Your Law Firm is a Business. Take it to the Next Level

Joining us again for part two of our conversation on revenue vs. profit is Moshe Amsel. If you missed last week’s episode, Moshe is the host of the Profit With Law Podcast, a certified Profit First Professional, and the founder of the Law Firm Growth Summit. On top of his financial expertise, he is a paramedic and a dad of six. 

In our conversation with him last week, we dove into Profit First and “Finance 101 for Law Firms.” Moshe went into so much detail in that episode and really set the foundation for understanding revenue and profit. This week, we’re moving right on and talking about benchmarks and business models.

As you all know, when we talk about finances, it’s because we want something. We don’t want more money or anything that money can buy. Instead, we want quality time to do the things we want to do in our lives. You have the ability to create that for yourself. Tune in to get started right now!

Show Highlights:

• Why having rest cycles in your business is so important.
• Revenue and expense benchmarks to aim for in your law firm.
• The five main expense areas.
• What percentage of your revenue should be going to each expense category.
• Why you need to evaluate your business model.
• The danger of comparison.
• How to choose the right business model for your firm and adjust your benchmarks accordingly.
• The two mindsets people have on growth.

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We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

https://mikemichalowicz.com/profit-first/

https://www.profitwithlaw.com/

ACTION STEPS:

1. Download your free Benchmarks, Profit First Cheat Sheet, Profit Calculator: https://www.profitwithlaw.com/profitfirst
2. Read the first 2 chapters of the book "Profit First" by Mike Michalowicz for free
3. Sign up for Moshe's Training, "The 5 Biggest Mistakes that Law Firm Owners Make in the Growth of Their Business" here: https://www.profitwithlaw.com/training

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Last week in our goal-setting episode, we mentioned that we’d bring a guest on to talk about finances. Today, that guest is joining us. Moshe Amsel is the host of the Profit with Law Podcast, the founder of the Law Firm Growth summit, a certified Profit First Professional, and a business coach to many law firms. He’s also a dad of 6, a paramedic, and a former accountant and IT professional. 

We truly couldn't ask for a better guest to talk about revenues, financial numbers, and goals related to finances for law firms. Throughout our discussion, Moshe explained all about the problem with goal setting and just leaving it at that. He helped us understand the importance of having a system for making sure we’re on track with our goals and course-correcting. 

Today’s episode is part one of this conversation. In it, we revisit goal-setting from a numbers perspective. We dive deeper into setting revenue goals based on our take-home needs. We also talk all about investing vs. spending when we are first building our business. Moshe teaches how much we should be spending, what profit we need for that, and how to shape our mindset around all of this.

Next week we will share the second half of the conversation but, for now, tune in to learn all about revenue and profit. 

Show Highlights:

• Goal-setting in regards to revenue.
• How to reverse engineer your revenue goal to reach your profit goal.
• The profit matrix for any healthy business.
• Why we need to set big visions.
• How to translate the profit matrix into a revenue goal.
• Where our revenue should be going in our law firms.
• How to shift your perspective from that of a technician to that of a business owner.
• How to treat investments into your business as sprints.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

https://www.profitwithlaw.com/

Book: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz 

Book: Who Not How by Dan Sullivan & Dr. Benjamin Hardy 

Book: The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek 

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Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

Our goal on this podcast is to always be authentic. We want to share our struggles as business owners because we know many of you will relate. We aren’t perfect and are still working on implementing many of the things we’ve talked about in these episodes.

Today’s episode is no exception. We’re going to be talking about goal planning for the next year.

What we want to harp on in this episode is that, just as with everything else in entrepreneurship, imperfect goal planning is better than none at all. Don’t let perfect become the enemy of good. Of course, we’d all love to have the perfect plan but it’s more important that we just get started.

So, in this episode, we’ll teach you how. We will discuss the three steps to goal planning for the next year. We’ll break it down into where we are now, where we want to be, and what it will take to get there. 

Tune in to start your new year strong with some imperfect but good goal planning!

Show Highlights:

• Why we should think about where we want to be farther into the future.
• Questions to ask yourself when planning for the future.
• How to figure out what your firm will be known for.
• The power of creating a concrete 3-year vision for your firm.
• Why you need to analyze where you are now.
• Why you need to block off time in your calendar for goal planning.
• How to do yearly planning.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

Vivid Vision: A Remarkable Tool for Aligning Your Business Around a Shared Vision of the Future by Cameron Herold

The Vision Driven Leader: 10 Questions to Focus Your Efforts, Energize Your Team, and Scale Your Business by Michael Hyatt

ACTION STEPS:

1. Get out your calendar and schedule 1-2 hours next week and another 1-2 hours the week after.  

• Next week, spend time brainstorming about where you want your law firm to be in the future using some of the questions I mentioned or grab one of the books I referenced to help guide you.  
• The following week, pick up the brainstorming at where you want your firm to be in 10+ years and create a concrete vision for what your law firm will look like in 3 years.

2. Put one hour in the calendar, take your 3-year vision, and think about the measurable things you will need to start gathering. You want to figure out where you are now so you can define where you need to go.

• Gather the information and know that if you haven’t done this before it may take you a few months of tracking new things at your firm in a simple spreadsheet to get started.

3. Set a time for you (and your team if desired) to take your 3-year vision and work backward to know where you need to be at the end of each year to set up the next year to hit the 3-year goal. 

4. Narrow that list down to the top 2 or 3 priorities for this year and sketch out a plan. Everyone needs to be clear on who is doing what and by when so they can work on the tasks needed for these priorities as they are above and beyond the daily work. Check-in frequently and adjust as the year unfolds. 

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

If you joined us last week, you heard us talk about getting out of the way. We discussed how, as law firm owners, we often get in our team’s way by failing to train them on policies and procedures and not letting go.

This week, we’re diving into this topic a bit deeper. We’re talking about leading people and managing people. To get anything of significance done in your firm (including writing policies and procedures) and to serve your clients better, you need to leverage your team. You must go beyond managing them and truly lead them.

In the episode, we’ll discuss some of the benefits of leading our people over managing them. We’ll also explain what it even looks like to lead and give you some tips on exactly how to do it. Tune in to learn more.

Show Highlights:

• Why it’s important to focus on people in your law firm.
• How your team can help you leverage your firm.
• The difference between managing and leading your team.
• Shifts to make to go from managing your team to leading it.
• How to hire the best people.
• Why you need to explain to your team members the “why” behind what they are doing.
• Top tools for leading your people.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

https://www.manager-tools.com/

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More, & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier 

ACTION STEPS:

1. First, schedule one-on-one meetings with every team member that reports to you. If you have someone who reports to someone else, do your one-on-ones for a bit so people see the example you are setting.
2. Start a note for each person and capture their goals. I like to focus on both the professional and personal goals as you hear them. Then spend time in your one-on-one sessions coaching your team members so they develop a plan for their growth. Use the time to be an outside accountability coach. Remember, you don’t always have to be the person who teaches. Just be the person who provides support and helps them get there. 
3. Start giving more feedback. In the beginning, shoot for 10 positive feedback comments. Then move to the weekly 5-to-1 positive vs constructive ratio.

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

As law firm owners, we can really get in the way. We can easily become roadblocks to the rest of our team. We do it unintentionally but, nonetheless, we are a roadblock.

Perhaps you’ve found yourself in this cycle: you’re a solo attorney struggling to keep up with all your work so you hire some help. However, you’re so overwhelmed that you don’t have the time to train that help or give them the processes or procedures for the work you need them to do. As a result, they don’t have much to do and you get frustrated. So, you hire more help and the cycle just repeats itself.

If you’ve been in that cycle, you know that it's not a fun place to be. However, there is good news: there’s a better way! It will take effort on your and your team’s part but the cycle can be broken. 

In this episode, we’ll explain how to break the cycle. We’ll take you through the process of hiring, creating policies and procedures, and ultimately letting go of some tasks that you’ve passed off to other team members. 

Going through these processes has taken Melanie’s firm to the next level and they can do the same for you so tune in!

Show Highlights:

• Why you should start documenting your processes before you hire anybody.
• Why you should hire help before you need it.
• When to let someone go.
• What policies and procedures are and why they’re important.
• How to prevent yourself from micromanaging.
• What it means to let go as a law firm owner.
• The benefits of letting go.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

ACTION STEPS:

1. A personnel inventory

1. Write down the name of everyone that works for you (including your VA, contractors, and employees).
2. Next to each name put a number 1-3, 1 being they are not fulfilling their job duties well, 2 being they are fulfilling them, and 3 being they are fulfilling them well.
3. Then, next to each 1 on the list give some thought as to if you’ve provided them with training and expectations.
4. This will help you decide how to move forward with respect to this team member. We’ll dive in here more specifically next week!  

1. Go to your calendar and block off 30 minutes this week to think through your team’s processes. Identify the one policy and procedure that you think would be most helpful to work torwards in your office. Then block off an hour on the calendar next week to write out the WHY for the policy and the steps for the procedure. 
2. As you go through the rest of your day today, after everything that you do, ask yourself why you are doing it? Is it because it's an owner’s responsibility or is there someone else on your team that can be trained to do it instead of you? If so, let it go! Schedule the time to train them and let it go!

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

If you work in the legal industry (or any industry for that matter), you’re likely familiar with the idea of death by meetings. It’s easy to feel like all we ever do at work is sit in unproductive meetings. This feeling and too many of these kinds of meetings can really rob us of our passion for our work.

However, there is a better way. Mark has done extensive research into meetings and figured out a way to do them in his organization that doesn’t feel like a slow death. He calls it their “meeting cadences.”

In this episode, Mark shares what these meeting cadences look like. We also take the time to apply this to law firms and explain how you, as a law firm owner, can put it into practice. 

We always want to make sure that we're operating our law firms as businesses and not just focusing on the legal work that we do. So tune in to learn how to do this with meeting cadences.

Show Highlights:

• Why a bad meeting may be better than no meeting.
• The meeting cadences at GNGF.
• What a vision meeting is.
• Why it’s okay to change your business’ core values over time.
• What a quarterly strategy meeting is.
• What a level 10 meeting is.
• How meeting cadences prevent tons of one-off meetings.
• Why you should have weekly one-on-one meetings with each of your direct reports.
• How meetings can build connections.
• How one-on-one meetings save you time.
• Tips for making meetings more useful.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman

Vivid Vision: A Remarkable Tool For Aligning Your Business Around a Shared Vision of the Future by Cameron Herold

Manager Tools Podcast

ACTION STEPS:

1. We are heading to the end of the year now. Think about these dates for next year:

• Vision Yearly Planning Date
• Quarterly Meeting Dates
• What day of the week will your weekly meeting be?
• When do you want to schedule one-on-ones?

2. Put these dates on the calendar.

3. If you haven’t done so already: 

• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or NOW even Facebook Podcasts (or wherever you listen)!
• Once you have subscribed, please leave us a 5-star rating and review as that will help this podcast get discovered by other law firm owners.

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

In order to take your law firm to the next level, you need processes. You need to learn how to streamline some things within the firm. This will increase your productivity and, ultimately, your profits.

In this episode, we talk about some ways to do this. This conversation came from GNGF’s bi-weekly live interview series, Ask The Experts. In it, Mark and Melanie discuss which processes all law firm owners should put in place. They also talk about some of the pros and cons of remote work compared to in-office work and how that impacts these processes. 

Having started the law firm Streamline Legal, Melanie has amazing insight into this topic. Her firm runs smoothly because of the processes and automations they have put in place. She has a lot of rich knowledge to share so tune in to learn more.

Show Highlights:

• Why Melanie started Streamline Legal.
• Why law firms should use multiple different softwares instead of bundling everything into one.
• All of the factors to look at when choosing softwares.
• The benefits of having processes in place.
• Where to start if you have no processes.
• Why we need to document our processes.
• An exercise to help you regularly analyze your firm’s activities.
• How to automate things in your firm when you deal with litigation.
• The importance of communication tools when working remotely.
• How culture changes affect process changes.
• How to do video marketing as a law firm owner.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

1. Stream more interviews live on GNGF's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GNGFound
2. Browse the archives of amazing guests: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2sVTAMb9tpQ_Y-_syCE3ndC8Xgt36rDt

ACTION STEPS:

1. If you haven’t done so already: 

1. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or NOW even Facebook Podcasts (or wherever you listen)!
2. Once you have subscribed, please leave us a 5-star rating and review as that will help this podcast get discovered by other law firm owners.  

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

All law firm owners know that the firm’s practice management software is one of the key foundations of the business. Without it, the processes of the firm would be in utter chaos. 

However, what about when it comes time to switch practice management softwares? This can be a bit of a scary topic. We’ve seen firms that have had the same software for years just sitting in a server. 

It truly can be a pain to switch softwares. Some firms have even had bad experiences with switching project management softwares in the past. This makes them understandably very hesitant to switch.

However, we consider this a very important topic. For one thing, the marketplace for practice management softwares is huge right now. That much money can bring new options and products for your firm. There also may be new features on your current software that you just need to catch up on.

We want you to be able to take advantage of these advances so tune in and learn how to update your practice management software or switch to a new one.

Show Highlights:

• Why you need good team morale when switching practice management softwares.
• How to get staff buy-in.
• How to support your staff during the transition.
• Why the owner needs to participate in the transition.
• The importance of setting a timeline for the implementation of the new software.
• What to include in the timeline and how to communicate it to your team.
• How to efficiently transfer your data to the new software.
• Why you should set a cut-off date for switching billing over.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

Venture Funding in Legal Tech source: https://news.crunchbase.com/news/legal-tech-venture-investment/

ACTION STEPS:

1. Sit down with a piece of paper or a blank Word document and write down what software you’re switching to and why. Try to include reasons that will help your team, not just the management of the firm. Remember, these are the people that will be using it on a daily basis!
2. Copy and paste that list into an email to your entire team letting them know that an implementation plan is on its way then press send.
3. Flip the page or open a new document and list out these 3 dates, working backwards:
4. Fully transitioned to new software
5. Last Billing Cycle in the old software
6. Purchase of new software
7. Get on the phone and share these dates with your new software company, consultants, and/or team members that are going to help you implement this plan. Don’t go it alone; get help!

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

As business owners, most of us understand the value of lead magnets. We know that they’re powerful marketing tools to have in our arsenal. However, despite this understanding, many of us law firm owners still get stuck when it comes to lead magnets.

It comes down to overthinking. Too many of us law firm owners try to make our lead magnets too perfect or get lost in all the possibilities. We end up doing nothing out of mere overwhelm.

So, in this episode, we’re diving into this topic. We’re providing some concrete ideas for and examples of lead magnets. Our goal is to give you everything you need to create lead magnets that are all your own. Tune in to hear us brainstorm on lead magnets and get this marketing superpower down pat.

Show Highlights:

• What a lead magnet is.
• Why creating a lead magnet doesn’t have to be hard or complicated.
• How to repurpose your content into a lead magnet.
• Examples of lead magnets if you work in family law.
• Why you should create lead magnets for hyper-specific groups of people.
• Examples of lead magnets for personal injury, car accident, and DUI clients.
• Examples of lead magnets for estate planning.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

ACTION STEPS:

1. Look around at what you already have and brainstorm 2 or 3 lead magnets
2. Create your lead magnet
3. Get a form on your website to capture information about the leads before sending them the lead magnet
4. Tell everyone about your lead magnet (tell your referral partners, put it all over your website, post about it on social media, etc.)

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com

When you own a law firm, you’re always on the lookout for leads. This is why you do consultations and run marketing strategies. It’s likely a big part of why you listen to this podcast!

However, when you get a lead, what do you do with it? Your answer reveals whether you RENT or OWN your leads.

This is something that many law firms owners don’t think about until they are much farther along in the maturity of their business. However, it’s an extremely important concept. So today we want to jumpstart it for you and get you thinking about owning your leads even now.

In this episode, we’ll cover what it means to rent or own your leads, as it may be a new concept for many of you. From there, we’ll teach you how to begin owning your leads. No matter what stage you’re at in your law firm, tune in to learn all about this very crucial segment in your marketing.

Show Highlights:

• What it looks like to “rent” a lead.
• What it takes to own a lead. 
• The benefits of owning your leads.
• What it means to maximize your yields.
• What lead magnets are.
• The importance of following up quickly.
• How to send people to your lead magnet.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

ACTION STEPS:

1. With every marketing investment you make, think about how you can get the email and phone number of the leads that are visiting your marketing assets, websites, videos, etc.
2. Become amazing at follow-up. When you get a phone number or email address, send some emails, make some calls, or shoot over a text. They probably aren’t looking at just your firm so you need to be the most responsive.

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Danny Ozment.

He helps thought leaders, influencers, executives, HR professionals, recruiters, lawyers, realtors, bloggers, coaches, and authors create, launch, and produce podcasts that grow their business and impact the world.

Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com