolutions III: December 22

Resolve to get less business. 

Step One:  Go through your client list and place a check next to every client who:

• you hate
• treats your staff poorly
• never pays on time
• always complains about everything – including your service
• is never happy with anything
• etc.

Step Two:  Figure out how much of your income comes from these clients.  Fire them.  If too much income comes from clients you hate serving, find a different practice area or a different job.

Step Three:  While you are at it, look at your calendar for the last year.  How many things (like family outings, vacations, and your children’s activities) didn’t you get to do because you had to work?  Add up the amount of money you made by missing these events.

Step Four:  Add the amounts from Steps Two and Three.  Increase your hourly rate (unless you already use value pricing) to make up for the business you are letting go.

Step Five:  Explain your rate increase to clients by telling them you decided to work for fewer clients to deliver the remaining ones better service (and to remain sane). 

Step Six:  Deliver that better service to your remaining clients.  Spend more time with your family.  Be happier. 

Resolutions III: December 21

Resolve to help your clients help each other.

Step One:  In addition to your normal engagement agreement, develop a “Client Promotion Agreement” that your clients sign that permits you to discuss with others what they do (in a most generic sense) and allows you to introduce them to others who can help them/buy from them/sell to them/etc.*

Step Two:  When asking them to sign the Client Promotion Agreement, explain to them that you take their privacy very seriously, but also believe in helping them and their business in any way that you can, and that you have many clients whom they might benefit from being introduced to.

Step Three:  Get to know as much as you can about your clients’ non-legal needs.  Try not to charge for these conversations (and do it at their place of business, if you can).  Ask them questions like these:

 What are the most common problems your customers have that you aren’t able to help them with?

What one thing could you do this year with someone’s help that would have the greatest impact on your business?

Step Four:  Introduce them to others who can help them.

* Though you may not ethically need this agreement (or you could cover it in your engagement agreement) it is a good way to reinforce how much you care about them and a nice way to begin the rest of the conversation about how to help them.

Resolutions III: December 20

Resolve to ease the technology burden on your employees.  Here’s how:

1.  Ask everyone in your office to keep track of every computer application and web-based tool they use each week.

2.  Have everyone rate each application/tool on “ease of use” on a scale of 1–5, with 5 being easiest.

3.  Either get rid of the applications that scored a 1, 2 or 3, or invest in training to teach everyone how to use them.

The 18 Percent Solution - January 23, 2007

I’ve been working with several great people to develop a small business seminar here in St. Louis on January 23rd called The 18 Percent Solution.  It takes place at the amazing Gran Prix Speedway in Earth City.

The entire event is focused on sharing innovative tips and tricks that help small businesses thrive.  I’ll have a lot more on the event over on my Idea Surplus Disorder Blog tomorrow, including a preview of the creativity and innovation portion of the program I’m running (think UnConference + LexThink + Idea Market + Go Cart Racing).

If you sign up at the link above and add “Homann” in the special instruction field, you’ll save $20 off the normal price ($95 before 1/3 and $125 after).

See you on the 23rd!

17 Lawyer Tips: A Mini Manifesto

After writing 15 Client Tips: A Mini Manifesto, I figured that turnabout is fair play.  Here are 17 for Lawyers:

1.  Whenever your clients don’t understand what you are doing for them, they think about what you are doing to them.

2.  Many of your clients remain your clients because it is a pain in the ass to find another laywer – not because they love you.

3.  Every time your clients get your bill, they think about how beautiful your office is and about the nice car you drive.  And they wonder if you are worth it. 

4.  If your office is a dump and you drive a wreck, they wonder about that too.

5.  If your client doesn’t pay you, fire them.  Don’t ignore them.

6.  At least once a year, tell a client, “It’s on the house.”

7.  Taking a client to play golf doesn’t show how good a lawyer you are.  It shows how good a golfer you are.

8.  Quit being a pompous, demanding jerk around the office.  If you can’t keep good staff, you don’t deserve good clients.

9.  Your clients will always know their business better than you do.  They may even know the law better than you.  Make sure to seek their advice before giving yours.

10.  A lawyer charging extra for stamps and copies is like a car wash charging extra for water.  Stop it now.

11.  Your clients have wants.  Your clients have needs.  They often don’t know the difference.

12.  Whenever you interrupt a client meeting to take an “important” call, your client thinks about hiring another lawyer.

13.  Imagine a world where your clients knew each month how much their bill from you will be so they could plan for it.  They do.

14.  If you hate being a lawyer, be something else.  You are smart.  You’ll figure it out.

15.  A bill is not communication.  At least not the good kind.

16.  When is the last time you called a client just to thank them for being your client?  That’s what I thought.

17.    People don’t tell lawyer jokes just because they are funny.  They tell lawyer jokes because they think they are true.  Spend your career proving them wrong.

Resolutions III: December 19

Today’s resolution is to do this exercise every week:

Write down your priorities.  Now look at your calendar.  Do the things you spend your time on mirror the things you think you should be doing?  Probably not – and it could be the primary reason you are dissatisfied with what you do.

Either your priorities will change to match your daily routine, or vice versa. 

I think this would be even more powerful if done office-wide, with this additional wrinkle: 

In addition to comparing everyone’s priorities with their calendars, ask everyone in a supervisory role to list the priorities of those they supervise.  Ask the supervised employees to list the priorities they think they are supposed to have.  Compare and discuss. 

Resolutions III: December 18

Distribute a monthly Postcard-Sized Newsletter from your firm.

Resolutions III: December 17

Here’s one of my favorite ideas from 2006:  Have a Trade Your Headache Day in your office:

Unless you are among the small percentage of hyper-motivated and totally focused people out there in the world, you know you have at least one “headache” sitting in a pile on your desk or on your to-do list.  It may be that project you keep putting off, that client you hate dealing with, or that phone call you just don’t want to make.  No matter what it is, imagine how happy you’d be tomorrow if it weren’t your responsibility any longer.

Well, odds are your co-workers have similar “headaches” they face every day too.  Here is a way to cope: 

Every week (or month) get together with your co-workers and bring your number one headache with you.  Identify it, and then trade it with one that someone else brought.  Think of it like kind of a regular white elephant gift exchange.  Just make sure the same headache doesn’t get traded over and over again.