Are You a Lawyer or a Business Owner?
Answer: YES. Anyone who owns a law practice today has to think like an entrepreneur and an attorney.
If you are reading this, chances are you are more aware than most about the importance of building and managing cash flow, generating recurring revenues and managing resources to increase profits. And you may have heard that another way to profitability is to develop an ancillary business. Here’s the thing: with a client care program in place, you have the option of adding an ancillary business if you want—but only because you want to, not because you have to.
The Client Care Academy can help you take care of your clients, increase your revenue and price per case and increase your referrals.
Once your law firm is humming along with a client care practice in place, then you’ll have the time and cash flow to explore another business. You won’t be putting out fires every day in your primary practice, you won’t be wondering where your next appointment is coming from, and you won’t be devoting resources to seminars or networking events.
The client care program gives you steady cash flow. You know when the invoices for the annual renewals are going to be sent, you know when the checks or digital deposits are going to come in, and you can budget accordingly.
The client care program also enhances the quality of your client base. The type of person who engages an attorney in a client care program understands the value of the services they are paying for. They are less likely to be the nickel-and-dime type who devours your staff’s time parsing every comma and semicolon.
And you will become their trusted source, which translates to opportunities to meet and develop deeper relationships with quality referring professionals.
You are their trusted source because, as they will understand–because you’ll tell them this, and they’ll be guided to this conclusion as you work with them–that their family will be able to rely on you and your practice and the estate plan you have created at the time of their death. That is real trust.
The law firm that implements an ongoing client care program that incorporates systems and services to care for client families at the time of their death rises above the competitive noise of other law firms. It does not concern itself with people who are downloading documents from legal websites and creating havoc for their families at the time of death. The firm has long-term viability because its client base is stable.
Law firms with ongoing client care programs provide all of the services needed to take care of clients on an on-going basis. And fees are consistent with the true value and services provided to the family.
The financial benefit to the firm cannot be overstated. One of the biggest concerns for any law firm is having consistent cash flow, not on a weekly or monthly basis, but on an annual basis. The attorney who wakes up on January 1 with a zero balance can only hope that 2019 will be as good as 2018 (if 2018 was a good year!). We’re now in mid-February –how’s your cash flow?
Recurring revenue also gives the firm the opportunities to predict profits, so future planning can be done, along with investments into the resources and capabilities of the firm. This includes human capital as well as technology.
A client care program is good business for the law firm. We can show you and your team how to make this happen at our upcoming March 28-29 Foundations Workshop.
If you’d rather read about the processes and how the client care program was developed, we invite you to read my book, “How an Ordinary Lawyer Creates and Sustains an Extraordinary Client Care Program.” It’s a good read, and an excellent introduction into the concepts and programs we teach at our Foundations Workshop.