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The end of the year is the time when business owners focus on the changes they will make in their firms in the New Year. As a forty-something, over-educated curmudgeon, I hate change as much as anyone else but EVEN I make changes to my business once a year. My hope is that if I share my changes with you, you will reciprocate and share your law firm resolutions with me.
So here are my three BIG changes for 2010:
In 2010 I will only take on only 10 new Individual consulting clients. Unfortunately there are only 24 hours in a day and only one of me, so it is really the law of supply and demand that has mandated this change. I will still work with groups of lawyers and I’m launching a membership club that will allow people to work with me – but the days of making office visits to individual attorneys are highly limited.
This means I will also need to be highly selective in the clients I choose to work with. Everyone will have to fill out an application and submit to an interview before I agree to work with them. No exceptions. I have had more than my share of clients who were uncooperative or who thought they knew everything. I don’t need any more of those in 2010.
This year I am breaking my email addiction. I will only check my email once each week. Clients will have a private line they can use to schedule a telephone meeting with me. If they have documents for me to review, they can send them to my assistant. I hate email and I will no longer be a slave to it.
Most lawyers and law firms are no different than me. They don’t like change but they have at least a few things they must adjust if they are going to grow. If you need some ideas on changes you should make in your law practice, here are a few things you should consider:
Is this the year you end your fixation with hourly billing? Clients hate it and you can’t ethically figure out a way to make it work, so why not just give it up?
Why not do something in the New Year that makes you a little uncomfortable? Do some public speaking. Write an article and submit it to a trade publication. Go to a networking event and meet some new people. Pick up the phone and ask someone you know for an introduction to the CEO of his company. Get beyond your fear and just do it!
Is it time you finally update your website? Can you finally give up that AOL, Gmail or Yahoo email address? You are a professional. Isn’t it time you had a professional Web Presence?
Isn’t it time for you to stop answering your own phone? Get an answering service, hire an assistant or at least let the inbound calls go to voice mail. There is no way you can be productive if you keep answering all those calls.
Start dressing like a lawyer. I don’t pay my attorney the same amount of money I pay my gardener and there is no reason they should share a wardrobe. At least wear a sport coat to the office. Give up the casual days when you wear shorts, flip flops and a hibiscus-patterned shirt…seriously…
If 2009 was a good year for you (and it was for most of my clients) you may be tempted not to change anything. Do not succumb to this temptation. One of the hallmarks of successful individuals is their dedication to continuous improvement. That means they are in a constant state of change.