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Infrastructure? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Infrastructure!
April 29, 2007 By
By way of Seth Godin’s blog I found Family to Family, a non-profit that connects communities with plenty to communities without enough. Seth notes that F-2-F has a lack of infrastructure necessary to accomplish this. An all-volunteer group is able to become a clearinghouse, connecting people who need and want to be connected.
So who cares? Well, aside from people who are hungry, you should. Because by looking at F-2-F you can glean how a group of like-minded individuals or businesses can band together to accomplish a single goal without being bogged down with bureaucracy. I’m currently working on a similar project over at the Bankruptcy Law Network, so it’s particularly interesting to me.
If we are required to assemble an organizational machine in order to accomplish a goal, then it becomes harder to do so. You want to be a consumer bankruptcy lawyer, but you don’t need to hire a full staff and implement rules and regulations to do so; rather, all you need is a client and knowledge of how to handle a consumer bankruptcy case.
Too many people get bogged down in the minutiae of starting a business, so much so that they suffer from what my wife calls, “Ed Norton Syndrome.” You know, when Art Carney would flap his arms about wildly, waiting for the perfect moment to spring into action? Same thing here, folks – we worry about firm names, hardware, software, office location, look and feel of print and online ads, even the color of the pens we’ll use at work. Meanwhile, clients come and go without having been taken care of. Business slips through your fingers while you’re waiting for the perfect moment.
I’m not saying that there isn’t a need for the basics to get the job rolling, nor am I telling you to rest on your laurels and take no action to move forward once you’ve launched. To do so would be foolish and a hazard to your long-term business prospects.
Rather, talk with a fellow lawyer. Ask for the use of a conference room one day a week. When you get your first client, call a bankruptcy lawyer in town and ask for some guidance. Join NACBA and get on the listserv. Take care of the client, make the most of it. Then, let the snowball build up a good head of steam. The ride is amazing, but you’ll never know if you don’t take that first step.
Your Marketing Due Date
April 29, 2007 By
Doesn’t it feel as if everyone goes through the same phase of life at the same time? When I was getting married, so was everyone else. Now that my wife just had our first child two weeks ago, pregnancy abounds.
Not really, of course. It’s just that we see it more clearly when we’re going through it because we’re more attuned to it around us.
But over at the Duct Tape Marketing Blog, this post about marketing due dates. This is a fantastic resource overall, and this post is useful because it includes a free marketing calendar. Remember the words of the author, John Jantsch:
Don’t just attempt to throw money and resources at your marketing to get a faster result. It’s a little like birthing a baby I guess. You can’t take nine women and have a baby in a month. It’s a logical progression with one step after the other. Many small business owners could benefit from using a marketing calendar as their primary marketing planning tool. The idea is to keep doing something related to marketing, according to plan, month in and month out.
Honesty – A Cornerstone Of Good Marketing
April 28, 2007 By
What’s been interesting to me lately has been the intersection of ethics and marketing. As lawyers, we are all painfully aware of the microscope under which we are viewed, with the public looking on us as just slightly better than used car salesmen. So we need to project and convince our prospects of our moral fiber lest we be lumped together with unsavory characters.
So how do we do that? By letting our actions speak to our motivations. Tell someone you’re going to call at 11am, you better make that call on time. Offer to send out a document, send it pronto. And if there’s bad news on the doorstep, deliver it simply and honestly.
When dealing with colleagues, live up to your word. Don’t promise something and then flake out – if you do, you’re burning good karma faster than a marshmallow over a campfire. For example, I recently had the opportunity to work with a respected colleague. Nice guy, comes with the right pedigree and “street cred.” He made me a few promises, said he’s do some things on a time frame. Given his reputation, I trusted his word. Unfortunately, my trust was ill-founded.
So the next time someone asks me about this person, what will I say? Will I recommend his services and products? Will I send people to his door?
That depends, actually. Maybe the failure to deliver was a mistake, in which case I’m fine with it. But even if it was done on purpose, there’s still one way for this colleague to redeem himself. It’s instructive because this is the same way you, a lawyer, can regain trust from your clients.
Apologize, and deliver.
Consider this: JetBlue, my favorite airline, stranded people on the runway for an enormous amount of time this past February due to ice storms and poor planning. They dropped the ball in a big way, and they burned their customers. A less honest company would have passed the blame or made a short apology before moving on. Not JetBlue. They put out a full-page open letter in the newspaper, begged forgiveness, and vowed not to do it again. Then, the next stretch of winter storms passed with JetBlue performing wonderfully.
They apologized, then delivered. So simple, yet so difficult.
How does this relate back to marketing, you ask? Simple, really. If you’re an honest lawyer who delivers on promises – and who apologizes and corrects mistakes when made – your clients are likely to trust and believe in you. When people believe in you, they are likely to refer other people to you because honesty is just so darn rare these days.
Remember, folks – don’t just talk the talk, always walk the walk.
Posting have been and will be light for the next few days
April 25, 2007 By
Sorry for not posting anything for a week. However, in the middle of doing legal work and I am swamped. I will get back to posting this weekend. I have been working on a couple of post about how I organize my paperLESS office. Also in the works will be another post about software.
Google Buys PowerPoint Solutions
April 18, 2007 By
Google Buys PowerPoint Solutions. This is interesting news to say the least. I for one really dislike PowerPoint. In my opinion, PowerPoint is built too much around the bullet point presentation which is awful. And it is usually the presenter that uses such presentation who reads it to you. Yawn!!!!
But, even better than getting rid of PowerPoint. Having Google in the picture means just one more reason to trash another Microsoft program off my Macbook. With Google’s new presentation feature, we should see another cross-platform program that anyone can use no matter what operating system you use.
This will be fun to watch develop.
Are You Ready for the New Postal Regulations and a Whopping Increase in Costs?
April 18, 2007 By
New postal regulations go into effect on May 14, 2007. It’s called Shape-Based Pricing. There are a few decent sites on the internet for information at this point.
This is probably one of the most under-reported events I have experienced in recent years, particularly when it may result in an increase in postage costs of as much as 50% overall to an uneducated law firm. We’re not talking about just an increase of 2¢ per letter. We’re talking about a whole new labor-intensive mailing process, and some significant price increases in actual postage for the bulk of mail which is sent by a law firm. In fact, for most firms the most significant price increases aren’t even on the radar screen. I know they weren’t on mine. But I attended a seminar today presented by ITS Mailing Systems, an authorized dealer for Hasler. And it was an eye-opener.
Currently our postal system operates on strictly a weight-based methodology. Aside from a slight up-charge for the first ounce on ‘oversized’ envelopes (e.g. our flat letter-size tyvecs) everything is based on weight. Each ounce adds an additional amount. Effective May 14th, we will move to a shape-based pricing system. Under the new system, there will be three different pricing factors: size; thickness; and weight. There are even some rigidity factors which can influence cost, meaning that if you stuff the envelope so tightly it cannot bend, there is an additional cost.
