12 Week Executive Crash Course - Amazon S3 · 2019-01-30 · 12 Week Executive Crash Course WEEK 1:...

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Copyright 2018 How To MANAGE a Small Law Firm II Inc. All rights reserved. These documents may not be reproduced without written

permission from the publisher.

12 Week Executive Crash Course

WEEK 1: Goal Setting, Dashboard, Magic Statement & Niching Your Firm For Success

Week 1 of 12: ❖ Restating Your Professional Goals ❖ Clarifying your Niche & Magic Statement ❖ Mapping your Personal Goals ❖ Identifying your Financial Goals ❖ Using Your Dashboard to Objectively See Your Business

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PROFESSIONAL GOALS You can’t get to where you want to go unless you first get clear on where you are going. Watch/Listen to this very important Goal Setting Webinar. Click here to access the recording.

Why Do You Want Your Law Firm Business

To Be Successful? Let’s make your success unstoppable by working-out the answers to a few seemingly simple

questions that you’ve probably never been asked before:

I Want my Law Firm Business to be Successful so that

or

I Want my Law Firm Business to be Successful to be able to

In order to get to clear on who you want to work with consider your legal practice area as well as the client

type:

My passion is to help people with the following types of legal problems. ______________________________________

I specifically thrive on helping the following types of individuals: ____________________________________________

https://iteleseminar.com/104538261

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NICHE/ MAGIC STATEMENT

In order to convey to individuals one encounters at networking events, social meetings and personal

activities, one must be able to concisely convey what it is you do and how you help people make their lives

better. This is the type of “magic” that grabs people!

Tips to Craft a Successful “Magic Statement”

• Identify who you are helping and what you are helping them do.

• Target your ideal audience and craft your Magic Statement to appeal to the “A client” you want to

represent.

• Use language your client will understand.

• Don’t be long winded - be to the point.

• Make it memorable.

• Make it unique.

• Ask yourself if the Magic Statement may encourage the wrong type of clients and think about how

you could be more specific to exclude those you don’t want.

• Short and sweet – think elevator speech.

• Use Magic Statement to invite further conversation.

• Speak with your own “voice”. What works for one, may not be right for you.

• Play with multiple versions with different adjectives, verbs, adverbs, etc.

• Find a Magic Statement that makes you smile each time you say it. (It should show that you enjoy

doing what you do!)

• “I help . . .”

• “I protect . . .”

• “I defend . . .”

• “I fight for . . .”

• “I represent . . .”

• Edit, Edit, Edit, Refine, Refine, Refine, Boil it Down, Boil it Down, Boil it Down.

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PERSONAL/SOCIAL GOALS

Quantify How You Manage Your Time

Do you have an inappropriate relationship

with your law firm!?

No matter how much time and how much energy you put into your law firm, it’s never

going to love you, and it’s never going to give you a hug.

Your law firm is your mule.

It’s there to pull your plow, so you can grow crops to feed yourself and your family.

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STEP 1: Circle everything you do in a typical day...

Attend Networking Events Document An Office Policy For Staff Payroll

Visit A Client’s Place Of Business Meet With Prospective Referral Source _____________________

Motion Calendar Audit Trust Account Meet With Investigators

Audit Accounts Payable Eat Breakfast Staff Training

Take Deposition Visit Clients Who Cannot Come To You Legal Research

Trial Preparation Develop Discovery Strategy

Chase Down Old Get Training On Law Office Management Software Ongoing CLEs

Present A Speech ______________________ Conduct Trial

Commute To & From Office Pay Bills At The Office _______________________

Give Kids Allowance Pick Up Dry Cleaning Help With Homework

Eat Dinner Personal Hygiene Drop Off Kids At School Read A Book

Draft & Review Documents Conduct Evidentiary ___________________________

Oil Change Read Newspaper Document An Office Procedure

Hearings

__________________ Accounts Receivable Play Bills At Home Spot-Check Staff

Correspondence On Behalf Of Clients Get A Haircut Meet With Litigation Support Professionals

Meet With The Accountant Learn More About Law Office Management

Attend A Sporting Event Voir Dire Attend Hearing Fill Up Car With Gas

Fire Clients See A Movie Conduct A Seminar

Spiritual Time File Maintenance Eat Lunch Sleep Train Clients

Negotiations For Clients Interview Prospective Clients Put Out Fires ____________

Learn About How To Make It Rain ____________________________ Draft Contracts

Grocery Shopping Find The Right Person To Whom Make A Referral

______________________ Prepare For Deposition Alone Time With Significant Other

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STEP 2: Divide YOUR TIME into 3 categories

I. Things You MUST Do Yourself Every Day And Cannot Delegate. #HRS/ WK

Sleep ______

Eat ______

Personal Hygiene ______

Commute ______

Other ______ Subtotal

II. Things You WANT To Do

Exercise/ Hobby ______

Kids Playtime/ Homework ______

Personal Time w/Spouse or S.O. ______

Spiritual Time ______

Social Time w/Friends + Family Other______ Subtotal

III. Things You Do For The Mule To Keep It Healthy + Productive.

Marketing

Networking ______

Sales Calls ______

P.R. ______

Management

Training + Supervision Staff ______

Policies & Procedures ______

Financials

Budget/ A/R’s/ Evergreens ______

Trust Account Management ______ Legal Services

Calls w/ or for Clients ______

Research ______

Court/ Prep for Court ______

Draft/ Review K’s + other Agmts ______

CLE ______ Other ______ Subtotal

Total: 168 hrs

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STEP 3: Count hours

I . Things You MUST Do Yourself Every Day And Cannot Delegate __________ #HRS

II . Things You WANT To Do __________ #HRS

III . Things You Do For The Mule __________ #HRS

TOTAL: __________

24 Hrs x 7 Days = 168 Hrs Available to you every week.

Since life’s not perfect and some weeks will be better than others, it’s best to average

every two-weeks. In other words, some weeks the mule needs you to prepare for a big

case so you’ll give it more Hrs. Other weeks you need time with friends + family. Use this

exercise like any other kind of budget as a management tool not an edict carved in stone.

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From the Newsletter:

A Busy Lawyer’s Guide To Budgeting Your Time

In honor of the recent Memorial Day Weekend I re-read Tom Brokaw’s 1998 book “The Greatest Generation”, which I highly recommend the audio version narrated by the author.

On it’s surface, this article may appear to be about how the most Successful Rainmakers budget their time to balance work and life. But there’s a deeper meaning here for you that we can all learn from the Veterans Brokaw interviewed for the book who reported the feeling of having “lost” the years they spent at war, and being motivated to find a way to “catch up” upon their return to civilian life. According to the book at least, one of the reason for all the extraordinary civilian accomplishments of so many of those Veterans upon their return was the time and pressure of sitting in foxholes planning and prioritizing the way they’d use their remaining time when they got back.

I’ll leave it to you to decide for yourself if you need to go out and sit in a hole in order to get your own priori- ties in order or if a few quite hours in an empty conference room with the phone unplugged and the computer turned-off will suffice. Either way, I give you. . .

A Busy Lawyer’s Guide To Budgeting Your Time

24x 7 = 168. There are 168 hours in a week.

I created a simple worksheet to help you budget your time to be sure you get to spend enough of it with family & friends, instead of in the barn with the mule. With proper planning and just a little bit of discipline, you’ll find it takes far less time, than most people think to professionally operate a successful law firm.

Very often, lawyers are actually disadvantaged by our law school education which emphasizes adherence to precedents. Too often the lawyers with whom I share these exercises begin by budgeting the life they are already unsatisfied with, instead of the one they want to lead.

Instead I want you to begin by thinking about every single thing you do in a day from the mundane tasks like eating and going to the bathroom to the truly important activities such as spending quality time with family and exercise. Then list all the things you do for the business including time spent on administrative tasks like paying bills, training staff, marketing, putting out fires, and of course, delivering high-quality legal services. Don’t even bother to think about how much time each task takes. We’ll get to that later.

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A “Typical” Time Budget

From the hundreds of lawyers with whom I’ve done this exercise, I have a pretty good idea how you’ll likely want to budget your time. Most lawyers with whom I’ve done this exercise over the years end up budgeting their time something like this:

First, we usually talk about the things they MUST do each day, like eating & sleeping. Almost all of the things that absolutely must get done in a day are biological in nature, but also include things like your commute to & from work.

So, before you can get to your workbook, while you’re driving and just listening, let’s just make some rough estimates.

➢ Budget 8 hours a day for sleep, times 7 days is 56 hours a week for sleep.

➢ Let’s figure most people spend about 2 hours a day on personal hygiene.

➢ I’d like you to budget at least half an hour for breakfast, an hour for lunch and two for dinner every

weekday and a little bit more for the weekends, so we’ll figure 20 hours on meals.

➢ And for most lawyers, there’s about an hour-a-day of commuting to & from work five days a week, so that’s 5 more hours for the budget.

That still leaves you with 93 hours you can choose how to use each week. Now, let’s get to the things we WANT to do, but too often sacrifice to the mule.

➢ I want you to budget at least 10 hours each week to spend with family & friends. If you don’t have

any family or friends with whom you can spend the time, use it to find some friends ➢ Budget 5 hours a week for exercise. If you don’t take care of your body, it’s not going to take care of

you and you won’t be able to go out and find lots of great clients, or enjoy the fruits of your labors. ➢ Budget a couple of hours a week on any hobbies you have, or just use the time for quite or spiritual

time to recharge your batteries.

OK, by this time, you’re well rested, well fed and clean. And you’ve spent some quality time with family & friends and taking care of yourself. Guess what? You still have 76 productive hours left to feed the mule!

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PERSONAL GOALS Decide upon personalized GOALS which are measurable, realistic and driven by your desire.

Sleep 7-8 hours each day, so that my body is well rested and I am living a balanced life.

Walk/ Run/ Bike ___ minutes ___ times a week,

Work out ____ times a week. This is important to keep a positive mental state

as well as staying physically fit.

Reduce my BMI to ____ by __________. Lose _____ lbs by _______. This will involve both daily exercise and changing of

eating habits.

_________________________________________________________

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Read one 'real' book a week.

Spend ___ hrs per week on ____________________, my favorite hobby.

Spend ___ hrs per week studying ________________ (language/ musical instrument/ art/ creative endeavor)

_________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

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Volunteer ___ hrs/ wk in one charity/ organization I truly care about.

Focus on family without distraction ___ evenings per week

Spend one night a week on "date night".

Plan a ___ week vacation.

_________________________________________________________

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FINANCIAL GOALS

Step 1. Visualize the life you WANT to be living 12 months from now.

Use the worksheet on the next page to be sure you remember you take into account the

cost of life & disability insurance to protect that lifestyle once achieved and project it

forward for the way you want to be loving your life 12 months from now, in three years,

and even five years from now.

Step 2. Alright, so what does it cost to live that lifestyle?

[A]

Step 3. Now multiply [A] times two and that gives you your annual Gross Income Goal:

[B]

Step 4. Divide [B] by 12 months to determine your gross monthly revenue

requirement: [C]

Step 5. Here we get a little more granular. Some might say “gritty”. There are 52 weeks in

the year ahead. Deduct all the major holidays and you’re left with only 50 weeks. Deduct

another 2-weeks for “life” to happen to you (kid gets sick, best friend needs a shoulder to

cry on, the day is just too nice to be cooped up in an office so you go to the beach) and now

you’re left with just 48 productive weeks in the year. Now budget at least 2 weeks for a

vacation so you can thank yourself and your family for supporting your career and now we

have no more than just 46 productive weeks in which to achieve your annual financial

goal.

Annual Gross Income Goal [A] divided by 46 (or fewer) weeks = Weekly Gross Income

Goal: [D]

So now you know what your law firm has to generate in gross revenues each week in order

to hit your gross income goals, in order to extract your net income requirements in order

to support the lifestyle you want to enjoy.

Keep that number in mind. This will be an important number we will refer back to and I’ll

show you how and why to measure it when we get to the modules about Financial

Controls.

How much money does your law firm business need to produce...

in order to support the lifestyle you have chosen for yourself?

Let’s look at your spending now. Then figure out how much it costs to live the way you want to be living.

NOW GOAL HOME

▪ Mortgage/ Rent _______________ _______________

▪ Utilities _______________ _______________ ▪ Telephone/ Cell _______________ _______________ ▪ Domestic Services _______________ _______________ ▪ Maintenance _______________ _______________ ▪ Groceries _______________ _______________ ▪ Clothing _______________ _______________ ▪ Other _______________ _______________

Subtotal: _______________ _______________

ENTERTAINMENT ▪ Restaurants _______________ _______________ ▪ Theater/Sporting Events/ Etc _______________ _______________ ▪ Hobbies _______________ _______________ ▪ Social Clubs _______________ _______________ ▪ Dues/ Subscriptions _______________ _______________ ▪ Other _______________ _______________

Subtotal: _______________ _______________

LEISURE ▪ Vacations _______________ _______________ ▪ Travel _______________ _______________ ▪ 2nd Home _______________ _______________ ▪ Toys (ex: boat, motorcycle, etc) _______________ _______________ ▪ Other _______________ _______________

Subtotal: _______________ _______________

INSURANCE ▪ Health _______________ _______________ ▪ Life _______________ _______________ ▪ Disability _______________ _______________ ▪ Auto _______________ _______________ ▪ Home _______________ _______________ ▪ Boat _______________ _______________

▪ Other _______________ _______________ Subtotal: _______________ _______________

DEBT SERVICE ▪ Credit Cards _______________ _______________ ▪ Student Loans _______________ _______________ ▪ Alimony _______________ _______________ ▪ Child Support _______________ _______________ ▪ Other _______________ _______________

Subtotal: _______________ _______________

SAVINGS/ RETIREMENT ▪ Savings Account 1 _______________ _______________ ▪ Savings Account 2 _______________ _______________ ▪ Savings Account 3 _______________ _______________ ▪ Retirement _______________ _______________ ▪ Other _______________ _______________

Subtotal: _______________ _______________

TRANSPORTATION ▪ Car _______________ _______________ ▪ Car _______________ _______________ ▪ Other _______________ _______________

Subtotal: _______________ _______________

EDUCATION ▪ Adult personal development** _______________ _______________ ▪ Child 1 529 plan/ current tuition _______________ _______________ ▪ Child 2 529 plan/ current tuition _______________ _______________▪ Child 3 529 plan/ current tuition _______________ _______________▪ Child 4 529 plan/ current tuition _______________ _______________▪ Other _______________ _______________

Subtotal: _______________ _______________

** Note: Professional education will be a business expense.

CHARITY ▪ Charity 1 _______________ _______________ ▪ Charity 2 _______________ _______________ ▪ Other _______________ _______________

Subtotal: _______________ _______________

Subtotal Home: _______________ Subtotal Entertainment: _______________ Subtotal Leisure: _______________ Subtotal Insurance: _______________ Subtotal Debt Services: _______________ Subtotal Savings: _______________ Subtotal Transportation: _______________ Subtotal Education: _______________

Subtotal Charity: _______________ Total: _______________

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Copyright 2018 How To MANAGE a Small Law Firm II Inc. All rights reserved. These documents may not be reproduced without

written permission from the publisher.

DASHBOARD

A crucial part to running a successful law firm business is to manage your business by

the numbers. Numbers are objective. The black and white numbers tell a story that can

help an owner quickly diagnose what is working and what is not working without

getting swayed with the “story” that staff or others tell.

It is also important to see these numbers month over month to see the trend and see

the bigger picture of what is happening in your firm. Some lawyers are great with

numbers, some are not… the key is to get started and start entering the numbers so you

can then analyze the numbers over time.

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Copyright 2018 How To MANAGE a Small Law Firm II Inc. All rights reserved. These documents may not be reproduced without

written permission from the publisher.

MILESTONES Need To Do Goal Date Done Tickle to Revise

GOALS: Watch/Listen to Goals Setting Webinar: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ FINANCIAL GOALS – Annual Gross Income: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ FINANCIAL GOALS – Weekly Gross Income: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ FINANCIAL GOALS – 1, 3, 5 Years: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ PROFESSIONAL GOALS – Written: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ PROFESSIONAL GOALS – Niche: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ PROFESSIONAL GOALS – Magic Stmt: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ PERSONAL GOALS – Exercise: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________

PERSONAL GOALS – Reading: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ PERSONAL GOALS – Hobbies: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ PERSONAL GOALS – 168 Hours: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ DASHBOARD – Enter Goal Numbers: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ DASHBOARD – Enter Historical Numbers: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________ DASHBOARD – Enter. Weekly Numbers: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________

FORUM – Go onto Forum and Post your Goals: ☐ ___________ ☐ ______________

12 Week Executive Crash Course - Amazon S3 · 2019-01-30 · 12 Week Executive Crash Course WEEK 1:...

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