End of the Year To-Dos

Believe it or not, it's the end of the year again. Christmas is only four short weeks away, and I honestly can't believe it. The time has flown by, and as I look back I can see a lot of opportunities seized and a lot of opportunities missed. And it's important to recognize and understand both, so as not to lose one and to be on the lookout for the other.

As the name of this post implies, we've got some end of the year starting a law firm to-do's. There are two that I am thinking of, neither one of which I've done yet, but both of which I'll be doing very soon. They are goal setting and reviewing and revising the business plan. Let's talk a little bit about both.

Goal Setting

At the end of the year last year I set some law firm goals. And, sadly, but truthfully, I hadn't really looked at them when I set them until now. What's the point of setting goals if you aren't going to check them and work toward them, right? Here's a recap of my goals for this year:

1. Gross $100,000. I actually have reached this goal I think (though I don't know for sure - something that will be fixed in 2011).

2. Pay down half of my current debt. I wish I could say I'd done that, but I'm not even close. That's a personal goal rather than a professional goal, but still, not reached.

3. Travel with my wife. Again, more personal than professional, and I again, not really met. We went to Cabo for a wedding, but that's about it. I could do much much better in this department.

4. Play some golf. I played a fair amount of golf this year. I'd love to play much more. Nuff said about that I think.

5. Begin saving money to buy a house. Not done at all. Don't have any excuses except the money just isn't there for this. I'm pouring most of it into paying down debt. When that's gone, the house saving gets much easier (and grows much faster).

6. Strictly adhere to my internet marketing plan. I don't remember what the plan was exactly, but I'd say I did it. I'm number one for several of my targeted keywords, and continue to work on that every day. That is one of the things that's contributed to my success.

7. Give one talk a month to people about how to deal with cops. I think I gave three of these this year, and not month to month. We'll talk about this when we talk about my goals for 2011.

8. Track and tweak my marketing efforts to get the best ROI. Can't say that I've done this very well. For quite some time I got caught up in the day to day of the firm - that means a lot of busy work and not much else.

9. Work every day to become the best DUI attorney there is, which includes 5 trials. I'm not going to reach my goal of 5 trials. I'm not even going to get close. But that isn't for lack of trying. Each time I thought a case was going to go to trial something happened and it ended up resolving. I know I'll have at least two trials in January though, so that should get me off to a good start.

10. Set up a tracking system to make sure I'm tracking these goals. I've already confessed to not doing this.

As you can see, I met some, and I didn't meet others. But I think all in all I'm moving in the right direction, and that's the point, right?

Actually, that isn't the point at all. The point isn't to set goals so you might meet them. To "try hard" but not lose any sleep if you fall short. The point is to meet or exceed your goals. I need to do better.

I'm not going to tell you my goals for next year yet. Honestly, I haven't come up with them. But I can tell you that my goals are going to look dramatically different than they do here in this post. Part of what makes goals so hard to attain is often you only describe the big picture, end result. For example, I want to lose 40 pounds. Okay, great. That sounds wonderful to say, and is a great goal. But just saying it isn't enough. You need to have more details if you want to succeed. Maybe you break it down like one hour in the gym a day and no McDonald's french fries. Whatever it is, unless you break it down you have little hope of achieving success. So I'm going to break it down for me.

Revising the Business Plan

When I started my firm almost exactly a year and a half ago I wrote a business plan, and I think it was one of the best things I did. Not only did it make me think about what I was going to do before I did it, but it helped give me direction and make choices when they needed to be made. And I haven't done anything with it since.

So, I need to revise it. I guess now it would be more aptly described as a strategic plan or something like that, but at the heart of it it's a business plan for a business that's already up and running. This will help me with the goal setting described above, because it's natural design will force me to map out where the business goes in the future. But it will also make me plan long term, something we should all do.

Don't worry, I'll let you know what I've done with that too. But remember, all this stuff about me won't always apply to you. I just tell you what I'm doing so you can see an example of how it's been done. Hopefully you take away from it what you like, leave the rest behind, and avoid some of the same mistakes I've made.

Hope you all had a happy turkey day, and I'll talk to you again on Friday. I think we're going to talk about my laziness and affinity for television - in other words, how to deal with the things that steal our time.

Law Firm Marketing | Creating an Identity

This is the second in what will hopefully be a long line of Wednesday law firm marketing posts. Today we're going to talk a little bit about getting creative - thinking outside the box to get more customers. Here we go!

One of the things I find the most frustrating about marketing my law firm is the fact that everyone so often seems to do the same thing. Don't believe me? Google DUI attorney and start clicking around. Everyone is "aggressive," everyone is "dedicated," and everyone is "experienced." I even have that stuff on my website. The problem is, I have no idea if that kind of talk helps. Honestly, I don't think it does. But I'm at a bit of a standstill on what I can do that is different to get my name out there.

Yesterday I took some time and I wrote down a long list of law firm marketing ideas. This is what I came up with:

Billboards;

Creating a brand - who is my firm?;

Radio ads;

Print ads;

Matchbooks;

Coozies;

Keychains;

Television ads;

A website with less "friction" - that is easy for people to take action on;

Booth at the local farmer's market;

Lunch with great known referral sources;

Better business card;

Getting some press;

T-shirts (funny/catchy/true slogans);

Magnets;

Wrapping the car in an ad; and

Get more customer reviews (seek them out instead of waiting for them to come in).

As I looked at this list, I began to realize something that I've been avoiding for a long time because I think it's a little uncomfortable - my law firm has no true identity. And that sucks.

Sure, I know I want to give great service and yada yada yada, but I don't have all of that wrapped up into a tight, clearly defined package so that when people see me, my firm name, or my firm logo they know exactly who I am and what I do. That's not good. And that's the key to differentiating yourself from everyone else in a world where everyone seems to be the same - figuring out exactly who you are and then not being afraid to tell everyone about it in every way you can think of.

I read a lot of emails from the personal finance guy, his name is Ramit Sethi. He's got a blog called I Will Teach You to be Rich and he sends out a monthly newsletter about personal finance and going after your goals full throttle. His newsletter this month was about the power that we let failure have over us. And while I know it applies to starting a law firm, I also think it applies to marketing a law firm, in the sense that I know I feel apprehensive about whether or not my ideas are going to work out (and whether or not they are going to get me laughed at by my peers in the process). Here's the part of the newsletter that I really liked:

People think failure is a bad thing, which always makes me laugh. Failure can be managed, planned for, and even eagerly anticipated.

For example, I have a "failures" tag in Gmail where, if I'm not adding 5 NEW FAILURES PER MONTH, I know I'm not doing enough.

Another data point: for every 10 marketing initiatives we do at "I Will Teach You to be Rich," 7 will fail. And we are pretty freaking good at what we do.

You can treat rejection as a normal step in the process. Expect it. Manage it. Own it.

I think the point of that is that it's okay to go out on a limb. It's okay, and in fact is critical to success, that new marketing ideas are consistently created and tested. And it's okay if you fail, because in the end you'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

Here's my challenge to you. Create an identity for your firm. Who are you? What do you do? Why are you different? And then own that identity in every part of your business. Once you do that, come up with 5 creative marketing ideas and implement them. Don't just think about them - actually try them out. If they fail, at least you know. And if they succeed, you've probably just substantially increased your business.

If you'd like to share your ideas in the comments, please do. Next week I'll tell you what I've come up with.

Law Firm Marketing | Why Have a Blog?

I like to talk about law firm marketing, and I used to have a different site devoted to it. But I just decided I should combine everything here. So I am. Starting this week you should be getting one post devoted more to marketing a law firm and one devoted more to the other areas of starting a law firm. Sound good? Not hearing any responses from the crowd I'll assume that's a no (by the way, that's kind of a bad trial lawyer joke - I heard someone ask and respond to about fifty voir dire questions like that once - why not ask the question so you get some answers?!).

Today's post is about blogging. We all feel like we should be blogging, right. We are all blogging, right? But are we doing it correctly, that is the question. And is there even a way to do it incorrectly?

If you didn't know it, what I'm doing write now is blogging. The term originally came from weblog, which was supposed to be like a diary for a lot of people. Weblog was then shortened to blog, people found out that people would search out and read what they were writing, people found out they could make money from it, and it's been a little bit art and a little bit science ever since.

I could probably create a 300 page book on the art and science of blogging. There's really that much to it. But today, according to the title of my post, we're just here to answer "Why Have a Blog?" particularly in the law firm marketing sense. The other answer to why you should have a blog is because it's a great place to make yourself feel more important than you really are.

From a marketing perspective, you want your blog to do a couple of things when people find it. First, you want it to make a personal connection with the people that are reading it. For example, with this blog, I'm not stuffy. I tell you what I'm thinking in my own language and in my own style. Though you may not know much about me personally, I bet you kind of have a picture of who I am, at least from a law firm owner's standpoint. That's what you want. It will make it so when people call you to get help you won't need to sell them on what you can do. They'll just be verifying what they already feel from experiencing your web presence.

Second, you want to show people you know what you are talking about. If I got on here and told you about my dog Rufus all day, you probably wouldn't be relying on me very much for information related to marketing a law firm. So you have to talk about your topic, and you have to talk about it in a way that either answers people's common questions or invokes thought. I like to do a little bit of both. By blogging you can build up a perceived level of expertise that people will enjoy. It's a way of "showing" what you can do instead of "telling" what you can do.

And, by the way, don't talk about how experienced you are or how good you are (that's the "telling" I was referring to), that works about as good as telling a judge they should rule in your favor because you "believe it's the right thing." Show the judge why you're right, position yourself so there's only one way he can rule - yours - and you'll win the case. Same thing with clients. Position yourself so when they pick up the phone and call you they are thinking "this guy knows what he's doing - I want him to help me." That's effective law firm marketing.

Finally, you should have a blog because it is a cheap, easy way to significantly increase your web presence. Every time I write a post on this blog you see that I have links pointing all over the place - I do that on purpose. And every time I write a post on here I create a new web page. In some places, because of the way these posts set up as their own web pages, I've been able to the first, second, and third result in a Google search. Think about how much exposure you could create if you did that for your blog or website. The possibilities are endless. I'm not going to talk about blog set up here today - I've already talked about it before. But it's definitely a reason to have a blog.

Still not convinced you need a blog for your new law firm? Don't believe some of the things I'm saying? Have some follow up questions? There's a nice little spot for comments right below here. Instead of sending me an email, put in a comment. And if you read a comment and have an idea, respond. Maybe we can have an old fashioned discussion on here!

Happy marketing. Talk to you Friday.

Starting a Law Firm | General Practice or Niche Practice?

So we've had our law firm marketing post of the week. Now for the practice management arm of the blog. Today, as the title implies, we are going to talk about a general practice vs. a niche practice, and we're going to do so in the context of a comment I got a couple of days ago. Here it is:

Hi. I've been enjoying your blog. I've been trying to get the courage to set up my own law firm, and your blog is one of the most positive sources online. It should be said however that I'm here in Ireland, where the economy has completely tanked, and lawyers professional indemnity insurance is prohibitively expensive - a new sole practitioner is looking at €10,000+ which I think is about $12,000...Unlike in the US its not really feasible to practice solely as a DUI or Road Traffic Offense layer. Here, we tend to offer services across the board, from property work to wills and Probate to crime. Nonetheless, I think the key is to keep overheads low, market agressively and make sure you get paid for any work - those principles apply here too. Keep up the blogging. You'll probably be pleased that you,ve gone global!

To do this right we are going to break down each of these statements and really see if there are problems to be solved or if there are assumptions being made that may or may not be true out there in real life.

Here we go!

Before I get too far I want to point out that I'm not being critical of what the commenter said. In fact, I'm glad he or she had the guts to write in - that means they are serious about exploring starting a law firm. But if you are going to do this right, you've got to be open to hearing new ideas and having your ideas challenged. I'm going to do it for you now and I urge you to do it for me in the future (and trust me, I have people that do this for me now).

As I read the comment I noticed one thing immediately - excuses. Read it again, and imagine that he started by saying "I really want to start a law firm. But insurance is too expensive and there isn't enough work doing what I really want to do so I'm going to have to do a little bit of everything" instead of the way that he did. That's really what he's saying, right? So this is thought number one - try not to look at things as roadblocks or reasons why you shouldn't do something, particularly if you haven't thought out potential solutions to those roadblocks. Look at them as opportunities if you can.

Let's talk about the insurance first. So you have to pay $1000 a month for insurance. That sucks. But I wouldn't call it prohibitively expensive. And have you looked into what it costs if you tell the insurer that you practice one area of law specifically? If I were an insurer and you told me you did everything I'd charge you a bunch too. In the states our rates are based on our practice area - some are understandable riskier than others. Call your insurer and see if they'll adjust the rates if you promise to stick to a couple of specific areas of the law. The worst they can say is no.

Next, practice area. When you are starting a law firm, or thinking about it, one constant that runs through your mind is "what if no one calls." To subdue that fear you may plan to take whatever case comes in the door. If they pay you'll play. But I can tell you first hand when played out in the real world the opposite is true. If you are a general practitioner you end up making less money, getting less clients, and hating what you do.

The easiest way to put this into perspective is with an example. Let's say you are a potential DUI client or criminal client. You've just been charged with a crime and you need help. You start looking around and you find five attorneys that look at least outwardly promising. Four of the attorneys advertise that in addition to criminal defense they do wills, trusts, business planning, contracts, divorce, personal injury, transactional work, and trademark work. The fifth advertises that he's a criminal defense attorney. He's got a niche practice. His marketing materials are informative and provide a depth and level of information that the others just don't. This attorney actually answers your questions. Who would you choose if you needed criminal defense help?

So will your clients.

Let's take it one step further. Now the potential client comes in to talk to you. You tell him about your practice, answer all of his questions, and can tell him honestly that you focus specifically on criminal defense so that you can provide your customers the best opportunity for success. And then you tell them that your fee is double whatever anyone else charges. And then they pay it!

Let me break out here for one second. Clients will pay you higher fees for two reasons. First, they want someone who knows what they are doing. And they want someone who has an expertise in the area of law they need help with. The fact that everything about you says you are focused on this area of law is great for that. But second, and no less important, the higher fee conveys the exact same message! Believe it or not, people will pay more something if they see the value in it. And the higher price itself implies higher value!

Here's another advantage of choosing a practice area and sticking to it - you can identify your perfect client and then begin to go after them. You can also let others know who your perfect client is so they can start sending you business. General practitioners will take anyone. That means you have no target audience. If you focus on a practice area you can determine who your ideal client is and target them.

And finally, one last great thing about specializing, particularly in a market where no one specializes. Whatever practice area you choose it's not going to take you very long to become known as "the" guy that does whatever you do. The more you market yourself as a criminal lawyer as opposed to a lawyer, the more people will start to know you for that, and send business your way.

This whole discussion goes back to another important point I'd like everyone to consider when putting together your law practice and thinking about which direction you are going to take your practice - just because everyone does, or doesn't, do something doesn't mean it's the right, or wrong, thing to do. People love the status quo because it's safe. Everyone must be doing it because it works, right? Wrong. Everyone's doing it because they are too scared to be left behind instead of thinking about whether or not it works for them. A perfect example of this is the thought that specialized practices won't work because one else is doing it. The way I see it, that's exactly why it will work!

That's it for me for now. As always, if you have questions, let me know. If you disagree, let me know.

Law Firm Marketing | Getting Your Money

We all know this blog is about starting a law firm. There are tons of questions when you are starting out that need to be answered: what kind of business entity do you want; where are you going to have an office; are you going to have an office; how are you going to set up the phones; how much is insurance? The list goes on and on. But the more I talk to people about starting a law firm and the more I grow in my business, the more I see it coming down to two things - law firm marketing and getting your money. So I'm going to talk about both of them today, and I'm going to probably lean more toward talking about them in the future. Here we go!

Law Firm Marketing - Matchbooks and Internet Marketing

I had lunch with this guy this week, we'll call him Alphie. I met Alphie about a year ago. He'd just gone out on his own and wanted to hear what I had to say about internet marketing. So we met. I told him what I did, which involves about two hours of work a day (or at least it did at that time) and he was blown away. I knew right away he wouldn't put the work in - it just didn't seem like a priority for him.

So we met, and I asked him how he was doing, and I don't even remember what he said but on his face I could see that he was struggling. I asked him if he was doing the law firm internet marketing stuff like we'd talked about and he said no, he just didn't have the time (we'll get to that aspect of the talk in the getting your money portion of this post). So I asked him what he was doing to get new business. Know what he told me? Matchbooks.

Turns out he talked to some old lawyer that told him about a guy he knew that used to drop off a bunch of matchbooks with his information on it around town and the guy was getting all kinds of clients off of it. "Okay," I said. "What's your plan when you get the matchbooks?"

"Oh, I think I'll just drop a bunch of them off at a couple of bars around where I live. I've gotten to know some of the guys there and they are always telling me I should leave a couple of cards."

Timeout. Do you see the problem here? Or, I mean, problems? Take a couple of minutes to think about it before you read further. What is wrong with his approach here?

Did you think about it?

Really? Come on, don't just skip to the end!

Okay, let's break this down. First, the matchbooks for law firm marketing. I have no idea if that idea works. Maybe it does. The way I see it, the only way you are going to get someone to call you like that is if you get people to put them in their cars or their house. No one is thinking about which DUI lawyer they're going to call when they are in the bar. They are thinking about hanging out with their friends or hooking up with that chick.

Let's assume it does work. Problem number one with what he's doing is that he's got absolutely no plan to utilize the matchbooks. "I think I'm going to drop a couple off at some bars around my house." Really? Maybe you should think about it a little bit more. Maybe instead of just feeling good because you dropped a couple hundred bucks on matchbooks you should think about how that couple hundred bucks investment is going to pay off for you.

Problem number two with what Alphie told me was he could have just dropped off some cards! Not only are the cards better than matchbooks because they would probably be given to the patrons with a personal referral ("use this guy, he's good") but the cards are something anyone can throw in their wallet and keep. If anyone ever tells you to bring over a bunch of business cards, by all means do it!

I hope the matchbooks work for him. The problem is I don't think he's really thought about how to use them so he actually gets some clients from them. If you haven't thought of that or can't come up with an answer for that, then you should think twice about letting go of your hard earned money to pay for it.

Starting a Law Firm | Getting Paid

Another thing that struck me in my conversation with Alphie was how busy he seemed compared to how much he was struggling financially. He told me he was having a hard time getting people to pay. Now, before I get too far on this subject, I want to tell you the golden rule of opening a successful law firm - if people don't pay, you don't work for them.

The sooner you learn this lesson, the faster you will become successful. That means if you don't have a credit card number, post dated checks, or some other way to collect money, you better be damn sure the client knows if they don't pay you will be off the case immediately. And then when the time comes to get off the case, you've got to get off the case. Cut your losses. If you don't people will milk you and milk you until their case is over and you have no leverage to get your money. Get your money up front.

And here's lesson number two that goes right along with this - you don't need work to be successful. Most attorneys I know feel like if they aren't doing work they aren't successful. To achieve this feeling of success they'll take clients they know won't pay and do work they don't want to do. This is a recipe for disaster. In reality it erodes your confidence, makes you hate your job and your clients, and leaves you broke. Who really wants that?

When Alphie described this exact problem to me I told him what I did when these feelings crept up - I worked harder at marketing and executing my plan. If someone couldn't afford me, I sent them to someone cheaper. If someone needed help in an area that I didn't want to work in, I referred them to someone that worked in that area. And if the phone wasn't ringing I kept busting my ass doing law firm internet marketing. The phone started ringing, my clients pay, and it's all good.

The bottom line is, if you want to get paid, you either have to get it up front, get a credit card number, or get some post dated checks. If the credit card goes bad, the checks don't clear, or something else crops up, you can't call the client and say "there must be a mistake, the card isn't working," because they'll just give you an excuse. You've got to instead say (politely), "we have an agreement. I'm busting my ass for you in your case and I deserve to be paid for it. If you don't meet your obligations by x date, our arrangement will be over." And then if they don't pay, end the arrangement.

It's extremely scary when the phone isn't ringing and you're not sure if you are ever going to have a steady stream of clients. At that point you have one of two choices - you can take on the bad client or you can put more work back into your firm. I don't have to tell you which decision yields the best results.

My Law Clerk Quit Today!

If you've read my previous posts you know that in the past 6 weeks or so I've hired both a law clerk and a legal assistant. Since that time I've been really pleased with the way the things were going, particularly with the legal assistant. She's got a good attention to detail, she shows up to work every day on time, she's got a good personality, basically though it's early she's looking like a great hire.

The law clerk, on the other hand, I wasn't so pleased with. Though I thought she was trying hard I just plain didn't think she was taking enough ownership of her work. She was kind of new to the criminal defense world, which I was fine with, and I have a lot of forms to get her started both on research and on writing the assignments that I gave her. But it just seemed like the effort wasn't there. And I told her that.

The way I told her I thought was great. And it's totally my style. I wasn't mean, I was open to hearing that some of it was my fault (which it undoubtedly was - it's always hard to be as clear as you want to be or think you are), and all I was looking for was continued improvement over time. I mean it's impossible for me to be judgmental when maybe I wasn't as clear about what I wanted as I should have been.

At the end of our talk I gave her an assignment and we got to work. I thought everything was good and I was looking forward to her growing as an attorney - I mean, let's be honest, law school doesn't teach you a thing about being a lawyer - when most people graduate from law school they wouldn't know how to find the courthouse without GPS. She gave me her work for the day and left.

Then I get a voice mail today. It says, basically "I wanted to call to say I won't be working for you anymore. School is just taking up too much of my time, and with finals coming up I just don't think I'm going to be able to do both. If you want to talk about it that's great, give me a call." Really, did I just get broken up with (work-wise, of course) by voice mail? Yes, I think I did.

I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt on this one and hope that she was just too busy to do both. But I remember what life was like when I was a 2L, and my alcohol consumed to class attended ratio was extremely high. Maybe she's different. I hope she just didn't like the criticism and quit. Either way though I guess we just weren't a good fit for each other.

No matter what the outcome, win or loss (and I won't tell you what I consider this), there are always lessons to be learned and applied to starting a law firm. And here is what I learned:

1. I need to create a better idea in my mind of what I'm looking for in a law clerk;

2. I need to continue to be up front with my employees about my expectations and whether or not they are being met;

3. I need to take the same time and care picking out a law clerk that I did for a legal assistant (all law students are not created equally); and

4. It's way cooler being the boss than being the law clerk!

Stay tuned for Friday when I'll talk about what I think law school students should focus on in law school if they know or are leaning strongly toward starting a law firm when the graduate. To give you a hint, there are some things you should definitely be doing today!

New Assistant | Law Firm Marketing

The New Legal Assistant

I just finished up my first week with my new legal assistant, and I must say I can really see the benefits accumulating already. It's going to take a couple two or three weeks until she's really comfortable doing everything she has to do, but once that happens, my life is going to get much easier.

If you are starting a law firm then you know you are continuously running into "firsts." And having this legal assistant is a first for me (her name is Kelsey, by the way - I'm going to start referring to her by her name) - managing an employee. It's not that it's that difficult, I mean so long as you remember to be consistent with what you are asking and demonstrate through your own actions what you are looking for, but it's different.

One of the biggest things I've realized is how much direction is needed to get some of what I consider routine tasks done. The advantage and disadvantage of starting a law firm with just yourself is that you learn how to do everything and you don't have to teach it to anyone. Whether you mean to or not, you develop a set of processes and procedures to deal with your work, and those become ingrained into your every day work. If I could give one piece of advice to you before hiring an employee, it's to write down what the processes are in as detailed a manner as you can. Part of what I spend my day doing now is trying to create these written "standard operating procedures" so Kelsey has a quick reference when she needs it.

I am excited for the next few weeks to play out to see how I can really start using Kelsey to maximize the output of the firm. I'll be sure to keep you posted. And if you have any questions about this, let me know.

Law Firm Marketing | Finding Referral Sources

I wanted to write about law firm marketing because it's something I've been thinking about a lot. I know that everyone is running to the internet (me included) to vie for the limited space that is available, and I know people are spending a ton of money (not me) to try to get clients from the internet. But I feel like a lot is lost when you think only about the internet in your law firm marketing strategy.

When I break down where most of my business comes from - when I really break it down and don't just guess where it comes from, it really breaks down like this - 62% internet, 38% referral. That's pretty good, right. But I think in reality, you'd probably want those numbers to be flipped. And here's why. When referrals walk into my door they already know a little bit about me and they already inherently trust me - someone's put their reputation on the line to suggest they use my services. They know they are going to get a good product and typically they are ready to pay for that level of service. Those are the type of prospective clients I want walking through the door.

The difficult part of this analysis, though, is coming up with good referral sources. You all know I'm a criminal defense attorney, so my target market is always moving. But here's the thing, that type of thinking is what is holding you back. Instead of sitting back and thinking "I can't think of any potential referral sources," sit down with someone and start brainstorming. Look at your practice and where your referrals are coming from. Is there a specific segment of the community or professional services group that has access to potential clients? If yes, then you need to start cultivating those sources.

I've actually come up with a few ideas for marketing my law practice in particular. I'm not going to tell you though - you have to come up with your ideas on your own! And, by the way, coming up with the sources is only part of the problem. After that you have to figure out how to get them to refer people your way. And it's not always as easy as it sounds.

In my jurisdiction something that gets in the way of cultivating strong referral sources (easily and without any effort) is an ethical rule against providing referral fees. They simply aren't allowed. I get why the rule is there, but it makes forging these relationships harder - I can't just schedule a lunch with a potential referral source and tell them I'll pay them "x" dollars every time they refer someone to me. That's good for people asking for referrals but it's bad for my law firm marketing efforts.

What it's forced me to do is think in some ways like other business people would. How do they create relationships with beneficial partners? How do they reach out to potential referral sources and let them know they are available? How do they get referral sources to know, like, and trust them enough to send them business?

If you can answer these questions and then execute on those answers, your law firm revenues will be going through the roof. I'll let you know how my execution turns out!