Lead, Follow, or Get the F&*! Out of the Way

I wish I'd come up with the title of this post, but I didn't. I stole it blatantly from "Both Sides of the Table" an entrepreneurship blog that I frequently read. I stole the title because I think it says everything that needs to be said on the subject (although I guess, not really, since I'm saying more about it right now). The post had some great insight into what we do as business owners that I thought I'd share on here.

Leadership Isn't Easy

Two paragraphs about leadership that I thought were great for us to think about:

It’s hard to be a real leader. To do that you need to be saying & doing what most people think is wrong. If you think you’re on to a really big idea and everybody else thinks so, too, then most likely it’s already conventional wisdom and you’re too late. When Steve Jobs decided to open retail Apple stores people thought he was crazy. When he launched the iPad many people were saying, “I don’t get it, it’s just a big iPhone” or similar.

Leaders need to be early, have conviction, be persuasive and get others to follow when rational people should not. And trust me, the world is FILLED with naysayers. Whether they succeed or not does not defeat their leadership and willingness to try.

I really like these two paragraphs because that's where I want to be with my firm. I want to revolutionize the practice of DUI defense. I want to change the way that things are done so that my clients get better results, so the cop's jobs are harder when they are out on the street, so innocent people aren't charged and forced to fight a DUI charge they never should have received.

It's easy to want that, but to actually go out and do it is an entirely different story. I've got some ideas for some things to do, but they are a bit controversial. At the end of the day my ideas center on educating the public before they find themselves in their car with flashing lights behind them. They also center on streamlining the DUI defense process so that all of my clients get the kind of representation they deserve (which often requires expert witnesses).

When it comes to just starting a law firm in general, there are always going to be naysayer. "You're going to do what?!" is a typical response from people. You've got to have some conviction for what you are doing, some drive to be better, and then you've got to go after that with passion. And remember, just because people think you're crazy doesn't mean you have a bad idea.

Being a Leader Means Getting Some Followers

Another great paragraph from the article on followers:

There truly aren’t many leaders. It’s a thankless and stressful job. And leaders aren’t always right of when they are they don’t always win. But in every team you need the majority of people who excel at their job functions. They are great at their respective fields whether they be marketing, sales, programming, PR, whatever. People in these job functions are also leaders – don’t get me wrong – but on each team you still need leaders & followers. You simply can’t have a team of people all pulling in different directions.

When you read that paragraph, it becomes clear that being a follower isn't a negative label. In any business you have certain roles to fill. Not everyone can be the person that directs the company in the future or is charge of the vision for the company. People need to be there to execute this vision. In the law firm context, this is your team.

When I first started, my team was me. I did everything. But, as I've become more successful I've begun to see the value in having people that can fulfill certain roles and fulfill them extremely well. For example, I don't do the books anymore - I have an accountant that handles that aspect of the business. Very soon I'm going to have someone acting as a CFO (not just for me but for others) to help direct me on the state of the firm from a cash flow and growth point of view. Just last night I talked to a new website guy who's also got a great background in marketing, website design (from a user standpoint), and website analytics. He's going to help me make sense of what I've got going on with my marketing. And obviously I've got my assistant, who keep the ship running.

The great thing about these people, these "followers" is that they are all able to be unleashed to fulfill their roles in great ways. All successful law firms have these roles to fill, and the more successful you are at filling those roles with people suited to those roles, the better off your business is going to be.

Get the F@$! Out of the Way

Here's his take on these type of people:

But too many people are “back benchers” – the people who are in the back of parliament and get to throw out their opinions in public time but aren’t having to lead. I learned early in life about the destructive nature of back benchers.

Throughout life I’ve realized that many people are back benchers. “That will never work” is their motto. They like to criticize but they don’t have strong ideas of their own. They “know” what’s wrong but they never do anything about it. They never lead. Yet they don’t follow.

When you spot people like that in your company you shoot them. If you wake up one day in any organization and you realize that you’re no longer “part of the solution” it’s time to get the fuck out of the way. This is especially true when you’re senior and too many people are looking at you or when your disbelief undermines the confidence of others.

In work I find nothing more irritating than people who always have their three critiques of your plan but never do anything themselves. I don’t hide it well. I have “get the fuck out of my way” written all over my forehead. It can be a weakness, sure. It makes me less of a politician. But I sleep better at night.

Here's the thing about criticism - I'm all for it. Critique my ideas. Tell me they suck. But if you tell me they suck, you better tell me why you think so and what you think will work better.

In some ways these are the people that fall back on the old "this is the way we've always done it" when new suggestions for things are made. I don't care how it's been done forever - maybe it's been done forever wrongly. If you have these people around you, get rid of them. They aren't giving anything to you, your business, or those around you.

I strongly urge you to check out the whole article, it's really good. And then get moving on your own company - there's always work to be done!

Starting a Law Firm | The Attributes of a Successful Entrepreneur

I don't do this very often, so I don't feel bad about doing it today. I'm going to talk a little bit about a post I read on another blog, send you to that post, and then call it a day. It's a good enough post that it speaks for itself, and I've got other stuff to do today - for the most part, starting a law firm has nothing to do with this blog!

The article comes from a blog called "Both Sides of the Table." It's written by a guy who used to be an entrepreneur but who now owns a venture capital business (though I guess technically he's still an entrepreneur). He wrote a post entitled "Entrepreneur DNA" (the link takes you to the post where he listed out 12 qualities that make an entrepreneur. I wanted to just talk about a couple of them.

1. Tenacity

Right after listing this word, the author says:

The most important aspect of an entrepreneur is never being willing to give up.

Couldn't have said it better myself. There will be times when you will be challenged here. There will be times when it will be easy to give it up and go do something else. But if you really want to start a law firm you'll push through that.

2. Perspiration

At the end of the day, what's going to make your business a resounding success or a dismal flop is the amount of work you put into it. People don't just wake up one day with a million dollar practice. They bust their butt every day to build it. And you are going to have to do the same thing. If you want something easy, go work for a law firm, they'd love to have you. If you aren't willing to see a challenge in front of you, accept that challenge, and get to work on it, then starting a law firm probably isn't right for you.

3. Willingness to Accept Risk

This is probably the most important and the hardest one for lawyers to get over. From the first day of law school until we retire, we spend every waking day of our lives dealing with and trying to fix or defend the problems other people have created. We see time and time again how one minor error can result in utter destruction. And that scares us.

But if you want to be an entrepreneur, if you want to start a successful law firm, you've got to be willing to accept risk. This is how the author of the article puts it:

I'm not talking about crazy risks, but entrepreneurs are people who are willing to start a business on a leap of faith. They don't wait on the sidelines forever doing "side projects" until the day when they are ready to start a company. If you aren't willing to take a shot by going full time on your startup it tells investors you aren't confident enough in the idea or in yourself.

Scary, right? "Leap of faith" is a term lawyers don't often throw around. It's probably followed closely by "litigation." But if you want to start your law firm, you're going to have to step off that ledge and just go for it.

Go read the rest of the article. It's worth it. And tell me what you think the attributes are of someone that can successful start a law firm.

Building a Law Firm | The Next Steps

I think the time has finally come to make the transition on this blog from starting a law firm to building a law firm. I'm two and half years into this wild ride and it's time to make the next step. What is that next step, you might be asking? Well, I'm about to tell you, and, in my mind right now, I think there are approximately four parts of the plan. As always, if you can think of more, let me know.

Step 1 - Online Marketing

If you've been reading this blog then you know I love online marketing. I'm actually helping a couple of you out to improve your own search engine ranking. But, as I've talked about here, it's not just about being able to get to the top of the search rankings. Once you're there, you've got to have the kind of message that resonates with people and gets them to call you. For me, that message needs to be tweaked. I'm not getting nearly the calls that I should from my website and I want to improve that.

Here are just a few statistics (taken from my Google Analytics account). The search numbers are going to be a little bit skewed, but they I think paint a realistic picture of what I'm working with.

In the last 30 days (from September 13 to October 13) I've had 351 visits to my DUI website. 304 of those visits were unique. Of those total visits, 696 pages were viewed, or 1.98 pages per visit. The average time spent on the site was 1 minute 42 seconds. The bounce rate is 65 percent, and 81 percent of the visits were new visits.

Of those visitors, 156 came from Google, 46 came from my main website (a click through), and 21 came from this blog (probably to just check it out). Seattle DUI attorney was used 24 times to get to the site, dui attorney seattle was used 22 times, dui attorney was used 12 time, dui lawyer was used 10 times, seattle dui lawyer was used 7 times, and bellevue dui lawyer was used 5 times.

Okay, so what does all of this mean?

In a nutshell, what it means is I'm getting about 80-100 visits to my web site each month from people that are looking for something to do with DUI attorney. I can tell you with certainty that I am not getting 80-100 potential calls per month. In fact, I'm getting a small fraction of that. That means something is wrong with my message. So, we need to tweak the message.

Here's what I plan to do in the next 30 days with my website:

1. Revamp the message so it's more powerful than it currently is;

2. Incorporate video on the front page, of me, explaining what we do and how we do it; and

3. Testing to see what works and what doesn't, and going from there.

And, although I gave you just he numbers for the DUI site, I plan to do these three things with all of my websites.

Step 2 - Offline Marketing

Right now my offline marketing is minimal. And there's one reason for that - it's outside of my comfort zone. No, I don't really have any problem meeting people and bullshitting with them, but I like to have a plan to make progress toward a specific goal. And I'm having trouble putting that together with my offline marketing.

At the end of the day I know there are a dearth of potential referral sources out there in the form of bail bondsman and those that work in the entertainment industry (I'm talking about bar owners and bar tenders, waitresses, etc. - get your head out of the gutter!). But I don't have a specific plan to reach out to them - until now.

Here's the plan for the bail bondsmen:

1. Reach out to the one's I know and the one's I see in court and take them out to coffee;

2. Find out who they refer business to and why;

3. Find out their primary means of getting them business;

4. Get their information and get them on our newsletter list;

5. Find out ways I can help them get new clients;

6. Set up a quarterly event for bail bondsmen to come and do something fun sponsored by the firm;

7. Become the person they refer business to.

That sounds like a pretty good plan, right?

Here's my bar owners plan:

1. Reach out to the bar owners I know (a couple);

2. Offer to do a presentation for them and their staff that is two parts. Part one is an overview of dram shop laws - what to do to keep the bar from getting sued. Part two is an overview on how to avoid a DUI conviction.

3. At each event get contact information of everyone present - add them to mailing list.

4. Sit down with bar owner after and ask if they like presentation - get them to set up my cards somewhere in their bar (preferably behind the bar for staff to hand out if the need arises);

5. Ask them to call two of their bar owner friends and tell them about this great presentation I did so I can do the same thing for them;

6. Rinse and repeat.

I'm sure there are some steps missing in between, because I'm doing this on the fly, but that's the gist of it. Doing that alone will increase my exposure to the market immensely, and will help me make some true connections with people out and about.

Step 3 - The "Building" Part

The "building" part of building a law firm includes the first two steps, but this is where the rubber meets the road. It's time to get some more people working for the firm.

Yep, that's right. It's time to expand. But, and you know this if you read this blog regularly, I've got some money issues (personally). I don't like to spend money needlessly, and I don't like the idea of taking on a full time associate (at least right now). So, what else is there to do (besides hiring an associate)? Glad you asked.

And, before I explain what I'm going to do, I wanted to give a shout out to RJon, my business coach (and resident law firm management guru), for talking through this with me. And, in case this all just sounds so easy to do and I make it sound like it's just been a joy ride to even come up with this plan, it hasn't been. This is a scary step for me. It's almost just as scary as opening up in the first place. I am taking another step into the unknown, and I'm a little intimidated by it, to be quite honest.

I've had this plan in my hands for at least 6 weeks. I've talked to several people about it, but I just haven't been able to pull the trigger on it. Well, now's the time to do it.

The plan is this - hire someone of counsel to take care of some of my cases. Yep, that's it. Pretty easy, right? My hang up, though, is that I don't want to lose any quality of representation. In the law, as you know, your reputation is everything. Mess up enough cases and people will start telling others how bad you are. I don't want that to happen with my new associate attorney.

And it won't because I've come up with a plan. Here it is:

1. Find a solo practitioner that is a good lawyer but could use some more work;

2. Check up on them to make sure they are as good as you think they are (licensed; no bar grievances of substance; know how to work a case; know how to handle themselves in court; etc.);

3. Get them on board to help you out with a case from time to time (help them understand that these cases have certain perks - they are guaranteed payment, they don't have to sign them up, they get to be true "lawyers" - all they have to do is abide by a few rules);

4. Next case that comes up give it to them as a test case;

5. Here are the ground rules: meet in my office or in court (not at their office); when correspond with client, done on our letterhead or via our email address; bi-weekly status reports to see what's been going on; all work on case logged in case management software;

6. If they suck, they don't get another case. If they do well, they get another case.

The advantage of this type of arrangement is the solo practitioner gets to keep pretty much all of their autonomy. I don't care when or how they do the work, just that it gets done and gets done well. The advantage for me is it frees up more of my time to work on building the business.

I'm already in the process of making a move on step three. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Okay, that's all for today. As always, your comments and questions are welcome. If you think I've left something out let me know. If you think one of my ideas is brilliant let me know. If you think one of my ideas is dumb keep it to yourself (just kidding - let me know). Until next time...