This entry is shameless self-promotion, but also intended to show you ways to improve your life by working on your business. Here are three stories where clients have been doing the practice improvement work- and they are seeing results.

This week a client opened his office Monday to find that 7 workstation laptops had been stolen. He didn’t panic- he put his disaster recovery plan in place. He had scenarios covering events to the point where the building was blown up; the loss of the laptops seemed minor in comparison. I know disaster recovery planning is boring and difficult. My client is not a patient guy and I was incredibly impressed that he was so prepared. He credited my persistence. I’ve worked with him from the time he started alone in his apartment to now- when he has an office of about 8. As he grew, it became increasingly critical to put business systems in place and formalize business processes. I held that priority for him, but as always, it isn’t the coaching that gets the job done- it’s the client.

Last week I met with a client and realized she was almost a different person than when I’d first worked with her. We usually speak on the phone, and it hadn’t struck me as it did in person. She was relaxed; she wasn’t angry; she was having fun. The best work we did was around becoming consistently fact-based and business-minded. She formalized business processes like performance and compensation expectations. She moved from feeling like she was being taken advantage of by her staff to the point where she was open and clear with her expectations of them- and there were consequences if performance was either exceptional or unacceptable. There is less stress in the office. She’s delegating more and she’s more effective. She’s also making more money and being more choosy with her clients. Once again- formalizing business systems and employing them consistently made a remarkable difference in this attorney’s state of mind and her financial situation.

And last, but not least- I got a call that began “you’re not going to believe what happened”. I’ve been working with an attorney on client development and one of our strategies paid off in a large way. Here’s what we did over a couple of months:

• Targeted an industry organization that her potential clients belong to
• Contacted the organization’s president and offered to write newsletter articles, host seminars etc. (He was thrilled, it made him look good)
• Created a fun marketing event, in this case a wine-tasting, invited the group, and had guest speakers from different areas of her firm address issues of interest to the group
• Followed up with notes to the attendees
• Offered to speak to the board of the organization, leveraging members’ excellent feedback re the seminar
• Followed up by asking a board member to lunch, building on rapport established during the board presentation
• Board member later contacted my client and asked for quals for a legal matter but didn’t choose my client, a big disappointment
• My client was stuck in traffic next to a truck with the board member’s company logo- she used that story as the intro in a note she wrote to say that she was disappointed they weren’t going to work together, also reinforcing her firm’s quals
• Board member called my client and is hiring the firm for 3 different matters and a nice chunk of change

I love when that happens!  Once again, business systems were successful. My client targeted prospects, found a way to reach them, offered them great value, met them and established expertise and trust, and systematically followed up- connecting and building a relationship that will surely lead to more work and more referrals. This isn’t the only business generated by the wine-tasting and seminar, my client increased her referral base and will leverage that going forward. 

Final thought:  Block the time to manage your business. Set aside time for planning, for managing and for marketing. Create focus. If you put business processes in place, they will work for you. Do you like where you’ll be in a year if you don’t make some changes?

The offer:  I have a 12-week practice management teleseminar starting May 23rd. In that seminar, a group of attorneys will be trained in practice management processes and coached through implementation. They’ll be part of a virtual partnership- a small community focused on each others’ success. This first offering is only being marketed here and by word of mouth; I’ve discounted it to a great price. I’m offering it at $555, just 3 payments of $185. Check it out on the Get a Life! page of www.successfullysolo.com. If you do the work, you’ll see results.